A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales

by Various

A Treasury of Irish Fairy and Folk Tales collect more than 200 stories from the rich folk legacy of the Emerald Isle. Its pages are animated with colorful tales of the fairy folk in all their many guises: the changeling, the banshee, the headless dullahan, the leprechaun, the merrow, and the ever-mischievous pooka. In addition, this volume includes tales of ghosts, witches and fairy doctors, priests and saints, encounters with the devil, titans of Ireland's historical past, as well as popular treasure legends.
Contents:
The trooping fairies. The cave fairies --
Popular notions considering the Sidhe race --
Changelings --
The solitary fairies. The lepracaun, the cluricaun, and the Far Darrig --
The pooka --
The banshee and the dullahan --
Ghosts --
Witches and fairy doctors --
T'yeer-na-n-oge --
Priests and saints --
The devil --
Giants --
Rocks and stones --
Treasure legends --
Legends of the western islands --
Kings, queens, princesses, earls, and robbers

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

748 pages, Leather Bound

First published January 11, 2016

About the author

Various is the correct author for any book with multiple unknown authors, and is acceptable for books with multiple known authors, especially if not all are known or the list is very long (over 50).

If an editor is known, however, Various is not necessary. List the name of the editor as the primary author (with role "editor"). Contributing authors' names follow it.

Note: WorldCat is an excellent resource for finding author information and contents of anthologies.

Reviews

[Virginia Ronan ♥ Herondale ♥]

Thank you soo much Santa!!! <33
I love everything that's Irish and has to do with fairies!!!
Best gift ever!!! XD

Now I'd only need a glass of Bushmills 16 Three Wood Single Malt Whiskey and I'd be perfectly content and fine. *LOL*

[Ruth Dahl · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a seven hundred page book of Irish Fairy & Folk tales.

After having read this I offer these few pieces of advice: Don't gate-crash faerie parties, don't go walking home alone at night in the dark when drunk (or ever), communicate with your spouse on supernatural happenings, don't ever share your butter with the neighbours, and if you're a priest who's gone apostate, your only hope for salvation is to have a small child stab you to death with a butter knife (really).

Also, under no circumstances should you willingly go into a haunted building, Just don't do it.


Read more here: https://ruthdahl.blogspot.com/2017/10...

[Sarah · Rating 3 out of 5]

FINALLY finished this big boy 😭😭😭😭 my head hurts but a truly beautiful collection

[Κεσκίνης Χρήστος · Rating 5 out of 5]

Τι υπερεπος ειναι αυτο; Ιστοριες απο την Ιρλανδία και για την Ιρλανδία. Με πολύ καλό σκληροδετο εξώφυλλο και γενικά υπέροχο layout. Σε κανει να θες να πας στην Ιρλανδία. Φύγαμε...

[Lauren · Rating 4 out of 5]

If someone had given me several of these stories out of context, I would have labeled them as offensive stereotypes about the Irish. Mostly because a lot of the tales revolve around blaming drunken stupors on fairies and other magical creatures.

Apparently these tales are, however, actual folk tales told in Ireland. Some are even transcribed in the actual dialect, which is a bit like trying to read Chaucer in old English.

Having read both the Grimm Brothers and Hans Christian Anderson, I was interested to see how this collection of Irish tales compared, given the difference in geography. It was a decidedly mixed bag. Some of the tales in this collection have their own motifs and draw from a totally different cultural language than Grimm and Anderson. But some, however, are remarkably similar versions of tales seen in either Grim, Anderson, or both.

I would still label Grimm as my favorite of the three, but this one is worth a read. Recommended.

[Rikke · Rating 3 out of 5]

Ogres and giants, princesses and witches, fairies and ghosts and far-off realms of unearthly beauty.

This anthology certainly has a lot to offer and dives deep into the traditional Irish folk tales and their mythic creatures.

Of course, it was never intended to be read as I've read it; in one go, only broken by a few pauses for breath. But reading it in the course of a few weeks allowed me to compare and contrast the many tales; to realize that Irish witches apparently has a thing for butter churning and that fairies apparently are very territorial.

In many cases, Irish fairy tales differ greatly from other fairy tale traditions, creating new patterns and enforcing their own characters and arch types. Yet there were tales I almost knew; slighty distorted versions of the Brothers Grimm's tales with their geese princes and rose-red princesses.

[Jan Christophersen · Rating 3 out of 5]

As with all collections of old fairy tales and legends, the quality sometimes fluctuates somewhat. Some stories are very good, while other are quiet awfull. And to boot, some of them are written as spoken with a thick irish accent. Not exactly an easy read those times.
But all in all some fine entertainment.

[Pat Murphy · Rating 5 out of 5]

This is a collection of short stories containing their tales in the country of Ireland put together by Barnes and Noble, bless their hearts. There are about 210 stories including a small number of poems. The content is charming and interesting to read which is to say that I never found myself bogged down trying to finish a story just to get to the next one. The book is 748 pages. The fact that the stories are short meant that one can read them and not worry about setting the book down for a spell and possibly forgetting where you were when you pick it up again. There is an old style feel to it. Generally, there is a kind of humans dealing with their problems and a lesson to be learned or a conflict with a clever solution involved. There is also a good number of fantasies and tales of giants, fairies, elves, trolls and what have you. The stories located in the last chapter named "Kings, Queens, Princesses, Earls, and Robbers" was probably my favorite. In many of the stories the words are structured to have that old world feel to it which can make it more difficult to follow or make sense of it but I fared well through that in the context. I think any reader with a fair ability to read would enjoy this.

[Molly · Rating 3 out of 5]

This treasury of Irish stories has proven to me how resolute the Irish myth is and the importance of stories that lie in the country's history. It's an enjoyable collection teaching you about the Irish culture and faiths, even if it splits up the different variety of tales into chunks that can grow a bit repetitive.

There are also some stories that may have benefitted from the oral tradition, rather than being written down, which is the nature of all Fairy and Folk Tales. The writing is also a bit too standard to really stick out.

It's still an enjoyable book, great for those who want to delve into old, Irish culture.

[S. Nemo · Rating 4 out of 5]

It took me about 2 years to read this. As a nonnative speaker at times it’s a bit hard to understand, especially when it comes to Irish terms and dialects. But I loved the stories and richness of the tales.
A great book for research ^^

[Jarrett McDonald · Rating 3 out of 5]

Not the greatest book I read but it was short and easy to read it's a good read if you're in a reading slump

[Mary Stenvall · Rating 3 out of 5]

This one was more folk than fairy.

[eilatan eega · Rating 5 out of 5]

LOVEEEEEE this book. I am a big fan of Irish stories and a big fae nerd. These stories were traditional and decently not afraid to mention how naughty fairies can be. I enjoy how it is a long collection of short stories. One I will never forget is how the man built a house on a land, ingnoring that people said it belonged to the fairies, and for that the fairies killed his son. Very gruesome some stories, but many Irish tales are like that.

[Lex · Rating 3 out of 5]

The stories themselves were ok. My only issue was with the editing. There were a lot of grammatical typos and at one point a character was referred to as "]ack" for a few lines. Also, at least four stories were repeated.

[Mark Slauter · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some really good reading here. It's a bit difficult if you want to plow through it. This is the type of book you pick up and read a few stories at a time.

[Bill · Rating 5 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this book. It gives a wonderful sense of the imagination of the Irish. I look forward to reading it again in the future.

[Michelle Spencer · Rating 3 out of 5]

I took my time to savor my journey through this book over the past six months. I loved my daily dive into my favorite folklore on the planet - I can't get enough of it, especially when interwoven with snippets of the Irish language and wrapped up in the beautiful leatherbound, gilt-edged trappings Barnes & Noble put on this collection. I know stories like these are passed down orally from generation to generation, and they honestly read like that. That could make it fun and easy to imagine some wonderful Irish storyteller sitting down across from me and telling them to me firsthand.

However, some oral storytellers have a tendency to wander down many a rabbit trail before spitting out the story itself. And a good portion of these did that. Which is likely how real Irish storytellers speak. But, written form made it way easier for my mind to wander and forget what the initial story was about.

I still thoroughly enjoyed my time with this book and will definitely make my way through my favorites again in the future.

[Arkrayder · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a good volume with plenty of Irish folklore and legends to delve into. The only problems I had with it were the number of typos present. This could have been easily solved by just proof reading the text before publishing. I know the stories are old but this doesn’t mean that they don’t deserve some form of respect and any typos corrected. Also at least two stories were repeated. On a lesser note I don’t like the “Irish” accent being depicted through the text. Just write it in normal English words. Having to work out what is trying to be related in my opinion detracts from the story. This is not the vault of Barnes and Noble, it’s was really the decision of the author to write the narrative in this way. Being from Ireland I found the stereotypical dialect was annoying. All in all it’s a good book and a good entry to Irish folklore.

[Paul Groos · Rating 4 out of 5]

Some chapters were better than others and especially the final few chapters had the worst stories. But the first half of the book (and quite a bit more) was great. Very, very Irish. Lots of whiskey, mischievous elves and a host of other creatures. Some stories were written down in a phonetically spelled dialect. They were a bit hard to read, except when read aloud.
The production values of this book are great: a luxurious green-gold binding, gilt edged pages. Too bad there are quite a few slip-ups in the text: clear errors in spelling, especially. But these are minor gripes. All in all a great book with many a story to tell by the fireside.

[Sylvie · Rating 4 out of 5]

A lovely collection of (mostly) short stories. Not something to read in one or two sittings but rather to enjoy a few tales a day. The stories written phonetically were hilarious to me as a non-native English speaker and even more entertaining to my family since I mostly read those out loud. The collection felt a bit like a fairytale-storybook and as someone interested in other cultures and how stories develop I've generally had a blast. From a literary point of view I was a bit annoyed by the similarities of certain stories (which again is in itself an interesting phenomenon as these stories appearently came from different sources) and two of those were literally repeated word for word.

[Melissa · Rating 4 out of 5]

PopSugar Challenge 2020: "An anthology."

This collection of stories was not a fast read - I had to stop sometimes and process what I had read, as well as "get through" the writing style. Many of the stories were written in a near-phonetic spelling from the storyteller's perspective.

These stories are worth a read, at least once, and I would recommend many of them to parents for their children. There were a few stories that were repeated (in different sections) but I was surprised to find how many I recognized from the fairy tale books I had read as a child, such as "The Twelve Geese."

[Alexis · Rating 3 out of 5]

I feel like I've been reading this for ages, but for the most part, it's been nice. Some of the stories get a bit repetitive after a while, particularly the ones with faeries. It's fun to read about different figures like witches, banshees, and leprechauns and see how they've been interpreted over time. I probably enjoyed the section on the devil the most, but there were good stories throughout. I'm relieved to be done with it.

[Avalon Roselin · Rating 4 out of 5]

A fine collection of stories and poems in a beautifully bound copy. My one complaint, which is major enough to knock the rating to 3.5 stars, is that many of the stories are written in a way that isn't very accessible to younger readers. I would love any recommendations anyone could offer me on Irish Folk Tale collections that are written in a way children can also enjoy!

[Kieran Huck · Rating 4 out of 5]

This is an entertaining and well curated collection, but the editing leaves a little to be desired. Whatever technology was used to scan the original stories sometimes misread them and created small errors such as replacing L with [ or I with 1. This does not affect the readability, but is a little annoying, and could have easily been caught with a closer proof-read.

[Ryan Beuttel · Rating 5 out of 5]

It’s an essential piece for anyone looking to immerse themselves in Irish culture, or for anyone who adores stories of fairies and elves. It’s a literal treasure trove of insight into Irish culture and values.

[Tanja · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really great and interesting book which gives a nice insight into Irish culture.
However the book really didn't need to be as long as it is, because a few times a story was featured twice, like for example Rent-Day.

[Echo · Rating 3 out of 5]

S0-so collection. Not going to lie, I mainly bought this because it was a pretty book.

[Charly Troff (JustaReadingMama) · Rating 4 out of 5]

This was a great collection of stories, I learned a lot and thoroughly enjoyed myself in the process!

[Katie (BooksRUs) · Rating 4 out of 5]

it was neat to read a bunch of different fairy tales. I marked it down a star because there were some repeat stories and multiple grammatical errors.

[Isaiah Le Istya · Rating 5 out of 5]

There is so much variety, passion and lore in this collection that I could scarce but fall in love with it.