Experience The Hounds Of The Morrigan Drafted By Pat OShea Format Digital Edition
are many books I read as a child that I've thought to pass on to my own children, but only rarely have I discovered the same sort of books as an adult.
The Hounds of the Morrigan absolutely fits into this category, It's longer than many of those favorite childhood books, but it contains just the right amounts of adventure, humor, and sweetness.
And if it proves too long for the children in my life to read themselves, I think it'd be tremendous fun to read aloud.
If you enjoy fond memories of Lloyd Alexander, Frances Hodgson Burnett, Roald Dahl, J, R. R. Tolkien, or C. S. Lewis, give Pat O'Shea a read, This is one of the books I'm pretty sure I read as a kid, but since it was a library book I can't check and that would have been almost twenty years ago, anyway, so please don't ask me about details.
:D Let me just say, if you haven't read this charming, adventure packed book, you are missing out! I suppose it falls into the category of fantasy, technically, but it differs from standard fantasy in a lot of ways.
The protagonist, Pidge, is quite young and the main relationship dynamic of the book is between him and his younger sister Brigit, who is, as he describes her, "five years old and five years daft.
" They're extremely protective of each other and perfectly happy in each others' company, which is extremely and it's nice not to have contrived sibling conflict for the sake of drama.
I might be a little biased when it comes to this book, given that it's set in Ireland and gives a rare, accurate idea of rural, Irish life, even if it aboutyears ago.
What really makes this book special is not so much the accuracy of the facts but rather the tone.
O'Shea writes like an old seanachaí might tell a story, in a whimsical, light hearted manner, but dealing with grief and evil just as much as with humour and heroism.
I think any fan of Celtic mythology will definitely swoon for this book, it presents a fantastic vision of Irish gods and heroes, by turns awe inspiring and hilarious.
The story is an old fashioned quest, with clear notions of good and evil, Pidge and Brigit go on a great journey to prevent the return to power of the Morrígan, an Irish battle goddess of war and death.
She is hunting for a stone that is smeared with her own dried blood, having been shot at her from a sling during an ancient battle.
If she should find the stone, she will use it to dissolve a powerful entity, imprisoned on paper by St.
Patrick, called Olc Glas Irish for 'green evil' and consume him, By this act, she would regain her old power and drag the world back to the old days of war, chaos and death.
Along their way, the brother and sister meet many strange and wonderful people, including many figures from Celtic mythology and more from O'Shea's vivid imagination and there is an emphasis on the importance of charity, hospitality to strangers and kindness to everybody, regardless of their appearance.
Good deeds done for weaker people often return to act in Pidge and Brigit's favour, and for all that this is a tale of pagan mythology, there is a distinctly Christian tone.
The character of the Dagda for example, seems to be allegorical in nature, although whether this is intentional, I can't say.
The book is filled with vibrant, colourful images and stunning descriptive passages, As a general rule, I find overly descriptive books boring, but the imagery in this book is too gorgeous to skim over.
The one caveat I would mention, would be that occasionally the dialogue is a little hard to understand, as it is written in an Irish dialect sometimes, but having met nonIrish people who have read and loved the book, I guess perhaps it isn't a huge barrier.
Can't recommend this book strongly enough, I always feel lighter and refreshed when I reread it, The Hounds of the Morrigan is one of the best children's/YA fantasy novels I, ever read I wish it was better known outside Ireland, the place where it is set, It deals a lot with Irish/Celtic Myths, This makes it special and sets it appart from the fantasy books you usually find, which are often more or less just variations of The Lord of The Rings or Narnia.
The story is set both in modernday Ireland and in a fantasy world through the two protagonists, tenyearold pidge and his little sister Bridget have to escape from the Morrigan goddess of battle, strife, and sovereignty and her hounds.
On their way the children are often helped by animals and have to fulfill several tasks,
In its structure and the appearance of the ancient Celtic gods, The Hounds of the Morrigan is similar to The Weirdstone of Brisingamen.
Of the two I prefer the Morrigan, It is more fastpaced and the fantasy elements used are more varied,
I'm not entirely sure what I think of this now that I've finished, I enjoyed the story and most of the characters a few of the minor characters the children interacted with got on my nerves a little.
I thought it was interesting and wellwritten, On the other hand, it seemed a little long, It's not that it dragged in any particular spot, or that there was any place where I could say, "That wasn't important and could have been cut out.
" It's just thatpages of following two young children seemed a little much, I enjoyed the book, though, and I think it was wellworth my time, An Ancient Manuscript
When tenyearold Pidge finds the crumbling pages of an old manuscript in a secondhand bookshop in Galway, he unwittingly releases the serpent OlcGlasand the forces of good and evil gather to do battle.
The Morrigan, Goddess of Death and Destruction, has set her evil heart on gaining OlcGlas and adding its poison to her own, thereby casting her shadow over the world.
A Lost Stone, . .
To thwart The Morrigan, Pidge and his little sister Brigit are sent by The Dagda, Lord of Great Knowledge, on a quest to find a stone that has been lost for countless yearsth only means of destroying the serpent.
A Perilous Adventure, . .
Pidge and Brigit's journey begins in Ireland, . . their destination is unknown. All true creatures help where they can, but ultimately, it is up to steadfast Pidge and courageous Brigit to find their own way.
And always at their heels are the terrible hellhoundsthe hounds of The Morrigan, A classic tale that has been unavailable in paperback for almost ten years, The Hounds of the Morrigan is a book to treasure and to keep alongside the works of J.
R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis, and Philip Pullman. A splendid fantasy rich and satisfying. Equal parts humor, cute, suspense, folklore and fantasy makes for an excellent read, I wish I could compile all my favorite passages to just prove that this book was very artfully written and deserves a high rating.
Tenyear old Pidge nickname for P, J. which is short for Patrick James or something and his fiveyear old sister Brigit expect to have a normal day waiting for the return of their father from a trip.
But they are soon approached by Boodie and Patsy, a delightful odd couple who explain that the book Pidge had bought from a used book store the day prior had released OlcGlas, a terrible serpent.
OlcGlas is sought by the Goddess of Death, War and Destructiona threeaspect woman who will now track the children with their hounds.
They must find a stone that bears the blood of the Goddess to destroy the serpent, while the Goddess wants the blood to restore her old strength.
The characters they meet along the way are priceless, Some of my favorites include Cooroo, the clever dogfox who is their companion through the majority of the quest, Pudeneen, the hapless frog, and the Seven Maines, first seen with just their heads as they had been beheaded during a previous war.
The humor and yet the depth of these side characters helps the serious quest of the children move along and touched me.
I had read this many years ago and I remember loving it then, Rereading it now, I had not remembered much of the story at all and have discovered that even though many years have passed since I last read it, I still treasure the story.
Growing tired of looking at the table landscape, Breda Fairfoul yawned and allowed a small frown to appear on her forehead.Hm, I wish I could give this,stars.
It becomes tedious between moves, she remarked and to pass the time, she began to read a book by a great Russian genius whose name was Tolstoy.
The name of the book was War and Peace, As she read, she chewed her tobacco quid with relish and spat from time to time,
Breda closed the book,
Too much Peace not enough War, she complained with a profound, critical air and threw the book out of the glasshouse.
I believe I might like to invent a new kind of rat, she added, and dressed in cap and gown and wearing a pair of thicklensed, hornrimmed spectacles, she sat at a small laboratory bench, boiling various things in glass roundbottomed flasks while she studied a Biology textbook and one on Advanced Chemistry, for her B.
Sc, because even Gods must work with what already exists in the Universe, especially nowadays,
This landscape crackles with Celtic magic, Every weed in the sidewalk and cloud in the sky is weighty with folkloric significance as two spunky children go on a brave journey to thwart the evil Morriganthe triple goddess of death
and war and destruction.
They encounter the whole pantheon of Celtic gods and goddesses Brigit and Angus Og, The Dagdaheroes and warriors Finn MacCool and the seven Maines, druids and giants and helping beasts.
This is the only fantasy quest novel I can think of where Good seems to have the upper hand on Evil.
This is not Middle Earth where Evil is so obviously superior and Good is so faulty and unaided, Here the children are protected, reassured and guided every step along the journey, Even when things seem terribly dangerous, they are saved by one Deus Ex Machina after another, The evil Morrigan obey the cosmic rules that keep The Dagda the good god on top and the children safe from their evil plans.
And although we sometimes wonder if the children can pull off their quest, we never doubt that good will somehow win in the end.
Oddly enough, it makes the story a bit unsatisfying, Where's the real threat what's the point of the adventure if you know how it's all going to turn out Especially since the children don't even get to learn from their adventure in the end, after meeting gods and running with heroes, they forget any of it ever happened.
So as a hero quest it sort of fails, There was no real risk, and the heroes don't learn anything from their adventure, Strange!
That complaint aside, this is a young adult book, and I remember being entranced as a kid by the reassuring way that help always swoops in at the last moment even if the help was in a bizarre form, the kids were always rescued.
And talking animals, druids, clever tests of mettle! As a readerkid, I identified so intensely with the characters, it's probably good they were kept safe from real harm, and made to forget.
Then maybe it could have happened to me, too, and I just forgot all about it! It's a geeky fantasy kid's dream come true.
I have a very warm place in my heart for this book, I was given it as a Christmas present when it first came out in paperback, many moons ago when I was of the target age group and I was instantly swept away to the emerald isle and lived in its wondrous mythology from start to finish.
I reread it many times and found new bits everytime, and I guess it became a comfort read for those times when I needed to escape reality for a while.
Now many years later I have children of my own and I read it to them complete with some very dodgy Irish accents! and they were every bit as gripped as I was.
They hung on every word, There is plenty of action to keepboys happy and the pacing is spot on, I have never understood why this didn't become an instant classic! “Theres always a lot of magic, but our way of seeing is very small and we mostly just call it Nature.
” I heard geese flying by, honking, as I stood from finishing the book, and bird song heralding the morning, and I thought it particularly apt.
What a brilliant book from its blend of Irish folklore to the verdant descriptions of the natural world to its love for all creatures to its hilarious depictions of the ire and perfidious nature of the gods, I was utterly entranced.
Many a time I had to pause to admire a particularly witty scene or turn of phrase, Reading it as an adult, I was struck by similarities in vibe to T, H. Whites “The sword in the stone” and Terry Pratchett and Neil Gaimans “Good Omens”, If you want an adventure with a slice of magic in your life, indulge in this book: its delicious as golden butter, and fantasy at its most decadent.
I love to reread this novel every couple years, It should be considered a children's classic, It's so amazing! Pat O'Shea's writing is lyrical, beautiful, humorous, and incredibly imaginative! The twists and turns are unexpected but believable.
Even though I know what's going to happen, I always feel the children's fear and tension when the hounds are nearby.
Pidge, downtoearth and protective, and Brigit with her courage and literal humor are two of the most delightful characters in children's literature.
The cast of characters move the story along, but Pidge and Brigit are the novel's real!,