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Great Irish Tales of Fantasy and Myth – castaliahouse.com

Great Irish Tales of Fantasy and Myth

Sunday , 16, March 2025 1 Comment

Peter Haining was one of the top-tier anthologists of the late 20th Century. He would cover a theme including contents that were deep and wide. If you bought a book he edited, you would come out knowing much more than when you started.

One of my favorites is Great Irish Tales of Fantasy and Myth. The book was first entitled Great Irish Tales of the Unimaginable from Souvenir Press in 1994. My copy is the Barnes & Noble reprint from 1996 that I think I picked up in 1997. 309 pages for $6.98 at the time. Barnes & Noble was great back then for what you found in their remaindered section.

Contents:

Author Story
Peter Haining Introduction
I: Gods and Heroes
Standish James O’ Grady The Hound of Ulster
W. B. Yeats The Wisdom of the King
Lady Gregory The Call of Oisin
James Stephens Laughing Stranger
Ellas Young Balor and the Wonder-Smith
Dermot O’Byrne The Death of Macha Gold-Hair
Joseph O’Neill The Outlaw
Dorothy Macardle Earth-Bound
II: The Romantic Sagas
Austin Clarke Fligh of Angels
Sir Shane Leslie Midir and Etain
Sinead de Valera A Prince in Disguise
Julia O’ Faolain Legen for a Painting
Michael Scott The Kiss
Maurice Walsh The Woman Without Mercy
Mervyn Wall The Bewitching of Fursey
Mary Lavin A Fable
III: The Wonder-Quests
P. W. Joyce The Voyage of the Maildun
James Joyce The Hero of Michan
Eimar O’ Duffy The Return of Cuchulain
Lord Dunsany The End of the Rainbow
A. E. Coppard Crotty Shinkwin
T. H. White The Ark of Cashelmor
Brian Cleeve The Devil and Democracy
Peter Tremayne The Last Warrior Quest

This is a great book to sample various Irish writers of myth and folklore: P. W. Joyce, Lady Gregory, W. B. Yeats, James Stephens.

Some fiction writers including Lord Dunsany, Joseph O’ Neill, Maurice Walsh, and T. H. White give added depth. Ernest Hemingway supposedly considered Maurice Walsh the greatest adventure writer.

I do admit a reason I picked the book up was the Peter Tremayne story. Peter Berresford Ellis as “Tremayne” had written some Celtic themed heroic fantasy novels that I enjoyed. He has by my count around five heroic fantasy short stories. Maybe those should be collected into one book. Pick up Tremayne’s Aisling and Other Irish Tales of Terror should you come across it.

On St. Patrick’s Day, I will be dipping into Great Tales of Fantasy and Myth after my traditional meal of corned beef & cabbage and soda bread accompanied by a bottle of Smithwick’s Ale.

One Comment
  • Cromagnon Man says:

    Haining produced a number of anthologies with specific Irish themes: THE WILD NIGHT COMPANY, THE IRISH LEPRECHAUN’S KINGDOM and GREAT IRISH TALES OF HORROR being just a few of them. Its certainly the case that he was a pivotal figure in the fantasy/horror anthology/reference field at one time.

    Which makes it all the more of a shame to see the way his reputation has suffered in the near 20 years since his passing. With stories circulating of various editorial shenanigans regarding uncredited rewrites, sly retitlings, misinformation, misattributions and even uncorroborated “discoveries” of lost works by famous authors.

    All of which serve to now put him in the frame for the L.Sprague de Camp unreliable editor award.

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