Britons and Celts
Beware the Red Swine
“They are so cunning that they can change the shapes of things as they list at their pleasure & so deceive the people thereby that an act was made in Ireland, that no man should buy any red swine.” […]
Animals
Britons and Celts
My Boyfriend is a Lion
“Soothing him with a woman’s tricks, she led him wherever he wanted and changed all his fury immediately into love.” […]
Humor
Brave as a Lion… or Not
“The Cid leaned on his elbow and rose to his feet, and leaving his cloak over his shoulder he walked towards the lion. When the lion saw him, it was so taken aback that it hung its head and nosed the ground. Don Rodrigo took it by the neck, let it along with his right hand and put it in the net.” […]
Human Affairs
Forbidden Love and Swan Abuse
“Milun and his beloved maintained this way of life for twenty years. The swan acted as messenger. They had no other intermediary and they starved it before releasing it. Whoever received the swan fed it, of course. They came together on a number of occasions.” […]
Britons and Celts
Fear the Cats of Night
When the sheep was cooked and he thought to eat it there came in a cat and she sat by him, and said in Irish, ‘Shane foel’, which is ‘give me some meat’. He, amazed at this, gave her the quarter that was in his hand, which immediately she did eat up, and asked for more.” […]
Britons and Celts
A Beloved Bird of Prey
“For what place was left to the poor little birds, when men held the land and the waters, and a hostile and terrible tyrant of a bird endangered the air?” […]
Britons and Celts
The Death of the King of Cats
“a Cat (as he thought) leaped out of a bush before him and called him twice or thrice by his name, but because he made no answer, nor spake (for he was so afraid that he could not) she spake to him plainly twice or thrice these words following.” […]
Supernatural
Stealing from a Satyr
“He knew of a sword which could deal him his death, which was fastened up in the closest bonds; this was in the keeping of Miming, the Satyr of the woods, who also had a bracelet of a secret and marvellous virtue, that used to increase the wealth of the owner.” […]
Supernatural
Fear the Ghost Seal
“The same night that Thorodd had left, when the people at Froday came up to the fireside in the evening, they saw a seal’s head coming coming out of the fireplace.” […]
Orient
A People Cursed by God
“They consume everything, even the grass. Like wild beasts, they slaughter our herds. They even eat the vermin that crawl on the earth. No other species multiplies like they do. Not one of them dies without fathering a thousand children.” […]