In Search of the Irisch Dreamtime

A fascinating exploration of Ireland's rich mythological tradition, from the author of the highly acclaimed The Origins of the Irish.

J. P. Mallory returns to the subject of the origins of the Irish to interrogate what he calls the 'Irish Dreamtime': the native Irish retelling of their own provenance, as related by medieval manuscripts. He attempts to explore the reality of this version of the earliest history of Ireland, which places apparently mythological events on a concrete timeline of invasions, colonizations and royal reigns that extends even further back in time than the history of Classical Greece. By comparing the world depicted in the earliest Irish literary tradition with the archaeological evidence available on the ground, Mallory explores Ireland's rich mythological tradition and tests its claims to represent reality.

J. P. Mallory is a world expert on the interconnection of archaeology and linguistics and is the author of the standard work In Search of the Indo-Europeans and The Oxford Introduction to Proto-Indo-European. He has co-authored The Archaeology of Ulster and The Tarim Mummies and published numerous, other works, including the hugely acclaimed The Origins of the Irish. He is Emeritus Professor of rehistoric Archaeology at Queens University Belfast and a member of the Royal Irish Academy.