Neck-high sticks he must pass by vaulting, knee-high sticks by stooping.

Weapon-quivering hand or twig-crackling foot at full run, neither is taken. Should branches disturb his hair or pull it forth like sheep-wool on a hawthorn, he is not taken but is caught and gashed. No man is taken till he is run by warriors through the woods of Erin with his hair bunched-loose about him for bough-tangle and briar-twitch. If he be spear-holed past his shield, or spear-killed, he is not taken for want of shield-skill. Then must nine warriors fly their spears at him, one with the other and together. No man is taken till a black hole is hollowed in the world to the depth of his two oxters and he put into it to gaze from it with his lonely head and nothing to him but his shield and a stick of hazel. Till a man has accomplished twelve books of poetry, the same is not taken for want of poetry but is forced away. However you read it, it is a great work of Irish literature.“Sweet to me your voice, said Caolcrodha Mac Morna, brother to sweet-worded sweet-toothed Goll from Sliabh Riabhach and Brosnacha Bladhma, relate then the attributes that are to Finn's people. You can read it as a rollicking comedy, as a parody of literature, as a clever attempt to play with fiction and reality. The plot given above is, in fact, more complicated, with various strands intertwining, Irish legends mixing in to the story and O’Brien giving his philosophical, religious and literary views (and then damning them). Dylan Thomas said of it This is just the book to give your sister – if she’s a loud, dirty, boozy girl. However, others have considered it a masterpiece.

O’Brien himself was not very fond of this novel and considered it juvenilia. Meanwhile the student passes his exams and the novel ends. Orlick now writes a story about Trellis, in which Trellis is tried by his characters who proceed to torture him, till Teresa, a servant in the hotel burns some of the story so that some of the characters cease to exist, enabling Trellis to escape. Meanwhile the characters in the hotel have drugged Trellis so that he cannot control their lives. Trellis is writing about a group of people living in a hotel and he even rapes one of these characters. He is writing a novel about Trellis, an Irish writer of Westerns. The novel is about an Irish student who is studying Irish Gaelic, though he spends most of his time lying in bed and hanging out with his friends. While O’Brien certainly was not the first to use the Chinese box or mise en abyme technique, he certainly used it to full effect. This is not a novel to read for its plot. Home » Ireland » Flann O’Brien » At Swim-Two-Birds Flann O’Brien: At Swim-Two-Birds

At Swim-Two-Birds by Flann O'Brien