March 1 to March 31
Year III
Event Resources-Links to lots of short stories, from classics to brand new works.
I am very fond of stories about fairies, especially Irish ones. Before you scoff at this Google "Einstein on Fairy Tales". There are a great many scholarly books written on fairy tales. There are several different theories as to how fairy stories became an important part of Irish culture.
I have so far read two novels by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (Dublin, 1954) The Dancers Dancing and her wonderful satire of the Irish literary social scene Fox, Sallow, Scare Crow and her marvelous collection of short stories, The Shelter of Neighbors. (There is background information on her in my prior posts She is recognized as one of the contemporary masters of the short story. I have wanted to read "Midwife to the Fairies" ever since Beauty is a Sleeping Cat did a great post on it during Irish Short Story Month in 2012. I also admit I think the title of the story is just beyond brilliance. How could one not want to read it?
As the story opens a woman who works in a maternity ward of a Dublin hospital in relaxing on a Friday night with her husband, looking forward to the weekend when there is a knock on the door. It is a man telling he he needs her to come with him to deliver the baby of his wife. Her mother and grandmother were both midwifes so she feels she has to go. She wants to take her own car but it won't start so she goes with the man. When she gets there she finds a young woman ready to give birth. There are a number of people there but they are unfriendly and seemingly not concerned about the woman. The baby is born but his birth weight is very low and she tells the husband the baby needs to be taken to a hospital. He takes her home and gives her some well needed money.
There is another story being told also, an old story about a woman who assists in the birth of "wee people". It is a very dark story and it is, or I should better say they the old and and the new story are commentaries on each other.
Both story lines end in a terrible fashion. I will refrain from spoiling the ending of this story for you.
Mel u
I am very fond of stories about fairies, especially Irish ones. Before you scoff at this Google "Einstein on Fairy Tales". There are a great many scholarly books written on fairy tales. There are several different theories as to how fairy stories became an important part of Irish culture.
I have so far read two novels by Éilís Ní Dhuibhne (Dublin, 1954) The Dancers Dancing and her wonderful satire of the Irish literary social scene Fox, Sallow, Scare Crow and her marvelous collection of short stories, The Shelter of Neighbors. (There is background information on her in my prior posts She is recognized as one of the contemporary masters of the short story. I have wanted to read "Midwife to the Fairies" ever since Beauty is a Sleeping Cat did a great post on it during Irish Short Story Month in 2012. I also admit I think the title of the story is just beyond brilliance. How could one not want to read it?
As the story opens a woman who works in a maternity ward of a Dublin hospital in relaxing on a Friday night with her husband, looking forward to the weekend when there is a knock on the door. It is a man telling he he needs her to come with him to deliver the baby of his wife. Her mother and grandmother were both midwifes so she feels she has to go. She wants to take her own car but it won't start so she goes with the man. When she gets there she finds a young woman ready to give birth. There are a number of people there but they are unfriendly and seemingly not concerned about the woman. The baby is born but his birth weight is very low and she tells the husband the baby needs to be taken to a hospital. He takes her home and gives her some well needed money.
There is another story being told also, an old story about a woman who assists in the birth of "wee people". It is a very dark story and it is, or I should better say they the old and and the new story are commentaries on each other.
Both story lines end in a terrible fashion. I will refrain from spoiling the ending of this story for you.
Mel u
2 comments:
I agree Mel. It's a wonderful 'fairy tale', with all the darkness of that genre. I'm fortunate enough to be taking a course on the short story with Eilis at the moment. It's sobering to think she wrote this over 20 years ago - I've so much to learn!
View ReView-you are terribly lucky to be in her class-I would love to take a class in Irish folk tales or fairy tales from her.
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