Tales from Old Ireland (Hardcover)

"Tales from Old Ireland" is a collection of favorite Irish folk tales intended to be read aloud at the hearth of every home. Malachy Doyle, born in Belfast, retells seven of what are described as "the brightest jewels of traditional Irish storytelling." After all, an old Irish proverb declares a tale to be more precious than the wealth of the world. The stories are accompanied by the illustrations of Niamh Sharkey of Dulbin, which serve to lend them a touch of the modern (but it is intense palette of colors that help these quirky characters stand out). The seven tales included within are as follows:

"The Children of Lir," one of the "three sorrows of storytelling," and perhaps the best-loved Irish folk tale. Lir was a king whose queen died, and then he was struck by the beauty of Aoife, but blind to her evil. Jealous of the king's love for his children, she changes them into swans for three hundred years. This is why the king made a law that no one in Ireland should kill a swan, since it might be one of his children, and promised a reward to anyone who could break the spell.

"Fair, Brown, and Trembling" are the three daughters of a king in Tir Chonaill. The two oldest sisters have new dresses, but Trembling, the youngest and the most beautiful, has to do all of the work. Fortunately, the old henwife comes to her aid and sends her off to church. The King of Omanya falls madly in love with her, but all he has is the shoe he pulled off of her foot (sound familiar?).

"The Twelve Wild Geese" is about the Queen of Leinster and her twelve sons. Since she had not a single daughter, she was half made with enyy for every little girl she saw. One day the queen makes an ill-fated wish and a strange old woman appears and grants it. The day her daughter is born, her twelve sons turn into geese and fly away. When the princess grows up, she learns about what happened, and tries to break the curse.

"Lusmore and the Fairies" is the story of a poor man with a hump on his back named Lusmore. He stumbles across the fairies of Knockgrafton and hears their song. This turns out to be a lucky day for Lusmore, but the same cannot be said for the greedy Jack Madden.

"Son of an Otter, Son of a Wolf" is the story of Lorcan, the son born to the youngest daughter of King Cormac. Lorcan wants to be king and is too impatient to wait for Cormac to die, so he strikes a deal with Fionn Mac Cumhail, leader of the Fianna, that will put the Son of an Otter on the throne. But he is a most hated king, and it is up to the Son of a Wolf to use Lorcan's greed against him.

"The Soul Cages" is about Jack Doherty, a fisherman from Dunbeg Bay, who meets a Merrow named Coomara, one of the men who live under the see. If you meet one it will bring you great lucky. Coomara takes Jack to dine on the bottom of the seas where he learns about the cage where the Merrow keeps all of the souls he has found. From that moment, Jack racks his brains to find a way to outwit the old Merrow and free the souls.

"Oisin in Tir na nOg" is the story of Oisin, whose courage and osongs are famous, who travels to the Land of Youth with his love, Niamh of the Golden Hair. They marry and live happily every after for three hundred years, but then Oisin gets resltess because there are no enemies for him to fight and he has no wish to sing or to play his harp. Then he hears of a beautiful princess in the Land of Virtue, which lay next to the Land of Youth, who had been captured by a fierce gaint, Fovor of the Mighty Blows. So Oisin heads off to rescue her and have one last great adventure before he returns home.

These are more intermediate level Irish folk stories, told by Doyle with enough detail that some of them might be too long for younger readers to enjoy (unless, of course, there are being read aloud by a son or daughter of Ireland, as should be the case). "Fair, Brown, and Trembling" and "The Soul Cages" are my two favorite of the collection, and if we had been invited over for a Saint Patrick's day dinner this year like the past several years I would have had occasion to read one of these tales aloud. Instead I had to just read them and enjoy them myself.