th respect to
Oisin I got a little help from an article on "The Neo-Latin Fay," by
Henry Charles Coote, in "The Folk-Lore Record," Vol. II. The story of
the fairies' tune is in part derived from T. Crofton Croker's "Fairy
Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland." This delightful book
as well deserves the first place in my list as does Kennedy's, for it
gave me one of my most important stories, that of O'Donoghue, in
Chapter I., and it gave me Naggeneen. Him I first saw, with Mr.
Croker's help, sitting on the cask of port in the cellar of old
MacCarthy of Ballinacarthy, as he himself describes in Chapter III. It
is not enough to say that after that he came readily into my story; he
simply could not be kept out of it. The tale of the fairies who wanted
to question a priest, in Chapter X., is also from Croker. Mrs.
O'Brien's method of getting rid of a changeling is founded on one of
Croker's stories, and a story almost exactly like it is told by Grimm.
There is also a form of it in Brittany. Two books by W.B. Yeats have
been of much value--"Irish Fairy and Folk Tales" and "The Celtic
Twilight." Of the former Mr. Yeats is the editor, rather than, in a
strict sense, the author, though it contains some of his own work, and
his introduction, notes, and other comments are of great interest.
From this book I have the story of Hudden, Dudden, and Donald, in
Chapter VII. Mr. Yeats reproduces it from an old chap-book. A version
of it is also found in Samuel Lover's "Legends and Stories of
Ireland." Those who like to compare the stories which they find in
various places will not fail to note its likeness to Hans Christian
Andersen's "Big Claus and Little Claus." The story of the monk and the
bird, in Chapter IX., Mr. Yeats reproduces from Croker, though not
from the work of his which has already been mentioned. I could not
resist the temptation to better the story, as I thought, by the
addition of an incident from a German version of it, and everybody
will remember the beautiful form in which it appears in Longfellow's
"The Golden Legend." From Mr. Yeats's "The Celtic Twilight" I have the
little story of the conversation between the diver and the conger, in
Chapter II. It is a pleasure to refer to two such fine and scholarly
works as Dr. Douglas Hyde's "Beside the Fire" and William Larminie's
"West Irish Folk-Tales and Romances." From the former of these I have
borrowed the substance of the story of Guleesh na Guss Dhu, in Cha