A universal and timeless appeal

by MARGARET-ANN BELL
Myths and Folk Tales of Ireland by Jeremiah Curtin (Constable £1.68).
The world today is sadly lacking in mythology and a symbolism and we are being gradually more and more severed from our ancestral heritage of spirituality.
That ancestral heritage of ours is extremely important for us to retain both our sense of wholeness of being and and also to understand the deeper and more mystical symbols of Christianity.
The publication of Jeremiah Curtin's Myths and Folk Tales of Ireland fills part of that void for us, and for that very reason I consider it a more important hook than one may think at first glance.
Originally titled "Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland" in 1890, this is a faithful reproduction of
Jeremiah Curtin's original book. It consists of some 20 stories of legend and magic. each as enchanting and spellbinding as the others.
The pages are filled with handsome princes and beautiful princesses as well as with tern ble monsters, witches and terrifying giants.
It is a world in which anything can happen, where people become animals and fishes and vice versa, and whose objects can possess the most incredible powers over others by those who hold them in their possession.
There is even an underworld, into which heroes have to plunge and escape. victorious.
Reading the book is like living in a topsy-turvy land, where the next paragraph is as likely to astonish you as much as the last. Maybe the most wonderful aspect of the stories is that they all have a beginning. an exciting middle, and a happy ending.
They are mentally satisfying stories, which, I found, really left me in a wonderfully peaceful mood every time I dipped into them.
The parallels of mythology are obvious to those who already have a working knowledge of mythology belonging to other cultures. We even have our very own Irish Cinderella.
Symbolisms abound in every story. For those interested in a deeper symbolic level. they will provide a rare feast.
An essential book in the history of folk-lore, Jeremiah Curtin's carefully collected stories should delight both young and old because their appeal is so universal and so timeless.
The hook itself is a paperback. but is apparently a "Dover Edition." designed for years of use. It is mae to be read as a permanent book and anyone who buys it will, I am sure, want it to be a permanent book on their shelves.