Irish Fairy Tales

by James Stephens

Irish Fairy Tales, published in 1920, is James Stephens's retelling of ten stories from early Irish literature, most of them from the Fenian cycle. It opens with Tuan mac Cairill, who has lived through the ages of Ireland in the shapes of a man, a stag, a boar, a hawk and a salmon. Then come the boyhood of Fionn mac Cumhal, the birth of his hounds Bran and Sceolan, the mother of Oisín, the wooing of Becfola, the little brawl at Allen, the Carl of the Drab Coat, the enchanted cave of Cesh Corran, Becuma of the White Skin and Mongan's frenzy. Stephens, a poet and novelist of the Irish revival, tells them with humor, lyricism and his own philosophical asides. The full text is available to read online in your browser on Vinteuil, and the first story is free.