Wars of the Irish Kings: A Thousand Years of Struggle from the age of Myth Through the Reign of Queen Elizabeth I by McCullough, David Willis (Editor) - 2000

NY: History Book Club, 2000. 348 clean, unmarked pages "Beginning with the legends of ancient wars and warriors, moving through the time when history and storytelling were not separate crafts, into a time when history was as much propaganda as fact, Wars of the Irish Kings tells of tribal battles, foreign invasions, Viking raids, family feuds, wars between rival Irish kingdoms, and wars of rebellion against the English. The texts for the stories range from ancient manuscripts telling of mythical battles to a seventeenth-century siege diary. There are excerpts from such Irish literary masterpieces as The Cattle Raid of Cooley (The Tain), selections from the monumental Annals of the Four Masters, passages from Gerald of Wales's account of the English conquest in the twelfth century, pages from an Icelandic saga, even a blistering letter from Queen Elizabeth to her inept commander in Ireland. The result is a surprisingly immediate portrait of an all-but-forgotten time that forged the Ireland to come.". 1st. Hardcover. Very Good/Very Good. Illus. by Color & b&w. 4 vo.