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ISSN : 1226-4946(Print)
ISSN : 2288-5412(Online)
The Yeats Journal of Korea Vol.30 pp.75-106
DOI : http://dx.doi.org/10.14354/yjk.2008.30.75

A Study on the Sociocultural Background of Celtic Fairy Tales in Victorian Era.**

Suh Hye Sook

Abstract

This study examines Celtic fairy tales relating to the sociocultural background ofIreland in Victorian Age. W. B. Yeats's Fairy and Folk Tales of the IrishPeasantry, 1888 and Irish Fairy Tales, 1892, The Celtic Twilight, 1893, and JosephJacobs's Celtic Fairy Tales, 1892 and More Celtic Fairy Tales, 1894 are correlatedwith the Irish celtic history, religion and culture. They are best known as collectorsof fairy tales at that time.
Jacobs thought that the fate of the Celt in the British Empire bids fair toresemble that of the Greeks among the Romans, "they went forth to battle, but theyalways fell, yet the captive Celt has enslaved his captor in the realm ofimagination." And he insisted that nowhere else was there so large and consistent abody of oral tradition about the national and mythical heroes as amongst the Gaels,and especially concerned that the Irish tales and ballads had this peculiarity.
The aim of Jacobs's volumes is to present to English children the vision andcolor, the magic and charm, of the Celtic folk-imagination. While Yeats's volumesshow his interest in spiritual beings and his nationalism. Yeats who believes thatfaith to perpetuate in the three early Cycles of Irish folktales taught by the Druidsees in Tir-na-n'Og, the land of the Sidhe, Plato's and Plotinus' "yonder" when oursouls descend whither they return.
The Celtic beliefs in rebirth and in the otherworld are connected with beliefssurrounding the burial mounds of the Megalithic people. Among the Celts thesetombs were connected with religious usages, chiefly with a cult of gods and fairy-like beings. Beginning with the Ulster Cycle, the sidhe and the Tuatha deDanann merge and become one, and renamed "fairy." A tale entitled "Connla andthe Fairy Maiden" chosen by Jacobs is the earliest fairy tale of modern Europe andcontains an early account of one of the most characteristic Celtic conceptions, thatof the earthly paradise, the isle of Youth, Tir-na-n'Og. And in Fairy Folk Tales ofthe Irish Peasantry there are also new characters like changlings, merrow,leprechauns, banshee, pookas.
Samain, the first of November is the beginning of Celtic Year and the biggestfestival of Ireland. On the November Eve the sidhe dance with the ghosts andwitches make their spells. When the soul has left the body, it is drawn away,sometimes, by fairies. The souls of the dead sometimes take the shapes of animals.And there are 'ghosts' in fairy tales. Yeats chose Lady Wilde's "The Black Lamb"in his volume. And there are 'witches' and 'fairy doctors' in Irish fairy tales. "TheHorned Women" of Lady Wilde chosen by the two collectors is the famous tale ofwitches. Witches and fairy doctors receive their power from opposite dynasties; thewitch from evil spirits and her own malignant will; the fairy doctor from the fairies.
Samain was adopted by the Christian missionaries to serve their own purposesand renamed "All Souls Day." When the Christian missionaries came to Ireland inthe fifth century AD they were able to infiltrate the oral traditions of the Celticpeople and infuse Christian beliefs through process of recording the Celtic tales inwritten form. And the Christian missionaries create the biographies of Christiansaints known as "The Legend of the Saint." So there are 'Saints' and 'Priests' inIrish fairy tales.
When the pagan gods of Ireland, Tuatha de Danann, robbed of worship andofferings, grew smaller and smaller in the popular imagination, until they turned intothe fairies, the pagan heroes grew bigger and bigger, until they turned into thegiants. So there are 'giants' in Irish fairy tales like "A Legend of Knockmany." Inthree major Irish tales cycles (the Mythological cycle, the Ulster Cycle, and theFenian Cycle) there are so many kings and queens and princesses.
Beliefs in the fairy faith, the remnants of an earlier faith than Christianity, haveinfluenced the more modern motifs and characters of Irish Celtic fairy tales.

빅토리아 시대 켈트 동화의 사회문화적 배경 연구*

서혜숙
건국대

초록

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