Irish Folk Tales

by Henry Glassie

  The next day they went out again, and the same thing happened, the bully tied up the princess where the serpent could come at her fair and easy, and went up himself to hide in the ivy tree. Then Jack put on the suit he had taken from the second giant, and he walked out, and the princess did not know him, but she told him all that had happened yesterday, and how some young gentleman she did not know had come and saved her. So Jack asked might he lie down and take a sleep with his head in her lap, the way she could awake him. And all happened the same way as the day before. And the bully gave her up to the king, and said he had brought another of his friends to fight for her that day.

  The next day she was brought down to the shore as before, and a great many people gathered to see the serpent that was coming to bring the king’s daughter away. And Jack brought out the suit of clothes he had brought away from the third giant, and she did not know him, and they talked as before. But when he was asleep this time, she thought she would make sure of being able to find him again, and she took out her scissors and cut off a piece of his hair, and made a little packet of it and put it away. And she did another thing, she took off one of the shoes that was on his feet.

  And when she saw the serpent coming she woke him, and he said, “This time I will put the serpent in a way that he will eat no more king’s daughters.” So he took out the sword he had got from the giant, and he put it in at the back of the serpent’s neck, the way blood and water came spouting out that went for fifty miles inland, and made an end of him. And then he made off, and no one saw what way he went, and the belly brought the princess to the king, and claimed to have saved her, and it is he who was made much of, and was the right-hand man after that.

  But when the feast was made ready for the wedding, the princess took out the bit of hair she had, and she said she would marry no one but the man whose hair could match that, and she showed the shoe and said that she would marry no one whose foot would not fit that shoe as well. And the bully tried to put on the shoe, but so much as his toe would not go into it, and as to his hair, it didn’t match at all to the bit of hair she had cut from the man that saved her.

  So then the king gave a great ball, to bring all the chief men of the country together to try would the shoe fit any of them. And they were all going to carpenters and joiners getting bits of their feet cut off to try could they wear the shoe, but it was no use, not one of them could get it on.

  Then the king went to his chief adviser and asked what could he do. And the chief adviser bade him to give another ball, and this time he said, “Give it to poor as well as rich.”

  So the ball was given, and many came flocking to it, but the shoe would not fit any one of them. And the chief adviser said, “Is everyone here that belongs to the house?” “They are all here,” said the king, “except the boy that minds the cows, and I would not like him to be coming up here.”

  Jack was below in the yard at the time, and he heard what the king said, and he was very angry, and he went and got his sword and came running up the stairs to strike off the king’s head, but the man that kept the gate met him on the stairs before he could get to the king, and quieted him down, and when he got to the top of the stairs and the princess saw him, she gave a cry and ran into his arms. And they tried the shoe and it fitted him, and his hair matched to the piece that had been cut off. So then they were married, and a great feast was given for three days and three nights.

  And at the end of that time, one morning there came a deer outside the window, with bells on it, and they ringing. And it called out, “Here is the hunt, where is the huntsman and the hound?” So when Jack heard that he got up and took his horse and his hound and went hunting the deer. When it was in the hollow he was on the hill, and when it was on the hill he was in the hollow, and that went on all through the day, and when night fell it went into a wood. And Jack went into the wood after it, and all he could see was a mud-wall cabin, and he went in, and there he saw an old woman, about two hundred years old, and she sitting over the fire. “Did you see a deer pass this way?” says Jack. “I did not,” says she, “but it’s too late now for you to be following a deer, let you stop the night here.” “What will I do with my horse and my hound?” said Jack. “Here are two ribs of hair,” says she, “and let you tie them up with them.” So Jack went out and tied up the horse and the hound, and when he came in again the old woman said, “You killed my three sons, and I’m going to kill you now,” and she put on a pair of boxing-gloves, each one of them nine stone weight, and the nails in them fifteen inches long. Then they began to fight, and Jack was getting the worst of it. “Help, hound!” he cried out, then “Squeeze, hair,” cried out the old woman, and the rib of hair that was about the hound’s neck squeezed him to death. “Help, horse!” Jack called out, then “Squeeze, hair,” called out the old woman, and the rib of hair that was about the horse’s neck began to tighten and squeeze him to death. Then the old woman made an end of Jack and threw him outside the door.

  To go back now to Bill. He was out in the garden one day, and he took a look at the well, and what did he see but the water at the top was blood, and what was underneath was honey. So he went into the house again, and he said to his mother, “I will never eat a second meal at the same table, or sleep a second night in the same bed, till I know what is happening to Jack.”

  So he took the other horse and hound then, and set off, over hills where cock never crows and horn never sounds, and the Devil never blows his bugle. And at last he came to the weaver’s house, and when he went in, the weaver says, “You are welcome, and I can give you better treatment than I did the last time you came in to me,” for she thought it was Jack who was there, they were so much like one another. “That is good,” said Bill to himself, “my brother has been here.” And he gave the weaver the full of a basin of gold in the morning before he left.

  Then he went on till he came to the king’s house, and when he was at the door the princess came running down the stairs, and said, “Welcome to you back again.” And all the people said, “It is a wonder you have gone hunting three days after your marriage, and to stop so long away.” So he stopped that night with the princess, and she thought it was her own husband all the time.

  And in the morning the deer came, and bells ringing on her, under the windows, and called out, “The hunt is here, where are the huntsmen and the hounds?” Then Bill got up and got his horse and his hound, and followed her over hills and hollows till they came to the wood, and there he saw nothing but the mud-wall cabin and the old woman sitting by the fire, and she bade him stop the night there, and gave him two ribs of hair to tie his horse and his hound with. But Bill was wittier than Jack was, and before he went out, he threw the ribs of hair into the fire secretly. When he came in the old woman said, “Your brother killed my three sons, and I killed him, and I’ll kill you along with him.” And she put her gloves on, and they began the fight, and then Bill called out, “Help, horse.” “Squeeze, hair,” called the old woman; “I can’t squeeze, I’m in the fire,” said the hair. And the horse came in and gave her a blow of his hoof. “Help, hound,” said Bill then. “Squeeze, hair,” said the old woman; “I can’t, I’m in the fire,” said the second hair. Then the hound put his teeth in her, and Bill brought her down, and she cried for mercy. “Give me my life,” she said, “and I’ll tell you where you’ll get your brother again, and his hound and horse.” “Where’s that?” said Bill. “Do you see that rod over the fire?” said she; “take it down and go outside the door where you’ll see three green stones, and strike them with the rod, for they are your brother, and his horse and hound, and they’ll come to life again.” “I will, but I’ll make a green stone of you first,” said Bill, and he cut off her head with his sword.

  Then he went out and struck the stones, and sure enough there were Jack, and his horse and hound, alive and well. And they began striking other stones around, and men came from them, that had been turned to stones, hundreds and thousands of them.

  Then
they set out for home, but on the way they had some dispute or some argument together, for Jack was not well pleased to hear he had spent the night with his wife, and Bill got angry, and he struck Jack with the rod, and turned him to a green stone. And he went home, but the princess saw he had something on his mind, and he said then, “I have killed my brother.” And he went back then and brought him to life, and they lived happy ever after, and they had children by the basketful, and threw them out by the shovelful. I was passing one time myself, and they called me in and gave me a cup of tea.

  THE MULE

  AN OLD MAN GALWAY

  LADY GREGORY 1910

  Well, I will tell you the story of a Mule was in the world one time.

  There were three sons of a King that had died, and they were living together, and there was a stable and a bird, and one of the sons was a bit simple. The bird used to be coming to the stable every morning and to be singing sweetly, and they all three fell in love with it and used to be trying to take it, but they could not. But one day the one that was a bit simple, that they called the Fool, took the tail off it. The bird said to him then: “You must follow me now until you find me.” And it went away, and he went following after it. And when he was on the height it was in the hollow, and when he was in the hollow it was on the height, and he never could come up with it; and at last it went out of his sight.

  He came then to a wall, and he made a leap over it, and where did he come down but spread-legs on the back of a Mule that was in the field. “Are you a good jock?” says the Mule.

  “I am middling good,” says he.

  “Hold on so,” says the Mule, “and I will bring you to the place where the bird is.”

  There was a wall in front of them—a double wall—and the Mule faced it, and went over it with one leap, and the Fool on his back. “You are the best jock ever I saw,” says the Mule.

  “You are the best Mule ever I saw,” says the Fool.

  They went on then as far as they could through the course of the day, till the Mule said: “I’m hungry now; go get me a few grains of oats.”

  “How can I do that,” says the Fool, “when I have no money?”

  “Go in there to that inn and get it for me, as I told you,” says the Mule.

  “How much will do you?” says he.

  “Seven stone,” says the Mule.

  So they stopped at the inn, and the Fool put him into the stable and bade the innkeeper to give him seven stone of oats. “Go in now and get your own dinner,” says the Mule. So he went in and he got his dinner; and when he was ready to go, the innkeeper asked for the money. “I have none,” says he.

  “Well, I will keep the Mule in the stable till such time as you can pay me,” says the innkeeper, and he went out and was going to lock the stable door, and the Mule gave a kick that broke his leg, and there he was lying on the ground.

  “Come on now,” says the Mule; and the Fool got up on his back, and away with them again, and they came to a wall that was five miles in height. “At it now,” says the Fool, and the Mule faced at it and crossed it with one leap.

  “You are a jock that can’t be beat,” says the Mule.

  “You are a Mule that can’t be beat,” says the Fool.

  There was before them a lake that was five miles in length and five miles in breadth. “I am thirsty now,” says the Mule, “after that feed I had. And I’ll stop now till I’ll take a drink,” he says.

  “Do not,” says the Fool, “or you will be heavy and not able to go.”

  “Wait till you see that,” says the Mule.

  So he stopped and he began to drink, and he never stopped till he had drunk up the whole of the lake that was five miles in length and five miles in breadth. They went on again till they came to a mountain that was before them, and the whole of the mountain was in one blaze, and there was a high wall before it, fifteen feet high.

  “Hold on now,” says the Mule.

  “Here, at it,” says the Fool, and the Mule crossed it with one leap; and when he came where the blaze was, he let out of his mouth all the water of the lake he had swallowed, and it quenched the blaze, and there they saw before them the bird. But if they did it went under ground, and the Mule followed it under ground into the enchanted place where it lived; and when they got there, it was not a bird, but the finest young lady that could be seen, and a King’s daughter. The Fool asked her then to come along with him till he would marry her. “I will not,” she said, “until such time as you will find my father, that I have hidden away from you.”

  So he brought the Mule out to the stable, and he didn’t know where to go look for the King. And when they were in the stable the Mule said: “The young lady has a hen clutching, and the place where it is clutching is in her own room, under her bed. And under it you will find eleven eggs,” he said, “and one of them is yellow and spotted. And take that one in your hand, and be going to smash it against the floor, and the King that is inside of it will cry out and will ask you to spare his life.”

  So he went looking for the hen, and all happened as the Mule had said.

  “Will you marry me now?” says he to the young lady.

  “I will not,” says she, “till you find my father that I have hidden a second time.”

  So the place where she hid her father that time was in a duck’s bill, and she put the duck out swimming in the middle of a pond.

  The young man went then to the stable and asked the Mule did he know where the King was hidden, and the Mule told him it was in the duck’s bill. “And look at my tail,” he said, “and see is there e’er a gray rib in it.”

  So he looked, and there was a gray rib.

  “Pull it out,” says the Mule, “and bring it to the pond where the duck is, and throw it out over the water, and however far the duck is, that rib will bring it back to the land. And catch a hold of it then, and threaten to cut the neck of it, and the King will cry out from its bill and ask you to spare him.”

  So he did all that, and he spared the King, and then he went to the King’s daughter.

  “Will you marry me this time?” says he.

  “I will not,” says she, “till you find my father the third time.”

  The place she hid him the third time was in a block of wood, and the Mule said to the young man: “Take a nail out from my shoe and drive it into the block of wood till you will split it.”

  So he drew the nail, and he put it on the block of wood, and was going to split it, and the King called out for mercy, and he spared him.

  After that he married the young lady, and himself and herself and the old King lived together, and there never were three people happier.

  And the Mule said: “Where will I go now?”

  “Go back,” says the Fool, “to your own place, for you know the way well to it. But come back here at the end of seven years,” he said, “till you’ll see how I am getting on.”

  So at the end of the seven years the Mule came back, and he asked to be taken into service.

  “I will never make a servant of you,” says the Fool, “when I remember all the things you did for me, and all you helped me.”

  “If that is so,” says the Mule, “go and root up that little bush you see beyond, and give me three blows with the stump of it.”

  So he did that, and with the three blows of the bush the enchantment went from the Mule, and who was he but the young man’s own father, the King that was thought to be dead.

  So they all four lived together then and ever since, and the time I saw them myself they were well and happy and having great riches.

  THE KING OF IRELAND’S SON

  JOE GALWAY

  BRENDAN BEHAN 1962

  Once upon a time, and a very good time it was too, when the streets were paved with penny loaves and houses were whitewashed with buttermilk and the pigs ran round with knives and forks in their snouts shouting: “Eat me, eat me!” there lived a King of Ireland and he had three sons named Art, Neart and Ceart. Art is a man’s name
simply, Neart means strength and Ceart means right or justice. Well, Art was his father’s favorite and the other two boys were very jealous of him. At one particular time, you could hear, all around the country, heavenly music coming from somewhere, and the King wanted to know where it was coming from. So he said to his three sons: “Go out and whichever of you finds out where the heavenly music is coming from, can have half my kingdom.”

  So the three of them set off out until they came to a big hole and from this big hole they could hear the sound of the music coming. Neart and Ceart said to Art: “Will you go down? You’re the lightest and the youngest and we’ll let you down into this hole on a rope. You can see where the music is coming from and then we’ll pull you up again,” hoping never to see him again.

  Art said: “Certainly, I will. I think that’s a good idea.”

  Down on the end of a rope he was lowered and he went along a cave like a long tunnel, along and along and along until it got very dark. He walked for hours until it must have been night-time, for in the tunnel he couldn’t tell night from day. In the end and when his feet were falling off him, he saw a light. Over to the light he went and he met an old man and he said to the old man that was there: “Could you tell me where the heavenly music is coming from?”

  “No, then,” said the old man, “I can’t. But I tell you what you can do. You can stop the night and tomorrow you can walk—it’s a day’s journey—on to my father’s place and he might be able to tell you.”

  So the old man put him up for the night and gave him the best of food. They had rashers and eggs with black pudding and white pudding and a Cork drisheen, three Hafner’s sausages each, the best of homemade wholemeal bread, all washed down with lashings of strong tea, and after that they both went to bed, as well they might after such a feed.

  The next morning Art woke up and started on his journey for another day’s traveling along the tunnel, until he came to another light and he went in and met an old, old man and he said to him: “Are you the father of the other old man that I saw back along there?”