Irish Fairy and Folk Tales by W.B. Yeats

W.B. Yeats included almost every sort of Irish folk tale in this marvelous compendium of fair tales and song which he collected and edited for publication in 1892.  Yeats was fascinated by Irish myths and folklore, and joined forces with the writers of the Irish Literary Revival.  He studied Irish folk tales in the British Museum and chose to reintroduce the glory and significance of Ireland's past through this unique literature.In the world of Irish fairy tales, the cycles of birth, love, pain, and death have continued unchanged for countless generations.  Here is the literature of the heart--a place where anything is possible and demons cannot be rationalized.  In stories where every county and family is favored or plagued by magic, imagination, and daily life combine in legend which is both entertaining and terrifying.Here are tales of the chilling wail of the Banshee, whose cry portends death, and of the fish-tailed Merrow, whose beautiful women spurn their green-haired husbands for handsome local fishermen."All my life I have been haunted with the idea that the poet should know all classes of men as one of themselves, that he should combine the greatest possible personal realization with the greatest possible knowledge of the speech and circumstances of the world." (from The Autobiography of W.B. Yeats)