Irish Fairy Tales

by Philip Smith (Editor)

The age-old charm of Irish folklore gives special sparkle to this collection of eight tongue-in-cheek tales. Wicked old hags, clever leprechauns, courageous tailors, evil giants, and other characters come to life in such fanciful yarns as "Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary," "Conal and Donal and Taig," "The Old Hag's Long Leather Bag," "The Field of Boliauns," "The Sprightly Tailor," “The Giant’s Stairs,” “The Bee, the Harp, the Mouse, and the Bum-Clock,” and “The Black Horse.” Reset in large, easy-to-read type, with six illustrations, these beloved stories from the Emerald Isle will delight readers of any age with their warmth, whimsy, and sly humor.

Genres: Fantasy, Childrens, Short Stories, Fiction, Ireland, Mythology, Folklore

96 pages, Paperback

First published May 20, 1993

Reviews

[Iva · Rating 4 out of 5]

Loved it because it has taken me far far away which was exactly what I needed at the moment! I started listening to it to celebrate St Patrick's day and the Irish culture in my own way since it is very near and dear to my Croatian heart! Longer review as soon as I have the actual book in my hands since I listened to the audio book and didn't quite understand some of the words and I would like to check some things before writing a more serious blog post. https://sisterdelightbookcaffe.blogsp...

[Clare Bender · Rating 3 out of 5]

2019 Book Challenge: Setting that You Now Want to Visit: Ireland

[Iva · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was a reread this time I listened to the book on Scribd and loved it all over again. This is my blog review I stand by everything i said: https://sisterdelightbookcaffe.blogsp...

[Brian Koser]

Read with the four oldest

[Lorie LovesBooks · Rating 3 out of 5]

A good selection of fairy tales only one of them I had read before.

[Heri · Rating 3 out of 5]

delapan cerita dongeng irlandia ini cukup menarik dan menghibur, tapi karena ditulis dalam gaya bahasa yang tidak biasa, ada sedikit kesulitan untuk memahami apa yang diceritakan

sebagian kisah ditulis dengan kata-kata dan kalimat yang berulang sehingga tidak perlu dibaca lagi dan mempersingkat waktu membaca, sebagian lainnya harus dibaca beberapa kali agar paham apa yang diceritakan karena kata-kata atau gaya bahasa yang tidak umum seperti gaya bahas abad 20-21

meski hanya ada delapan cerita, sesuai dengan ciri khas Dover Classics yang menerbitkan buku untuk anak-anak secara ringkas, jumlah cerita dan halaman disesuaikan dengan usia pembacanya. namun untuk gaya bahasa yang tidak lazim, anak-anak dan pembaca non bahasa Inggris tetap perlu pemahaman lebih lanjut untuk bisa mencerna cerita dalam buku ini

[Joy Gerbode · Rating 3 out of 5]

I have to admit, I prefer the happily ever after fairy tales ... of the Disneyfied versions of Perault or Brothers Grimm. However, this is an excellent look into Irish fairy tales, some which have characters that resemble those of the other fairy tale writers from other parts of the world. Many revolve around the picture of Irishmen as lazy and always looking for an easy way to riches ... many involve the wee folk, but some also have good "morals" so it was very interesting to read these. Most were brand new to me.

[Tirzah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Irish culture has always interested me, so I was looking forward to reading this book. The only one that was familiar to me was the Field of Boliauns, because I read the picture book version, Clever Tom and the Leprechaun (which by the way, is a good cover for a bookface). As with other fairy tales, these stories are delightful and I recommend them for read alouds to youngsters.

[Lauren Fee · Rating 3 out of 5]

I read these aloud to my children this summer mostly during our short visit to Ireland. We enjoyed them overall. The Irish fairy tales are more humorous than ones we have read from other cultures and you can see how they like to play with language. That came across even as they were translated to English. This was not our favorite collection of fairy tales, but they were enjoyable.

[Katerina · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not as good as my pretty, fancy-looking book from Barnes and Noble! These tales were more repetitious and not nearly as exciting. Also very violent! Not sure if I'd read these to children. . . .

[Private Account · Rating 1 out of 5]

Bought a bunch of these Dover Children's Thrift Classics. They are very low quality--the stories. The paper and pictures as well, but that isn't as important. The stories are just a mess.

[✨Bean's Books✨ · Rating 4 out of 5]

Very cute little read. You can tell the author is Irish because he writes like he talks. It really adds a great bit of authenticity to the stories.

[Bob Gray · Rating 3 out of 5]

Que trabajito me ha costado leermelo en inglés. Reto superado! Shakespeare, eat your heart out!

[Michelle Kellogg · Rating 5 out of 5]

I loved these old tales, some of them I had never heard of and it was great learning about a culture that here in America I don't see much of except on St. Patrick's Day

[Mary · Rating 5 out of 5]

Fun to read these tales that are a little different from the usual stories--I guess that is the uniquely Irish flavor!

[Svetlana Zwetkof · Rating 3 out of 5]

Some of these are funny and some are boring. I've had this book since my childhood when I visited Ireland, so there is a certain joy in having actually read them.

[Katie Smith · Rating 3 out of 5]

interesting…

[Maureen13 · Rating 2 out of 5]

I only found a couple of them amusing, but most are absolutely bonkers, redundant, lacking logic, and confusing to understand.

[Icha]

Perlu ngulang beberapa bagian buat paham kalimatnya :D

[Dharia Scarab · Rating 3 out of 5]

My love of reading started when i was young, and it gives me immense pleasure to provide books to Spread the Word Nevada, an organization that passes them on to children in the community. They are a terrific organization supporting an important cause. If your local I encourage you to check them out. For those living further a field, look in your own community, their may already be a similar program in place. And if not, you can always help start one.

http://spreadthewordnevada.org/

Myself, I go out on the weekends and
shop thrift store and bulk book lots to rescue books and donate them. Sometimes I'll find a book I remember reading when I was young and will read it again before passing it on.

I don't rate these books using my normal scale, instead I give most of them three stars. This isn't a Criticism of the book, simply my way of rating them as good for children.

[Blue · Rating 1 out of 5]

With the stories themselves I was unimpressed. They were tales I have read or heard from multiple cultures with the expected level of changes. I had been hoping for tales uniquely Irish, such as ones involving Selkies but the only magical being in the whole book was a single leprechaun.

I probably missed something by not reading these aloud but some were so repetitive that I just skimmed and flipped until I found the next part that wasn't word-for-word the same. Beyond that, for the one with the girls I blew through the 2nd daughter's escapade and knew the third's version before finishing the first's.

This was written for childen, given how it was published, but there were esoteric or anachronistic words that were not explained that as an adult that studies odd words for enjoyment did not know.

[Phillip · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories were somewhat interesting, some more than others. One stylistic problem was that many of the stories were repetitive, so you could just skim much of the text because the same phrasing was used over and over (this was especially bad in "The Old Hag's Long Leather Bag," but also in "The Bee, the Harp, the Mouse, and the Bum-Clock").

What I liked about these stories is that they demonstrate a preference for cleverness over strength. There are no Herculean feats of might in these stories, but the protagonists use their wits to escape poverty or oppression.

[WSL Library]

x3

[Bekah · Rating 4 out of 5]

Cute little book of fairy tales that were easy and fun to read.

[Firefly_1824 · Rating 2 out of 5]

These stories are too repetitive for me.