Celtic folklore overflows with vivid stories that fire the imagination. At the end of
his highly successful English Fairy Tales, Joseph Jacobs compiled Celtic Fairy Tales,
a book of 26 stories from around Wales and Ireland. While some of the themes
found in Celtic folklore are similar to those of contemporary fairy tales, other
stories in this collection are infused with a flavour that is uniquely Celtic.
In Jacobs’ own words, “The Celts went forth to battle, but they always fell. Yet the
captive Celt has enslaved his captor in the realm of imagination.”

Celtic Fairy Tales tells of horned women, breweries of eggshells, sprightly tailors,
gold and silver trees, King o’ Toole’s goose, sea maidens, and more.
Of particular interest is the 13th century legend of Beth Gellert, wherein the dog
of Llewelyn (I) the Great, Prince of Wales, protected the prince’s infant son from
a wolf attack. Seeing the blood Llewelyn assumed the dog had killed his son and
In turn he slew the dog only to find his son alive and well hidden under his
upturned cot. A memorial to the dog still stands today in the village of Beddgelert,
near Snowdon, Wales.

In an attempt to give a library of the Celts’ wealthy imagination to his readers,
Jacobs has attempted to begin the readers’ captivity with the earliest recordings
of these tales. And captivate he does—Celtic Fairy Tales not only preserves a
cultural history, but also is richly entertaining.

We invite you to curl up with this unique sliver of Celtic folklore not seen in
print for over a century; immerse yourself in the tales and fables of yesteryear.

A percentage of the profit from the sale of this book will be donated to the
Prince’s Trust for education scholarships for underprivileged individuals.

Books in this Series