Miss Young has gathered these stories of the Gubbaun Saor from the cottagers and fishermen of Gaelic-speaking Ireland where they have been told for more than a thousand years. There is a strange wild loveliness in their telling that makes their imagination and humorous fancy a real contribution to our folk literature.
"More truly than anyone else who has rewritten Irish folklore, Ella Young has gone back in spirit and understanding to those ancient days when gods and heroes walked in windy, starlit spaces, when the white horses of Faeryland might trample outside a king's doorway, when the Hidden Folk rode out of the green paths and there was laughter in the heart of the hills. . .Miss Young has found a way to take the reader with her across the boundaries of the Hidden Country. While there is magic and mystery and grandeur, we travel the world with the Wonder-Smith, his son, the son's wife, Aunya, who has the fire of wisdom in her mind, and who uses her magic with keen practical commonsense. They are not only characters from a great cycle of Irish legends, they are at the same time simple folk, who endear themselves to us by their humor and shrewd kindliness."—Horn Book
—from the dust jacket
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