Reading Notes: Part A Celtic Fairy Tales

The Celtic Fairy Tales unit is a collection of short stories from the books of Joseph Jacobs. While the stories were written in 1892, they are overall quite easy to read as they are written in modern prose. Specifically, I focused on The Horned Women of the stories offered in Part A of the unit. Reading this story was somewhat confusing to keep up with due to the many rituals and of the witches, but I seemed to get the basic understanding of the story. I was left wondering why exactly the witches decided to come to the home of the mistress and begin weaving. It is all very peculiar and perhaps my inability to understand the witches ceremony may be due to my lack of knowledge of Irish culture. Also is there any significance with Slievenamon, the home of the witches? I also wonder if there is anymore to do with the Spirit of the Well. For example, does the Spirit of the Well have a history with witches. Are there more stories detailing the relationship between the spirit and the witches? I believe there is much I could elucidate in potential retelling of the story. Additionally, in my retelling of the story I would also want to make the rituals more clear or show the significance of the spells. For example, why does the feet-water keep away the witches? It is kind of hard to fully comprehend why any of the magic in the story works or makes sense because they all do not really seem to be connected. I think a brief research of the importance of magic or spirits in Celtic culture would make this more clear. Overall, the short story was an interesting but somewhat confusing read. There is much I could add and take away in a potential retelling.

Bibliography: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Wikimedia: A map of the Celtic nations of which the story originates from

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