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Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish (Celtic World of Morgan Llywelyn) | 
 enlarge | Author: Morgan Llywelyn
Publisher: Tor Books
Category: Book
List Price: $7.99
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Rating:  29 reviews
Sales Rank: 206611
Media: Mass Market Paperback
Number Of Items: 1
Pages: 480
Shipping Weight (lbs): 0.5
Dimensions (in): 6.7 x 4.1 x 1.3
ISBN: 0812585151
Dewey Decimal Number: 813.54
EAN: 9780812585155
ASIN: 0812585151
Publication Date: March 15, 1987
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Shipping: International shipping available
Condition: Some wear on book from reading, spine creases, wear on binding and pages, different cover, we guarantee all purchases and ship all items via USPS mail.
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Product Description
This is the tale of the coming of the Irish to Ireland, and of the men and women who made that emerald isle their own.
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| Customer Reviews: Read 24 more reviews...
 Where's the research? Not Llywelyn's best. April 22, 2006
4 out of 4 found this review helpful
Irish Celtic history is heavily saturated in myth and romanticism. I was an avid fan of Morgan Llywelyn in high school, and joyfully devoured her mythological and historical novels. I remember her as being relatively well-researched, balancing fancy and fact to craft enjoyable bits of literary escapism. I picked up Bard, the first of her novels I've read in years, and was sorely disappointed. I expected more of the decent scholarship, dynamic myth, and engaging plots I remembered from my earlier reads. Instead, Bard delivered a cast of weak and predictable characters, a dragging storyline that takes far too long to deliver, and a surprising distortion of familiar Celtic icons.
Bard describes an Iberian origin of the Celts as one of many groups of invaders in Erin's long history. She depicts the Tuatha de Danan and the Fir Bolg as two other such cultures, mortal beings who eventually grew into the larger-than-life myths of today. While I liked this historical rooting of the tale, one of my biggest problems with this book was her depiction of the Tuatha de Danan, whom Llywelyn depicts as New Age-y, hippie-fied mystics. Rather than being a fresh and exotic interpretation of the traditional myth, this choice instead seemed discordantly modernized, unrealistic, and self-serving. The segments of the book devoted to their characters could have been eliminated entirely, and it would have made little impact (save to salvage somewhat the stunted flow of the story). References to the "Earth Mother" are historically innacurate and frustrating to any Celtophile, especially given the wealth of colorful deities known to have been worshiped by the Celtic peoples. I found myself rolling my eyes more than once at some of these passages.
Amergin, the bard of the title, is an introspective and potentially fascinating character, but he simply isn't given enough life in these pages. This is due in part to the lack of depth given to the supporting characters. Llywelyn relies too strongly on telling us what characters think and feel, rather than letting the reader see actions and interpret their dialog. Characters often act in contradictory ways, which comes across more as the result of poor planning on the writer's part than any kind of personal conflict. My opinion is that the book really should have been started right about where it ended (with the tribe's arrival in Ireland), and indeed Bard has one of the most unsatisfying endings of any book I have every read; it seems as though Llewellyn floundered a bit and simply gave up.
Readers interested in literary treatments of Irish Celtic mythology or history should turn to Llywelyn's other (excellent and very fun!) novels; Lion of Ireland, Finn McCool, Red Branch, or her more modern Irish historical fiction (e.g. 1972).
~Jacquelyn Gill
 A fine job of evoking the past January 6, 2006
6 out of 7 found this review helpful
It's hard to truly say what happened back in the swirly mists of time, especially going as far back as when the mythical Milesians arrived, accompanied by the legendary bard, Amergin. However, this book does a fine job of evoking that past as it might have been. I read Llywelyn many years ago, before I had even begun reading Celtic history, and I was surprised by the wealth of authentic detail as found in this book. One item that particularly sticks out in my mind is the description of the burial of Mil. Llywelyn used such precise detail, even down to the couch he lay on, that I could remember seeing a pictures and drawings of just such a burial, all the way down to its intricate wheels. So, relax and enjoy this book, confident that the author put as much true history into her tale as possible, yet creates an astounding epic.
 A likeable fantasy February 17, 2005
4 out of 5 found this review helpful
I've been fond of this author's work for many years now, despite the heavy reliance on archeology that is often, by now, rather outdated. To read Llewelyn's work is to be transported into the world she creates, and to be surrounded by some very real and interesting characters.
The sons of Mil act very much like a real family would, loving eachother and yet competing much of the time. Everyone has flaws, and the most distatesful character (Colptha, the druid)still has some decent traits, or things that one might respect about him.
I will warn that if you MUST have a perfect, or at least solidly resolved, ending that you should leave this book alone. I thought, however, that the hanging ending was highly appropriate, given that the main character Amergin spends much of his time attempting to resolve a saga which he could not finish, since it is the story of his people, who continued to live.
There were a few problems with Bard. I am a serious student of Celtic mythology, and as such, I had a bit of a problem with the way the Tuatha are described in this book. They are, for lack of a better term, megalithic hippies. The fondest wish of the lightest of neopagans is realised within these pages. Since archeology can only give hints as to the character of a people who left no written clues, I will leave that at the wayside. The myths that we do have featuring the Tuatha, however, do not paint a picture of enlightened pacifists. The Morrigan, Diancecht, or anyone else with a violent nature or sad story are largely left out of it to paint this picture of unlikely love and harmony. I found this love-and-light group too jarring a counterpoint to the colorful and well realised Milesians, and it is this trait that ensured four stars were not forthcoming from me. (Although I'd give three and a half if it were possible.)
If you like a good historical seeming fantasy with subtle magic and a decent plot, by all means, pick up this book. If Robert Graves is your enemy, and continuous talk about a nebulous mother earth goddess (that the Celts did NOT worship) will irritate you too much, then don't.
Beautiful well told story February 7, 2005
13 out of 16 found this review helpful
As one with distant Celtic heritage, that did not grow up with any of the wonderful stories that Llewelyn tells, I am grateful for for insights into the make up of my families psychology. Bard, Red Branch, Lion Of Ireland ect. Help me to both understand where we get some of our predelictions and temperments. So blah, blah, blah, to reviewers who want to show thier scholarly prowess by proving her inacurate.They are stories based on myths and legends, that are most likely based on some exagerated truth. I loved this story.
A retelling worth reading September 23, 2004
2 out of 2 found this review helpful
This is what a novel based on Celtic legends should look like. Llywelyn certainly knows how to write, but where she goes above and beyond the call of duty is her willingness to extensively research scholarly and oftentimes dry sources. Likely, she heard the legends of Ireland's past growing up, yet she nevertheless presents extensive bibliographies at the end of her novels. Bard is no exception. While artistic license is taken in order to draw the modern reader into the tale, it is clear that Llywelyn knows what she is doing, breathing new life into the people of Ireland's mythological tradition while remaining faithful to the source.
However, I did find difficulty with references to "the Mother" regarding the earth, given that Llywelyn cited Robert Graves' silly The White Goddess as a source, but it is a mistake easily overlooked. Also, the end of the novel seemed slightly forced, as if Llywelyn was stretching to connect the De Danaan natives to the Milesian conquerors.
Regardless of its slight flaws, Bard is an excellent read filled with compelling characters, comfortable prose, and an exciting retelling of the events of The Book of Invasions.
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