Abstract

Abstract:

The first section of this article provides context for Brian O'Nolan's At Swim-Two-Birds (1939), situating original, early textual tensions within the history of ascetic revival in Ireland in the late eighth and early ninth centuries. The second section offers a comparative look at O'Nolan's translation alongside J. G. O'Keeffe's 1913 touchstone text and Seamus Heaney's 1982 rendition of it. The final section examines two contemporary reconceptual film settings of the Sweeney tale to consider how the tale is reimagined in post-state, gendered, and secular contexts. Fragmented elements of ascetism endure via this endlessly changing tale for Celtic Christianity's contested center.

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