Irish Fairy Tales

by Jeremiah Curtin

The eternal cycles of birth and death; pleasure and pain; love and loss and reality and fantasy have always been at the heart of Irish mythology. Here fairies and demons walk hand in hand with mortals and anything anything can happen. These tales are sometimes frightening, usually insightful, and always entertaining. But one does not have to be Irish to appreciate these marvelous stories, for as the great Irish poet, W.B. Yeats wrote, "everyone is a visionary if you scratch him deep enough."

John Connors and the fairies --
Fitzgerald and Daniel Donoghue --
Fairies of Rahonain and Elizabeth Shea --
The knights of Kerry --
Rahonain castle --
The cattle jobber of Awnascawil --
The midwife of Listowel --
Daniel Crowley and the ghosts --
Tom Daly and the nut-eating ghost --
Tom Connors and the dead girl --
The farmer of Tralee and the fairy cows --
The two gamblers and the fairies --
The girl and the robber --
Maurice Griffin and the fairy doctor --
The three sisters and their husbands' three brothers --
John Shea and the treasure --
St. Martin's eve --
James Murray and saint martin --
Fairy cows --
John Reardon and the sister ghosts --
Maggie Doyle and the dead man --
Pat Doyle and the ghost --
The ghost of Sneem --
The dead mother --
Tim Sheehy sent back to this world to prove his innocence --
Tom Moore and the seal woman --
The four-leafed shamrock --
John Cokeley and the fairy --
Tom Foley's ghost --
The blood-drawing ghost --
Murderous ghosts

Genres: Folklore, Nonfiction, Ireland, Mythology, Fairy Tales, Irish Literature, Classics

198 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1895

Reviews

[Clarry · Rating 1 out of 5]

I was going to be nice and give this book 3 stars for interesting research and from-the-source great stories, however the writing was more or less awful and discombobulated, and then the author stated definitively that in his expert opinion only men can tell stories well and women naturally suck at it. You know, cause biology. Soooooo he gets a 1 for being sexist.

[Michael Astfalk · Rating 4 out of 5]

Around the turn of the century in the late 1800's there was a great fear that the industrial revolution would would stamp out the folklore of Europe, particularly in rural Ireland, a fear not unfounded. I will however leave any debates as to the current state of Irish folklore to people who are more qualified and learned than I am, although I find it hard to contest that developments in urbanization and technology have not greatly diminished much of the traditional folklore of Ireland and other European nations. Jeremiah Curtin is one such folklorist during this era who was commissioned to collect folklore from various peoples and nations. Looking through some biographies and his works, it looks like Curtain was most involved in Native American and Russian folklore, in fact he became so involved in Russian government and culture that Teddy Roosevelt sent him to help negotiations between Russia and Japan at the end of the Russo-Japanese War. During his life however, Curtain took multiple trips to Ireland and compiled the folklore that he found there. I very much enjoyed this book; it is a great introductory source to Irish fairy tales and covers many of the important themes and tropes, such as the mischief of fairies, humans being taken/replaced by fairies, the relationship of fairy folklore with religion, etc. Curtin's work in Irish folklore would later even influence W.B. Yeats, so I suppose it has Yeats' stamp of approval too. I have seen others complaining that this was a slog to get through, however I personally found it fairly easy to read although this is not my first folklore book so I may just be a little more acclimated to it.

Skimming through some of the other comments, I feel a bit compelled to come to Jeremiah Curtain's defense. First, the top comment for this book gives one star because they claim Curtin is sexist. Now, I obviously have not met Jeremiah Curtin, being that he has been in the grave for over 100 years now, and I am by no means an expert on him or anything, but I would argue vehemently against disregarding Curtin's work over this.

The quote in question comes on page 144. "It is supposed by many persons that women are the chief depositories of tales touching fairies and other extra-human characters, but they are not. It is a rare thing to find a woman in possession of wonderful tales of the best quality. During researches extending over a number of years, I have found among Indians in the United States only one woman who could be classed the very best tale-tellers. In Ireland I have found few women who can tell tales at all, and none who can compare with the best men. I believe this is so in all countries" (Curtin, 144). Curtin is referring to a common theory in folklore studies that women carry the folklore of a society due to traditional roles of educating and bringing up children. In many ways this probably still holds true today, as mothers are often seen as being more likely to put their children to bed and read/tell them stories. Curtin is saying that in his experience, women have generally not told stories as well as men, not that women are inferior in any way. This would probably be akin to the whole "are women funny" debate that people toss around from time to time. Now I certainly hope that this did not create any bias in Curtin's collection as it would be a terrible loss to not collect stories from these women, however I do not know what he actually did. Curtin's wife was very involved and supportive throughout his life and career, and I find it a bit difficult to believe he was really that discriminatory or against women, although it is possible and I have no proof one way or another.

Now I would like to deposit a theory on why he makes that observation. Regarding folklore collection, it is important to keep the context of collection in mind. This is a picture of Jeremiah Curtin:
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Now imagine that you are a woman at a bar or walking down the street minding your own business, and then all of a sudden this guy comes up to you talking in a foreign accent asking you personal questions and asking you to tell him personal stories you heard growing up. I would think that one might be a little apprehensive telling this stuff to a strange foreigner, possibly impacting if they tell a story and the quality of the story they tell.

Second, a lot of reviews claim that the book is repetitive. This book is about folklore collection first and entertainment second. It is not really meant to be a children's story book, but rather a record and study of Irish stories. Yes, a lot of stories contain similar themes, tropes, and plot points. That is the point. This is what Curtin heard, and it is what he wrote down. It shows how stories change and develop over time and place and it indicates important values and beliefs to a culture.

Anyway, that's my two cents on the book. I have no qualifications, degrees, or certifications I'm just an enthusiast.

[Elyse · Rating 2 out of 5]

I had this book in my Amazon Wishlist for YEARS. Over 10. I did a little splurge at the end of 2022 and bought the 5 cheapest physical books on my Wishlist. This was one of them at $6.95. It's only 128 pages and I did not know it was originally written in like 1895. So it's old. It's dull. It's boring. A lot duller than I thought it would be. They were not the fairy stories I was looking for!

[Beth Bacon · Rating 4 out of 5]

Not at all what I expected. This is not fairy tales of the nature of the Brothers Grimm. Rather, these are ghost stories and recounts of interactions with fairies, gathered by an ethnographer in 19th century Ireland. Fascinating to read, but written in a manner very different than you would expect in modern stories.

[Christine · Rating 3 out of 5]

Way back during the Great Depression, there was the New Deal. Part of the deal provided work for writers. Read any collection of ghost lore such as the work by L.B. Taylor Jr., and most of the stories, at least in American collections, are the result of writers going out and collection oral traditions and stories as part of the work program.

It's cool when you think about it.

This collection seems tried into that idea. Curtin interviewed/listened to several Irish man and at least one woman and colelcted thier stories. Curtin doesn't seem to have captured the speech patterns very well, and some of the tales are repeative.

However, St. Martin's Eve is a wonderful tale for any girl to read. Curtian also makes connects between Irish tales and other the tales of other countries.

[Becky · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was super interesting!
It was published in 1895, I believe, and this guy went around Ireland collecting what was at the time current stories of people who had dealings with fairies and ghosts. Some of the stories were told by the people who had actually seen them, and others said things like, "I knew this guy really well before he died of a fairy stroke, and this is what happened..."

I enjoyed the conversational style, and the stories were excellent. However, Curtin makes generalizations about both Ireland and women that I could do without.

I'd really like to own this one someday.

[Angel]

It's probably way cooler to get these storys told in person, than reading them. Because to be quite honest this was very repetetive. Especially for being so short. And that makes sense, because folklore often is very similar, but yeah idk. I just hoped for more i guess

[Deirdre · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book takes you out of your stress and into the magic of the world. I liked that many of these stories came from the same region of Ireland my grandfather grew up. I felt very connected to the stories and super intrigued. Excellent:)

[Judine Brey · Rating 3 out of 5]

While some of the stories were clever and intriguing, the structure left something to be desired. I would have liked the compiler's comments to be clarified somehow.

[J · Rating 2 out of 5]

Reading this truly was a slog. Had to take breaks many times.

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was the first book of its' kind that I have read. It wasn't too bad, a little hard to really get into. Planning on keeping it to look more into some of the folklore.

[Amanda Lea · Rating 3 out of 5]

Irish folktales are some of the strangest regional tales I've encountered due to the cross-contamination of Catholic and traditional pagan beliefs, and this collection is no exception. The quality of these tales varies as Jeremiah Curtain took an anthropological approach and recorded the tales as they were told to him. This collection is an interesting source for self-explained ghost stories and examples of more modern tales preserved by oral tradition. Casual readers may find this book to be a bit disorganized and difficult to read, but it's a decent source for research purposes.

[Sandy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I registered a book at BookCrossing.com!
http://www.BookCrossing.com/journal/14418191

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

Curtain makes some blanket statements about the Irish culture that come across as a little condescending, but I got the distinct impression that he was genuinely interested in Irish folklore and had some measure of respect for the people he was interviewing, which is more than many researchers of the time did.
I enjoyed the oral-tradition storytelling, but the rambling structure did make some of them difficult to follow. I also wish Curtin's occasional analytical digressions had been better organized and more in-depth.

[Judine · Rating 3 out of 5]

The set up of this book was interesting, as it was a myth collector from the early 20th century, and I enjoyed how he established the stories and compared them to tales from other cultures. That said, he outside commentary on the tales occasionally blended in with the stories, so that it was hard to distinguish between them. This would be a good resource for storytelling because the characters have lots of room for expansion, and many of the tales are quite interesting.

[Dragon · Rating 2 out of 5]

Many of the classic tales, but difficult to read. May have been my inexperience with the culture, but often found myself having to reread pages to keep up with so much of the specifics.

Didn't finish the book.

[Hannah · Rating 3 out of 5]

Phew, took forever to read this book. It's super interesting but kind of dry since it's mostly recounting tales told by elderly folks in Ireland. Wow actually I'm seeing that it took me over a year to actually finish! Good grief.

[Stony · Rating 1 out of 5]

Blah Blah Blah, with a shot of Rye. I would only recommend this book to if and only if it was the only book on the bookshelf.

[Kayleen · Rating 2 out of 5]

I couldn't get into them, and for the life of my I can't remember much of them. A lot of them were very similar, and rather dull.

Not a keeper.

[Mj · Rating 3 out of 5]

Like most of the Irish Fairy Tales, it's a hard read, but interesting. Some new tales I didn't recognize

[Cindy · Rating 3 out of 5]

Hard to read and very strange.

[Naomi · Rating 1 out of 5]

I mean he could have written a conclusion or like anything meaningful or not been sexist. I know it’s from 1895 or whatever but...