More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

But one can have too much even of that very good thing, and I have therefore avoided as far as possible the more familiar formulae of folk-tale literature. It would have been easy, especially from Kennedy, to have made up a volume entirely filled with Grimm's Goblins à la Celtique. In making my selection I have chiefly tried to make the stories characteristic. Meanwhile Wales must be content to be somewhat scantily represented among the Fairy Tales of the Celts, while the extinct Cornish tongue has only contributed one tale. Perhaps the Eisteddfod, by offering prizes for the collection of Welsh folk-tales, may remove this inferiority. Gallant little Wales has no name to rank alongside these in this department the Cymru have shown less vigour than the Gaedhel. Scotland had the great name of Campbell, and has still efficient followers in MacDougall, MacInnes, Carmichael, Macleod, and Campbell of Tiree. Ireland began to collect her folk-tales almost as early as any country in Europe, and Croker has found a whole school of successors in Carleton, Griffin, Kennedy, Curtin, and Douglas Hyde. This time, in offering them specimens of the rich folk-fancy of the Celts of these islands, my trouble has rather been one of selection.

LAST year, in giving the young ones a volume of English Fairy Tales, my difficulty was one of collection. Three times, with your eyes shut img2.png THE SHEE AN GANNON AND THE GRUAGACH GAIRE

'Celtic Fairy Tales' is not only a solid collection of stories for young children, but adults will understand the significance of Joseph Jacob's work to preserve the legacy of Celtic folklore forever. 'Jack and his Comrades' is similar to 'Town Musicians of Bremen,' a story about a group of farm animals who fight four robbers away from their home. Modern readers will also recognize parallels between well-known fairy tales and the stories in Jacobs' anthology. For example, in 'Fair, Brown, and Trembling,' the oldest sister tried to kill the youngest, so she was banished to the ocean in a barrel with only a small amount of provisions for food. Like the famous German fairy tales collected by the Brothers Grimm, not every story in 'Celtic Fairy Tales' ends happily for all the characters.

'Celtic Fairy Tales' includes popular stories such as 'Conall Yellowclaw,' 'The Sea-Maiden,' and 'Battle of the Birds,' all of which were gathered straight from oral tradition by Jacobs to be preserved forever in text. Folklorist Joseph Jacobs spent his entire career gathering a host of fairy tales known in the English language and compiling them into a number of anthologies.

The 1892 collection 'Celtic Fairy Tales' is a beautiful anthology which highlights Celtic children's literature.

More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs