Favorite Irish Folk Tales

by Seumas MacManus

Children and adults will delight in these fantastic stories from the mythical realm of The Country Beyond. Noted folklorist retells the adventures of "Billy Beg and the Bull," "The Widow’s Daughter," "The Queen of the Golden Mines," "Jack and the King Who Was a Gentleman," many more. Contains 15 stories filled with the humor and imagination that have made Irish folk tales famous.

144 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1998

About the author

Seumas MacManus was an Irish dramatist, poet, and prolific writer of popular stories, who played an important role in the rise of Irish nationalist literature.

Reviews

[Rebee · Rating 4 out of 5]

This book was a copied word for word record of Irish Folk Tales as recited from memory by tale tellers in Ireland around the turn of the 1900's possibly a bit earlier. The spelling is a bit off as a result as the author went with a phonetic spelling of colloquial words rather than"translation"

It can be hard to read as a result but it is amazing as a record of lost stories or they might have been lost had it not been for Mr. McManus.

[Kayleigh · Rating 3 out of 5]

The tone and nature of these stories, as well as the colloquial, rambling language in which they are written, suggests to me that they would be better heard than read. And based on what I know of the Irish storytelling tradition, that's probably exactly what was intended.

When oral stories are written down, I think they lose some of their charm. The setting, the cadence and timbre of the storyteller's voice, and audience interaction all bring something to a story when told orally, something lost in the printed page. It's better than the stories themselves being lost (as so much oral history and folklore has been), but a shame nonetheless.