Reviews
Ancient Legends, Mystic Charms, and Superstitions of Ireland by Jane Francesca Wilde (Lady Wilde)
amalia1985's review against another edition
adventurous
informative
mysterious
reflective
relaxing
fast-paced
5.0
‘’The three great sources of knowledge respecting the shrouded part of humanity are the language, the mythology, and the ancient monuments of a country.’’
Tales of horned witches invading the houses of unaware women, of the Evil Eye, the Fairy race, brave warriors, maidens and the blessed bards of old. Customs observed on November Eve, spells and incantations. The terrifying Dance of the Dead and the superstitions of Death and burial. The May Festival and the Midsummer celebration, Candlemas and Whitsuntide. The Baal Fires and Dances, the strange wakes and the ancient mysteries. The dwellings and schemes of the Sidhe. The cries of the Banshee, the Fate of Queen Maeve, the Sacred Wells.
Omens, superstitions, spells and legends in a volume superbly written by an extraordinary woman who managed to contain the mysticism and magic of the Emerald Isle in a gem of a book.
edithjoyce's review against another edition
5.0
Bello e bello anche il saggio iniziale di questa edizione anche se per molte cose superato. Le storie - e il lavoro quasi sociologico dietro - sono incredibilmente belle.
henryarmitage's review against another edition
3.0
I found part 1 to be entertaining and educational. It added some depth to what I learned from reading [b:Finn Mac Cool|531042|Finn Mac Cool|Morgan Llywelyn|https://images.gr-assets.com/books/1312023729s/531042.jpg|827066].
There's lots of stuff about fairies here. It was interesting to me how after the introduction of Christianity, the Irish shoehorned the belief in fairies into the Christian world view (The Fairies as Fallen Angels). This is fairly typical of the type of syncretistic religion that sometimes develops when an animistic culture adopts Christianity. There seems to be a real ambivalence where the fairies are seen as trickster spirits but not really evil and even as having some noble characteristics.
I skimmed past a lot of the items in the second volume, the spells and charms and superstitions.
You can find a copy of this online at
The Internet way-back machine.
Once upon a time there was this awesome web site known as Bran's Island. It lived at http://www.donaldcorrell.com/. There was a large collection of fiction and folklore there, but sadly the site went down in looks like 2015.
I used to periodically mirror the site in case of tragedy, so it's on my laptop. Over the weekend of 6/8/2019 I was traveling and looking for something to read I came across this. Just now I thought to check for it in Goodreads, and there it is. Cool.
There's lots of stuff about fairies here. It was interesting to me how after the introduction of Christianity, the Irish shoehorned the belief in fairies into the Christian world view (The Fairies as Fallen Angels). This is fairly typical of the type of syncretistic religion that sometimes develops when an animistic culture adopts Christianity. There seems to be a real ambivalence where the fairies are seen as trickster spirits but not really evil and even as having some noble characteristics.
I skimmed past a lot of the items in the second volume, the spells and charms and superstitions.
You can find a copy of this online at
The Internet way-back machine.
Once upon a time there was this awesome web site known as Bran's Island. It lived at http://www.donaldcorrell.com/. There was a large collection of fiction and folklore there, but sadly the site went down in looks like 2015.
I used to periodically mirror the site in case of tragedy, so it's on my laptop. Over the weekend of 6/8/2019 I was traveling and looking for something to read I came across this. Just now I thought to check for it in Goodreads, and there it is. Cool.
olliebolen's review against another edition
4.0
This was a fascinating collection of Irish folklore, but I wished she'd not kept adding little racist interjections about Aryanism. The introductions are not worth reading for that reason, but the stories are nice.
More...