Sweeney Astray

seamus heaney

Sweeney Astray is Seamus Heaney's version of the medieval Irish work Buile Suibhne - the first complete translation since 1913. Its hero, Mad Sweeney, undergoes a series of purgatorial adventures after he is cursed by a saint and turned into a bird at the Battle of Moira. The poetry spoken by the mad king, exiled to the trees and the slopes, is among the richest and most immediately appealing in the whole canon of Gaelic literature.

Sweeney Astray not only restores to us a work of historical and literary importance but offers the genius of one of our greatest living poets to reinforce its claims on the reader of contemporary literature.

Genres poetryirelandirish literaturemythologymedievalclassicshistory20th centuryread for schoolcanon

76 pages, Paperback

First published January 1,1983

Literary awards

pen translation prize,

This edition

Format: 76 pages, Paperback
Published: August 6, 2001 by Faber \u0026 Faber
ISBN: 9780571210091
ASIN: 0571210090
Language: English

Characters More characters

Suibhne Geilt

Suibhne mac Colmáin, was a king of the Dál nAraidi who was driven insane by the curse of Saint Rónán Finn. The insanity makes Suibhne leave the Battle of Mag Rath and begin a life of wandering (which earns him the nickname Suibne Geilt or "Suibhne the Mad...
Saint Rónán Finn

St Rónán Fionn is honoured as patron of Lan Ronan (Kelminiog) in Iveagh. His feast is celebrated on 22 May, both in Ireland and Scotland....
Saint Mo Ling

Saint Mo Ling (614 - 697), also named Moling Luachra, was the second Bishop of Ferns in Ireland and has been said to be "one of the four great prophets of Erin". He founded a monastery at St. Mullins, County Carlow. His feast day is 17 June....

About the author

seamus heaney

Works of Irish poet Seamus Justin Heaney reflect landscape, culture, and political crises of his homeland and include the collections Wintering Out (1972) and Field Work (1979) as well as a translation of Beowulf (1999). He won the Nobel Prize for literature in 1995.

This writer and lecturer won this prize "for works of lyrical beauty and ethical depth, which exalt everyday miracles and the living past."

Heaney on Wikipedia.