Reading Notes (B): Celtic Fairy Tales

King O'Toole and His Goose

King O'Toole was an active old man whose health eventually began to fail him. In order to make himself feel better, he got himself a goose that helped him do all his usual active daily tasks. This was all good and well until the goose itself got old and worn out from being so active. King O'Toole was once again sad and angry at his miserable old age. One day, a man approaches the King, who happens to be Saint Kavin. Saint Kavin offers the King to make his old goose new again, which makes the King extremely happy and excited. Before healing the goose, Saint Kavin asks for the land that the goose flies over and the King agrees to give it to him He stays true to his word, and after the goose is flying like new again, he tells the Saint that the last acre of land he has is his. This is when Saint Kavin reveals himself and blesses the King until both the King and the goose die. I think this story would be great to base my own story off of because I like the idea of deception for a good cause. I could definitely change it up to make it more modern, but I like the background of this story. I could make a more modern story of a undercover cop fooling an upstanding citizen or something of the sort. I'm not sure how I would incorporate a goose into a modern story, but maybe I could use another animal or object to take place of the goose. I could also throw in a big twist in the original story and have King O'Toole go back on his word and write about the consequences of that decision. I think that would be an interest side of the story to include. Overall, there are many ways for me to expand upon this story that I'm excited to see how it turns out.

King O'Toole's goose; Wikipedia

Bibliography

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Reading Notes (A): Celtic Fairy Tales

Connla and the Fairy Maiden

Connla is approached by a fairy maiden from the Plains of the Ever Living. She describes this place as one of neither death nor sin, where there is always joy and never any problems. This maiden sounds great, right? Well unfortunately, Connla was the only one who could see the maiden, as his father Conn the King, was perplexed by his son's behavior of speaking to himself. The fairy maiden replies that she is in love with Connla and had come to take him back to where she lives. The King is worried about what he hears, even though he cannot see her, and seeks help. Coran performs a spell in the general direction of the unseen maiden and she disappears, but not before she throws an apple towards Connla. It was an apple that regenerated every time he was hungry. He ate nothing for a month except for that apple. At the end of the month, the maiden returns and successfully woos Connla to come with her. I think this would be an interesting story to build off of for my storytelling assignment this week, especially the part about where she comes from.

The Field of Boliauns 

Tom Fitzpatrick comes across what seems to be a leprechaun with a bottle of beer in the bushes. The beer is made of heath according to the leprechaun, which makes Tom keen to try it. Unfortunately, the leprechaun refuses and Tom gets angry and demands money from the leprechaun. The leprechaun becomes frightened and agrees to take Tom to it. The money is buried under a boliaun, but Tom doesn't have a shovel so he takes a chance and runs back to his house to grab one. Upon returning, he realized that the Leprechaun tricked him and that there were too many boliauns to dig under all of them. This is a great trick that I could write my story about this week. I may associate this trick with modern day times in order to make it more relatable to everyone.

Leprechaun; Wikimedia

Bibliography

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs