T. W. Rolleston

Thomas William Hazen Rolleston (1857–1920) was an Irish writer, literary figure and translator, known as a poet but publishing over a wide range of literary and political topics. He lived at various times in Killiney in South Dublin, Germany, London and County Wicklow; settling finally in 1908 in Hampstead, London, where he died. His Killiney home, called Secrora, subsequently became the home of tennis player Joshua Pim.

He was born in Glasshouse, Shinrone, County Offaly, the son of a judge. He was educated at St Columba's College, Dublin and Trinity College, Dublin. After a time in Germany he founded the Dublin University Review in 1885; he published Poems and Ballads of Young Ireland (1888), and a Life of Lessing (1889). As the first managing director of the Irish Industries' Society, he helped preserve from extinction many Irish handicrafts, such as lace-making, handmade tweeds and glass-making. In London in the 1890s he was one of the Rhymers' Club and a founder-member of the Irish Literary Society. He was to cross paths several times, and sometimes to clash, with W. B. Yeats, who described Rolleston in his memoirs as an "intimate enemy". He was also involved in Douglas Hyde's Gaelic League.

He also spent time as a journalist, and as a civil servant involved with agriculture. He had eight children, from two marriages.

Works

His seminal works Celtic Myths and Legends and The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cumhail are widely hailed as the best representation and description of all the legends, myths and spiritual history of all Celtic peoples of Ireland, Britain, and Wales.

Approximately 168 books are associated with Rolleston, some as writer or editor. These are the more prominent works; publication dates listed if known.

• The Teaching of Epictetus (1888)
• Life of Gotthold Ephraim Lessing (1889)
• Tannhauser: a dramatic poem by Richard Wagner; translated by T. W. Rolleston; illustrated by Willy Pogany. (1900)
• A Treasury of Irish Poetry in the English Tongue by Stopford A. Brooke & T. W. Rolleston (1900)
• Parallel Paths: a study in biology, ethics, and art (1908)
• The High Deeds of Finn Mac Cumhail (1910)
• Celtic Myths and Legends also entitled Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race (1911, reprinted 1917, 1990)
  • The Illustrated Guide to Celtic Mythology. London: Studio Editions, 1993 (Based on Myths & Legends of the Celtic Race)
• Parsifal or, The Legend of the Holy Grail, retold from ancient sources with acknowledgement to the "Parsifal" of Richard Wagner (1912)
• The tale of Lohengrin, knight of the swan by Richard Wagner and T. W. Rolleston; illustrated by Willy Pogany (1913)

External links

• Biography at Offalyhistory.com
• Details of address in Killiney at nationalarchives.ie
• Works by T. W. Rolleston at Project Gutenberg
• The High Deeds of Finn and other Bardic Romances of Ancient Ireland at Project Gutenberg
• Thomas Davis, Selections from his Prose and Poetry at Project Gutenberg (Rolleston, T. W., Commentator; Davis, Thomas, Creator)
• 849: the Dead at Clonmacnois, from the Irish of Angus O'Gillan; The Oxford Book of English Verse: 1250–1900., Bartleby.com