--- title: XVII. Sea-maiden. — Celtic Fairy Tales · full text with trees description: XVII. Sea-maiden., «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole chapter, every sentence with its dependency tree and pragmatics. It begins: _Source_.--Campbell, _Pop. --- [Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/) [home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/) / [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/) / XVII. Sea-maiden. # XVII. Sea-maiden. XVII. Sea-maiden. of «Celtic Fairy Tales» by Joseph Jacobs: the whole text, 35 sentences and 657 words. Every sentence has its own page with its syntax tree and pragmatics, parsed by Mova itself. - [1](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/1/) — \_Source\_.--Campbell, \_Pop. - [2](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/2/) — Tales\_, No. 4. - [3](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/3/) — I have omitted the births of the animal comrades and transposed the carlin to the middle of the tale. - [4](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/4/) — Mr. Batten has considerately idealised the Sea-Maiden in his frontispiece. - [5](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/5/) — When she restores the husband to the wife in one of the variants, she brings him out of her mouth! " - [6](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/6/) — So the sea-maiden put up his head (\_Who do you mean? - [7](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/7/) — Out of her mouth to be sure. - [8](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/8/) — She had swallowed him\_)." - [9](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/9/) — \_Parallels\_.--The early part of the story occurs in No. xv., "Shee an Gannon," and the last part in No. xix., "Fair, Brown, and Trembling" (both from Curtin), Campbell's No. 1. " - [10](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/10/) — The Young King" is much like it; also MacInnes' No. iv., "Herding of Cruachan" and No. viii., "Lod the Farmer's Son." - [11](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/11/) — The third of Mr. Britten's Irish folk-tales in the \_Folk-Lore Journal\_ is a Sea-Maiden story. - [12](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/12/) — The story is obviously a favourite one among the Celts. - [13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/13/) — Yet its main incidents occur with frequency in Continental folk-tales. - [14](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/14/) — Prof. - [15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/15/) — Koehler has collected a number in his notes on Campbell's Tales in \_Orient und Occident\_, Bnd. ii. - [16](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/16/) — 115-8. - [17](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/17/) — The trial of the sword occurs in the saga of Sigurd, yet it is also frequent in Celtic saga and folk-tales (see Mr. Nutt's note, MacInnes' \_Tales\_, 473, and add. - [18](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/18/) — Curtin, 320). - [19](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/19/) — The hideous carlin and her three giant sons is also a common form in Celtic. - [20](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/20/) — The external soul of the Sea-Maiden carried about in an egg, in a trout, in a hoodie, in a hind, is a remarkable instance of a peculiarly savage conception which has been studied by Major Temple, \_Wide-awake Stories\_, 404-5; by Mr. E. Clodd, in the "Philosophy of Punchkin," in \_Folk-Lore Journal\_, vol. ii., and by Mr. Frazer in his \_Golden Bough\_, vol. ii. - [21](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/21/) — \_Remarks\_.--As both Prof. - [22](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/22/) — Rhys (\_Hibbert Lect. - [23](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/23/) — \_, 464) and Mr. Nutt (MacInnes' \_Tales\_, 477) have pointed out, practically the same story (that of Perseus and Andromeda) is told of the Ultonian hero, Cuchulain, in the \_Wooing of Emer\_, a tale which occurs in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of the twelfth century, and was probably copied from one of the eighth. - [24](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/24/) — Unfortunately it is not complete, and the Sea-Maiden incident is only to be found in a British Museum MS. of about 1300. - [25](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/25/) — In this Cuchulain finds that the daughter of Ruad is to be given as a tribute to the Fomori, who, according to Prof. - [26](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/26/) — Rhys, \_Folk-Lore\_, ii. - [27](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/27/) — 293, have something of the night\_mare\_ about their etymology. - [28](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/28/) — Cuchulain fights \_three\_ of them successively, has his wounds bound up by a strip of the maiden's garment, and then departs. - [29](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/29/) — Thereafter many boasted of having slain the Fomori, but the maiden believed them not till at last by a stratagem she recognises Cuchulain. - [30](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/30/) — I may add to this that in Mr. Curtin's \_Myths\_, 330, the threefold trial of the sword is told of Cuchulain. - [31](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/31/) — This would seem to trace our story back to the seventh or eighth century and certainly to the thirteenth. - [32](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/32/) — If so, it is likely enough that it spread from Ireland through Europe with the Irish missions (for the wide extent of which see map in Mrs. Bryant's \_Celtic Ireland\_). - [33](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/33/) — The very letters that have spread through all Europe except Russia, are to be traced to the script of these Irish monks: why not certain folk-tales? - [34](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/34/) — There is a further question whether the story was originally told of Cuchulain as a hero-tale and then became departicularised as a folk-tale, or was the process \_vice versa\_. - [35](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/51/35/) — Certainly in the form in which it appears in the \_Tochmarc Emer\_ it is not complete, so that here, as elsewhere, we seem to have an instance of a folk-tale applied to a well-known heroic name, and becoming a hero-tale or saga. - ← previous: [XVI. the Story-teller At Fault.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/50/) - next →: [XVIII. Legend of Knockmany.](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/52/) - ↑ back to [Celtic Fairy Tales](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tales/pg7885/)