Larry O'Loughlin

The Gobán Saor, famed throughout Ireland and the wider world for his skill as a builder, is approached by a wealthy but arrogant man, who demands that the great smith construct him the finest house in all of Ireland. Distrustful of this boaster, whom he suspects of being a deceiver, the Gobán Saor nevertheless agrees, working for a year to raise a magnificent castle. But when the wealthy man proves unreliable, and attempts to extort a lower price for his work, the Gobán Saor has a trick or two up his sleeve, to make sure he is not taken advantage of...

This comic-book style adaptation of a traditional folktale - it is part of Blackwater Press's 'Irish Legends' series, which also includes retellings of The King with Donkey Ears (The King's Secret) and Fionn MacCool and the Giant (Fionn and the Scots Giant) - offers an entertaining, light-hearted depiction of the renowned smith and architect of ancient Ireland. Believed to be based upon a historical figure of the 8th century, the figure of the Gobán Saor also has parallels with the mythological Goibniu, the smith of the Tuatha De Deanann in ancient Irish mythology, and the two figures are sometimes conflated. Ella Young's marvellous collections of tales about the 'Gubbaun Soar,' The Wonder Smith and His Son, is a retelling of the story of Goibniu, despite the character name resembling the later Gobán Saor. Young's tale is heroic, rather than comical, and served as my introduction to this character (or these characters, if you will), leading me to track down this comic-book. Out-of-print and difficult to obtain, The Gobán Saor is not a book I would recommend to the casual reader, given how difficult it is to locate a copy, but for those with an interest in this particular character, it does offer an interesting parallel tradition to that found in Young's classic work.… (altro)