Celtic Fairy Tales | Page 3

the realm of imagination. The present volume attempts to begin the pleasant captivity from the earliest years. If it could succeed in giving a common fund of imaginative wealth to the Celtic and the Saxon children of these isles, it might do more for a true union of hearts than all your politics.
JOSEPH JACOBS.

CONTENTS
I. CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN
II. GULEESH
III. THE FIELD OF BOLIAUNS
IV. THE HORNED WOMEN
V. CONAL YELLOWCLAW
VI. HUDDEN AND DUDDEN AND DONALD O'NEARY
VII. THE SHEPHERD OF MYDDVAI
VIII. THE SPRIGHTLY TAILOR
IX. THE STORY OF DEIRDRE
X. MUNACHAR AND MANACHAR
XI. GOLD-TREE AND SILVER-TREE
XII. KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE
XIII. THE WOOING OF OLWEN
XIV. JACK AND HIS COMRADES
XV. THE SHEE AN GANNON AND THE GRUAGACH GAIRE
XVI. THE STORY-TELLER AT FAULT
XVII. THE SEA-MAIDEN
XVIII. A LEGEND OF KNOCKMANY
XIX. FAIR, BROWN, AND TREMBLING
XX. JACK AND HIS MASTER
XXI. BETH GELLERT
XXII. THE TALE OF IVAN
XXIII. ANDREW COFFEY
XXIV. THE BATTLE OF THE BIRDS
XXV. BREWERY OF EGGSHELLS
XXVI. THE LAD WITH THE GOAT-SKIN
NOTES AND REFERENCES

CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN
Connla of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of the Hundred Fights. One day as he stood by the side of his father on the height of Usna, he saw a maiden clad in strange attire coming towards him.
"Whence comest thou, maiden?" said Connla.
"I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where there is neither death nor sin. There we keep holiday alway, nor need we help from any in our joy. And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And because we have our homes in the round green hills, men call us the Hill Folk."
The king and all with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw no one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.
"To whom art thou talking, my son?" said Conn the king.
Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a young, fair maid, whom neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla, and now I call him away to the Plain of Pleasure, Moy Mell, where Boadag is king for aye, nor has there been complaint or sorrow in that land since he has held the kingship. Oh, come with me, Connla of the Fiery Hair, ruddy as the dawn with thy tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits thee to grace thy comely face and royal form. Come, and never shall thy comeliness fade, nor thy youth, till the last awful day of judgment."
The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he could not see her, called aloud to his Druid, Coran by name.
"Oh, Coran of the many spells," he said, "and of the cunning magic, I call upon thy aid. A task is upon me too great for all my skill and wit, greater than any laid upon me since I seized the kingship. A maiden unseen has met us, and by her power would take from me my dear, my comely son. If thou help not, he will be taken from thy king by woman's wiles and witchery."
Then Coran the Druid stood forth and chanted his spells towards the spot where the maiden's voice had been heard. And none heard her voice again, nor could Connla see her longer. Only as she vanished before the Druid's mighty spell, she threw an apple to Connla.
For a whole month from that day Connla would take nothing, either to eat or to drink, save only from that apple. But as he ate it grew again and always kept whole. And all the while there grew within him a mighty yearning and longing after the maiden he had seen.
But when the last day of the month of waiting came, Connla stood by the side of the king his father on the Plain of Arcomin, and again he saw the maiden come towards him, and again she spoke to him.
"'Tis a glorious place, forsooth, that Connla holds among short- lived mortals awaiting the day of death. But now the folk of life, the ever-living ones, beg and bid thee come to Moy Mell, the Plain of Pleasure, for they have learnt to know thee, seeing thee in thy home among thy dear ones."
When Conn the king heard the maiden's voice he called to his men aloud and said:
"Summon swift my Druid Coran, for I see she has again this day the power of speech."
Then the maiden said: "Oh, mighty Conn, fighter of a hundred fights, the Druid's power is little loved; it has little honour in the mighty land, peopled with so many of the upright. When the Law will come, it will do away with the Druid's magic spells that come from the lips of the false black demon."
Then Conn the king observed that since the maiden came, Connla his son spoke to none that spake to him. So Conn of the hundred fights