TEACHER’S PREFACE
These stories are offered in the hope that theymay help promote the love of reading in ourboys and girls. After all, our duty in teaching readingis not in the subject matter but in the desire.If we show to the child that the art of reading isthe golden key which will unlock the storehouse oflife enjoyment, and give him the love for the secretsof the printed page, we may consider that our educationaleffort has been well spent. So the primaryobject in writing these stories has not been to chroniclehistory but to give the child something interestingand entertaining.
The early Celts have little literature other thanthese stories, which have been handed down fromgeneration to generation by word of mouth. Mostof the tales in this book have been taken from theOssianic Saga. Whether Finn belongs to history ormythology detracts no jot from the absorbing interestof his exploits.
I have tried to make the story of Finn somethingof a connected narrative. To do this I have takenincidents from various versions; I have left out muchunsuitable to children, and I have changed some incidentsto conform to the modern standards of morals.The chronology of arrangement is my own, but Ihave tried to preserve the spirit of the originals.
No collection of Irish folk stories could be broughtout were it not for the work of those many scholarswho have spent years in collecting and translatingthe tales of the Celtic race. To our American linguist,Jeremiah Curtin, and to the Irish scholars:Sir Douglas Hyde, Dr. Joyce, Eleanor Hull, LadyGregory, T. W. Rolleston and others, my thanks aredue. Their splendid research work has made possiblesuch a volume as this.