# More Celtic Fairy Tales

MORE CELTIC
FAIRY TALES
SAY THIS
Three times, with your eyes shut
And you will see
What you will see
MORE CELTIC
FAIRY TALES
SELECTED AND EDITED BY
JOSEPH JACOBS
LATE EDITOR OF "FOLK-LORE."
ILLUSTRATED BY
JOHN D. BATTEN
New York: G. P. PUTNAM'S SONS
London : D. NUTT
1895
[Rights of translation and reproduction reserved]
To
THE MANY UNKNOWN
LITTLE FRIENDS
I HAVE MADE
BY THE FORMER BOOKS
OF THIS SERIES
Preface
OR the last time, for the present, I give the children of the British Isles a selection of Fairy Tales once or still existing among them. The story store of Great Britain and Ireland is, I hope, now adequately represented in the four volumes which have won me so many little friends, and of which this is the last.
My collections have dealt with the two folk-lore regions of these Isles on different scales. The "English" region, including Lowland Scotland and running up to the Highland line, is, I fancy, as fully represented in "English" and "More English Fairy Tales" as it is ever likely to be. But the Celtic district, including the whole of Ireland and the Gaelic-speaking part of Scotland, still offers a rich harvest to the collector, and will not be exhausted for many a long day. The materials already collected are far richer than those which the "English" region afford, and it has ​accordingly been my aim in the two volumes devoted to the Celts, rather to offer specimens of the crop than to exhaust the field.
In the present volume I have proceeded on much the same lines as those which I laid down for myself in compiling its predecessor. In making my selection I have attempted to select the tales common both to Erin and Alba. I have included, as specimen of the Irish mediaeval hero tales, one of the three sorrowful tales of Erin: "The Tale of the Children of Lir." For the "drolls" or "comic relief" of the volume, I have again drawn upon the inexhaustible Kennedy, while the great J. F. Campbell still stands out as the most prominent figure in the history of the Celtic Fairy Tale.
​I fear I am somewhat of a heretic with regard to the evidential value of folk-tales regarded as capita mortua of anthropology. The ready transit of a folk-tale from one district to another of the same linguistic area, robs it to my mind of any anthropological or ethnographical value; but on this high topic I have discoursed elsewhere.
This book, like the others of this series, has only been rendered possible by the courtesy and complaisance of the various collectors from whom I have culled my treasures. In particular, I have to thank Mr. Larminie and Mr. Eliot Stock for permission to include that fine tale "Morraha" from the former's "West Irish Folk-tales," the chief addition to the Celtic store since the appearance of my last volume. I have again to thank Dr. Hyde for permission to use another tale from his delightful collection. Mr. Curtin has been good enough to place at my disposal another of the tales collected by him in Connaught, and my colleague, Mr. Duncan, has translated for me a droll from the Erse. Above all, I have to thank Mr. Alfred Nutt for constant supervision over my selection and over my comments upon it. Mr. Nutt, by his own researches, and by the encouragement and aid he has given to the researches of others on Celtic folk-lore, has done much to replace the otherwise irreparable loss of Campbell.
With this volume I part, at any rate for a time, from the ​pleasant task which has engaged my attention for the last four years. For the "English" folk-lore district I have attempted to do what the brothers Grimm did for Germany, so far as that was possible at this late day. But for the Celtic area I can claim no such high function; here the materials are so rich that it would tax the resources of a whole clan of Grimms to exhaust the field, and those Celtic Grimms must be Celts themselves, or at any rate fully familiar with the Gaelic. Here then is a task for the newly revived local patriotism of Ireland and the Highlands. I have done little more than spy the land, and bring back some specimen bunches from the Celtic vine. It must be for others, Celts themselves, to enter in and possess the promised land.
JOSEPH JACOBS.
Contents
(For Nos. I.—XXVI., see "Celtic Fairy Tales")
| | | PAGE |
| XXVII. | THE FATE OF THE CHILDREN OF LIR | 1 |
| XXVIII. | JACK THE CUNNING THIEF | 11 |
| XXIX. | POWEL, PRINCE OF DYFED | 26 |
| xxx. | PADDY O'KELLY AND THE WEASEL | 46 |
| XXXI. | THE BLACK HORSE | 57 |
| XXXII. | THE VISION OF MACCONGLINNEY | 67 |
| XXXIII. | DREAM OF OWEN O'MULREADY | 75 |
| XXXIV. | MORRAHA | 80 |
| XXXV. | THE STORY OF THE MACANDREW FAMILY | 97 |
| XXXVI. | THE FARMER OF LIDDESDALE | 106 |
| XXXVII. | THE GREEK PRINCESS AND THE YOUNG GARDENER | 110 |
| XXXVIII. | THE RUSSET DOG | 125 |
| XXXIX. | SMALLHEAD AND THE KING'S SONS | 135 |
| ​XL. | THE LEGEND OF KNOCKGRAFTON | 156 |
| XLI. | ELIDORE | 164 |
| XLII. | THE LEECHING OF KAYN'S LEG | 169 |
| XLIII. | HOW FIN WENT TO THE KINGDOM OF THE BIG MEN | 194 |
| XIV. | HOW CORMAC MAC ART WENT TO FAERY | 204 |
| XLV. | THE RIDERE OF RIDDLES | 210 |
| XLVI. | THE TAIL | 217 |
| | NOTES AND REFERENCES | 219 |
Full-page Illustration
| THE GOLDEN BIRD | | Frontispiece |
| THE CHILDREN OF LIR | To face page | 4 |
| THE BLACK HORSE | ,, | 62 |
| MORRAHA | ,, | 90 |
| THE GREEK PRINCESS | ,, | 120 |
| THE BRIDGE OF BLOOD | ,, | 138 |
| KOISHA KAYN | ,, | 190 |
| WARNING TO READERS | ,, | 218 |
[Full-page illustrations, initials, and cuts from blocks supplied by Messrs. J. C. Drummond & Co.]
This work was published before January 1, 1929, and is in the public domain worldwide because the author died at least 100 years ago.
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