W.B. Yeats collected these stories in 1888 from earlier folklorists such as Thomas Crofton Croker, Lady Wilde, and William Carleton, grouping them by type: trooping fairies, solitary fairies, ghosts, witches, and the Dullahan and other headless spirits. The tales cover leprechauns guarding gold, changelings swapped for stolen children, the Banshee's cry, and priests facing the Devil. Yeats adds short notes and a preface, shaping the folk material that fed his own poetry and the Celtic revival.
It suits readers who enjoy folklore, fairy stories, or Irish literature and want the old oral material in one volume. Each tale is short, so you can dip in at bedtime. You gain a sense of how rural Ireland imagined the otherworld, and what the young Yeats found worth saving.
Balanced in tone; a moderate read.
Best for readers like The Curious Generalist. Which reader are you?
- Published
- 1888
- Language
- EN
