More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

In the United States, classic fairy tales have been bowdlerized. I particularly like 'The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener.' Indeed, 'Smallhead and the King's Sons' put together tale types I had never seen before. Or 'Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree' which is a Snow White tale even if the queen questions a salmon, not a mirror, and instead of a huntsman letting her go in the woods, her father marries her off secretly to a foreign prince, who, indeed, is not the one who rescues her from her sleep. Though you will find variants, such as 'Fair, Brown, and Trembling', where, even though Trembling is persecuted by her own sisters and goes to church, not the ball, and her story continues even after she has a baby, she is still a Cinderella variant. Others are recognizable fairy tales, though you won't find here any of the most poupular tales. Some are legends, such as the story of Deidre or that of Powel and Rhiannon, and some are cumulative tales, like 'Munachar and Manachar', and some are just fairy lore like 'Brewery of Eggshells' or 'Elidore.' And his first resolution to use only those form peasants who spoke no English did not last because he wanted more variety.

though he complained that some areas were less gathered than others.

Joseph Jacobs also contributed to the Jewish Encyclopedia.Īfter English fairy tales, Joseph Jacobs turned to Celtic ones, in this and More Celtic Fairy Tales. He went on to join The Folklore Society in England and became an editor of the society journal Folklore. He also edited editions of 'The Thousand and One Nights'. Jacobs was also an editor for journals and books on the subject of folklore which included editing the Fables of Bidpai and the Fables of Aesop, as well as articles on the migration of Jewish folklore. He published his English fairy tale collections: English Fairy Tales in 1890 and More English Fairytales in 1894 but also went on after and in between both books to publish fairy tales collected from continental Europe as well as Jewish, Celtic and Indian Fairytales which made him one of the most popular writers of fairytales for the English language. His work went on to popularize some of the worlds best known versions of English fairy tales including 'Jack and the Beanstalk', 'Goldilocks and the three bears', 'The Three Little Pigs', 'Jack the Giant Killer' and 'The History of Tom Thumb'. Joseph Jacobs was an Australian folklorist, literary critic, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English Folklore.

More Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs