Irish Folk And Fairy Tales

by Gordon Jarvie

A collection of retellings of the traditional stories of Ireland.

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

Mass Market Paperback

First published February 2, 1993

Reviews

[Ana · Rating 3 out of 5]

The Fairies – 4,5*
Jamie Freel and the Young Lady - 3*
The Legend of Knockgrafon - 4*
Frank Martin and The Fairies - 3*
A Donegal Fairy - 3*
The Hill-man and the House-wife - 3*
The Fairies’ Revenge – 3*
The Stolen Child – 3,5*
Guleesh – 4*
The Phouka – 3,5*
The Red Man in Donegal – 3*
Daniel O’Rourk – 2,5*
The Lady of Gollerus – 3,5*
Eonín – 4,5*
The Leprehaun – 3*
The Field of Thistles – 4*
The Horned Women – 3*
Bewitched Butter – 3*
The Giant’s Stairs – 3,5*
A Legend of Knockmany – 3,5*
Country-Under-Wave – 3,5*
Edain the Queen – 3,5*
How Cuchulain Got His Name – 2*
The Story of Deirdre – 4*
The Coming of Finn – 3,5*
How Finn Found Bran – 4,5*
How Finn Obtained the Tooth of Knowledge – 4*
The Talking Head of Donn-bo – 3*
Murtough and the Witch Woman – 3*
Fair, Brown, and Trembling – 4*
The Lazy Beaty and her Aunts – 3*
King O’Toole and His Goose – 3*
The Story of the Little Bird – 3,5*
St Brigid’s Cloak – 3*
A Legend of St Brigid – 3*
How The Shannon Acquires Its Name – 3*
Fior Usga – 3*

[Judy · Rating 4 out of 5]

I found this little book on my shelves during the COVID19 pandemic and have read one a night for a bedtime story over the past 37 nights. Loved doing that! The illustrations by Barbara Brown added to the atmosphere. What did I learn? Don't mess with fairies!!

[Mo · Rating 3 out of 5]

I don't think short stories featuring many different people are something for me ... Apparently it takes me a year to finish.

[Prince Sparko Van Basten · Rating 3 out of 5]

Why 3 stars:

Pros:

The stories of mythical creatures and adventures such as Mermaids, Leprechauns, fairies, giants and Finn are really engaging and so fun to read.

Cons:

Too many of the Celtic sagas are very repetitive in both content and style

Some of these short stories are ten pages long but have too many characters in them, you just get lost.

[David Cowpar · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was pretty good. There’s some fun stories and it ends in Cork (with the story about where the Lough came from). But the only thing is, an Irish editor (who can understand the Irish language) would have been a real advantage. That way they wouldn’t have gotten things as simple as the days of the week wrong in the book. That’s a shockingly easy thing to get wrong!

All the Irish is pretty bad really. And they translate Fionn MacCumhaill all the time, it’s a name you don’t need to translate it.

[MrsEnginerd · Rating 3 out of 5]

I bought this book as a souvenir and it was a very hard read because I am used to American English, an are not at all familiar with Irish words and folklore. Since the stories are a compilation from many other authors and sources, they each stand alone and are only interconnected thematically. I've read reviews that point to other books and better representations of folk and fairy tales so unless this is your only opportunity to purchase the content, I suggest doing more research before buying.

[Jonathan · Rating 5 out of 5]

A fantastic compilation of Irish Folk and Fairy tales. It starts strong but tapers off toward the end, as the stories are not as exciting. Even then it is a fun collection of stories, filled with fairies, leprechauns and silkies.

[Kiki van Dijk · Rating 3 out of 5]

De feminist in mij vond dit vreselijk, maar de liefhebber van mythen en sagen vond het uitermate interessant.

[Maria Bergman · Rating 4 out of 5]

It was a very nice book to read, with so many different tales about different spirits and people.

[Kelsey · Rating 3 out of 5]

There's a really interesting variety of stories in this collection, but I prefer to have more scholarly context when I'm reading folk and fairy tales than this book provides.

[Carol · Rating 2 out of 5]

Difficult to follow not being from Ireland

[River Cooke · Rating 3 out of 5]

A funny sort of interjection of fiction into my season of nonfiction, this book does what it says on the tin. It is a series of folk and fairy tales from various periods of Irish oral traditions told as short stories that range from one to a dozen pages.

These stories are somewhat categorised into subject matters, between fae, leprechauns, witches, giants, and so on, with a catch-all assemblage of general mythical tales at the end which serves adequately for the structure of the book (though, as I will get to, I do wish more effort had been put into thoughtfully contextualising them with respect to each other and a more considered chronology of stories would have helped).

The stories themselves are largely familiar to me from childhood, though reproduced with credit to their respective transcribers. The works of Yeats, Lady Wilde and others all appear, and though again I would have been very interested in a reflection on these authors and their converging and diverging ideas on Irish mythology, the stories themselves are often very lovely. I read this book while a little ill and so some evaded my full understanding just as a matter of tiredness, but the prose was more often great than it was bad, and had a very whimsical quality to it (though it did have this quality of spelling Irish words phonetically according to the likely accent rather than as Gaeilge, a decision for which I am uncertain where the blame lies).

My big criticism of this book that ultimately prevents it from being anything more than adequate is its lack of ambition. It reproduces these stories, and does it capably, but does nothing to consider its subject matter, gives nothing in the way of analysis or commentary on them, their relationship with each other, when and how they arose, how they changed, what they represented. It’s nothing except the simple relitigation, which I suppose is within its titular promise, but ultimately left me feeling like I had read a good first section to a much longer and much better book that ultimately never was.

Its scope makes it good but prevents it from being anything more. Would be genuinely interested in reading proper scholarship on this topic, but that is not found here. However, it does what it seeks to do very well, and so there is a degree to which I cannot penalise it for my wish it were something else.

[Nina · Rating 5 out of 5]

I enjoyed reading these stories. There are definitely many more stories, nevertheless, this is a nice selection of very different ones. The book is divided into seven major sections following a major theme each, with chapter seven going back to the oldest stories of Celtic origin. Mind, this is only one collection of stories and there are others, first of all maybe W.B.Yeats’ Irish Fairy Tales and Folklore, but Gordon Jarvie has put together some really interesting stories in his book. So, if you are interested in folklore and fairy tales, this title is definitely worth reading. 5 out of 5 stars.

[Sree · Rating 4 out of 5]

I always love folk and fairy tales. It takes me back to my childhood and traverse through the magical world. And also it gives me special feel when I visit those places after hearing the stories 🤩

So this book contains lots of folks and fairy tales about Ireland. Mostly about giants who are famous and linked to most of their tourist attractions 🤗

Must read if you are a fan of fairy or folk tales 🤗

[Georgia La Monica · Rating 4 out of 5]

I thoroughly enjoyed reading this throughout my time spent in Ireland, as someone who enjoys the more whimsical side to history this book provided me with insight to landmarks and landscapes that I wouldn’t of known about otherwise. My favourite story from this book being Eońin by Mary Patton, and incredibly moving story it was.

[Lindsey Hall · Rating 5 out of 5]

Folktale - no formal review for project but I loved the collection and I feel like it's something I would want to include in my classroom.

[Katie · Rating 4 out of 5]

fairly simple as far as a collection of fairy tales goes, but enjoyable to read nonetheless

[Camilla · Rating 3 out of 5]

3.5

[TheLyon · Rating 3 out of 5]

"we aren't go a-hunting for fear of little men"

some stories were fantastic, magical, whimsical, and taught me new things about irish folklore, others felt repetitive or led nowhere

[Paula Lütolf · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book brought me back to my second home. I took extra long to read it so that I could enjoy it for longer.

[Molly Trammell · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was a good little anthology of Irish stories. My only real critique is that it could have done with a better glossary. Overall a nice read.

[Judi Zimmerman · Rating 4 out of 5]

One momento I wanted from my trip to Ireland last summer was a book written by Irish authors with either poetry or folklore. I found my copy at a bookstore in Dublin on Grafton Street, next to an ice cream shop. I’ve slowly read through the various stories over several months and found that some of them seem quite similar to what we see in Disney movies. Most, however are quite unique and to someone not intimately acquainted with the old lore and language a little hard to grasp at times. There’s a definite morality involved, and a deep underlying connection to the old traditions. In reading them, I find a little more understanding of the old world ways and connections to nature. I enjoyed the way they were separated, usually a short story seems disjointed, but these were grouped in such a way that similar stories were told sequentially.

[Inês · Rating 2 out of 5]

2.5 stars

I bought this book randomly in a bool fair because the cover and title caught my eye, and I had heard nothing about it before.

As the title indicates, it compiles a collection of several tales about Irish folk and mythology. While some tales were entertaining, many also fell a bit flat for me. I struggled with the writing style of many stories, given the more archaic phrase construction, the Irish words and the accent that was mimicked through the writing. The most interesting part of the book, in my opinion, was the Celtic fairytale collection, which took most of the second half of the compilation.

Overall, a bit underwhelming as reading experiences go.

[Marina Schulz · Rating 5 out of 5]

This book has no right to be as charming and lovely as it is.
As the title suggests, it is a collection of traditional Irish Stories, that are thoroughly readable and heartfelt.
I first purchased this book in Dublin, a few years ago, on a trip, as a suggestion from a tourguide in the Leprauchaun Museum. The tour still stands as a huge highlight in my visit, and the tour guide, Annie, was wonderfull. A small museum, it is innocent, sweet and works one's imagination. pure and lovely :)

[Ecskchia · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you are into Irish folklores, this is a book of short stories of these. Enjoyed the stories - some are the frequently told folklores.

Each story has a twist of fate and lessons we can learn from.

A nice book to pick up and read to pass the time.

[Michelle · Rating 3 out of 5]

I really enjoyed the stories in this and I'm glad I bought it. For someone who wasn't introduced to Irish folk tales this is the perfect introductory.