Reading Notes: Celtic Tales, Part A

 Celtic Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Connla and the Fairy Maiden

- "I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where there is neither death nor sin.

*Sounds kind of trippy, but I like it.*

- The king and ail with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw no one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.

*Oo, I like this eerie element greatly!*

- Away and away, till eye could see it no longer, and Connla and the Fairy Maiden went their way on the sea, and were no more seen, nor did any know where they came.

*What a fairytale ending. I feel like it's missing something.*

The Field of Boliauns

- And by-and-by a little wee teeny tiny bit of an old man, with a little motty of a cocked hat stuck upon the top of his head, a deeshy daushy leather apron hanging before him, pulled out a little wooden stool, and stood up upon it, and dipped a little piggin into the pitcher, and took out the full of it, and put it beside the stool, and then sat down under the pitcher, and began to work at putting a heel-piece on a bit of a brogue just fit for himself.

*I really love this description of the little old man.*

- Tom looked so wicked and so bloody-minded that the little man was quite frightened...

*Interesting. Regular man turned villain who terrorizes another seemingly regular man that turns out to be more than what he seems. That might make for a good concept.*

The Horned Women

- ...but she could not move, nor could she utter a word or a cry, for the spell of the witches was upon her. 

*Spooky!*

-But the Spirit of the Well bade the mistress of the house to enter and prepare her home against the enchantments of the witches if they returned again.

*Saved by another entity, interesting. What's the Spirit of the Well's motivation for helping, I wonder?*

The Shepherd of Myddvai

- ...so he tapped her lightly on the shoulder with the gloves... "That's one," said she.

*It's funny that she's counting such a light touch as a blow. It's a bit dramatic, actually.*

The Sprightly Tailor

- And Macdonald had said to the tailor that if he would make the trews by night in the church, he would get a handsome reward. For it was thought that the old ruined church was haunted, and that fearsome things were to be seen there at night.

*Such an evil thing to dare someone to do. I guess that's what money will do for you though. That's an interesting concept: how far money can take you.*

- For some time he got on pretty well until he felt the floor all of a tremble under his feet, and, looking about him but keeping his fingers at work, he saw the appearance of a great human head rising up through the stone pavement of the church.

*Freaky!*

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

-Silver-tree went home, blind with rage. She lay down on the bed and vowed she would never be well until she could get the heart and the liver of Gold-tree, her daughter, to eat.

*What?? That's her daughter!*

-  In the course of time he married again, and the whole house was under the hand of this wife but one room, and he himself always kept the key of that room. On a certain day of the days he forgot to take the key with him, and the second wife got into the room. What did she see there but the most beautiful woman that she ever saw.

*How very weird. I like the idea though, having a secret wife hidden away.*

- "Not at all," said the second wife; "we will go down to meet her."

*It's kind of sweet how they bond together.*

Sweet Fairy (Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography: Celtic Tales by Joseph Jacobs. Website: Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook.