Given the title “The Two Sorrows of the Kingdom of Heaven,” one might well wonder, “why are there any sorrows in heaven in the first place?” “Ní hanssa” (it is not difficult) is the formulaic Old Irish reply. And with the help of this volume, it is a fitting response. Readers will find, perhaps to their surprise, that “the two sorrows” refer to Enoch and Elijah, who, taken to heaven in the flesh, dread their inevitable long-delayed deaths when they fight against Antichrist at Doomsday. Apocrypha, or noncanonical scriptures, abound in traditions like this. Yet despite their immense popularity in Late Antiquity and across the Middle Ages, they are not as well known as they deserve to be. For this reason, the present volume does us all a great service in making accessible a wealth of Irish apocrypha focused on apocalypse and on the eschaton. Many of the texts in the present volume have not been edited for a century or so, and others have never been translated into English. This second collection of “apocalyptica,” preceded in the series by John Carey's 2009 edition of In Tenga Bithnúa (The Ever-new Tongue), provides editions, translations, robust critical apparata, and up-to-date bibliographies for five major apocryphal traditions as they appear in Old/Middle Irish translation. They are: Fís Adomnáin (The Vision of Adomnán), Dá Brón Flatha Nime (The Two Sorrows of the Kingdom of Heaven), Transitus Mariae (The Passing of Mary), the Visio Sancti Pauli (The Vision or Apocalypse of St. Paul), and various Irish legends about Antichrist. What makes this volume particularly valuable for readers of this journal is that Irish influence on Insular and Continental learning was significant, thanks to their many monastic centers and missionary zeal. In other words, though these texts might seem arcane or obscure, their reach was longer than might be expected.The volume introduction, written by Martin McNamara, addresses its unifying theme, “apocalyptica,” by providing a succinct overview of the medieval evolution of the eschaton. He demonstrates that conceptions of the Final Judgment grew more complicated over the course of the Middle Ages, as thinkers wrestled with the divisions to be made between varying gradations of sinners. From the “sheep and goats” binary of Matthew 24, an Augustinian scheme (popularized by Gregory the Great) came to differentiate not only the elect and the damned, but also the non ualde mali (not-so-evil) and non ualde boni (not-so-good), as well as designating a paradisus Adae (paradise of Adam) to temporarily house important pre-Christian prophets, patriarchs, and martyrs from the Hebrew scriptural narratives. McNamara also provides useful background information on early Irish contexts for these apocryphal texts, emphasizing St. Patrick's belief that, since Ireland was located at the edge of the world, his preaching of the gospel there would usher in the Final Judgment. The introduction also provides an overview of some concerns in medieval eschatology, such as the increasing complications related to eschatological timing: would the dead go to heaven or hell immediately upon death? Or was there some intermediate state before the Second Coming and/or Final Judgment? Prominent early answers by Julian of Toledo (there is an intermediate state), Alcuin (there is not), and Bernard of Clairvaux (there is, and it is complicated) are summarized. McNamara also advances evidence (as he has argued elsewhere) that the view of a necessary intermediate state, which gave rise to the concept of Purgatory, is found earliest in works with Irish links, such as the so-called “Reference Bible” (De enigmatibus). He concludes with a survey of the texts included in the volume, situating them within these discourses.The first text included in the volume is Fís Adomnáin (The Vision of Adomnán), edited by John Carey. One of the more well known Irish visionary texts, this tour of heaven and hell has been hailed as An Irish Precursor of Dante (the title of Charles Stuart Boswell's 1908 study). Carey provides excellent coverage of this important text's highly complex manuscript situation, with multiple stemmatic suggestions about how they may be related. As always with Old and Middle Irish texts, the question of dating is vexed. Every editor in this volume, Carey included, carefully presents the linguistic, paleographic, and contextual evidence available for each text in an evenhanded manner, summarizing the complications involved, even when a firm solution is out of reach. This approach is beneficial for students and scholars alike: it walks them through the evidence and presents the main compelling interpretations without becoming overly dogmatic or insistent upon one. The commentary is thorough and helpful in elucidating the text's more remarkable features. Special attention is given to its relationship to the Visio Sancti Pauli and the Seven Heavens Apocryphon.The next text presented is Dá Brón Flatha Nime (The Two Sorrows of the Kingdom of Heaven), also edited by Carey. This apocryphon is a brief but striking apocalyptic text about Elijah and Enoch, who sorrowfully await their Doomsday confrontation with the Antichrist. Carey explores the possibility that the text attests to some knowledge of the otherwise scarcely attested apocalyptic Testament of Abraham, and reconsiders the extent to which this text represents a composite. Notably, while it does attest to the widespread interest in Ireland concerning Antichrist, the text omits many of the trademark details associated with the Antichrist traditions included at the end of the volume.The third section is devoted to two Irish versions of the Transitus Mariae (The Passing of Mary), edited by Martin McNamara. He provides a succinct overview of a complex tradition attested over a wide network of texts. The introduction explains the two main types of Transitus texts, the “Palm of the Tree of Life Tradition” (which is behind medieval Latin versions) and the “Bethlehem Tradition,” the form behind texts written in the Eastern Mediterranean. After surveying and summarizing these, the eschatological implications of the text are sketched. A brief but useful study of the Irish texts situates them within those larger networks, with attention paid to the curious fact that the Irish texts seem to attest to an older version more complete than any surviving Latin text, and one that corresponds closely to Syriac versions. This is one of many textual hints in this volume and in the larger corpus of Irish religious writing that suggests some relationship between the early Irish church and Christian networks in Syria and Egypt, whether or not one lends credence to the purported Priscillianist connection in Visigothic Spain.The first of these texts, Udhacht Mhuire (The Testament of Mary), edited by Caoimhín Breatnach, is a relatively late composition, dated on linguistic grounds to 1200–1450, though based on an earlier narrative. The linguistic evidence is amply presented, along with extended comparison to a homiletic Irish life of Mary, which is known to be earlier. There is also extensive comparison of variant readings from the chief manuscripts to aid in establishing the possible relationships between witnesses. An Irish edition is presented, followed by an edition of the Latin T manuscript for comparison. The second Transitus text included is Ugacht Muire annso, De morte Marie (Trinity College Latin Version), edited and translated by Joseph Flahive, with an introduction by Martin McNamara and Flahive. Both texts present fascinating accounts that inform our understanding of the history of Marian devotion, as well as the tendency for the Transitus tradition to incorporate apocryphal material about hell.The fourth tradition in the volume presents a pair of Irish versions of the Visio Sancti Pauli, introduced by McNamara. The introduction concisely summarizes this highly complex text and its traditions, affirming Silverstein's division of the manuscripts into eleven redactions, but fittingly focusing specifically on the debate surrounding Redaction VI, which has been purported to have strong Irish connections. McNamara also focuses on Redaction IV, with especial attention to Lenka Jiroušková's 2006 reassessment of the “Latin Hell Redaction” not as a coherent redactional tradition but as evidence of a tradition of textual experimentation and adaptation. The Irish version presented, Aisling Phóil, represents Recension IV of the Visio, and is edited by Caoimhín Breatnach. The text is a good example of the tradition that, on his tour of hell, Paul obtains Sunday rest for the souls of the damned from Christ, a motif that appears elsewhere in Irish literature, for example, famously in the Navigatio Sancti Brendani Abbatis (The Voyage of St. Brendan, the Abbot).The volume's final section is devoted to Irish Legends of Antichrist, introduced by McNamara. These fascinating texts are gathered and presented as a starting point for future research in this diffuse body of texts and will doubtless serve well future scholars who wish to shed light on these complicated traditions. The first text presented is A Revelation of John about Antichrist, edited and translated by Charles D. Wright. This Latin text is carefully examined, and Wright provides a thorough overview of the previous century of scholarship on the subject before turning to Latin and Irish manuscripts in the tradition (with a brief note on Old English analogues). Diplomatic texts of certain representative Latin versions of the text are provided for comparison to the composite edited Latin text and translation. Wright also provides a detailed commentary on the text, with focus on details and tropes such as “the physiognomy of Antichrist” and “Miracles of Antichrist.” These are followed by the volume's final series of texts, Three Irish Texts of a Revelation of John about Antichrist, presented by Caoimhín Breatnach. The three texts represent various reworkings in Irish of the foregoing Latin texts, and are presented separately, followed by a detailed commentary that emphasizes elements of the Irish texts not extant in Wright's edition of the Latin texts. Breatnach also presents compelling evidence concerning the relationship of the three Irish texts to one another.Though the volume might sound highly specialized, given its titular focus on Irish texts specifically, it will serve scholars and students alike well. Many of its texts, though they take on some idiosyncrasies unique to an Irish milieu, are in fact representative of medieval traditions about Doomsday, the Final Judgment, visions of Heaven and Hell, and Antichrist. While it is more detailed and technical than an outright introductory text at points, the introductions provide authoritative overviews of many of the motifs and tropes that abound in medieval texts about the afterlife generally. Overall, the commentaries and apparata are a treasure trove of information on apocrypha, apocalypse, and the state of learning in northwestern Europe during the Middle Ages. One minor drawback to the volume's composite format is that while some texts feature a robust commentary, other texts in the volume, especially the Marian texts, lack the same level of in-depth explanation, and the uneven coverage leaves curious readers desiring more. Still, the collaborators behind this hefty volume are to be congratulated for assembling a weighty work that manages to wear its immense learning lightly and present it accessibly.