Beside the fire

by Douglas Hyde

BESIDE THE FIRE

A COLLECTION OF

IRISH GAELIC FOLK STORIES.

EDITED, TRANSLATED, AND ANNOTATED

 

BY

 

DOUGLAS HYDE, LL.D., M.R.I.A.,

(ANCHRAOIBHÍN AOIBHINN.)

MEMBER OF THE COUNCIL OF THE GAELIC UNION; MEMBER OF THE PAN-CELTIC SOCIETY, ETC.

WITH ADDITIONAL NOTES

BY

ALFRED NUTT.

Tá siad mar ċeó air dteaċt na h-oidċe
Ḃeirṫear as le gal beag gaoiṫe.—Sean Dan.

 

"They are like a mist on the coming of night
That is scattered away by a light breath of wind."—Old Poem.

 

LONDON:
DAVID NUTT, 270, 271 STRAND.
1890.

PRINTED AT

THE FREEMANS JOURNAL, LIMITED

PRINTING & BOOKBINDING WORKS

DUBLIN

DEDICATION.

To the memory of those truly cultured and unselfish men, the poet-scribes and hedge-schoolmasters of the last century and the beginning of this—men who may well be called the last of the Milesians—I dedicate this effort to preserve even a scrap of that native lore which in their day they loved so passionately, and for the preservation of which they worked so nobly, but in vain

CONTENTS.

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Preface: Previous collections of Irish folk-lore; ignorance of the language on the part of collectors. Relation between Irish and Scotch Gaelic tales; the Irish bardic tales; the runs in Irish and Scotch. Date of Irish versions. Two classes of Irish stories; native myths. Narrators of the stories. Discouragement of Irish by schoolmasters, clergy, and politicians. Proper mode of collecting. System of translation accepted. Page, ix-l.
Postscript (by Alfred Nutt): Dr. Hyde's theories discussed; folk-lore and romance; necessity for romance to conform to convention; characteristics of folk-fancy; classification of the products of folk-fancy; myth, saga, Märchen and ballad; romance and folk-lore among the Gael; folk-conception of the Universe Page, li-lviii.
Tales.
I.	The Tailor and the Three Beasts	2-14
II.	Bran	14-18
III.	The King of Ireland's Son	18-46
IV.	The Alp-Luachra	46-72
V.	Paudyeen O'Kelly and the Weasel	72-90
VI.	Leeam O'Rooney's Burial	90-103
VII.	Guleesh na Guss Dhu	104-128
VIII.	The Well of D'Yerree-in-Dowan	129-141
IX.	The Court of Crinnawn	142-148
X.	Neil O'Carree	148-153
XI.	Trunk-without-Head	154-161
XII.	The Hags of the Long Teeth	161-166
XIII.	William of the Tree	167-169
XIV.	The Old Crow and the Young Crow	169
XV.	Riddles	170-172
Where the Stories came from		173-174
Notes		175-195
Notes on the Irish Text		197-200
Index of Incidents		201-203