Week 12 Essay

This week I read the Celtic Fairytales unit which takes stories from Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892). My favorite stories were Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, Connla and the Fairy Maiden , and Beth Gellert. I liked this unit, though the way it was written made it a little hard to read. I felt like I had to read each sentence, sometimes more than once, and decipher it before moving on and establishing the overall meaning of what I was reading. I felt like I had to start over a few times and go back. I listened to the audiobook then read the story with a few of the stories and that seemed to help. I think the only information people should be aware of is that the stories are written in a way that sounds like a Celtic person talking out loud or singing.

This unit fit with my overall goals of the class because it taught me about Celtic folklore, but it didn't align much with my storybook. However, I really liked the different take on Snow White. I learned that Celtic fairy tales have a lot of strange takes on children and how to raise and protect them. It This unit is really different from many of the mythology units, its more like a storybook and that was pretty fun. This unit was not my favorite so far, but I like the Celtic stories. I think i'd like to hear them read aloud by someone of that descent, just to see if when read aloud by them, the stories really did sound like songs.

I was surprised by the Brewery of Eggshells story. It was nothing like what I expected, but still managed to tie in to the title. I liked that it dealt with mischievous little elves and showed them as troublesome, generally unkind creatures. People today tend to think of them as adorable, cherub-looking creatures who make cookies and are very ethereal. Celtic folklore sees them differently, and I can't remember why, but i've always aligned them more closely with a dark nature than a light one.

Santa's Evil Elf

by user Dront, found on 3DTotal Forum