Reading Notes: Celtic Tales (Part A)

I found it interesting to discover that most of these tales, if not all, typically ended with a happy ending. If any characters didn't fare well in these stories it was due to the fact that they weren't great people. In the Celtic tales it seemed like the good people were always rewarded for their kindness and sense of adventure.

Connla and the Fairy Maiden

• at first only Connla could see the Fairy Maiden who walked up to the group
• only Connla could hear the Fairy Maiden at first 
• would be a get character attribute to have in a story
• creates an air of mystery and makes people uncomfortable when they believe something to be there but can't see it
• the Fairy Maiden talks of a land where there is no death, no aging, everyone is always happy
• should Connla go, he won't age either and he will receive a fairy crown 
• Connla's father, Conn, brings by a druid to say some enchantments to dispel the Fairy Maiden 
• before vanishing due to the spells, she threw Connla an apple from which he survived on for a whole month
• the apple always grew back, keeping whole no matter what
• Connla eventually leaves with the Fairy Maiden to go to the Plains of Pleasure in a crystal canoe that everyone was able to see cross the water

The Shepherd of Myddvai

• a shepherd spotted maidens arising from the lake near which he was tending to his flock
• eventually he is able to marry one of them but she says if he strikes her 3 times she will leave
• when they married she brought many farm animals with her as a gift
• the man ends up hitting her 3 times and she leaves him
• even though one of the cows she brought had been slaughtered, when she called for it it got up and began walking to her cured of any wounds
• interesting magic to apply to a story

Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

• a king had a wife named Silver-Tree and a daughter named Gold-Tree
• similar to the "magic mirror" from Shrek, the queen finds a trout in a well that tells her who the most beautiful queen in the world is
• she learns that her daughter is the most beautiful and that infuriates Silver-Tree
• Silver-Tree tries to kill her daughter a few different ways
• by trying to get her husband to kill her to "cure" her own illness
• poisoning her daughter (successfully)
• poison drink 
• Golden-Tree dies from the poison her mother pricked her finger with but another girl comes by her resting place and picks the poisonous item out of her finger and she awakens
• the same girl who removed the poison also gets Silver-Tree to drink the poisonous drink she was going to give to her daughter
• Silver-Tree dies in the end and Golden-Tree, her husband and his other wife live happily ever after

Silver-Tree waits for Gold-Tree to poke her finger through the key-hole so she can prick her with the poison.

Bibliography

Celtic Fairy Tales Unit found here

Image Information: Silver-Tree waiting to poison her daughter -- found on wikimedia.