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Ella Young (1867–1956)

Forfatter af Celtic Wonder-Tales

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Image credit: By Edward Weston (from Wikipedia entry for Ella Young).

Værker af Ella Young

Associated Works

The Unicorn Treasury: Stories, Poems, and Unicorn Lore (1988) — Bidragyder — 255 eksemplarer
The New Junior Classics Volume 03: Myths and Legends (1938) — Bidragyder — 237 eksemplarer
Great Irish Tales of Fantasy and Myth (1994) — Bidragyder — 106 eksemplarer
The Easter Book of Legends and Stories (1947) — Bidragyder — 34 eksemplarer
New Songs: A Lyric Selection — Bidragyder — 5 eksemplarer
Stories for girls — Bidragyder — 1 eksemplar

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Almen Viden

Fødselsdato
1867-12-26
Dødsdag
1956-07-23
Køn
female
Nationalitet
Ireland (birth)
USA (naturalized)
Fødested
Fenagh, County Antrim, Ireland, UK
Dødssted
Oceano, California, USA
Bopæl
Dublin, Ireland
Sausalito, California, USA
Oceano, California, USA
Taos, New Mexico, USA
Uddannelse
Trinity College, Dublin
Royal University of Ireland
Erhverv
poet
mythologist
Celtic expert
lecturer in Irish Myth and Lore
children's book author
folklorist
Relationer
Gonne, Maud (friend)
Adams, Ansel (friend)
Yeats, William Butler (friend)
Organisationer
Theosophical Society
Kort biografi
Ella Young was born in Fenagh, Ireland, and grew up in Dublin. She earned a bachelor's degree from the Royal University of Ireland and received a master's degree at Trinity College, Dublin. She participated in the 1916 Easter Rising as a member of Cumann na mBan, storing arms and ammunition for Republican forces in her home. Her first volume of poetry, titled simply Poems, was published in 1906, and her first work of Irish folklore, The Coming of Lugh, appeared in 1909 and was illustrated by her friend Maud Gonne. She became an important figure in the Gaelic and Celtic Revival literary movement. In 1925, she moved to the USA for the position of James D. Phelan Lecturer in Irish Myth and Lore at the University of California, Berkeley. She also went on speaking tours to other American universities.

She was known for her colorful and lively persona, giving lectures while wearing purple Druid robes, talking about fairies and elves, and praising the benefits of talking to trees. Her enthusiasm for the subject of Celtic mythology and folklore won her a wide audience among students, writers, and artists. She also wrote a number of popular children's books, such as The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales (1929), which was named a Newbery Honor Book. In 1931, as she still did not have legal immigration status, she had to spend three months in British Columbia, Canada to qualify for re-entry to the USA; eventually she obtained American citizenship. She published her autobiography, Flowering Dusk: Things Remembered Accurately and Inaccurately, in 1945.

Medlemmer

Anmeldelser

I didn't rate this book very highly, but the story (stories) wasn't really that bad. I liked the idea that the author had wrangled up Gaelic old tales, some directly from ye old folks, and put them together to try and make a somewhat cohesive book. But this book had a hard time keeping my interest, try as I might. It was relatively short and the tales weren’t that bad. There’s just something about that style I don’t get along with. I read the author’s note at the beginning; it read just fine, and was a rather interesting blurb. It’s like she turned something on specifically to write the book and I'm not dialed in properly.… (mere)
 
Markeret
Allyoopsi | 2 andre anmeldelser | Jun 22, 2022 |
Reprint. Orig. publ. New York, NY : Longman, Green & Co., 1927
 
Markeret
ME_Dictionary | 2 andre anmeldelser | Mar 19, 2020 |
Published in 1929, and chosen as one of six Newbery Honor titles in 1930, The Tangle-Coated Horse and Other Tales is the second collection of Irish mythology from Ella Young to be so distinguished, following upon 1927's The Wondersmith and His Son: A Tale from the Golden Childhood of the World. That earlier work was concerned with the adventures of Goibniu, the Great Smith of Ireland, and derived from the Mythological Cycle of the Irish folk tradition (na Scéalta Miotaseolaíochta), whereas this is a children's version of the Fenian Cycle (An Fiannaíocht), in which is told the deeds of the hero Fionn mac Cumhaill and his band of warriors, the Fianna.

Opening when Fionn (still known by his childhood name of Demna) is yet a boy, orphaned by the slaying of his father Uail at the hands of Goll, son of Morna, and being raised in hiding by the Druidress Bovemall and the woman warrior Liath, it follows its hero through many adventures, as he regains the leadership of the Fianna, once held by his father, and wins back the lost prestige of the Clan Bassna. The famous episode involving Finnegas the Poet and the Salmon of Knowledge; Fionn's battle with Allyn, son of Midna, which ranged from the gates of Tara to the slopes of Slieve Cullion; his meeting and all-too-brief time with the beautiful Saba, mother of Usheen**; and his travels, together with his companions in the Fianna, to the Land Under Wave (told in the the titular selection, The Tangle-Coated Horse), are all laid out in this collection. So too are many other tales, from Keeltya's time as the "king's candlestick," to Diarmid's doomed love affair with Murias, daughter of the King Under the Wave. Finally, the collection closes with the story of Usheen's time with Nee-av in Teer-nan-ogue, and his return to Ireland many centuries later, in the days of St. Patrick - the days when the great cycles of Irish mythology were first recorded.

There is great beauty here, in Young's language - just as there was in The Wonder Smith and His Son - and in the stories themselves. It is the seductive beauty of music, and of enchantment, of the Shining Folk with whom mortals must share the land, and with whom they must contend: "Minute by minute the music changed. It was patterned, as reedy shallows are patterned by the feet of the wind: it gathered itself as a wave gathers, curving to fall: and like foam on the running eager crest of a wave - like the silvery flash of a salmon in swirling waters - the first unearthly melody, the high lilting sweetness, maintained itself. Ah, what was it that the son of Midna was playing? Why did Fionn take part with him, against himself? He was playing the stars out of the sky; he was playing the earth to nothingness, and yet Fionn exulted and towered out of his body to listen! What was that thin sweet song! Sun moon and stars were dust upon the wind - small scattered dust - and yet the song persisted: how could so thin and fine a sweetness consume the heart?"

But it is also the beauty of Ireland herself, a "troubling beauty," all "flame and starlight and silence - quenchless and death-giving." It is a beauty to cause "bitter longing" in the exile - be it Diarmid in the Land Under Wave, Usheen in Teer-nan-ogue, or perhaps, Ella Young in California - and a ceaseless desire to return home. By turns humorous and haunting, these tales are not all that can be told, of Fionn and the Fianna, but they are a fine introduction to that corpus of story, full of beauty and mystery. Although not quite the equal, in my estimation, of the incomparably powerful The Wondersmith and His Son (which was a five-star standout for me!), this is still a lovely collection, one I would highly recommend to any reader interested in retellings of the Fenian cycle of Irish mythology.

**Note: Young wrote before there was any standardization, both in terms of Irish spelling, and the Anglicization of names, so readers should be prepared for some unusual forms (I tried to stick with those used by Young, in writing of her book) that are not much in use today.
… (mere)
1 stem
Markeret
AbigailAdams26 | Apr 7, 2013 |
As the Gubbaun Saor - the great smith of Ireland - lay dying, his son took up his flute, and played the music of the Faery Hills. "Thin and faint at first and of an unearthly sweetness it filled the mind as with a heaven of stars. It had the sound of every instrument and the sound of singing voices in it. Slow rhythms moved through it like sea-waves: light, fierce rhythms leaped like flame: it turned and twisted on itself in intricate mazes and dances of delight. It rose and swelled till it filled the tent of the sky. It slid away into hollows and secret caverns of the earth - chilled and drenched with sweetness. It ebbed and ebbed, withdrawing itself as Cleena's Wave withdraws - a ripple of foam on the void - an echo - a soundless abysm."

It is this sweet music, with its hypnotic rhythms and enchanting tones, its strange power to move the spirit and touch the heart, that can be heard all through Ella Young's achingly beautiful The Wondersmith and His Son, a collection of fourteen Irish tales concerning that magical smith, and inventor of marvels, known here as the Gubbaun Saor, and elsewhere as Goibniu. Collected by Young both in Irish and English, in the small villages of the west of Ireland - in Clare, Kerry, and on Mayo's Achill Island - these tales come to us from the storehouse of a great folk tradition, their strength and beauty undiminished by the telling.

Again and again, as I read them, I was struck by the sheer poetry of the language, and the deceptively simple power of the stories themselves. Here is the Gubbaun, longing for the son he does not have, and willing to trade the daughter he does, for a stranger's boy. And here is the Gubbaun, learning too late that his own daughter - the wise Aunya, capable of outwitting even her great father - will always be his true child, and the true inheritor of his mind.

Here is the generous Gubbaun, offering his blessing to the Pooka: "My blessing to you, Brother of mine; White Love of Running Water; White Wave of Turbulent Sea. I will win you lovers and new kingdoms. You shall be a song in the heart; a dream that slips from city to city; a flame; a whiteness of peace in the murk of battle; a honied laughter; a quenchless delight. These, O my Brother, because of me: and at the last, my hand upon your neck."

Here is the Gubbaun, giving his son the road-blessing, before sending him off to win a bride (the superior Aunya, of course!): My blessing on the road that is smooth," said the Gubbaun, "and on the rough road through the quagmire. A blessing on night with the stars; and night when the stars are quenched. A blessing on the clear sky of day; and day that is choked with thunder. May my blessing run before you. May my blessing guard you on the right hand and on the left. May my blessing follow you as your shadow follows. Take my road-blessing."

And here, finally, is the Gubbaun, lost in the dreams of old age, waiting to be called forth, one last time, by his adoptive son: "I know a Forest," said the Gubbaun, "a dark Forest - the leaves of it are days and years, the twisted boughs of it are centuries and millenniums - and I am tangled in its dark and crooked ways: I am caught in its thorny branches: I am lost."

There is magic here, and beauty, and all the strange and disquieting enchantment that is the reward of true mythology. Here are no cute stories of rainbows with pots of gold, no leprechauns (I'm looking at you, David), no pleasant tales that ask little of the reader, and give little in return. No, these are tales of power. They demand that we speak their language, and offer no extraneous explanations, of who is who, and what is what. No mention is made here of the Tuatha Dé Danann, and although Balor and the Fomorians do appear, the assumption is that the reader will understand who they are. Terms are also not explained, and the modern reader, with no knowledge of Irish, might be forgiven for wondering just how the Gubbaun could build a "Dune" (no, it isn't made of sand...). But while these tales assume a certain level of knowledge, and demand engagement, they repay the reader with true wonderment.

Selected as a Newbery Honor Book in 1928, The Wondersmith and His Son was originally published for children, but is it a children's book? I honestly couldn't say - I know only that I was a child again, as I read it, with all the mystery, and beauty, and terror of the world still before me.
… (mere)
 
Markeret
AbigailAdams26 | 2 andre anmeldelser | Apr 2, 2013 |

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Værker
15
Also by
7
Medlemmer
323
Popularitet
#73,309
Vurdering
3.8
Anmeldelser
5
ISBN
33
Sprog
6
Udvalgt
2

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