Reading Notes: Celtic Fairy Tales, Part B

Story: The Shee An Gannon and the Gruagach Gaire

Story Source: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

Gruagach Gaire

The Challenge

The Shee An Gannon went to the King of Erin to ask for his daughter in marriage. The king said that he would give him his daughter if he brings the information that he wants. He tells him that he wants to know how why the laughing of the Gruagach Gaire stopped. Before this, the Gruagach Gaire laughed always and laughed so loud that the whole world heard. The king mentioned that no one was able to tell him what stopped the Gruagach Gaire from laughing. He also told Shee An Gannon that he was to fail, the king would kill him.

The Gruagach Gaire

Shee An Gannon went to work for the Gruagach Gaire who took him into his service. He told Shee to drive his five golden cows into the pasture but to be careful not to let them go near the land of the giant.

The Land of the Gigant

The new cowboy took the cattle to pasture. Later, he heard from the woods the sound of trees bending and braking. He saw a five-headed giant pushing through the trees. Shee started battling the giant. They fought into the afternoon and at the end, he was able to kill the giant. He took out his knife and cut off the five heads of the giant. He cut out the tongues and threw the heads over the wall.

The Gruagach Gaire's Story

When the cowboy was on the way home with the cattle, the son of king Tisean came and took the giant's heads and claimed the princess in marriage when the Graugach Gaire should laugh.

The cowboy asked the Gruagach Gaire why he stopped laughing. The Gruagach Gaire told his story. It was a brutal and gory story of how his twelve sons were killed. He also had the skin from the small of his back down stripped and replaced with the skin of a black sheep. The sheepskin grew on him and every year he shears himself.

The Gruagach's Laughter

The cowboy was able to get all of the Gruagach's sons to come back to life. They went to the king to claim the princess, and the son of king Tisean was thrown in jail for deception.




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