Reviews for Sweeney's flight

The average rating for Sweeney's flight based on 2 reviews is 4 stars.

Review # 1 was written on 2017-12-10 00:00:00 Milton Perez The christianised version that was written down by monks obviously tells the story from that point of view. However, if read from the pre-christian Celtic perspective, Suibhne was the last of the chieftains to hold out against forced 'conversion', and as a last resort, escaped this fate, at the battle of Mag Rath (Moira), by shape shifting to become a bird, the highest and most difficult of shamanistic skills. The nature poetry in this narrative poem is lyrical, spare & bittersweet - Suibhne, not surprisingly, often yearns to return to being a chieftain and to the bed he shared with Eorann, but then soars off into the hills and valleys, revisiting sacred places and revelling in the gift of flight. This edition juxtaposes wonderful black & white shots of some of the locations mentioned in the text, alongside the relevant extract . It also shows a sample of the original Irish text alongside its translation - this shows the rhythmic, alliterative style of the original, which is almost impossible to recreate in translation. The full text of Sweeney Astray is also included.

Review # 2 was written on 2019-06-22 00:00:00 Mike Grim Some very nice photographs and extracts from a longer translated poem. The books works but it feels partial. It's more a nice artefact than a book of poetry with illustrations.