Tuesday, April 13, 2021

Celtic Fairy Tales Reading: Part A

 Celtic Fairy Tales


Silver-Tree in the glen. (Source: The Untextbook )


Connla and The Fairy Maiden 

-Connla of the Fiery Hair
-Conn of the Hundred Fights
-Plains of the Ever-Living- "Where there is neither death nor sin"
-Hill Folk
-interesting names 
-old language 
-only Connla saw the Fairy Maiden 
-Plain of Pleasure- Moy Mell
-Boadag is king
-"Oh, come with me, Connla of the Fiery Hair, ruddy as the dawn with thy tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits thee to grace thy comely face and royal form. Come, and never shall thy comeliness fade, nor thy youth, till the last awful day of judgment."
-Coran-Druid
-"by woman wiles and witchery"
-Coran got rid of the maiden and the maiden threw an apple at him
-Connla ate only from the apple and ate and drank nothing else for a month, his longing for the fairy maiden grew
-"Tis a glorious place, forsooth, that Connla holds among short-lived mortals awaiting the day of death. But now the folk of life, the ever-living ones, beg and bid thee come to Moy Mell, the Plain of Pleasure, for they have learnt to know thee, seeing thee in thy home among thy dear ones."
-maiden called druid "false black demon"
-curragh-a canoe

The Field of Boliauns

-lady-day - Feast of the Annunciation- angel Gabriel told Mary of Jesus' birth
-Tom Fitzpatrick
-"clacking sort of noise"
-"stonechatters"
-brown pitcher that might hold a gallon and a half of liquor 
-Leprachaun description
-"They say a body must never take their eyes off them, or they'll escape."
-good beer in the pitcher
-made beer out of heath
-boliaun-pot

The Horned Women

-Witch of One Horn
-Witch of Two Horns
-12 women all with horns, last had 12 horns
-Mistress of house felt near death from witchs' spell
-"The mountain of the Fenian women and the sky over it is all on fire."
-Slievenamon- their main home 
-the Spirit of the Well
-feet-water
-feet-water, beam, and cake all talk back to the witches

The Shepherd of Myddvai 

-Black Mountains in Caermarthenshire lies the lake known as Lyn y Van Vach
-3 maidens from lake
-shepherd fell in love with one of the maidens
-maiden said she would marry him and be with him but he couldn't strike her 3 times (familiar to other stories I've read)
-sons became Meddygon Myddvai, the physicians of Myddvai

The Sprightly Tailor

-the great Macdonald
-told tailor to make trews at night in a haunted church
-ghost appears
-the "fearsome thing" ran after the tailor after he left the church and gave chase

Munachar and Manachar 

-starts off like an original fairytale
-inanimate objects talking (rod,axe,flag,water, butter, milk)
-talking animals (deer, hound, cat, cow)
-repetitive, always adding a new character 
- threshers, miller
-Manachar bursts before Munachar can get everything he needs to hang him on a gad

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

-starts with "Once upon a time.."
-silver-tree is mother, gold-tree daughter
-trout in the glen they go to tells silver-tree that her daughter is prettier than her
-a prince from far off ask to marry gold-tree and the king approves
-king gave her the heart and liver of a he-goat instead
-siler-tree begs king for a ship and they go visit their daughter
-gold-tree locked herself in her room when they came
-mother teicked her and stuck her finger with poison that killed her
-prince didn't bury her, but locked her in her room where she was
-prince marries again and second wife finds the room where gold-tree is
-she takes the poison out of her finger and gold-tree lives again
-prince keeps both wives
-repetitive
-"The prince and his two wives were long alive after this, pleased and peaceful. I left them there."

Bibliography-

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892). 

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