MYTHOLOGICAL TALES | FAIRY TALES | FOLKTALES

MYTHOLOGICAL CYCLE | ULSTER CYCLE | FENIAN CYCLE | CYCLE OF KINGS

The Cycle of Kings, also known as The Historical Cycle, is essentially a loose collection of stories about the life and times of many of the High Kings of Ireland during the Old and Middle Irish Period, between the fourth century BC and the eight century AD. The content of the Cycle of Kings is actually a compilation of several lesser cycles of the surviving geneological, historical and legendary information that the official court poets of the various High Kings had handed down to the Christian monks who then, as with the rest of the Cycles, dutifully transcribed them into written form. Though the stories in the Cycle of Kings tend to be less heroic, and less fantastic, than the other three Cycles, the stories therein still incorporate numerous fantastic and legendary elements that inspire memories of an epic past. And though most of the information is still largely historical, some of the stories have significant elements of fantasy, the two most prominent of that genre being Buile Shuibne, “The Frenzy of Sweeney” — generally considered to be the glory of the Cycle of Kings — and the well-known and oftcited “The Legend of King Labhraidh Loingseach”.

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