FDU professor Publishes New Translation of Ireland‘s National Epic
NEW YORK, NY – Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU) Professor Matthieu Boyd has released a new translation of Táin Bó Cúailnge (The Cattle-Raid of Cooley), widely considered ireland’s equivalent to homer’s Iliad. Published by Broadview Press, Boyd’s edition, titled The Essential Táin Bó Cúailnge and Other Stories from the Ulster Cycle, makes the early medieval Irish epic accessible to a wider audience.
The Táin recounts a fierce and tragic tale driven by themes of pride, honor, greed, kin-love, misogyny, vengeance, and bloodlust. Boyd, who studied early Irish at University College Dublin and Harvard University, aimed to balance “scholarly rigor and worldwide appeal” in his translation, hoping to bring renewed attention to “one of the great stories of all time.”
“Old Irish is a legitimately arduous language,” Boyd stated, acknowledging the challenges of the project and expressing gratitude for feedback from his FDU students.
Experts in the field have lauded Boyd’s work. Joseph Falaky Nagy, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Irish Studies at Harvard University, predicts the translation is “bound to be read and used by many scholars, students, and general readers.” Prof. Suzanne Conklin Akbari of the Institute for Advanced Study, co-host of the literary podcast The Spouter-Inn, praised Boyd’s “multilayered presentation” and noted the translation’s “colloquial, spontaneous tone” that makes the mythic past “feel immediate.” She affirmed the Táin “shines here as a work of World Literature.”
Boyd’s previous translations include The Medieval French Ovide moralisé (Boydell & Brewer, 2023), co-authored with K. Sarah-Jane Murray of Baylor University, and the Four Branches of the Mabinogi (Broadview, 2017), with modernization assistance from FDU Professor of Theater and Interaction, Stacie Lents.
Boyd will present on the new book at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House on November 20 at 7pm. FDU students can enroll in Irish literature (LITS 3073) with Boyd in spring 2026.
