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Beside the fire

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Beside the Fire (1890)
by Douglas Hyde
3042516Beside the Fire1890Douglas 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.


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


This work is in the public domain in the United States because it was published before January 1, 1929.


The longest-living author of this work died in 1949, so this work is in the public domain in countries and areas where the copyright term is the author's life plus 74 years or less. This work may be in the public domain in countries and areas with longer native copyright terms that apply the rule of the shorter term to foreign works.

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