Irish Fairy Tales
James Stephens
Fall River Press
2008
Ms. Hen planned on reading this for St. Patrick’s Day, but
she didn’t get around to it until after the holiday. She is
honestly not a fan of fairy tales, but she found this book lying around her
house, so she grabbed it, and decided to read it.
There is a common misconception that fairy tales are for
children, but these tales are not meant for young eyes or ears. This book is
dark and full of violence. Also, it contains large words that most children
would not understand.
The book contains stories, which mostly surround the hero
Fionn, the legendary warrior hunter, leader of the Fianna. He eats the Salmon
of All Knowledge and afterward possesses knowledge of everything. When Ms. Hen read the part about him
eating the salmon, it made her mouth water and she craved that type of fish.
A lot of these stories didn’t catch Ms. Hen’s attention
because her mind is distracted at the moment by the problems of the world. But
there was one, “The Birth of
Bran,” which she liked because it is about a woman, Tuiren, who is magically
turned into a dog by a jealous woman who was in love with Tuiren’s husband. Ms.
Hen thinks that’s it’s charming what happens in the story, that the man who
hates dogs starts to love dogs when Tuiren is in his possession.
This book does contain some charming elements, but it has
more violence and degradation in it than charm. Ms. Hen has been reading and
watching too many things with violence, and it has become tiresome to
her. Also, the female characters in this collection are caricatures; they are
either a beautiful woman or an old hag who is a witch. Ms. Hen realizes that
these are old tales and have been passed down for generations, and in the times
they were created women weren’t as respected or thought of as people who are
complex or worthy of attention. She understands these are fairy tales, and are
meant to teach a lesson, and entertain, but Ms. Hen can’t help but think what
she thinks.
Some chickens appear in this book, which Ms. Hen
appreciates. A stranger says to Fiachna Finn, “ 'Who could help laughing at a
king hunkering on a branch and his army roosting around him like hens? ’” The
stranger is trying to insult the king by saying his army is like hens. Ms. Hen
doesn’t take kindly to people mocking hens, but she is a hen with a sense of humor,
so she does find it funny.
Ms. Hen would have liked to read this at a different point
in her life. She found it difficult to pay attention to this book because she
has a lot on her mind. But even though she has problems with the characters and
the stories, she believes these are a part of her history that shouldn’t be brushed aside because
she doesn’t enjoy it right now. Ms. Hen is an Irish hen, and she is proud of
her heritage, because people should be proud of their history no matter where
our ancestors hail from. Even though this is true, we are all inhabitants
of this planet, and we live here together, and we should work to make the Earth
better for everyone, not just people like ourselves.
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