Celtic Fairy Tales

by Joseph (selected and Edited by) Jacobs

The fourth and final volume of Fairy Tales from the British Isles, collected by leading folklorist Joseph Jacobs. The original "Celtic Fairy Tales" collected 26 tales; this continuation of the work is numbered 27 - 46. Embodying the wonderful humor and heroism of Celtic folklore, this collection contains medieval hero tales such as the "Children of Lir", comic tales about "Paddy O'Kelly and the Weasel" and stories of Morraha, Elidore, the Black Horse and others. Originally published in 1894, the stories are lavishly illustrated by the pen-and-ink drawings of John D. Batten.

Genres: Mythology, Fantasy, Fairy Tales, Fiction, Short Stories, Classics, Folklore

234 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 1893

Reviews

[Steven Walle · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a great collection of Celtic folk and fairy tales. I recommend this book to all. The mastery of story telling of the Celsis shown beautifully in this volume. You can find it on the web at librivox or on youtube. You can also perchace it on Kindle.
Enjoy and Be Blessed.
Diamond

[Mary Catelli · Rating 4 out of 5]

After English fairy tales, Joseph Jacobs turned to Celtic ones, in this and More Celtic Fairy Tales:. Irish, Scottish, Welsh, Manx. . . though he complained that some areas were less gathered than others. And his first resolution to use only those form peasants who spoke no English did not last because he wanted more variety.

Some are legends, such as the story of Deidre or that of Powel and Rhiannon, and some are cumulative tales, like "Munachar and Manachar", and some are just fairy lore like "Brewery of Eggshells" or "Elidore."

Others are recognizable fairy tales, though you won't find here any of the most poupular tales. Though you will find variants, such as "Fair, Brown, and Trembling", where, even though Trembling is persecuted by her own sisters and goes to church, not the ball, and her story continues even after she has a baby, she is still a Cinderella variant. Or "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree" which is a Snow White tale even if the queen questions a salmon, not a mirror, and instead of a huntsman letting her go in the woods, her father marries her off secretly to a foreign prince, who, indeed, is not the one who rescues her from her sleep. Some go much farther afield. Indeed, "Smallhead and the King's Sons" put together tale types I had never seen before.

I particularly like "The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener."

[George Ilsley · Rating 4 out of 5]

Didn't realize until I was halfway through this volume that it was actually "Celtic Fairy Tales" and "More Celtic Fairy Tales". I wondered reading the first half why I could not find the relevant footnotes (they were in the middle of the book, I was looking at the end). Each section is numbered separately, and I was oddly discouraged to go from page 277 back to starting all over at page 1.

I did enjoy the first half more; by the time I got to MORE stories, I was a little overwhelmed and some of those stories had a confusing narrative.

However, a confusing narrative is part of the enduring charm of these enchanted tales, and by the time I finished the whole thing I was won over again.

It was interesting to read the footnotes, to see where the stories came from, where they might have originated, and how the editors had "adapted" them for modern sensibilities.

[Johnny · Rating 3 out of 5]

In the United States, classic fairy tales have been bowdlerized. The dark symbols of ogres, giants, witches, and curses of the Brothers Grimm have been transformed into two-dimensional versions of themselves with curses often being more pranks than devastating supernatural spells and witches becoming more like stepmothers than old crones. Children are no longer eaten and killed with regularity as in the didactic tales of the ancient world where disobedient children quickly met their ends.
Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales is one of those bargain Dover paperbacks that one often finds in outlet stores. Although the provenance is Celtic, in general, the names seem to be tied to the Welsh backgrounds. So, one finds the “Tale of Ivan” instead of “Ian” and “The Llanfabon Changeling” rather than an encounter with faerie on the Emerald Isle or in the land of kilts and bagpipes. To be sure, there is a wicked stepmother who turns four children into swans. A naïve reader expects some hero to transform them back for a happy ending, but such cannot be assumed in a Celtic fairy tale. The aforementioned “Tale of Ivan” contains a brutal murder. The (also) aforementioned “The Llanfabon Changeling” isn’t about delightful leprechauns but about a faerie troop which is bold in stealing children and forcing them into a dark land of shadows rather than the ever-dancing (but still dangerous) realm of Lord Dunsany’s “King of Elfland’s Daughter.”
Favorite Celtic Fairy Tales is a quick read, but it isn’t primarily an anthology of happy endings. Some of the stories do have happy endings, but several of them would never pass the survey at a film’s pre-release screening. U.S. audiences tend to like neat wrap-ups and victorious protagonists. The world of Celtic fairy tales is one where the victories are not guaranteed and, even when they come, they tend to be costly. This is a nice change of pace, but you have to be in the mood for it.

[Luci · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fun fast read; very witty cautionary tales from Eire. Love the illustrations by John D. Batten.

Favorite tale has to be a tie between "Jack and His Master" and "Hudden and Dudden and Donald O'Neary. Wait! "The Story-Teller at Fault" and "A Legend of Knockmany" was hilarious! Oh, I can't choose~~~ They're all pretty good!

The only fault I can see is some tales (very few) have Irish terminology that I'm not familiar with, other than that I totally enjoyed reading this, just wish it was a longer volume!

[Renee · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lots of fun fairytales in this selection by Jacobs

[Asaria · Rating 4 out of 5]

I won't write anything original. Some of the best fairy tales I've ever read. Charming, full of wit and, what's more, well-written.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

I actually read these stories in two different editions. I started with the Collector’s Library edition of Jacobs’ Celtic Fairy Tales before realising that they had cut all Jacob’s original annotations and end-notes. Purely by chance I then I discovered this rather dusty copy hiding in the spare bedroom, spotted that it had all those end-notes and also contained Jacob’s follow-up More Celtic Fairy Tales, and did a bit of a book swap. The Collector’s Library edition is undoubtedly the more attractive book – this one is pretty old, has awkward page numbering that starts over again at 1 halfway through, and that annoying thing where illustrations are followed up by a completely blank page even in the middle of a story – but for me having access to Jacob’s notes on each story was more valuable than how pretty the book was. Sometimes in fact those notes were more interesting, and in several cases rather longer, than the stories they were about – though I didn’t always agree with some of his comments. Probably not something that matters to a lot of readers, but if you’re interested in the provenance of the fairy tales it’s definitely worth checking out whether the edition you pick up contains these end-notes or not.

Now, onto the stories. As with most fairytale collections they’re a very mixed bag. A lot I had heard before, some I hadn’t and many many echoed very similar tales I had heard from other European traditions. Some are magical, some are mundane, some are funy, some are sad, some are preachy, and some are just plain weird. Most I liked, some I didn’t, but almost all of them were interesting in some way or another. One thing I will say though – these Celtic fairy tales are less likely to have happy endings than the ones most of us are used to and more likely to end with a nice bit of polyamory (though Jacobs’ very obviously changes at least one ending to avoid this – which I did not appreciate). Also many of the names are damn near unpronounceable.

And there’s not really that much more to say. Taken out of the historical context of the 19th century fairytale revival and Jacobs’ role in that, it’s just a nice little book of slightly unusual fairytales – and not always told in the most accessible way. What really makes it special, apart from the detailed notes on each tale is the illustrations. John D. Batten’s work is absolutely beautiful, utilising a variety different styles to match the tone of each story – so the tragic episodes taken from Irish mythology are given lovely almost Art-Nouveau plates while the sillier more humourous stories have simple more cartoonish illustrations.


The Story of Deidre


Hudden and Dudden


My copy of this book isn’t a particularly good or quality printing, being just slightly more advanced than a bound photocopy of the two original publications (I hate that the page numbering restarts at 1 when you reach More Celtic Fairy Tales). But I can imagine an edition with the annoying format niggles ironed out and maybe a fancy hardcover, would make an absolutely beautiful addition to any library of fairy tales.

[Amy the book-bat · Rating 4 out of 5]

OK, I started out with the Kindle version of this book and it said it was 146 pages, but if you look at the table of contents page, it had stories listed on page numbers well past that, which would equal the 316 pages. I decided to try listening to the audio version from Librivox while reading along since some of the Gaelic and Welsh words that popped up were difficult. The problem with Librivox, is that you often get multiple different readers and the audio quality varies greatly from reader to reader. That was certainly the case with this recording. There were a few excellent readers with clean recordings, some were ok readers that sounded like they were recording in an echo chamber, and some sounded like English was a second or third language so the reading was difficult for them to do and for me to listen to.
The stories themselves are interesting. A few had similarities to the Grimm's fairy tales that I grew up with. One was very similar to Cinderella, down to the ladies trying on the lost shoe cutting their feet to try to make the shoe fit. I thought that was interesting to find such similarities in stories from different countries. It makes me wonder if the Angles and Saxons maybe brought those stories to the Celtic people? Whatever the case, I liked the stories and that is what I based the stars on. If I would base the stars on the recording quality as well, it would probably be more like a 2.

[Set · Rating 5 out of 5]

Stories of stowaway princesses, sequestered princesses, sea maidens, lupracauns, saints, witches, hexes and spells, fairies and elves, salmons and potatoes; an Irish and Celtic book true and through. I've seen the Irish version of Cinderella (Trembling) but I found Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree which pretty much is a very twisted version of Snow White with elements of Bluebeard. I was also surprised to find an Arthurian legend in this Celtic book. All the fairy tales are very entertaining and enchanting in their own way.

[Lucy · Rating 2 out of 5]

I can understand the importance of fairy tales and it's a Good Thing that they were collected and preserved. That doesn't make them always a Good Read, though. This is a mixed collection - some stories flow well while others are incomprehensibly complex. This maybe reflects the late nineteenth century atmosphere in which they were recorded. Time methinks for someone to revisit the original sources and revive these in a less turgid manner.

[Ensor Moriarty · Rating 4 out of 5]

My ranking:

- Hudden and Dudden and Donald O’Neary
- The Story-Teller at Fault
- A Legend of Knockmany
- Fair, Brown, and Trembling
- The Sea-Maiden
- The Battle of the Birds
- The Story of Deidre
- The Field of Boliauns
- Munachar and Manachar
- The Shee An Gannon and the Grugach Gaire
- Beth Gellert
- The Tale of Ivan
- Guleesh
- Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree
- Andrew Coffey
- The Wooing of Olwen
- The Shepherd of Myddvai
- The Lad with the Goat-Skin
- Conall Yellowclaw
- The Sprightly Tailor
- Jack and His Comrades
- The Horned Women
- King O’Toole and His Goose
- Brewery of Eggshells
- Jack and His Master
- Connla and the Fairy Maiden

[Michael · Rating 4 out of 5]

I simply love reading these old collections of "fairy tales," especially Celtic ones. About the time of this publication (1892) there was a most interesting effort by many literary authorities to collect original fairy tales handed down by word of mouth in the British Isles, especially in the rural areas and in the original Irish, Gaedlig or Welsh, before they were entirely lost. How I am grateful to them!

Jacobs Celtic Fairy Tales (1892) is one of those delightful collections which attempt to retain at least some of the original authenticity of the Irish peasantry who handed down the tradition for so many generations. Especially endearing are the awesome and delightful illustrations by David Battes, whose meticulous style seems to have been completely lost to today's generation of book illustrators.

A highly recommended addition to anyone's collection of fairy tales.

[Kevin · Rating 3 out of 5]

These stories are bananas! Unlike other collections of fairy tales which rely on morals these stories often rely on cunning and wit. I found there to be a real sense of humor throughout. A sly wink and nod around every corner. It made me reflect on my Irish family, our familial sense of humor, and the way we use humor to process events/tell stories. I did not love the treatment women. Their roles were only in support of mens stories and were given no real agency. Especially princesses. They hand out princesses like they're part of a swag bag. "Don't forget to pick up your princess on the way out". When not subjugating women I found the whole thing very entertaining.

[Tabitha · Rating 3 out of 5]

So this is a strange complaint BUT
While I liked the stories chosen for the collection, there was something off-putting about the way the book was set up. this edition has a strange page format and font that hurt to read a bit.
That silly complaint aside, it was a well-chosen set of tales and I was really thrilled with the content (if not the look) of the book.

---edit
Ok. I'm a doofus. After noticing the original publish date was in the 1800s I think I know why the format seemed off. Oops

[Carina · Rating 3 out of 5]

I must have got this book about 12 years ago from a friend - she had been given it as a gift but was not a fan of fairy tales - I was and so this book came to me.

There are perhaps 8 stories in here that I really enjoy, a few others that are enjoyable the rest.. not really a fan of. Overall though this is an enjoyable read even if it is perhaps a bit of a slog to read in one massive go.

[Hanna Gilman · Rating 3 out of 5]

Because it's an older collection of stories, it's goin to be difficult to read and parts of it confusing with characters popping up randomly with little explanation and old English slang. Like any other fairy tale of it's time, you can't get away with characters dropping like flies. Still enjoyable though but I recommend taking some time to mull each story before continuing.

[Raphaëlle · Rating 4 out of 5]

I bought this book in English without realizing that the language would be an old kind of English and at some point I was kind of lost but I eventually got used to it. Besides this little problem I loved those tales a lot, I loved the vibes and some tales made me laugh because they were so weird but that's also part of why I enjoyed it !

[Aredhel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I like reading fairy tales, first of all, because my inner child can't live without wonders and miracles and, second of all, because through these tales the essence of different cultures is transferred.

[[ J o ] · Rating 4 out of 5]

[Quick review from memory before I re-read and review at a later date:

Read for research purposes but a really nice collection of Irish myth, and older British folklore. Not an exhaustive collection and not in any particular order, but really nice to discover lost stories.]

[Caroline · Rating 4 out of 5]

I love reading Celtic fairy tales, especially when they are similar to old Norwegian fairy tales I heard and read when I was a child - which some of the stories in this book were.
I really recommend this!

[Lorena · Rating 2 out of 5]

I didn't find them as charming as the prologue said they'd be, actually some were boring.
It called my attention that some seem very similar to Greek mythology.

[Cyndi · Rating 5 out of 5]

Nice collection of mostly Irish fairy tales.

[Tom Bruhn · Rating 3 out of 5]

Listened to this on librivox. The quality of the readers made this painful.

[Adam Carnehl · Rating 3 out of 5]

This classic collection of Celtic faerie tales by Joseph Jacobs is enjoyable, yet fairly uneven. I think what stands out is the great variety and antiquity of many of these tales. Some are so old and have so many parallels in the Indian or African folk imagination, that only the roughest estimate can be given on how they came to Celtic lands or what the tales originally meant. The most ancient of Celtic tales in this collection have fascinating origins, and yet many of them as they exist (or rather, existed during Victorian times) are puzzling and even disjointed. However, they are still incredibly bizarre, surprising, and worth reading.

Some reviewers will point out the "shocking" or "terrible" violence in such faerie tales, rendering them, according to such critics, as unfit for children or, indeed, any modern reader. Such reviewers don't understand the point of these tales, which were told both to entertain and warn. I wouldn't go so far to say that these old Celtic tales have a "didactic" purpose; they certainly don't teach the reader how to perform a task or remember facts. Yet, they almost always have some moral to reveal, even if that's as simple as, "Don't lie," or, "Always be brave." In our topsy-turvy world today, integrity and bravery are becoming rarer, and the very concept of "truth" is one that the world has passed by. Faerie tales, which seek to tell some kind of truth and also to pass on some possibility for magic, are today, in 2018, far away from us with our post-truth opinions and our Godless materialism. Where have the faeries gone? I am sure they are somewhere.

[Rozzy · Rating 5 out of 5]

feels odd to rate a collection of different tales, but from a scholarly standpoint this was lovely! definitely interesting to see how some of the more prominent tale types were interpreted throughout the celtic isles, as well as to distinguish the patterns found in celtic fairy tales that differ from other european traditions, as well as other regions’ fairy tale traditions generally. i found it equally intriguing that the celtic tales tended to lean more on the folk tale side than fairy tale side, albeit there is much debate in the scholarly community about whether there is enough of a distinction there to be relevant (and then there’s the concept of the “wonder tale” to replace both terms, but this was originally published well before that term developed.) but a lot of these celtic tales mixed together hero figures and fairy tale, added a magical historicism to their tales. a tale type that might be seen repeated throughout the isles and beyond would have a folk hero’s name inserted as one of the main players, which is more of an american folklore thing (to the best of my knowledge- i am still very much so in the first baby steps of my fairy tale scholarship!) like using paul bunyon or johnny appleseed in a tale. the only other european example i can think of (and again, there are probably more that i just haven’t heard of yet) is king arthur and the entire storytelling tradition of camelot, but those stories were also from an different time than the majority of our modernly associated fairy tales.
anyway, so much random info cuz i adore fairy tales!!! this was a good intro for celtic tales and the references and notes section was also appreciated!

[Cevizin_kitaplari · Rating 3 out of 5]

#kitapyorumu #celticfairytales
İçerisinde 25 kelt masalı bulunuyor. Aslında orjinal adı da kelt peri masalları. Periler ve masallar, iki sihirli sözcük benim için. İçimde asla yaşlanmayacak çocuk gerçekten bayılıyor böyle işlere. Ve celtic kültürü gerçekten merak ettiğim bir kültür. Kendimi yakın hissettiğim çok fazla şeye sahip. O yüzden masalları okurken de yabancılık hissetmedim. İçinde komik hikayeler olduğu kadar rahatsız edici hikayeler de mevcut. Maceralı hikayeler ve tatlı karakterler var ve her çocuğun sevebileceğini düşünüyorum. ben çocuğum cevize okudum. Pek ilgilenir gözükmese de kolayca uyudu (çaktırmayın hep uyuyor). Aslında bir baktığımızda masalların nerden geldiği belli olmaksızın birbirine karı��tırıldığını görürüz. Avrupa, asya ve kuzey birbirinin içerisine özellikle popüler kültürde yedirilmiş haldedir. Bu kitap aynı zamanda esas hikayenin nerden kaynaklı olduğunu da görmenize yardımcı oluyor. külkedisi (fair, brown ve trembling hikayesi) ve bremen mızıkacılarının (jack ve arkadaşları) varyasyonlarını görebilirsiniz. jonathan strange ve bay norrell (muhteşemdir) okuduysanız oraya da esin kaynağı olmuş masalları görürsünüz. ivanın hikayesi zalim bir cinayeti işliyor. Kelt efsanelerinden doğan #ırmağıncinleri diye bir kitap okuyup size yorumlamıştım. Oradaki gibi periler tarafından değiştirilen bebekler filan da var. Bilindik masallar gibi mutlu son aramayın. Tabi bazılarında mutlu son illa ki var ancak çoğunluk gerçekçi. Kelt masallarının dünyası, zaferlerin garanti olmadığı ve bedeliyle geldikleri bir dünya.

[Bleda Gençay Sönmez · Rating 5 out of 5]

"Kibirli yapay kıta Avrupa'nın savaşçı uluslarından Keltler'in erteksi yerlerine (dünyalarına) yolculuk edeceksiniz. Grönland'dan İrlanda'ya gelince biraz ısındım çünkü İrlanda bir daha aşağıda kalıyor. Günümüzde beş bağımsız Kelt devleti vardır; Serbest İrlanda, Kuzey İrlanda, İskoçya, Galler ve Man Lordluğu'dur. Ertekilerin bir çoğu İrlanda Adası'ndan derlenmiştir. Maya Kitap yayınevi bu betiğe Kelt Masalları adını verişini takdir ediliyorum. İrlanda halkı Kelt ulusudur.

İskoç adında iki farklı boy vardır. Kelt soylu İskoçlar'ın genlerinde ve kültürlerinde Türk izleri olduğu için savaşçılık Türk kanıyla onlara geçmiştir çünkü İskoç Keltleri'nin içinde hala İskit Türk izleri devam ediyor. 24 erteği bana sevimli mi sevimli leprikon anlattı. İrlanda'nın serin havasını içime çekerken özümü evimden his ettim.

Germen ertekileri olan Külkedisi ve Pamuk Prenses'in Kelt versiyonlarını göreceksiniz. (Gümüş Ağaç ile Altın Ağaç ve Fair, Brown ile Trembling). Ayrıca Fars versiyonu bildiğim Türk erteğinin Kelt versiyonu da (Munachar ile Manachar) bu betikte göreceksiniz. Fars ve Kelt uluslarından bu erteğinin (masalının) olması Türk kültür etkisidir. Keltler'de olmasının nedeni İskit Türkleri sayesindedir. Fars versiyonu da olması Anadolu'da Türkler ve Farslar (Kürtler ve Zazalar) birlikte yaşadığı içindir. Bu başka makul açıklaması olamaz. Okumanızı tavsiye ediyorum."

[Andrew Ives · Rating 3 out of 5]

This collection of 26 Celtic fairy tales originate from Ireland, Scotland, Wales and Cornwall, some of which are 800+ years old. The author has compiled them in English to preserve them for posterity, in case the Gaelic/Welsh/Cornish peasants' languages and stories should be forgotten over time, whilst making them accessible yet retaining odd local or historical words, spellings and turns of phrase. Jacobs' efforts are to be applauded, detailed as they are in the preface and 30 pages of notes and references at the back, where he hopes to achieve something similar to that of the brothers Grimm when they collated European folk tales. Alas, apart from these charming quirks of language and a generally mediaeval ambience to the 26 tales, they are almost entirely unremarkable. Many bear similarities to aspects of Greek mythology, or Cinderella, or to each other, but they are all thankfully fairly short, fairly tiresome and occasionally unpleasant. The book I own consists of Celtic Fairy Tales and More Celtic Fairy Tales, making up a fairly heavyweight 'academic' tome. This was wise of the publishers because having read the former, there was no way I would've bought the latter. Just about 3/5

[Elihú · Rating 3 out of 5]

Cuentos de Hadas Célticos recoge cinco pequeñas historias antiguas de Escocia, Irlanda y Gales que permearon mucha de la tradición popular de dichas islas y que hasta hoy continúa hipnotizando a lectores y atrapando a historiadores de todo el mundo.

Estos cuentos recopilados por Joseph Jacobs a finales del siglo XIX hablan de sirenas, de princesas raptadas por duendes o una de las tantas versiones de la Cenicienta, que nos transportarán a épocas remotas llenas de magia, donde el límite entre lo real y lo féerico es claramente visible.

La edición que tengo es de Olañeta, un mini libro que se lee en un día y cabe en la palma de la mano. Está muy cuidado pues contiene las ilustraciones originales de John D. Batten, así como notas que rastrean el posible origen de cada cuento, así como su evolución a lo largo del tiempo.

Este librito se complementa muy bien con uno que leí el año pasado, Cuentos Celtas, también de Joseph Jacobs de editorial Miraguano y que traduce 21 historias. Sin duda vale la pena conseguir ambos para incrementar el saber de estos relatos antiquísimos que eran contados oralmente a través de los siglos.