"In her colloquial retelling of these stories, Marie Heaney conveys the full dramatic and poetic power of one of Europe's oldest narrative traditions. The most important tales from the three major pre-Christian sequences - the Mythological Cycle, the Ulster Cycle and the Finn Cycle - are followed by lives of the saints Patrick, Brigid and Columcille, and the result is a uniquely accessible compendium." "Encompassing both extremes of violence and the most sublime and tender imaginative fancy, the world of Over Nine Waves is one in which the present-day reader will have no difficulty finding his or her bearings. Marie Heaney is the ideal guide, demonstrating with authority what may still be too little known, that the ancient Irish legends are comparable in their force and profundity to any in the world."--Jacket.