From Fireside to Fireside: Irish Folktales and the Irish Literary Revival
Collection Search
- SpeakerWhen the recording starts, the speaker is reading the folktale “The Man Who Had No Story” about Rory O’Donoghue’s experience of having to tell a story or sing a song in order to stay at a stranger’s house for the night. This story exemplifies the importance of storytelling in Irish social life and culture.
- SpeakerThe speaker notes that Irish people have preserved a rich collection of folktales in the Gaelic-speaking West from century to century to century. In the 19th century Irish folktales became an icon of Irish identity. The speaker explains that Irish folktales represented the language that had been lost in Ireland, a living connection to the Irish past, and proof of the imaginative vigour of Irish culture despite the dark history of Ireland.
- SpeakerFolktales, as the speaker details, are usually enjoyed socially with neighbours where the storyteller tells stories using rich imagery to a small group of people.
- SpeakerThe speaker gives details of the gestures and or props that a storyteller could use as well as the environment within which the storyteller and the listeners enjoyed the story.
- SpeakerThe speaker comments that the Irish use orality to pass along knowledge. To illustrate, the speaker plays and then discusses a recording of a child telling a story. The telling of a story is different from reading a story because the teller puts her intention into their storytelling, the speaker explains.
- SpeakerIllustrating that Irish folktales come in many shapes and sizes, the speaker reads a short, simple folktale called “The Old Crow Teaches the Young Crow”. The speaker then points out the elements this particular folktale contains.
- SpeakerThe speaker notes that in Sean O’Sullivan’s book of Irish Folktales there are many characters including animals, birds, kings, warriors, saints and sinners, people of the “otherworld”, magicians and witches, historical characters, the wise, the foolish and the strong. The speaker reviews a number of ways that folktales have been categorized including the category “oceanic” which contains many of the Irish folktales.
- SpeakerThere are both international and Irish stories told in Ireland. As an example, the speaker comments that the story of Cinderella originated in France, but has Irish variations. There are also motifs from international stories that Irish folktales share. The speaker explains that an example of a motif is when an inanimate object can move on its own.
- SpeakerThe speaker says that, by definition, folktales are oral. The speaker explains that folktales might have been created spontaneously by people, but also notes that Padraic Colum thought that folktales had specific authors whose names were lost. The speaker believes it is clear that Irish folktales have a relationship with literature. The speaker then reads an explanation of the transition of folktales from oral to written form.
- SpeakerThe speaker tells a folktale of a heroine performing self-sacrificial acts to save her child from an evil wolf. Self-sacrifice is a common theme for female characters in Irish romance stories. The speaker tells another story of self-sacrifice where the heroine is killed so her bones can be used to make a ladder. The speaker describes another story to illustrate the variety of characters and situations found in folktales.
- SpeakerThe speaker notes that the many types of Irish folktales share elements of content and structure. Folklorist Stith Thompson and writer Christiansen created indexes to identify types of folktales as well as to track their differences. Sean O’Sullivan’s index focuses on Irish Folktales. Russian folklorist Vladimir Propp analysed 100 fairy tales and decided all fairy tales share a common structure. The speaker then shows a visual of Propp’s system.
- SpeakerThe speaker explains that for Propp there are seven characters who act meaningfully in folktales including the villain, the hero, the heroine/her family, the donor, and the false hero. In the Propp system, Greek letters are used to represent initial situations. For example, the Greek letter gamma represents an interdiction i.e. a warning to do or not do something. The speaker gives examples of other narratives noted in Propp’s system.
- SpeakerThe speaker believes that nobody knows the meaning of folktales, but some people assume the folktale is hiding something important. The speaker also relates that some believe that folktales are related to the changing seasons, or to ancient rituals, or to human psycho-sexual conduit, or to a pagan story. But some folktales are just entertainment.
- SpeakerThe speaker describes when Padraic Colum wrote a literary adaptation of a folktale he would put his own words into the folktale. The speaker notes that as time went by, people became more respectful of the actual words of folktales and represented them as they were told. Brief tape break.
- SpeakerIn his book, Padraic Colum based children’s stories on folktales. The speaker notes that there are three cycles in his stories where folktales are woven together in an elaborate way because of the time structure.
- SpeakerUsing a diagram, the speaker shows how Padraic Colum changed the folktale when he wrote them down. Examples include Colum combining many individual tales into a grand tale, rearranging folktales and sometimes breaking into the story to speak directly to the reader.
- SpeakerThe speaker shares a poetic image inspired by folktales of the late 19th century to early 20th century by reading the poem, “When You Are Old” by Yeats. The speaker notes that the poem provides the images of home, the heart, folks, love, and her presentation title “from fireside to fireside” as well as a desire to connect the present and the past.
- SpeakerEnd of lecture, applause, audience questions and discussion