Brendan LehaneCritiques

El mundo Encantado: Leyendas de Valor se centra principalmente en Cúchulainn y el mundo del Ciclo del Ulster, y más tarde en el Rey Arturo y el Material de Britania.

Otros héroes mencionados brevemente son Perseo, Sigurd y Roldán, de la mitología griega, la saga de Volsunga y el Material de Francia/Canción de Roldán, respectivamente.

A volume in the Time-Life Great Cities series, this is an intimate, affectionate, but unvarnished account of the Irish state and society. We do not usually realise how complicated the history has been, with divisions based on ethnic origins, religion, language, and economic status (although most of us would have heard of the potato blight and the million deaths and emigration). One does not also understand why the relations between mainland British and the Irish needed to be so rough, when they actually share the same language. However, the author makes no bones about the Irishman's penchant for drink - after all, it is the home of Guinness - and the consequences of this predilection.

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This book, which I got from Time-Life mail order (or whatever we called it) back in 1984, was the perfect start to a series that spoke to a shy, highly imaginative young boy.

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A popular history of the Early Medieval conversion movement of the Irish church. St. Brendan (484-577), St. Columba (521-597) and St. Columbanus (543-615) all get their due. To some degree it is a rationalization of the received hagiographies.½

To see this review and to learn more about this series, please visit www.readrantrockandroll.com

I learned about this Time Life Enchanted World Series after Stacy and I did an interview with Katherine Arden, author of The Bear and the Nightingale. The author had mentioned reading these when she was a kid and I couldn't wait to discover the set of books. I was really surprised that I'd never even seen this series when I was younger, but once I started reading a few of them I quickly realized that there's no way these books would've ever been allowed into my house growing up. It's a set of 21 volumes and I've been working to complete my set by purchasing a volume here and there. Some of of the volumes are more expensive than others. I decided to start with Wizards and Witches by Brendan Lehane.

The Wizard and Witches volume is split into 3 sections - Singers at the World's Dawn, Masters of Forbidden Arts and The Shadowy Sisterhood. It begins with Finnish Folklore about Väinämöinen and discusses other wizards including the Wizard of Kiev, Merlin, Math and Gwydion to name a few. The Forbidden Arts discusses satanic servants, tarot cards, goblins and more. The book ends discussing white and black witchcraft.

I really wasn't pleased with the book, however, I did enjoy some of the artwork. It seems to be written well and the pictures contain captions and quotes. Some of the images are dark and with the content here I'm really surprised to hear that children have read it-even being that it's fantasy. My most favorite story in the book was "Haunter of the Birch Forest" which is a Russian folktale about a girl named Vasilisa.

I liked some of it, but overall, this volume just isn't for my taste. I don't want to rate it based on my opinion of the subject matter so I'll give it 3 stars for how it's written and the artwork it contains. I hope to enjoy some of the other volumes...

3***

My favorite of the series.

Excellent guide, full of fascinating detail, never dry, though often dryly witty.

Full of florid language and the occasional snipe at the fact that some of what was though heretical then became dogma in the reformation and later, this is an interesting historical piece. Written in 1968, this is previous to Tim Severin's voyages to prove that it would have been possible to travel to America in Brendan's craft and previous to other scholarship about the period.

Still it's an interesting look at the time and at the people involved, while it does have it's flaws he has a great turn of phrase and he is quite an interesting read. The maps are interesting and informative as well. He does make some interesting points about the use of other legends to elaborate the lives of the saints However he fails to point out how different some of the marriage traditions in Ireland were to European which does impact on some of the stories and some of the assumptions. I do like the way he describes the carpet pages as being as a result of doodling gone riotous.

2292 The Quest of Three Abbots, by Brendan Lehane (read 6 May 1990) This is popular history centered on St. Brendan (484-577), St. Columba (521-597) and St. Columbanus (543-615). It is really an interesting story--at least the accounts of the latter two are. The account concludes with the Synod of Whitby in 664 whereat the Roman Church triumphed over the Irish Church. The book is a little irreverent but I enjoyed it. A good book, in an area in which I have read little.

Better than I expected from its rather popular format

These type books are undoubtedly interesting, but I have always found the format used a bit distracting the way the boxed excerpts interfere with the chapter being read. One must finish reading the chapter before going back to read what is in the boxes, or read through those sections first & then go back to the beginning to read the chapter in full.

One of those perfect little tomes every book-lover should have, from the first quote (Sir Thomas Browne), the perfect introduction,which was his introduction to fleas in an Irish flat to the illustrations of which my favorite was a photo of the miniature crossbow Queen Christina was said to have shot fleas with . . .