THE ENIGMATIC FRà OCH AND HIS EPONYMOUS TALE — NETWORK ANALYSIS OF AN EARLY IRISH HEROIC ROMANCE

Madeleine Janickyj, Daniel Curley, Pã Draig Maccarron, Mike McCarthy, Joseph Yose and Ralph Kenna
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Madeleine Janickyj: Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK2𠕃4 Collaboration & Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Leipzig–Lorraine–Lviv–Coventry, Europe
Daniel Curley: Rathcroghan Visitor Centre, Tulsk, Roscommon, Ireland
Pã Draig Maccarron: MACSI, Department of Mathematics and Statistics, University of Limerick, Limerick V94 T9PX, Ireland
Mike McCarthy: Rathcroghan Visitor Centre, Tulsk, Roscommon, Ireland
Joseph Yose: Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK2𠕃4 Collaboration & Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Leipzig–Lorraine–Lviv–Coventry, Europe
Ralph Kenna: Centre for Fluid and Complex Systems, Coventry University, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK2𠕃4 Collaboration & Doctoral College for the Statistical Physics of Complex Systems, Leipzig–Lorraine–Lviv–Coventry, Europe

Advances in Complex Systems (ACS), 2022, vol. 25, issue 05n06, 1-24

Abstract: Táin Bó Cúailnge or the “Cattle Raid of Cooley†(TBC) is the most famous epic narrative in early Irish literature, having been brought to prominence in modern times by Thomas Kinsella’s iconic translation (1969). The origins of TBC were described by Kinsella as “far more ancient†than the medieval manuscripts that relate it and associated prequels to the tale, called remscéla. One of these, not included in Kinsella’s translation, is Táin Bó Fraích — “The raid of Fráoch’s cattle†(TBF). TBF comes in two discontinuous parts which differ in subject matter and style. We examine the structural relationships between TBF as presented by Leahy [Heroic Romances in Ireland (David Nutt, London, 1906)] and TBC from a social networks point of view and compare them with the seven smaller tales presented in Kinsella’s text. We find that network structures in Kinsella’s text — both TBC itself and the remscéla he selected — are similar to those in TBF, and somewhat moreso the first part than the second.

Keywords: Mythology; networks; Ulster cycle; Táin; narratology; literature; medieval; Ireland (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2022
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DOI: 10.1142/S0219525922400069

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