Boyd translates Táin Bó Cúailnge for the first time since Ciarán Carson in 2007
September 2, 2025 — Matthieu Boyd, Professor and Chair of Humanities at Fairleigh Dickinson University (FDU), has just published a new translation of the early Irish epic Táin Bó Cúailnge, “The Cattle-Raid of Cooley.” Originally composed in the Irish language in the early Middle Ages, this is widely considered Ireland’s equivalent to Homer’s Iliad. Pride, honor, greed, kin-love, misogyny, vengeance and bloodlust all play a part in this fierce, exuberant, and ultimately tragic tale.
Calling Boyd “one of the best young scholars in the field of medieval Celtic studies today,” Joseph Falaky Nagy, Henry L. Shattuck Professor of Irish Studies at Harvard University, predicts that his work here is “bound to be read and used by many scholars, students, and general readers interested in Irish heroic saga and the fascinating world, both real and imagined, it reflects.”
Prof. Suzanne Conklin Akbari of the Institute for Advanced Study, an internationally-known medievalist and co-host of the literary podcast The Spouter-Inn, adds that “Matthieu Boyd’s multilayered presentation of this epic text […] offers the reader a vivid glimpse into the universe of this extraordinary narrative cycle. The translation is accessible and student-friendly, with a colloquial, spontaneous tone that makes the mythic past feel immediate […] The Táin shines here as a work of World Literature.”
“It was a real challenge,” says Boyd. “Old Irish is a legitimately difficult language. I hope I’ve been able to strike a good balance between scholarly rigor and universal appeal, to bring new attention to what really is one of the great stories of all time. I want to thank my FDU students for their constructive feedback and encouragement.”
Boyd studied early Irish, among many other languages, at University College Dublin and Harvard University before coming to FDU. His previous translations include The Medieval French Ovide moralisé (Boydell & Brewer, 2023) with K. Sarah-Jane Murray of Baylor University, and The Four Branches of the Mabinogi (Broadview, 2017) with the modernization assistance of Stacie Lents, Professor of Theater and Communication at FDU.
Boyd’s peer-reviewed book, The Essential Táin Bó Cúailnge and Other Stories from the Ulster Cycle, is available worldwide from Canada-based independent academic publisher Broadview Press, which also publishes the popular Broadview Anthology of British Literature, for which Boyd has been a Contributing Editor.
Boyd will present on the new book at NYU’s Glucksman Ireland House in New York City at 7pm on November 20.
FDU students will have the opportunity to take a course in Irish Literature (LITS 3073) with Boyd in Spring 2026.