Celtic fairy traditions
Douglas Hyde
Hyde’s introduction recognizes the accuracy of Evans-Wentz’s collected data while leaving the resulting conclusions open. He describes fairy belief as uneven and declining in places, correcting an impression of universal adherence. The survey also recounts field visits with Hyde in Roscommon, including a cottage conversation about a leprechaun. Scholarship here includes listening to particular people, not merely interpreting old manuscripts.
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In the sources
Principal account
ReportedHyde’s introduction recognizes the accuracy of Evans-Wentz’s collected data while leaving the resulting conclusions open. He describes fairy belief as uneven and declining in places, correcting an impression of universal adherence.
Further detail
ReportedThe survey also recounts field visits with Hyde in Roscommon, including a cottage conversation about a leprechaun. Scholarship here includes listening to particular people, not merely interpreting old manuscripts.
Context & interpretation
Evans-Wentz combines named informants, manuscript narratives, and his own psychical theory in a 1911 survey. This entry preserves those distinctions: collected belief and literary tradition do not establish the physical existence of an Otherworld.
Original passages
Source 1
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
be no doubt as to the accuracy of the data from which he draws them. I have myself been for nearly a quarter ofOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 54
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0054
- Original scan leaf
- 55
- Recorded leaf number
- 55
- Current Reader position
- 50
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Source 2
The Fairy-Faith in Celtic Countries
TAKING OF EVIDENCE IN IRELAND 71 Dr. Hyde and the Leprechaun. — One day while I was privi- leged to be at Ratra, Dr. HydeOpen this page in the book
Passage & edition details
Location recorded at citation review: Celtic fairy traditions; active reader leaf 102
Exact passage checked against active scan text and original-leaf mapping; scan line breaks normalised.
- Edition
- IMJ-0045-E001
- Reader page
- IMJ-0045-E001-P0102
- Original scan leaf
- 103
- Recorded leaf number
- 103
- Current Reader position
- 98
- Reader verification
- Source-preserving update confirmed
Continue exploring
A. E. in the Fairy-Faith
The poet A. E. supplies a visionary language for the Otherworld.
Same subject and traditionRobert Kirk
Minister whose fairy treatise and disappearance became part of Scottish tradition.
Same subject and traditionWilliam Butler Yeats
Poet and guide whose local knowledge informs the fairy survey.