Old Irish Literature The 'Ulster Cycle' 1 Elizabeth Baldwin

Dr Elizabeth Baldwin, independent researcher 1. The provinces and Irish culture: The Story of Mac Da Thó’s Pig, Bricriu’s Feast The literature of Ireland is the oldest non-classical literature in Europe. It provides a window on Celtic life in a country which, because it never came under the control of the Roman Empire, preserved the traditional warrior society much longer than other Celtic areas. This course will look at texts from the Irish Heroic Age which clustered around its central epic, the Táin Bó Cúailnge, or Cattle-Raid of Cooley, and the heroic and doomed figure of Cúchulainn, the great Ulster hero. UCT Summer School 2019, Old Irish Literature, Ancient Irish Epics, Elizabeth Baldwin, Ancient Celtic literature, Táin Bó Cúailnge, Cattle-Raid of Cooley, Cúchulainn