The Young King Of Easaidh Ruadh is a Scottish
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
collected by
John Francis Campbell
John Francis Campbell (Scottish Gaelic: Iain Frangan Caimbeul; Islay, 29 December 1821 – Cannes, 17 February 1885), also known as Young John of Islay (Scottish Gaelic: Iain Òg Ìle) was a Scottish author and scholar who specialised ...
in his ''
Popular Tales of the West Highlands
''Popular Tales of the West Highlands'' is a four-volume collection of fairy tales, collected and published by John Francis Campbell, and often translated from Gaelic. Alexander Carmichael was one of the main contributors. The collection in four ...
'', listing his informant as James Wilson, a blind fiddler, in Islay.
Andrew Lang
Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University o ...
included a variant in ''
The Lilac Fairy Book
''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...
'', as "The King of the Waterfalls", listing his source ''West Highland Tales''.
Synopsis
The young king of Easaidh Ruadh decided to amuse himself by playing a game with the Gruagach. He sought advice from a Seanagal first. He did not take his advice to not go, but the Seanagal told him to ask for the prize, if he won, the cropped rough-skinned maid behind the door. He went and won at the game. When he would not be put off from his prize, they gave him the maid, and she turned into a beautiful woman. He married her. He went to play again, and his wife warned him that it was her father, and he should take only the dun shaggy filly that has the stick saddle on her. He won, and got the filly.
He went to play a
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
time, and this time he lost. The Gruagach set as the stakes that he must get the
Glaive of Light of the king of the oak windows, or lose his head. He went back to his wife. She told him he had the best wife and the second best horse and should not be afraid. She saddled the horse herself; the saddle looked like wood but was full of sparklings with gold and silver. She told him to listen to his horse.
The horse bore him to the castle of the king of the oak windows and sent him into the king's chambers while the king ate, warning him to take it softly. He made a soft sound, and the horse told him they must flee. They were chased by a swarm of brown horses, which they could outrun, and then by a swarm of black horses, one white-faced and with a rider. The King's horse told him that horse was its brother and the first best horse, and faster; he must cut off the head of the rider, the king. He did, and his horse had him ride the black horse home. He brought the sword to the Gruagach and, as his wife warned him to, stabbed him to death in a mole.
He came home to find a
giant
In folklore, giants (from Ancient Greek: '' gigas'', cognate giga-) are beings of human-like appearance, but are at times prodigious in size and strength or bear an otherwise notable appearance. The word ''giant'' is first attested in 1297 fr ...
had stolen his wife and the two horses. He set out in search and met a ''cu seang'', a wild dog. They greeted each other and the dog gave him meat. He thought he should go home, having no way to recover his wife and horses. The dog encouraged him and sent him on, promising to aid him. The next nights, he met a falcon and an otter as well, who did the same. Then he found a cave where his wife and the two horses were. She wept; he complained that he had journeyed hard to find her. The horses told her to hide him before them all.
The giant returned and the wife persuaded him that no one had come. He went to feed the horses, and they would not let him come near. He said if he had his soul in his body, they would have killed him. She asked where it was; he told her in the Bonnach stone, near the edge. When he left the next day, she pushed it so it was steady on the ledge, and told him she was afraid it would be hurt. He said his soul was in the threshold. She cleaned it, because his soul was in it, and he told her that a stone was under the threshold, and a sheep under it. The sheep held a duck, the duck held an egg, and the egg held his soul.
The king and queen moved the threshold and the stone. The sheep escaped, and the king called on the dog to catch it; the duck escaped, and the king called on the falcon to catch it; the egg rolled into the river, and the king called on the otter to retrieve it. The queen crushed it, killing the giant. They went home with the giant's gold and silver, visiting the otter, the falcon, and the dog on the way.
See also
*
The Death of Koschei the Deathless
The Death of Koschei the Deathless or Marya Morevna (russian: Марья Моревна) is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in '' Narodnye russkie skazki'' and included by Andrew Lang in ''The Red Fairy Book''. The characte ...
*
The Dragon and the Prince The Dragon and the Prince or The Prince and the Dragon is a Serbian fairy tale collected by A. H. Wratislaw in his ''Sixty Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources'', tale number 43. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Crimson Fairy Book''.Andrew ...
*
The Flower Queen's Daughter
The Flower Queen's Daughter ( German: ''Die Tochter der Blumenkönigin'') is a Bukovinian fairy tale collected by Dr Heinrich von Wlislocki in ''Märchen Und Sagen Der Bukowinaer Und Siebenbûrger Armenier''. Andrew Lang included it in ''The Ye ...
*
The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body
The Giant Who Had No Heart in His Body is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe.
George MacDonald retold it as "The Giant's Heart" in ''Adela Cathcart''. A version of the tale also appears in '' A Book of Giants'' by Ruth Manning ...
*
The Sea-Maiden
The Sea-Maiden (Scottish Gaelic: ''A Mhaighdean Mhara'') is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in '' Popular Tales of the West Highlands'', listing his informant as John Mackenzie, fisherman, near Inverary. Joseph Jacobs i ...
*
The Three Daughters of King O'Hara
The Three Daughters of King O'Hara is an Irish fairy tale collected by Jeremiah Curtin in ''Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland''. Reidar Th. Christiansen identified its origin as County Kerry.
The tale is related to the international cycle of the ''An ...
*
What Came of Picking Flowers
External links
''The Young King Of Easaidh Ruadh''*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Young King Of Easaidh Ruadh
Young King Of Easaidh Ruadh
John Francis Campbell