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Resources

These two selected bibliographies reference academic studies (secondary sources 1913-2022) and artistic productions (primary sources 1872-2022)  devoted to the Myth of Sweeney.

Academic research on Buile Suibhne (1913-2022)

Related studies

  • BARTRA, Roger, Wild Men in the Looking Glass, The Mythic Origins of European Otherness, translated by Carl T. Berrisford, University of Michigan Press, 1994.

  • BERNHEIMER, Richard, Wild Men in the Middle Ages, A Study in Art, Sentiment, and Demonology, Cambridge, Harvard University Press, 1952.

  • DOOB, Penelope, Nebuchadnezzar’s Children: Conventions of Madness in Middle English Literature, New Haven, 1974.

  • HENRY, P. L., The Early English and Celtic Lyric, London, Allen & Unwin, 1966.

  • PADEL, O.J., «Geoffrey of Monmouth and the Development of the Merlin Legend», Cambrian Medieval Celtic Studies, 51, 2006, p. 37-65.

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  • AMIOT, Pascale, «"The Sweeney Workshop" : un atelier de recherche et de création dédié au Mythe de Suibhne Geilt»,
    Celtic Myths and Folklores in the Anglophone World, Frédéric Armao & Noémie Beck, eds, Babel, automne 2022 (à paraître).

  • AMIOT-JOUENNE, Pascale, Les Métamorphoses de Sweeney dans la littérature irlandaise contemporaine, Caen, Presses Universitaires de Caen, 2011.

  • BERGHOLM, Alexandra, «Academic and neopagan interpretations of shamanism in Buile Suibhne: a comparative approach», Studia Celtica Fennica, 2, 2005, p. 30–46.

  • BERGHOLM, Alexandra, «Folly for Christ's Sake in Early Irish Literature: The Case of Suibhne Geilt Reconsidered», Studia Celtica Fennica, 4, 2007, p. 7-14.

  • BERGHOLM, Alexandra, «'Betwixt and between’: Theorizing liminality and sacredness in Buile Suibhne», Katja Rirari, Alexandra Bergholm, eds, Approaches to religion and mythology in Celtic studies, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars, 2008, p.243-263.

  • BERGHOLM, Alexandra, From Shaman to Saint: interpretative strategies in the study of Buile Shuibhne, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2012.

  • BERGHOLM, Alexandra, «King, poet, seer: aspects of the Celtic wild man legend in medieval literature», Folklore Fellows’ network, 43, 2013, p. 4–9.

  • BERGHOLM, Alexandra, «The authorship and transmission of Buile Suibhne: a reappraisal», John Carey, Buile Suibhne: perspectives and reassessments, London, Irish Texts Society, 2014, p. 93-110.

  • BOUCHERIT, Gilles, L’Esprit-Mère dans Buile Suibhne, thèse de doctorat, 2009, Université de Rennes 2.

  • BOUCHERIT, Gilles, «Fer Benn and the Deer Cult in Buile Suibhne», International Congress of Celtic Studies, Maynooth, 2011.

  • CAREY, John, «Suibhne Geilt and Tuán Mac Cairill», Eigse, 20, 1984, p. 93-105.

  • CAREY, John, ed., Buile Suibhne: perspectives and reassessments, London, Irish Texts Society, 2014.

  • CARNEY, James, «'Suibne Geilt' and 'The Children of Lir'», Studies in Irish Literature and History, Dublin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1955, p. 129-164.

  • CARNEY, James, «The Origin of Suibne Gelt», Studies in Irish Literature and History, Dublin, Dublin Institute for Advanced Studies, 1955, p. 385-393.

  • CHADWICK, Nora K., «Geilt», Scottish Gaelic Studies, 5, 1942, p. 106-153.

  • CHARLES-EDWARDS, T. M., «Geis, Prophecy, Omen and Death», Celtica, 23, 1999.

  • CLUNE, Anne, «Mythologising Sweeney», Irish University Review 26, Spring/Summer 1996, p. 48-60.

  • COHEN, David J., «Suibhne Geilt», Celtica, 12, 1977, p. 114-24.

  • DOWNUM, Denell, «Apeneck Sweeney's Penitential Path», Yeats Eliot Review, March 2009.

  • DOWNUM, Denell, «Sweeney Astray: The Other in Oneself», Eire-Ireland, 44, 3-4, p. 75-93.

  • DOWNUM, Denell, «Suibhne, citation, and the myth of originality», Joseph Falaki Nagy, ed, Myth in Celtic literatures, Dublin, Four Courts, 2007, p. 55–82.

  • FISCHER, Leah Richards, «No Nation Wanted it so Much: Mythic Insanity in the Development of a modern Irish Literature», Proceedings of the Harvard Colloquium, Harvard University Press, 1998-99.

  • GALLAGHER, Monique, «Deux versions modernes de la légende de Suibhne : At Swim-Two-Birds de Flann O'Brien et Sweeney Astray de Seamus Heaney», Études Irlandaises, XVII-1, juin 1992, Sainghin-en-Mélantois, p. 47-61.

  • GALLAGHER, Monique, «Images of Ireland in songs of exile and emigration», Irlande Images, Numéro spécial Etudes Irlandaises 1994, p. 145-165.

  • GRAHAM, Colin, «Hireling Strangers and the Wandering Throne», Estudios Irlandeses, 4, 2009, p. 21-31.

  • GRAVES, Robert, «Sweeney among the Blackbirds», Food for Centaurs, New York, Doubleday, 1960.

  • HAMILTON, John Noel, «Some verbal forms in Buile Suibne», Zeitschrift für Celtische Philologie, 32, 1972, p. 121-124.

  • HEANEY, Seamus, «‘Earning a Rhyme': Notes on Translating Buile Suibhne»,  in Rosanna Warren, ed, The Art of Translation, Voices from the Field, , Boston, Northeastern University Press, 1989, p. 13-20.

  • HERRON, Tom, PILZ, Anna, «Cursed to the Trees, Enchanted by the Woods: Sweeney Astray», Etudes Irlandaises, 44-1, 2019, p. 87-99.

  • HULL, Vernam, «A note on Buile Suibhne», Celtica, 9, 1971, p. 214.        

  • JACKSON, Kenneth, Studies in Early Celtic Nature Poetry, Cambridge, 1935.

  • JACKSON, Kenneth, «The motive of the Threefold Death in the Story of Suibhne Geilt», John Rian, ed, Essays and Studies Presented to Professor Eoin MacNeill, Dublin, Three Candles, 1940, p. 535-550.

  • JACKSON, Kenneth, «A further note on Suibhne Geilt and Merlin», Éigse, 7, 1953, p. 112-116.



  • JARMAN, A.O.H., «The Merlin Legend and the Welsh Tradition of Prophecy», Rachel Bromwich, A.O.H. Jarman, Brynley F. Roberts, eds, The Arthur of the Welsh. The Arthurian Legend in Medieval Welsh Literature, Cardiff, 1991, p. 117-145.

  • KELLY, A. H., «Heaney’s Sweeney: The poet as Version-Maker», Philological Quarterly, 65, 1986, p. 293-310.


  • LAURIE, Erynn Rowan, «Since Feathers Have Grown on My Body: Madness, Art, and Healing in Celtic Reconstructionist Spirituality», Darla Schumm, Michael Stoltzfus, eds, Disability and Religious Diversity, Palgrave and Macmilan, 2011, p. 47-69.

  • LEA, Anne E., «Lleu Wyllt: Early British Prototype of the Legend of the Wild Man», The Journal of Indo-European Studies, 25, 1 & 2, Spring-Summer 1997, p. 35-47.

  • LEHMANN, Ruth P., «A study of the Buile Shuibhne», Etudes Celtiques, 6, 1953-54, p. 289-31; Etudes Celtiques 7, 1955-56, p. 115-38.

  • MIANOVSKI, Marie, «L'errance du Roi Suibhne ou l'éternelle reprise d'un récit», in Marie-Jeanne Ortemann, ed, Écritures Croisées, Presses Universitaires Blaise Pascal, 2002, p. 67-87.

  • MEYER, Kuno, «The Irish Mirabilia in the Norse Speculum Regale», Eriu, 4, 1910, p. 1-16.

  • NAGY, Joseph Falaky, «The Wisdom of the Geilt», Éigse, 19, 1982, p. 44-60.

  • NAGY, Joseph Falaki, «A new introduction to Buile Suibhne (The Frenzy of Suibhne) Being the adventures of Suibhne Geilt: a Middle Irish romance», London: Irish Texts Society, 1996.

  • NICMACHA, Sharynne, «The Feathered Cloak and the Antlered God: Druids, Shamans, Sacred Trees and Shape-shifting in the Ancient Celtic Bardic Traditions», Keltria, 38 & 39, 1998.


  • O’BEARRA, Feargal, «Buile Suibhne, vox insaniae from Medieval Ireland», Albrecht Classen, ed, Mental Health, Spirituality and Religion in the Middle Ages and Early Modern Age, Fondamentals of Medieval and Early Modern Culture, 15, 2014, p. 242-289.

  • O'KEEFFE, James G., Buile Suibne (The Frenzy of Suibhne) Being the adventures of Suibhne Geilt: a Middle-Irish romance, Irish Texts Society, London, David Nutt, 1913.
 Corpus of Electronic Texts Edition: T302018, University College, Cork

  • O'KEEFFE, James G., Buile Suibne (The Frenzy of Suibhne), with a new introduction by Joseph Falaky Nagy, London, Irish Texts Society, 1996.

  • O'RIAIN, Padraig, «A Study of the Irish Legend of the Wild Man», Eigse, 14, 1972, p. 179-206.

  • O'RIAIN, Padraig, «The Materials and Provenance of Buile Suibhne», Eigse, 15, 1974, p. 173-188.

  • PARTRIDGE, Angela, «Wild men and wailing women», Eigse, 18/1, 1980, p. 25–37.

  • PEHNT, Annette, «From Tree to Poetree: Rewritings of Buile Shuibhne in the Twentieth Century», Proc Harv Celt, Coll 15, 1995, p. 162–174.

  • RAFROIDI, Patrick, «From Sweeney to Heaney», Mythe et folklore celtique et leurs expressions littéraires en Irlande, numéro spécial d’Etudes Irlandaises, 1988, p. 91-101.

  • REGAN, Stephen, «Seamus Heaney and the Making of Sweeney Astray»,  Hungarian Journal of English and American Studies, 2015, p. 317-339.

  • REKDAL, Jan Erik, «From wine in a goblet to milk in a cowdung. The transformation of early Christian Kings in three post-Viking tales from Ireland», Steinsland, Gor, Jon Vidar Sigurdsson, Jan Erik Rekdal and Ian Beuermann, eds, Ideology and power in the Viking and Middle Ages: Scandinavia, Iceland, Ireland, Orkney and the Faeroes, Leiden-Boston, Brill, 2011, p. 211-267.

  • ROBY, Kinley, ed, Critical Essays on T.S. Eliot: The Sweeney Motif, London, G. K. Hall, 1985.

  • SAILER, Susan Shaw, «Leaps, Curses and Flight: Suibne Geilt and the Roots of Early Irish Culture», Études Celtiques, 33, 1997, p. 191–208.

  • SAYERS, William, «The Deficient Ruler as Avian Exile: Nebuchadnezzar and Suibhne Geilt», Eriu, 43, 1992, p. 217-220.

  • SCHNEIDER, Florence, «Sweeney Astray ou un horizon mythique et collectif pour une voix personnelle», Lisa, XII-4, 2014.

  • SHAW SAILER, Susan, «Suibne Geilt: Puzzles, Problems, and Paradoxes», The Canadian Journal of Irish Studies, 24-1, 1994, p. 115–131.

  • SHEERIN, Declan, Deleuze and Ricœur, Disavowed Affinities and the Narrative Self, London, Colloquium, 2009.

  • SLAVIN, Bridgette K., «Liminality in Early Irish Literature: The Madness of Suibhne Geilt», Journal of the Australian Early Medieval Association, 2, 2006, p. 209-224.

  • SLAVIN, Bridgette K., «The Irish Birdman: Kingship and Liminality in Buile Suibhne», Chris Bishop, ed, Text and Transmission in Medieval Europe, Newcastle, Cambridge Scholars Publishing, 2007, p. 17-45.

  • SOLNIT, Rebecca,  A Book of Migrations, London, Verso, 1997.

  • WALTER Philippe, ed, Le Devin maudit, Merlin, Lailoken, Suibhne, Textes et Études, Grenoble, ELLUG, 1999.

Sweeney's artistic avatars (1872-2022)

Translations

  • Seamus Heaney, Sweeney Astray, Faber, London, 1983.

  • Bernard Hœpffner, Les Errances de Sweeney (traduction de Sweeney Astray), Nantes, Le Passeur, 1983.

  • Trevor Joyce, “The Poems of Sweeny, Peregrine”, With the First Dream of Fire They Hunt the Cold, Dublin, New Writers’ Press, 2001.

  • Gerard Murphy, Early Irish Lyrics, Oxford, Clarendon, 1956.

  • Flann O’Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds, London, Penguin, (1939) 1967.

  • James G. O’Keeffe, Buile Suibne (The Frenzy of Suibhne) Being the Adventures of Suibhne Geilt A Middle-Irish Romance, edited with Translation, Introduction, Notes and Glossary by J. G. O’Keeffe, London, D. Nutt, 1913.

Novels

  • Austin Clarke, The Bright Temptation, Dublin, Dolmen, (1932) 1965.

  • Neil Gaiman, American Gods, New York, Harper Collins, 2001.

  • Joseph Heller, Catch 22, New York, Simon & Schuster, 1961.

  • Brian Kennan, An Evil Cradling, London, Vintage, 1992.

  • George Moore, Ulick and Soracha, New York, Boni & Liveright, 1926.

  • Flann O’Brien, At Swim-Two-Birds, (1939), London, Penguin, (1939) 1967.

  • Joseph O’Connor, The Salesman, London, Vintage, 1999.

  • Dave Robinson, Sweeney in Effable, Lowell, Loom Press, 2016.

Short stories

  • Jack Harte, “Birds”, From Under Gogol’s Nose, Dublin, Scotus, 2004.

  • Tom Mac Intyre, “Sweeney among the Branches”, The Harper’s Turn, Oldcastle, Gallery Press, 1982.

  • Tom Mac Intyre, “Rise Up Lovely Sweeney”, The Word for Yes: New and Selected Stories, Oldcastle, Gallery Press, 1991.

  • Pierre Michon, Mythologies d’hiver, Lagrasse, Verdier, 1997.

Essays

  • Robert Graves, “Sweeney among the Blackbirds”, Food for Centaurs, New York, Doubleday, 1960; also in The White Goddess, A Historical Grammar of Poetic Myth, New York, Farrar Straus and Giroux, (1948) 1975.

Poetry readings

Drama

  • Paula Meehan, Mrs Sweeney, in Rough Magic: First Plays, Suibhán Bourke, ed, Dublin, New Island Books, 1999.

  • William Saroyan, Sweeney in the Trees, London, Faber and Faber, 1943.

  • Colin Teevan, The Walls, London, Oberon Books, 2001.

Poetry

  • Leland Bardwell, “Mad Mrs Sweeeney”, The White Beach et Salmon A Journey into Poetry 1981-2007,  Cliffs of Moher, Salmon, 1998, p. 34.

  • Lucy Brennan,
    The Tellings and Mad Sweeney, recorded at L.B. Music, Courtice (Ontario), 1997.
    Migrants All, Toronto, Watershed, 1999.
    The Itch of Questions, to be published.

  • Austin Clarke, Collected Poems, Dublin, Dolmen Press, 1974 :
    “The Frenzy of Suibhne”, The Cattledrive in Connaught.
    “The Trees of the Forest”, Orphide and Other Poems.

  • Ian Duhig, “Margin Prayer from an Ancient Psaulter”,
    The Bradford Count, Newcastle, Bloodaxe, 1991.

  • T. S. Eliot, “Sweeney among the Nightingales”, “Sweeney Erect”, “Mr Eliot’s Sunday Morning Service”, Collected Poems 1902-1962, London, Faber, 1963.

  • Jack Foley, Sweeney Adrift, Pantograph Press, 1993.

  • Samuel Ferguson, Congal, Dublin, Ponsonby, 1872.

  • Rody Gorman, Buile Suibhne, Link 1 • Link 2

  • Seamus Heaney,
    Sweeney Astray, London, Faber and Faber, 1983.
    Sweeney's Flight, London, Faber and Faber, 1992.
    “Sweeney Redivivus”, Station Island, London, Faber and Faber, 1984.

  • Robin Ouzman Hislop,  “Sweeney’s Unbound”; “Sweeney’s Exile”;  “Just Suibhne So”


  • Joan Jonas , “Revolted by the thought of known places... Sweeney Astray”, performance piece; installation at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1994.

  • Trevor Joyce, “The Poems of Sweeny, Peregrine”, With the First Dream of Fire They Hunt the Cold, Dublin, New Writers’ Press, 2001.

  • Brendan Kennelly,  Poetry my Arse, Newcastle, Bloodaxe, 1995.

  • Sean Lysaght, "Bird Sweeney" (a sequence of 17 poems), The Mouth of a River, Oldcastle, Gallery, 2007.

  • Barry MacSweeney, Wolf Tongue, Selected Poems 1965-2000, Highgreen, Bloodaxe, 2003.

  • Paula Meehan, “Mrs Sweeney”, Pillow Talk, Oldcastle, Gallery Press, 1994, p. 63.

  • Patricia Monaghan, “The Sweeney Lacunae”, Homefront, Cincinnati, WorldTech, 2005.

  • John Montague, “Beyond the Liss”, A Chosen Light, London, MacGibbon, 1967.

  • Paul Muldoon, “The More a Man Has The More a Man Wants", Quoof, London, Faber, 1983.

  • Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, “Muirghil Ag Cáiseamh Shuibhne” / “Muirghil Castigates Sweeny”, Selected Poems: Rogha Dánta, translated by Michael Hartnett, Dublin, New Island, 2004, p. 128-129.

  • Cathal O’Searcaigh, Súile Shuibhne, Dublin, Coiscéim, 1983.

  • Eric Rozenbloom, “Mad Sweeney of Ireland”

  • William De Witt Snodgrass, Not for Specialists: New and Selected Poems, New York, BOA Editions, 2006.

Drawings, engravings and paintings

Photography

Sculpture

Installations

  • Sean Lynch and Tom Fitzgerald, For the Birds, Exhibition at the visual Centre for contemporary Art, Carlow, September 2014-January 2015.
    Publication: For the Birds, London, Push, 2014.
    Link 1 & Link 2

Murals

Short films

  • Hanna Tuulikki, Cloud-cuckoo-island
    (A cycle of poetic texts and solo performance-to-camera improvisation, exploring madness and mythology, trauma and psychology, in relation to ‘wildness’ and ‘wilderness’, 2013-14).

Blogs

Music

Installations & Performances

  • Galway Early Music Festival, The Tale of Mad Sweeney, 2010. Link 1 & Link 2

  • Joan Jonas, “Revolted by the thought of known places... Sweeney Astray”, performance  & installation at the Stedelijk Museum, Amsterdam, 1994.

  • Riverdance 2012, highlighting characters of Celtic Lore including Suibhne Geilt.

  • Riverdance, Shivna, 2016.

  • Rody Gorman (poet), Margaret Lonergan (painter), Fergus Kelly (musician), Buile Suibhne, a multi media staging of the medieval tale, Royal Irish Academy, Dublin, May 2017. Link

  • Paul Flynn (composer), Noel Monagan (poet)
, Suibhne Faoi Bhodhrán Ghealaí / Sweeney Under a Full Moon, Kilmore, August 2012. Link 1 & Link 2

  • Belfast Lyric Theatre, The Frenzy of Sweeney (folk music and contemporary pop music), June 2016.

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Video Animations

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