Celtic Fairy Tales | Page 2

English children. I trust I
shall be forgiven by Celtic scholars for the changes I have had to make
to effect this end.
The stories collected in this volume are longer and more detailed than
the English ones I brought together last Christmas. The romantic ones
are certainly more romantic, and the comic ones perhaps more comic,
though there may be room for a difference of opinion on this latter
point. This superiority of the Celtic folk- tales is due as much to the
conditions under which they have been collected, as to any innate
superiority of the folk-imagination. The folk-tale in England is in the
last stages of exhaustion. The Celtic folk-tales have been collected
while the practice of story-telling is still in full vigour, though there are
every signs that its term of life is already numbered. The more the
reason why they should be collected and put on record while there is
yet time. On the whole, the industry of the collectors of Celtic folk-lore
is to be commended, as may be seen from the survey of it I have
prefixed to the Notes and References at the end of the volume. Among
these, I would call attention to the study of the legend of Beth Gellert,
the origin of which, I believe, I have settled.
While I have endeavoured to render the language of the tales simple
and free from bookish artifice, I have not felt at liberty to retell the tales
in the English way. I have not scrupled to retain a Celtic turn of speech,

and here and there a Celtic word, which I have not explained within
brackets--a practice to be abhorred of all good men. A few words
unknown to the reader only add effectiveness and local colour to a
narrative, as Mr. Kipling well knows.
One characteristic of the Celtic folk-lore I have endeavoured to
represent in my selection, because it is nearly unique at the present day
in Europe. Nowhere else is there so large and consistent a body of oral
tradition about the national and mythical heroes as amongst the Gaels.
Only the byline, or hero-songs of Russia, equal in extent the amount of
knowledge about the heroes of the past that still exists among the
Gaelic-speaking peasantry of Scotland and Ireland. And the Irish tales
and ballads have this peculiarity, that some of them have been extant,
and can be traced, for well nigh a thousand years. I have selected as a
specimen of this class the Story of Deirdre, collected among the Scotch
peasantry a few years ago, into which I have been able to insert a
passage taken from an Irish vellum of the twelfth century. I could have
more than filled this volume with similar oral traditions about Finn (the
Fingal of Macpherson's "Ossian"). But the story of Finn, as told by the
Gaelic peasantry of to-day, deserves a volume by itself, while the
adventures of the Ultonian hero, Cuchulain, could easily fill another.
I have endeavoured to include in this volume the best and most typical
stories told by the chief masters of the Celtic folk-tale, Campbell,
Kennedy, Hyde, and Curtin, and to these I have added the best tales
scattered elsewhere. By this means I hope I have put together a volume,
containing both the best, and the best known folk-tales of the Celts. I
have only been enabled to do this by the courtesy of those who owned
the copyright of these stories. Lady Wilde has kindly granted me the
use of her effective version of "The Horned Women;" and I have
specially to thank Messrs. Macmillan for right to use Kennedy's
"Legendary Fictions," and Messrs. Sampson Low & Co., for the use of
Mr. Curtin's Tales.
In making my selection, and in all doubtful points of treatment, I have
had resource to the wide knowledge of my friend Mr. Alfred Nutt in all
branches of Celtic folk-lore. If this volume does anything to represent

to English children the vision and colour, the magic and charm, of the
Celtic folk-imagination, this is due in large measure to the care with
which Mr. Nutt has watched its inception and progress. With him by
my side I could venture into regions where the non-Celt wanders at his
own risk.
Lastly, I have again to rejoice in the co-operation of my friend, Mr. J. D.
Batten, in giving form to the creations of the folk-fancy. He has
endeavoured in his illustrations to retain as much as possible of Celtic
ornamentation; for all details of Celtic archaeology he has authority.
Yet both he and I have striven to give Celtic things as they appear to,
and attract, the English mind, rather than attempt the hopeless task of
representing them as they are to Celts. The fate of the