Daniel Curley (1918–1988)

The traditional Irish folktale concerning Billy Beg, the son of a local king - Red Brian, in this version - and his magical bull companion, who set off to seek their fortune in the wide world, when Billy's new stepmother begins to persecute them, has been retold here in novel format by Daniel Curley. Following the same basic outline as the original story - which can be found in briefer, picture-book form in titles like The Irish Cinderlad and Billy Beg and His Bull: An Irish Tale - the narrative here greatly expands the length of time that Billy and the Bull wander, before the fateful three taurine duels in the forest. In this telling, that journey takes the friends as far afield as China (where they build the Great Wall for the emperor), as well as to less distant shores, like those of Scotland (where they construct another great wall). Upon their return, the companions find Ireland under a terrible enchantment, and must combat, in various forms, the evil of the Hen Wife...

I really enjoyed Billy Beg and His Bull, which I would classify as a fairy-tale novel - think Robin McKinley's Beauty, which retells the classic French tale of Beauty and the Beast, or Edith Pattou's East, which takes East of the Sun, West of the Moon as its starting point - a work of fantasy that is closely modeled on an older literary story, or traditional folktale. The language here is clever and quite amusing, and I was pleased to see that Curley used "runs" in his text: "They knocked the hard ground into soft and the soft ground into hard, the rocks into spring wells and the spring wells into rocks." Many brief references are made to others figures from Irish mythology and folklore, from the Morrigan to the the Salmon of Knowledge, as Curley plays around with his source material. Definitely not a strict retelling of this tale, but a entertaining, well-written one, for sure! Recommended to young fantasy fans with a taste for Irish themes.… (mer)