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.
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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.
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| 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 in 1890, before the cutoff of 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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