A Treasury of Irish Myth, Legend, and Folklore

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A Treasury of
IRISH
MYTH, LEGEND and FOLKLORE
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry Edited and Selected by William Butler Yeats
-and-
Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster
Arranged and Put into English by Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory
With 40 Illustrations
I think this book is the best that has come out of Ireland in my time. Perhaps 1 should say that it is the best book that has ever come out of Ireland, for the stories which it tells are a chief part of Ireland's gift to the imagination of the world—and it tells them perfecdy for the first time.
So wrote William Butler... Tovább

Fülszöveg

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iiiiilli
A Treasury of
IRISH
MYTH, LEGEND and FOLKLORE
Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry Edited and Selected by William Butler Yeats
-and-
Cuchulain of Muirthemne: The Story of the Men of the Red Branch of Ulster
Arranged and Put into English by Lady Isabella Augusta Gregory
With 40 Illustrations
I think this book is the best that has come out of Ireland in my time. Perhaps 1 should say that it is the best book that has ever come out of Ireland, for the stories which it tells are a chief part of Ireland's gift to the imagination of the world—and it tells them perfecdy for the first time.
So wrote William Butler Yeats, in praise of Lady Gregorys Cuchulain of Muirthemne, the second book in this volume But it applies equally well to his own Folk and Fairy Tales of the Irish Peasantry, the opening work. Here are two milestones of classic myth and folklore by the giants of the Irish Renaissance: Yeats's original groundbreaking anthology of tales of the magic creatures of Ireland, and Lady Gregory's beautiful and poetic retelling of the great epic myth of Ireland's national hero, Cuchulain.
Yeats selected the best tales from the work of many expert writers and from his own research, and he also enriched the collection immeasurably with his musical prose, full of wit, sly irony and warmth for the Irish people and their tales. He has grouped these stories of supernatural beings by category—trooping fairies, solitary fairies, changelings, ghosts, witches, fairy doctors, the Devil, and giants— and describes their attributes, habits, and customs in wonderful Introductory passages to each section. Here is Yeats on trooping fairies:
[Continued an back flap]
(Continued from froni flap]
Do not think the fairies are always little. Everything is capricious about them, even their size. They seem to take what size or shape pleases them. Their chief occupations are feasting, fighting, and making love, and playing the most beautiful music. They have only one industrious person amongst them, the lepracaun—the shoemaker Perhaps they wear their shoes out with dancing. Near the village of Ballisodare is a little woman who lived amongst them seven years. When she came home she had no toes—she had danced them off
There is poetry; too, in Lady Gregory's simple but powerful retelling of the Cuchulain legend from the ancient stories of the Ulster cycle of myth. Cuchulain was the chief hero of the House of the Red Branch, a group of warriors similar to the Knights of the Round Table. Like Homers epics, this tale of Cuchulain's life and death has deeds of bravery, battle, love, adventure, and glory. As Yeats says in his preface to this work: "One will be long forgetting Cuchulain, whose life is vehement and full of pleasure, as though he always remembered that it was to be soon over"
The intriguing illustrations in this volume have been selected from numerous sources. They represent richly varying views of the Cuchulain myth and several artists' visions of the spry, elfin, and demonic creatures of Irish imagination Each book includes an appendix of notes, and there is an insightful foreword by Ari Salant.
In short, this anthology should provide long and happy hours of browsing, brooding, and dreaming. To quote the apt Yeats a final time: "Everyone is a visionary if you scratch him deep enough. But the Celt is a visionary without scratching "
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Jacket front illustration by Arthur Rackham, from Goblin Markel.
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