The Ulster Cycle is a jewel in the Irish literary tradition. Comprising approximately eighty distinct tales, it describes a heroic world set in Ireland's distant past and centred on the court of Conchobar, king of Ulster, and on the pre-eminent warrior, Cu Chulainn. This collection of essays presents the most recent thinking on the Cycle including its textual tradition and the interpretation of individual tales, the coherence of the Cycle itself and its earliest attestations, its relationship to the law tracts, its political and intellectual context, and its geographical background. Contributors: Gregory Toner (Queen's U, Belfast), Fangzhe Qiu (Maynooth U), Joanne Findon (U Trent), Sharon Arbuthnot (Queen's U, Belfast), Patricia Ronan (U Lausanne), Gerold Schneider (U Zurich), Martina Maher (U Glasgow), Tatyana A. Mikhailova (U Moscow), David Stifter (MU), Kay Muhr (Queen's U, Belfast), Britta Irslinger (Freiburg), and Micheal B. O Mainnin (Queen's U, Belfast). [Subject: Literary Criticism, Ulster Cycle, Irish Studies, Irish Folklore & Myth, Cu Chulainn]