Reading Diary Week 11: Celtic Fairy Tales

The Field of Boliauns was such a weird story to me. First of all, the diction was very different. I had to look several words up to try and figure out what they meant. For example, I didn't know what "motty" or "deeshy daushy" meant because they're just not in our vocabulary. I also had never really thought about where the stories about leprechauns come from, but I guess its from the Celtic stories. I thought it was interesting that this one included one in it. I'm not really sure what the purpose of the story was. But I guess not every story needs a purpose...

The Horned Women is also super weird! Why are all these stories so different?! It's crazy to me how each culture has such different traditions, especially when it comes to more creative things like storytelling. Why were there twelve horned women in a lady's house? How could this story even come to be? It did kind of remind me of the movie Ella Enchanted where the Ella has to do anything that anyone says. I just am really curious how this story even had meaning to the people and what kind of events were happening that would inspire it. This is something I would like to research if I had time.

The Sprightly Tailor made me laugh because it is just so absurd to me. Why is there a monster in the church? I like the tailors perseverance but why was all of this happening? The ending made me laugh since he finished the trews but the stitches were longer in the end than the beginning. I don't know why this struck me as funny, but it did. I also had to look up what trews were. Turns out that they are just a Scottish word for pants. At least that is what Wikipedia says. 

Trews
Photo by James F. Perry

All in all, the Celtic culture seems really strange to me. I don't know why they write about what they do or any of the words. I guess it's good to have exposure to different things and I'm happy I read the stories. I guess I just wish I understood the meaning more. I think researching Celtic culture may help with this. 

Bibliography:

Celtic Fairytales by Joseph Jacobs (1892)