Thursday, April 7, 2016

Week 11 Reading Diary: Celtic Fairy Tales

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1892).

Connla and the Fairy Maiden

  • The Fairy Maiden pressured Connla to come live in a land of paradise
  • Only Connla could see the Fairy Maiden
  • A land that saw no sorrow and the people lived happily forever
  • Connla's father, the king, called upon Coran the Druid to send the Fairy Maiden away
  • He did so, and she was gone
  • She gave Connla an apple before she vanished and he only ate from that apple from that day forward, it would grow back after each meal
  • Finally the day came and the Fairy Maiden returned and once again called for Connla to return with her
  • Connla and the Fairy Maiden rode off in the sunset and no one knew where they went
The Field of Boliauns
  • Tom came across a pitcher in his field while harvesting
  • In it was a leprechaun and beer
  • When Tom snatched the leprechaun up he spilt all of the beer
  • Tom was angry and demanded the leprechaun to show him his money
  • The leprechaun led him to a field of Boliauns and told him which one he had to dig under to recover the gold
  • He forgot his spade so he tied a red garter around the Boliaun, made the leprechaun promise not to remove it and went home to fetch his spade
  • When he returned his garter was gone and he couldn't dig up every Boliaun, there was 40 acres
  • He returned home and cursed the leprechaun every time he thought of what happened
The Horned Women
  • Twelve witches, the first with one horn and the twelfth with twelve horns, entered the mistresses home
  • They sat around in a circle and wound and wove
  • They told the mistress to make them a cake
  • She went to get water from the well and a voice told her when she got back to the house to yell a chant three times, she did so
  • The witches left and while they were gone she locked them out
  • When they retuned they were outraged
  • They returned home and cursed the Spirit of the Well
The Shepherd of Myddvai
  • The shepherd took his flock to a lake and lay there while they grazed
  • Three sisters came up from the water and he offered one his bread
  • She said it was too overcooked and fled back to the waters
  • He came back a second time with a loaf that was softer and she said it was uncooked and fled back to the waters
  • The third time he gave her a piece that he found on the shore of the lake and it pleased her
  • She said if he came back the next day and could pick her out of her sisters she would marry him
  • He did and they wed, they returned to his home and she brought some animals with her
  • She told them that if he struck her three times without cause she would leave him
  • They had children and over the years he tapped her roughly three times
  • She fled back to the lake and took the animals with her
  • She only returned once when her sons were grown and she gave them the gifts of healing


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