Heroic Saga and Classical Epic in Medieval Ireland, Brent Miles (D. S. Brewer, Cambridge, 2011) x, 272pp., hardback, £60.00 ISBN 978 1 84384 264 4

This is volume XXX in the major series Studies in Celtic History.  Brent Miles, Fellow in Early and Medieval Irish at University College, Cork, breaks new ground by examining the Irish texts alongside the Latin evidence for the study of classical epic in medieval Ireland.  He reviews the Irish texts based on histories and poetry from antiquity, especially the Irish history of the fall of Troy, Togail Troille contends that a profound impression on Irish heroic literature was made by the study of Virgil and Statius, and above all the Irish prose epic Tam Bō Cual Inge, The Caule Road of Cooley.

This is a work of deep scholarship in a field which is unfamiliar to most English students.  Fully foot-noted, the bibliography of sixteen pages lists articles in learned journals, monographs and theses from Ireland, the UK, USA and Europe and there is a full index.  Miles writes lucidly and authoritatively.  He has made an important and innovative addition to the literature.