Week 11 Reading Diary: Celtic Fairy Tales

This week I chose to read Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. I really enjoyed the first story in the unit called Connla and the Fairy Maiden. I thought it was interesting and wondered why Connla was the only one who could see the fairy maiden in the story and not his father Conn the king. I also was curious as to why she tossed the son an apple that would always grow back to being whole when he took a bite. I could use this for my storytelling for the week and finish the ending since the reader is left wondering where Connla and the Fairy Maiden set away to and what happens next! The Horned Woman was a very strange story in this section. I had a very vivid image of the women all standing in the mistress' house with horns sticking out of their heads! It would have been so scary to be the woman who let them in because the witches cast a spell on her and she could no longer talk or move... she was forced to do what they ordered her to do! I like that in the end the woman got the witches out of her house and was able to keep them away. My favorite story of this section was Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree since it was so similar to Snow White! I liked that there were a few differences though, for example that gold-tree had left to be with her husband so silver-tree was unable to kill her. I also liked that the second wife helped gold-tree to get her mom back by having silver-tree drink the poisoned drink she offered first! I was surprised to see the second wife bring gold-tree back to life and that she was okay sharing her husband with her... I'd would also like to use this story possibly in my assignment for this week!

(Illustration of Connla and the Fairy Maiden 

Source: Untextbook)