Abstract
I am often doubted when I say that the Irish peasantry still believe in fairies. People think I am merely trying to bring back a little of the old dead beautiful world of romance into this century of great engines and spinning-jennies†. Surely the hum of wheels and clatter of printing presses, to let alone the lecturers with their black coats and tumblers of water, have driven away the goblin kingdom and made silent the feet of the little dancers.
This is a preview of subscription content, log in via an institution to check access.
Access this chapter
Tax calculation will be finalised at checkout
Purchases are for personal use only
Preview
Unable to display preview. Download preview PDF.
Notes
Biddy Hart was the wife of Michael Hart, the source of a tale ‘A Fairy Enchantment’, quoted by Yeats in Irish Fairy Tales (pp. 49–52) and in the ‘Drumcliff and Rosses’ section of The Celtic Twilight (1893) (Myth 90–1); see Mary H. Thuente, W. B. Yeats and Irish Folklore (Dublin: Gill and Macmillan, 1980) pp. 121
Lady Jane Francesca Elgee Wilde, ‘Seanchan the Bard and the King of the Cats’, in Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland, 2 vols (London: Ward and Downey, 1887–8) II, 24–30.
Standish James O’Grady, ‘Cuchulain is Knighted’, in The Heroic Period, vol. I of History of Ireland (London: Sampson Low, Searle, Marston and Rivington; Dublin: Ponsonby, 1878) pp. 122–9.
Professor Patrick Weston Joyce (1827–1914), ‘Fergus and the Air-Demons’, in Good and Pleasant Reading (Dublin: Gill, 1886) [not sighted].
Yeats here gave a cross-reference to p. 79 in the anthology, where the term ‘cohuleen driut’ appears in ‘The Lady of Gollerus’ (1827), by Thomas Crofton Croker, from Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland, 2nd ser., 2 vols in 1 (London: Murray, 1828) I, 13.
David Rice McAnally, Jr, Irish Wonders: The Ghosts, Giants, Pookas, Demons, Leprechawns, Banshees, Fairies, Witches, Old Maids, and Other Marvels of the Emerald Isle: Popular Tales as Told by the People (London: Ward, Lock, 1888) pp. 140
For example, Patrick Weston Joyce, The Origin and History of Irish Names of Places, 2nd edn (Dublin: McGlashan and Gill, 1870) p. 188
The distinguished Irish antiquarian scholar John O’Donovan (1809–61) is quoted from an anonymous article, ‘Irish Popular Superstitions. Chapter III. Medical Superstitions, Fairy Lore, and Enchantment’, Dublin University Magazine, 33 (June 1849) 708: ‘...Leinster, in…from Tonn Clenne, at Glandore, to....’ Drumaleague presumably refers to the hills in the parish of Dromdaleague (or Drimoleague), seven miles north of Glandore, Co. Cork. Eoghan (Owen) Mor ruled the southern half of Ireland in the second century. Yeats would not have liked to recall that O’Donovan gave a highly sceptical account of an aristocratic Irish friend’s encounter in 1820 with a banshee, quoted in William G. Wood-Martin, Traces of the Elder Faiths of Ireland: A Folklore Sketch: A Handbook of Irish Pre-Christian Traditions (London: Longmans, Green, 1902) I, 370–1
Thomas Crofton Croker, Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland [1st ser.] (London: Murray, 1825) and 2nd ser. (1828).
Lady Wilde, Ancient Cures, Charms, and Usages of Ireland: Contributions to Irish Lore (London: Ward and Downey, 1890).
Sir William Robert Wilde, Irish Popular Superstitions (Dublin: McGlashan, 1852).
Lageniensis (Father John O’Hanlan, 1821–1905), Irish Folklore: Traditions and Superstitions of the Country; with Humorous Tales (Glasgow: Cameron and Ferguson, [1870]).
Jeremiah Curtin (1835–1906), Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (Boston, Mass.: Little, Brown, 1890).
Douglas Hyde, Beside the Fire: A Collection of Irish Gaelic Folk Stories (London: Nutt, 1890).
Douglas Hyde, Leabhar Sgeulaigheachta (in Irish) (Dublin: Gill, 1889).
Patrick Kennedy (1801–73), Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (London: Macmillan, 1866).
Patrick Kennedy, The Banks of the Boro: A Chronicle of the County of Wexford (London: Simpkin, Marshall, 1867).
Harry Whitney ( Patrick Kennedy), Legends of Mount Leinster: Tales and Sketches (London: Lambert, [1855]).
William Carleton, Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry, [1st ser.], 2 vols (Dublin: Wakeman, 1830) and 2nd ser., 3 vols (Dublin: Wakeman, 1833); new edn with autobiographical intro., 2 vols (Dublin: Curry, 1843–4).
Samuel Lover, Legends and Stories of Ireland (Dublin: Wakeman, 1831).
Samuel Carter Hall (1800–99) and Anna Maria Fielding Hall (1800–81), Ireland: Its Scenery, Character, &c. (London: How and Parsons, 1841–3).
Lady Henrietta Georgiana Marcia Lascelles (Iremonger) Chatterton (1806–76), Rambles in the South of Ireland during the Year 1838 (London: Saunders and Otley, 1839).
Gerald Griffin, Talis Qualis; or Tales of the Jury Room (London: Maxwell, 1842).
Gerald Griffin, The Collegians; or, The Colleen Bawn: A Tale of Garryowen (London: Saunders and Otley, 1829).
Jonah Barrington (1760–1834), Personal Sketches of his own Times, 3 vols (London: Colburn, 1827–30 [vols I, II]; London: Colburn and Bentley, 1833 [vol. III]).
John O’Donovan (1809–61) gives no stories in his ‘Introductory Remarks’ to his annotated and translated edition of the Annals of the Kingdom, by the Four Masters, from the Earliest Period to the Year 1616 (Dublin: Hodges, Smith, 1854)
David Fitzgerald (1843–1916), ‘Popular Tales of Ireland’ and ‘Early Celtic History and Mythology’, Revue celtique, 4 (1879–80) 171–200
Letitia M’Clintock (also spelled ‘McClintock’ and ‘Maclintock’; b. 1835), ‘Folk-Lore of the County Donegal’, Dublin University Magazine, 88 (Nov 1876) 607–14
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Editor information
Editors and Affiliations
Copyright information
© 1988 Micheal Yeats
About this chapter
Cite this chapter
O’Donnell, W.H. (1988). Introduction (‘An Irish Story-teller’), acknowledgement note, ‘The Classification of Irish Fairies’, and ‘Authorities on Irish Folklore’ (1891), in Irish Fairy Tales, ed. W.B.Yeats (1892). In: O’Donnell, W.H. (eds) Prefaces and Introductions. The Collected Edition of the Works of W. B. Yeats. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06236-2_4
Download citation
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-1-349-06236-2_4
Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, London
Print ISBN: 978-1-349-06238-6
Online ISBN: 978-1-349-06236-2
eBook Packages: Palgrave Literature & Performing Arts CollectionLiterature, Cultural and Media Studies (R0)