Morgan Llywelyn

Morgan Llywelyn is an American-born Irish author best known for historical and mythological fiction centred on Ireland and the wider Celtic world. Born in New York City in 1937 to a family of Irish and Welsh-Irish heritage, she moved permanently to Ireland in 1985 and became an Irish citizen. Her novels combine documented history with mythology and legend, often examining the formation of Irish identity through conquest, migration, religious change and resistance.

Her best-known works include Lion of Ireland, a fictional account of the life of Brian Boru; Bard: The Odyssey of the Irish; Druids; The Horse Goddess; and The Last Prince of Ireland. She also wrote the five-volume Irish Century sequence, which follows interconnected characters through the Easter Rising, the War of Independence, the creation of the Irish state, the Troubles and the close of the twentieth century. Llywelyn’s work is distinguished by its broad historical scope and its blending of political history with Irish folklore, cultural memory and personal experience.

Periods and events

Post-war Ireland and the Troubles, 1949–1999 Ancient World Battle of Hastings Early Medieval

Series

Series by Morgan Llywelyn (2 series)

Irish Century in Order

by Morgan Llywelyn 5 books 4.6

The Irish Century follows successive generations living through Ireland’s struggle for political independence, statehood and peace across the twentieth century. Beginning with the Easter Rising of 1916, the sequence moves through the War of Independence, partition and civil war, the consolidation of the Irish Free State, the Troubles…

1916

4.5

1921

4.6

1949

4.7

1972

4.7

1999

4.6

Celtic World in Order

by Morgan Llywelyn 8 books 4.1

The Celtic World is a thematic sequence of novels moving from the migrations and sacred traditions of ancient Celtic peoples into the heroic cycles and medieval history of Ireland and Britain. Its subjects include the legendary origins of Ireland, the warriors of the Ulster and Fenian cycles, Saint…