Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife: A Giant of a Tale from Ireland

A picture-book retelling of an Irish folktale concerning the giant Finn MacCoul, his clever wife Oonagh, and the fearsome Scottish giant Cucullin. Needless to say, when Cucullin comes to challenge the terrified Finn, it's Oonagh's quick thinking that wins the day...

Taken from sources such as Joseph Jacobs' Celtic Fairy Tales (1892) and Yeats' Fairy and Folktales of Ireland, (1888), this story is the only tale, which I have read, that features Cucullin (Cúchulainn) as a villainous Scotsman. He is usually seen as a heroic figure in the Ulster Cycle of tales, particularly the Táin Bó Cúailnge, and has been called the "Irish Achilles." Byrd's presentation of this tale offers both an engaging narrative, and vibrant, colorful show more illustrations. Well worth a look, especially for the reader interested in Irish folklore. show less

As the title states, a giant of a tale! Poor cowardly but large giant Finn MacCoul finds himself in trouble when he meets a Scottish bully by the name of Cucullin. It isn't his brawn or his brain that save the day, but his clever wife's named Oonaugh. She fondly looks upon her husband and with the help of the fairy-folk devises a way to rid them of Cucucillin. It's a beautiful retelling of an old Irish folktale, matched in its vivid language and rich imagery by fresh illustrations. The figures hair seems to dance on gusts of wind and the waves wave, pulling reader's eyes to all the possibilities of unexplained magic.

I preferred this version of "Finn MacCoul and his fearless wife" to the book "Fin M'Coul the giant of Knockmany Hill." In my opinion, there was a lot more details in this book and the other book is more simplistic. The story line is basically the same but the little extras in this book really makes the difference. For example in this book instead of just saying Fin was hard at work laying stone to build a stone road to connect Ireland and Scotland the author elaborates and says how giants rode wales and caught the stones being thrown off the shore into the ocean.

Three stories put together and retold by Robert Byrd made for a very animated story. Finn, a giant grew to be the leader of the land. However, there was someone larger and meaner then Finn across in Scotland. Finn and his wife Oonagh were able to outwit Cucullin and defeat him. The author provided a history of the tales and a note of the pronunciation of Gaelic names.

Finn MacCoul and His Fearless Wife is a folktale about an Irish giant named Finn MacCoul and his wife Oonagh's ability to outwit a Scottish giant. When MacCoul's working on a bridge he is approached by Cucullin, a Scottish giant who is twice his size and wants to challenge MacCoul. However, MacCoul lies to Cucullin and rushes home to his wife Oonagh, who concocts a plan to defeat Cucullin. Overall, this story would be interesting to read to students as an introduction into folktales.

This book is a giant tale of Finn McCoul and his fearless wife Oonagh which takes place in Ireland. Finn was born a giant baby with much strength and great size, the king of town was very jealous of Finn. As Finn grew older he also grew bigger and stronger. One day as he was building a bridge from Ireland to Scotland he noticed a giant man standing on the Scotland shore. Drawing closer Finn learns this giant, Cucullin, was in fact looking for Finn to challenge his strength. Cucullin wanted nothing more than to show that he is the stronger giant not Finn. Being scared as can be, Finn ran home to his wife and they came up with a plan to defeat Cucullin. Finn with much help from his wife Oonagh and her magic, run Cucullin far away with show more their witty plan,he was never coming back.
This was my first time reading this tale and the language is very lively and went well with the Mid Evil time frame the book was set in. Some images were smaller or more distant to make Finn seem like the giant he was. The characters all had reddish hair, rosy cheeks, and were clothed very fancy. Illustrations were a major part of the book, they were all so detailed and gave plenty of life to the text. show less

The magical illustrations and traditional tale of the Irish giant Finn MacCool make this an entertaining retelling of this Celtic fairy tale.