Irish storytellers

The King of Ireland’s Son

Padraic Colum’s delightful book is a tightly-packed valise of stories, stories interrupted by stories, enclosed and bracketed by stories. We meet not only the King of Ireland’s son, but the sons of other kings– as well as daughters, demi-gods, animals kindly, malicious, foolish or wise. The illustrations by the great Willy Pogany  are a delight as well, his elegant and easy lines illuminating titles and first capitals of each chapter.

Two more books by Colum are in the works;
“The Boy Apprenticed to an Enchanter” and
“The Boy Who Knew What the Birds Said”

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Demi-Gods

I’ve been somewhat at a loss to describe this book, so I’m just going to borrow these words;
“A group of ancient heroes in the form of winged angels show up one night in the camp of the wandering Mac Canns (Patsy, his daughter Mary and their downtrodden donkey). Together the little group wanders around rural Ireland: telling stories, creating mischief and running into some familiar yet often unwelcome faces.” (via Goodreads)

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