Books with title Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

Irish Fairy Tales is a retelling of ten Irish folktales by the Irish author James Stephens. The English illustrator Arthur Rackham provided interior artwork, including numerous black and white illustrations and sixteen color plates. The stories are set in a wooded, Medieval Ireland filled with larger-than-life hunters, warriors, kings, and fairies. Many stories concern the Fianna and their captain, Fionn mac Uail, from the Fenian Cycle of Irish mythology.

Dr. Corbett, Bishop of Oxford and Norwich, lamented long ago the departure of the English fairies. "In Queen Mary's time" he wrote—"When Tom came home from labour, Or Cis to milking rose, Then merrily, merrily went their tabor, And merrily went their toes." But now, in the times of James, they had all gone, for "they were of the old profession," and "their songs were Ave Maries." In Ireland they are still extant, giving gifts to the kindly, and plaguing the surly. "Have you ever seen a fairy or such like?" I asked an old man in County Sligo. "Amn't I annoyed with them," was the answer. "Do the fishermen along here know anything of the mermaids?" I asked a woman of a village in County Dublin. "Indeed, they don't like to see them at all," she answered, "for they always bring bad weather." "Here is a man who believes in ghosts," said a foreign sea-captain, pointing to a pilot of my acquaintance. "In every house over there," said the pilot, pointing to his native village of Rosses, "there are several." Certainly that now old and much respected dogmatist, the Spirit of the Age, has in no manner made his voice heard down there. In a little while, for he has gotten a consumptive appearance of late, he will be covered over decently in his grave, and another will grow, old and much respected, in his place, and never be heard of down there, and after him another and another and another. Indeed, it is a question whether any of these personages will ever be heard of outside the newspaper offices and lecture-rooms and drawing-rooms and eel-pie houses of the cities, or if the Spirit of the Age is at any time more than a froth. At any rate, whole troops of their like will not change the Celt much. Giraldus Cambrensis found the people of the western islands a trifle paganish. "How many gods are there?" asked a priest, a little while ago, of a man from the Island of Innistor. "There is one on Innistor; but this seems a big place," said the man, and the priest held up his hands in horror, as Giraldus had, just seven centuries before. Remember, I am not blaming the man; it is very much better to believe in a number of gods than in none at all, or to think there is only one, but that he is a little sentimental and impracticable, and not constructed for the nineteenth century. The Celt, and his cromlechs, and his pillar-stones, these will not change much—indeed, it is doubtful if anybody at all changes at any time. In spite of hosts of deniers, and asserters, and wise-men, and professors, the majority still are averse to sitting down to dine thirteen at table, or being helped to salt, or walking under a ladder, or seeing a single magpie flirting his chequered tail. There are, of course, children of light who have set their faces against all this, though even a newspaper man, if you entice him into a cemetery at midnight, will believe in phantoms, for every one is a visionary, if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt is a visionary without scratching. Yet, be it noticed, if you are a stranger, you will not readily get ghost and fairy legends, even in a western village. You must go adroitly to work, and make friends with the children, and the old men, with those who have not felt the pressure of mere daylight existence, and those with whom it is growing less, and will have altogether taken itself off one of these days. The old women are most learned, but will not so readily be got to talk, for the fairies are very secretive, and much resent being talked of; and are there not many stories of old women who were nearly pinched into their graves or numbed with fairy blasts? At sea, when the nets are out and the pipes are lit, then will some ancient hoarder of tales become loquacious, telling his histories to the tune of the creaking of the boats. Holy-eve night, too, is a great time, and in old days many tales were to be heard at wakes. But the priests have set faces against wakes

This Work contains an active table of contents (HTML), which makes reading easier to make it more enjoyable. The lore of ancient Ireland comes to life in this collection of classic folk tales retold for modern readers.Contains:THE STORY OF TUAN MAC CAIRILL,THE BOYHOOD OF FIONN,THE BIRTH OF BRAN,OISI'N'S MOTHER,THE WOOING OF BECFOLA,THE LITTLE BRAWL AT ALLEN,THE CARL OF THE DRAB COAT,THE ENCHANTED CAVE OF CESH CORRAN,BECUMA OF THE WHITE SKIN,MONGAN'S FRENZY

Scottish Fairy and Folk Tales is a timeless collection of Scottish folklore, legends, and tales which will appeal to readers of all ages. Here you will find stories of the fantastic, the supernatural, the cunning, the hilarious, and the gifted—all finely representative of the Scottish people in all their mannerisms.Divided into seven sections: Nursery Stories; Stories of Animals; Fairy Tales; The Brownie, The Bogle, The Kelpy, Mermen, Demons; Witchcraft; Comic Tales; and Literary Tales; the reader will delight in each tale, focused as they are upon the specifically Scottish nature of the retelling.Here one can meet the mythical kelpy—a supernatural water horse that was said to haunt Scotland’s lochs and lonely rivers. The reader will also meet the bogle ghost, giants, mythical beasts—and a comical lamb which seeks to please its master, even to the cooking pot…The stories in this classic volume were compiled from oral traditions and the oldest Scottish writings. Rarely has such a pleasing and complete overview of traditional Scottish folklore ever seen the light of day.Now fully reset, complete with its original beautiful illustrations.

This early collection of Irish fairytales is both expensive and hard to find in its first edition. It contains stories of Changelings, fairies, ghosts and other mystical beings of Irish literature. This is a fascinating work and is thoroughly recommended for anyone interested in the history of Irish fairytales. Many of the earliest books, particularly those dating back to the 1900s and before, are now extremely scarce. We are republishing these classic works in affordable, high quality, modern editions, using the original text and artwork.

About This Edition:This kindle edition is very well formatted with more then 30 illustrations.About Book:This is a collection of Scottish folklore which will appeal to all ages. There are animal tales, stories of the fairies of Scotland including Brownies, Bogles, Kelpies, Mermaids and others, and tales of Witches and of Giants. While many of the themes are similar to other European folk-tales, this collection emphasizes specifically Scottish aspects of the stories.

“There is a difference between this world and the world of Faery, but it is not immediately perceptible. Everything that is here is there, but the things that are there are better than those that are here. All things that are bright are there brighter. There is more gold in the sun and more silver in the moon of that land. There is more scent in the flowers, more savour in the fruit. There is more comeliness in the men and more tenderness in the women. Everything in Faery is better by this one wonderful degree, and it is by this betterness you will know that you are there if you should ever happen to get there.” ― James Stephens, Irish Fairy Tales