Page:West Irish folk-tales and romances - William Larminie.djvu/17

 xiii M'Grale is easily distinguishable from that of "The Little Girl who got the better of the Gentleman," or "Gilla of the Enchantments." Even Minahan varies with his subject, as will appear from a comparison of "The Woman who went to Hell" with "The Champion of the Red Belt." It seems from this as if some of the tales had a certain indestructibility of style, an original colour which passed unaltered through the minds of perhaps generations of reciters, this colour being determined at first by the character of the subject. In general, the tales of fierce fighting champions, of the more terrible monsters, sorcerers and the like, have a certain fierceness, if one may use the word, of style; while those of more domestic incident are told with quietness and tenderness.

Let me now briefly compare the folk-tales of Germany with those of the Scotch Highlands.

It cannot, I think, escape notice in reading Grimm's collection, that a very large number of the tales bear a strong impress of quiet domesticity. They are very properly named "household" in more senses than one. And this is a matter not merely of style but of substance. The incidents are, to a vast extent, domestic in character. There is no occasion to give a long list of the tales I refer to. I may mention as types "The Three Spinners," which turns entirely on the results of domestic drudgery to the female figure; and