Differences Between Myths, Legends, Folktales, & Fairytales

Summary

This script delves into the complexities of differentiating between myths, legends, folktales, and fairytales, particularly within Irish storytelling traditions. It challenges the conventional classifications, highlighting the blurred lines between these genres due to their intertwined nature and the influence of cultural evolution. The script explores the modern definitions of each genre, their roles in reflecting cultural and religious beliefs, and how they've transformed over time. It uses the Giant's Causeway as an example to illustrate the difficulty in categorizing stories and concludes with a quote from W. B. Yeats, emphasizing the fluidity of these tales.

Takeaways

• 📚 The script discusses the complexities in distinguishing between myths, legends, folktales, and fairytales, especially within the context of Irish storytelling traditions.
• 🏰 Myths are traditionally associated with gods and goddesses, while legends often involve quasi-historical heroes, yet Irish storytelling blurs these lines.
• 👥 The Irish have a history of intertwining their gods and heroes, making it challenging to categorize their stories into strict definitions.
• 🌐 The script introduces a Cartesian plane model to visualize the spectrum on which myths, legends, folktales, and fairytales exist, considering their sacred/secular and fictional/historical aspects.
• 🔮 Myths are defined as symbolic stories about origins and natural phenomena, featuring supernatural beings, and are considered sacred rather than secular.
• 🏰 Legends are heroic stories set in the recent past, often considered historical but unverifiable, and they may blend historical figures with fictional or exaggerated adventures.
• 🌳 Folktales are secular, fictional stories passed down among common people, often rooted in superstition and told for entertainment without religious significance.
• 🧚‍♀️ Fairytales are a sub-genre of folktales, often aimed at children, featuring fantastical elements and providing a satisfying ending or 'turn', with the purpose of inspiring hope.
• 🌟 The script highlights the influence of Irish mythology on J.R.R. Tolkien's works, suggesting that elements of Middle-Earth were inspired by Irish Otherworlds and mythological beings.
• 📖 The story of the Giant's Causeway exemplifies the difficulty in categorizing stories, as it contains elements of myth, legend, folktale, and fairytale.

Q & A

What is the main challenge in distinguishing between myths, legends, folktales, and fairytales in Irish storytelling traditions?

The main challenge lies in the blurred lines between these categories, as Irish stories often feature gods, heroes, and common folk with similar motivations and narrative arcs, making it difficult to categorize them strictly.

How does the traditional definition of a 'myth' differ from a 'legend'?

A 'myth' is traditionally defined as a story concerning the activities of gods and goddesses, while a 'legend' is a story about the deeds of quasi-historical heroes.

What role do the Irish bards, filí, and seanchaí play in the storytelling tradition?

The Irish bards, filí, and seanchaí are the storytellers who have preserved and passed down Irish myths, legends, folktales, and fairytales, often blurring the lines between these categories.

According to Peter Berresford Ellis, how do Irish gods and heroes reflect the lives of the people and their religious traditions?

Peter Berresford Ellis suggests that Irish gods and heroes are often intertwined, with their lives mirroring those of the people and embodying the essence of their religious traditions.

What is the modern definition of a 'myth' as presented in the script?

A modern definition of a 'myth' is a symbolic story concerned with the origins of a people, their world, or natural phenomena, featuring gods or supernatural beings, and often having no basis in historical reality.

How are 'legends' different from 'myths' in terms of their basis in reality?

While myths are often considered sacred and have no basis in historical reality, 'legends' are heroic stories set in the recent past that are popularly considered historical but remain unverifiable.

What is the significance of Fionn Mac Cumhaill in Irish mythology and how does his story blur the lines between myths and legends?

Fionn Mac Cumhaill is a legendary figure in Irish mythology, often depicted with supernatural abilities and divine encounters. His story blurs the lines between myths and legends as he is both a hero and associated with divine elements, making it challenging to categorize his tales strictly.

How do folktales differ from myths and legends in terms of their sacredness and purpose?

Folktales are secular, fictional stories passed down for entertainment, unlike myths and legends which are often considered sacred and serve higher purposes, such as explaining origins or cultural significance.

What is the role of the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology, and how are they connected to the concept of fairies?

The Tuatha Dé Danann are a group of gods in Irish mythology who, after being driven underground by the invading Milesians, were reimagined as the aes sídhe or fairies, with their dwelling places becoming known as fairy mounds.

How does J.R.R. Tolkien's concept of fairytales relate to the Irish mythological concept of Otherworlds?

Tolkien's concept of fairytales, which involve transportation to an alternative world with different rules, is likely inspired by the Irish mythological Otherworlds such as Tír na nÓg, Magh Mell, and Dún Scaith.

What is the Giant's Causeway story, and how does it exemplify the difficulty in categorizing Irish stories?

The Giant's Causeway story involves a structure of hexagonal basalt columns and is said to have been built by an Irish giant to battle a Scottish giant. It has mythical elements explaining a natural phenomenon, legendary aspects through the involvement of Fionn mac Cumhail, and folkloric or fairytale elements due to the presence of giants, making it a complex blend of all four categories.

Outlines

00:00

📚 The Complexity of Irish Storytelling Traditions

This paragraph discusses the difficulty in distinguishing between myths, legends, folktales, and fairytales, especially in the context of Irish storytelling. Traditional definitions suggest myths involve gods and goddesses, legends recount the deeds of quasi-historical heroes, and folktales and fairytales deal with supernatural elements in everyday life. However, Irish stories often blur these lines, making classification challenging. Irish gods, heroes, and common folk share similar narrative arcs, leading to an intermingling of these story types. The paragraph also criticizes the limitations of dictionaries in capturing the full spectrum of Irish stories, suggesting a need for a more nuanced understanding that goes beyond classical definitions.

05:04

🔮 Exploring the Blurry Lines Between Myths and Legends

The paragraph delves into the definitions of myths and legends, emphasizing their differences and overlaps. Myths are symbolic stories about the origins of people or natural phenomena, featuring supernatural beings and are considered sacred. Legends, on the other hand, are heroic stories set in the recent past, often considered historical but unverifiable, and have national or cultural significance. The paragraph uses the example of Fionn Mac Cumhaill to illustrate how Irish legends often incorporate supernatural elements, blurring the line between myths and legends. It also discusses how historical figures in legends can be fictionalized or exaggerated, making it difficult to separate fact from fiction.

10:05

🌿 The Evolution of Folktales and Fairytales in Irish Culture

This paragraph focuses on the definitions and characteristics of folktales and fairytales. Folktales are secular, fictional stories passed down among common people, often rooted in superstition and told for entertainment. They are adaptable and can be retold in different times and places without losing their essence. Fairytales, a sub-genre of folktales, are secular stories often aimed at children, featuring fantastical elements and requiring a satisfying ending. The paragraph also discusses how Irish folktales have evolved from sacred myths, with much of their original meaning lost due to cultural suppression. It provides examples of how divine figures from Irish mythology have been reduced to supernatural characters in folktales and fairytales, such as the sun-god Lugh becoming a leprechaun.

Keywords

💡Myth

A myth is defined in the script as a symbolic story concerned with the origins of a people, their world, or natural phenomena. It typically features gods, goddesses, and supernatural beings, and while once believed to be true, myths often have little historical basis. In the context of the video, myths serve a sacred purpose, embodying dogma and being associated with theology and ritual. An example from the script is the stories of Irish gods and god-like beings that were preserved by the filídh in ancient Ireland.

💡Legend

A legend, as described in the script, is a heroic story set in the recent past that is popularly considered historical but remains unverifiable. It straddles the line between sacred and secular, often having national or cultural significance rather than religious. Legends may be based on historical figures, but their adventures are often fictionalized or exaggerated. The script uses the example of Fionn Mac Cumhaill, an Irish hero whose stories blend the divine and the supernatural, blurring the line between myth and legend.

💡Folktales

Folktales are secular, fictional stories passed down among common people, often rooted in superstitious beliefs. They are not considered sacred or truthful and are told for entertainment. The script explains that folktales are 'timeless' and 'placeless,' meaning their settings can be changed without losing their essence. An example from the script is the transformation of Irish myths into folktales, where much of the original meaning is lost, particularly due to the English attempts to eradicate Irish culture.

💡Fairytales

Fairytales are a sub-genre of folktales, often geared toward children, featuring fantastical elements such as fairies, elves, and dragons. They transport readers to an alternative world with different rules, providing perspective and hope. The script references J.R.R. Tolkien's description of fairytales, which offer a 'sudden joyous turn' and a glimpse of joy beyond the world's sorrows. The video also discusses the Irish fairytale element of leprechauns, which evolved from the sun-god Lugh in Celtic mythology.

💡Sacred vs. Secular

The script contrasts sacred and secular stories, with myths being sacred and serving religious or ritualistic purposes, while folktales and fairytales are secular and meant for entertainment. This distinction is important for understanding the different roles stories play in culture and how they are perceived by their audiences.

💡Fionn Mac Cumhaill

Fionn Mac Cumhaill is a figure from Irish mythology who is both a hero and has supernatural elements, making his stories a blend of legend and myth. The script uses Fionn as an example to illustrate the difficulty in categorizing stories due to the overlap between mythological and legendary elements.

💡Tuatha Dé Danann

The Tuatha Dé Danann are a race of gods in Irish mythology who feature in both mythological and folkloric stories. The script mentions them as part of the Irish pantheon that was later reimagined as fairies in folktales, showing the evolution of myth into folklore.

💡Lebor Gabála Érenn

Lebor Gabála Érenn, or The Book of Invasions, is mentioned in the script as a medieval Irish text that collected and transcribed ancient myths. It serves as an example of how myths were preserved and passed down through generations.

💡Fomorians

The Fomorians are monstrous beings from Irish mythology, described as coming from 'under the worlds of men.' The script suggests that they may have inspired Tolkien's Orcs, illustrating the influence of Irish mythology on modern fantasy literature.

💡Giant's Causeway

The Giant's Causeway is a geological formation in Northern Ireland with a mythological story attached to it, involving an Irish giant and a Scottish giant. The script uses this story to demonstrate the difficulty in categorizing tales as myths, legends, folktales, or fairytales due to the blending of elements from each.

Highlights

The difficulty in distinguishing between myths, legends, folktales, and fairytales in Irish storytelling due to their intertwined nature.

Traditional definitions of myths as stories about gods and goddesses, and legends as stories about quasi-historical heroes.

Folktales and fairytales are typically about the supernatural conflicts of everyday people.

Irish storytelling often blurs the lines between gods, heroes, and common folk, making classification challenging.

The concept that Irish gods and heroes are reflections of each other and everyday people.

The inadequacy of modern dictionaries in capturing the complexity of Irish stories.

The idea that stories exist on a spectrum rather than being strictly categorized.

Myths are symbolic stories about the origins of people, their world, or natural phenomena, often featuring supernatural beings.

Legends are heroic stories set in the recent past, considered historical but unverifiable, often with national or cultural significance.

Folktales are secular, fictional stories passed down among common people, often rooted in superstition and told for entertainment.

Fairytales are secular, fictional stories for children featuring fantastical elements and a satisfying ending.

The influence of Irish mythology on J.R.R. Tolkien's works, such as Middle-Earth and its inhabitants.

The transformation of Irish gods into fairies and heroes into giants in the popular imagination.

The Giant's Causeway story as an example of a myth, legend, folktale, and fairytale combined.

The Irish poet W. B. Yeats's perspective on the evolution of pagan gods into fairies and heroes into giants.

The importance of understanding the fluidity and adaptability of Irish stories rather than strict categorization.

Transcripts

Distinguishing between these four types  of storytelling traditions—myths, legends,  

folktales, and fairytales—should be an easy task.

After all, each has its own  discrete entry in the dictionary.

So a quick perusal of their definitions  should reveal, with crystal clarity,  

the stark contrasts between them, deep lines  gouged in the sand separating one from the next,  

myth from legend from folktale from fairytale.

Alas, life is never that easy.

And Irish storytellers—the bards, the filí, and  later, the seanchaí—haven’t made it any easier.

When investigating the differences between  Irish myths, Irish legends, Irish folktales,  

and Irish fairytales specifically, those  lines in the sand all but disappear.

They are jumbled and crisscrossed,  stamped with footprints—and not  

from some accidental stumbling, but  seemingly from intentional stomping.

Consider the following:

A traditional definition of “myth” establishes  

it as a story concerned with the  activities of gods and goddesses.

While a traditional definition of “legend” puts  

forth that it is a story concerned with  the deeds of quasi-historical heroes.

And then we have a “folktale,” and its  fairy-infested subcategory, the “fairytale,” which  

are both concerned with the supernaturally-tinged  conflicts of everyday people.

Now, listen to this passage from historian  

Peter Berresford Ellis’s A Dictionary of  Irish Mythology, first published in 1987:

“The Irish do appear to have made their heroes  

into gods and their gods into heroes.  In the lives of these gods and heroes,  

the lives of the people and the essence of  their religious traditions are mirrored.”

Lines

In.

Sand.

Stomped.

You see the source of my exasperation?

How is one to classify the stories of Ireland that  

have been passed down from generation  to generation when Irish gods, heroes,  

and common folk all have the same  motivations, the same narrative arcs?

When the gods are heroes and the heroes are  gods and these god-heroes are really just  

reflections of everyday people,  “myths”, “legends”, “folktales”,  

and “fairytales” are rendered indistinguishable  from one another, their meanings corroded.

A Different Way of Thinking About Myths,  Legends, Folktales, and Fairytales

It is not the fault of the Irish that  today’s dictionaries are woefully  

incapable of encapsulating the breadth  and interconnectivity of Irish stories.

Personally I blame those dastardly lexicographers,  who clearly leaned much too heavily upon Classical  

Greek and Roman literature when formulating  their definitions and filling out those  

little blue index cards. (Yes, I’ve read  The Liar’s Dictionary, what gave it away?)

The stories passed down by  the Irish—and by all peoples  

and cultures, for that matter—exist on a spectrum.

Or two spectrums, really.

A Cartesian plane, if you will.

Some stories skew more sacred than  secular (and vice versa) and some skew  

more fictional than historical (and vice versa).

In the graphic you see here, I’ve done  my best to position myths, legends,  

folktales, and fairytales  in their proper locations.

The more I researched these  different story categories,  

however, the more I realized that my  quadrant approach on its own did not  

(and could not) address all of the  attributes of inherited stories.

Notably absent from this graphic:

A gauge of how symbolic or literal stories are, as  well as the settings in which stories take place.

So, I had no other choice…  I had to make another chart.

Follow along with me now as I provide  in-depth definitions of myths, legends,  

folktales, and fairytales, and in the process  I’ll reveal my thinking behind the construction  

of these charts and why I chose to visualize  the different story types the way that I did.

What Is a Myth? A Modern Definition

A myth is a symbolic story concerned with  the origins of a people, their world,  

or other natural phenomena. Myths typically  take place in the distant past and feature gods,  

goddesses, and/or other supernatural beings as  their primary protagonists. While the original  

adherents of a particular mythology (i.e. a body  or collection of myths) believed them to be true,  

myths often have little or no  basis in historical reality.

Like folktales and fairytales, myths are  fictional stories. But instead of existing  

for mere entertainment, they serve a  higher purpose. They are sacred rather  

than secular. To quote folklorist  and anthropologist William Bascom,  

“Myths are the embodiment of dogma… and they  are often associated with theology and ritual.”

And that comes from Bascom’s  essay “The Forms of Folklore:  

Prose Narratives” which was first published in  the Journal of American Folklore in 1965 and  

was later collected in the 1984 book Sacred  Narrative: Readings in the Theory of Myth.

In ancient Ireland, the filídh, an elite  class of poets/druids (akin to Brahmins in  

Hindu culture) were entrusted with learning and  preserving myths, which included the stories of  

the various Irish gods and god-like beings who  settled in Ireland in the pre-Christian era.

Namely, the Cessair, the Partholónians,  

the Nemedians, the Fir Bolg, the  Tuatha Dé Danann, and the Milesians.

These stories would later be collected and  transcribed by medieval Irish monks in the Lebor  

Gabála Érenn (The Book of Invasions, or, more  properly, The Book of the Taking of Ireland").

What Is a Legend? A Modern Definition

A legend is a heroic story set in  the recent past that is popularly  

considered historical but remains unverifiable.

Straddling the line between sacred and  secular, legends don’t usually have  

religious significance but often have  national or cultural significance (re:  

King Arthur and Robin Hood for the  British, William Tell for the Swiss).

Legends may be based on historical figures,  

but the actual adventures said figures partake  in are often fictionalized or exaggerated.

According to Bascom, the primary protagonists of  

legends are typically portrayed  as flesh-and-blood humans.

However, this is another  area prone to embellishment.

Certainly this is the case with  the heroic tales of the Irish.

To quote from historian  Kenneth Jackson’s 1951 book,  

A Celtic Miscellany: Translations  from the Celtic Literatures:

“This is a matter in which the Irish tales do  differ from the early epics of other peoples;  

they are inclined to desert the natural and  possible for the impossible and supernatural,  

chiefly in the form of fantastic exaggeration.

“One should not misunderstand this, however;  

it was not done in all seriousness, but for  its own sake, for the fun of the thing.”

Look no further than one of ancient  Ireland’s most legendary warriors,  

Fionn Mac Cumhaill,, for an example  of such fun-loving exaggeration.

It is likely that Fionn was  based on a historical figure,  

possibly the Munster-dwelling Norse  warrior Caittil Find—Find being a  

nickname given to him by the Irish,  meaning “the Fair” or “the White.”

However, when we look at the works that form  the Fenian Cycle (the third cycle of Irish  

mythology—also known as the Fianaigecht),  we see that Fionn is no mere human.

What’s more, the deities that pervade  the first cycle of Irish mythology,  

the Mythological Cycle, make  appearances in Fionn’s stories as well.

Fionn’s legendary deeds are steeped  in the divine and the supernatural.

As a boy, he gains wisdom by tasting the cooked  flesh of a magical fish (the Salmon of Knowledge).

He becomes famed for his skills as  a warrior after defeating Aillén,  

a fire-breathing creature from the  Otherworld, with an enchanted spear.

Later, Fionn has a son (the poet  Oisín) with the goddess Sadb,  

daughter of the god Bodb Derg (who succeeded  the Dagda as the king of the Tuatha Dé Danann).

So, where do the myths end and the legends begin?

It’s a flawed question.

Obviously, there’s a lot of overlap, which  is something I’ll shed more light on next.

What Is a Folktale? A Modern Definition

A folktale (or folk tale) is a  secular, fictional story that is  

passed down among common people and is  often rooted in a superstitious belief.

Unlike myths and legends, folktales are not  considered sacred or truthful by storytellers  

(or story-listeners), and are usually  told solely for entertainment’s sake.

Furthermore, folktales are often described  as “timeless” and “placeless”, meaning you  

can change a folktale’s setting—from past to  present or vice versa, and/or from this land  

to that land or vice versa—without  losing the essence of its narrative.

The fluidity and adaptability of  folktales further distinguish them  

from other story categories, as  myths (and to a lesser extent,  

legends) tend to have not only fixed  settings, but also fixed meanings.

This is certainly the case with  Irish myths and Irish folktales,  

as the latter often descended from the former,  only with much of the meaning stripped away.

This missing meaning was not the fault or  intention of Irish storytellers, mind you,  

but the result of a concerted effort by  the English to eradicate Irish culture.

To quote Ellis:

“Through the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries,  

the years of the English Penal Laws in  Ireland, serious attempts were made to  

eradicate the language and culture, and many  manuscripts and books were destroyed… Irish  

mythology [became] a mere folkloric tradition,  tales recited by the village story-teller (the  

seanchai--shanna-koo-ee) around the hearth at  night, their origin and symbolism forgotten.”

To clarify, while the origins and  symbolism of ancient stories might  

be lost in their folkloric forms, that’s  not to say that folktales are inherently  

without value or incapable  of teaching moral lessons.

The point Ellis is making is that with  folklore, a story’s ties to the sacred—its  

religious/mythical components—are either  completely severed (at worst) or corrupted  

(at best). We’ll learn more about the  corruption of myth in the next section.

What Is a Fairytale? A Modern Definition

A fairytale (or fairy tale) is a secular,  fictional story, often geared toward children,  

that features fantastical lands, forces,  and/or characters, such as fairies, elves,  

goblins, trolls, giants, dragons, and  wizards. A sub-genre of the folktale,  

a fairytale does not necessarily need to feature  fairies in order to earn its classification,  

but it does require a satisfying ending or  “turn”—hence the expression, “fairytale ending.”

According to Hobbit and Lord of the Rings author  J. R. R. Tolkien, a defining characteristic of  

the fairytale is that it transports readers  and listeners to an alternative (but still  

rational and consistent) world that operates  under a different set of rules than our own world.

The purpose of this transportation, however, is  not simply to escape from the cruelties of the  

real world, but to gain perspective  and inspire hope. To quote Tolkien:

“The consolation of fairy-stories, the joy  of the happy ending: or more correctly of  

the good catastrophe, the sudden joyous “turn”  (for there is no true end to any fairy-tale):

“this joy, which is one of the things which  fairy-stories can produce supremely well,  

is not essentially “escapist,” nor “fugitive.”  In its fairy-tale–or otherworld–setting,  

it is a sudden and miraculous grace:  never to be counted on to recur.

“It does not deny the existence of dyscatastrophe,  

of sorrow and failure: the possibility of  these is necessary to the joy of deliverance;  

it denies (in the face of much evidence, if you  will) universal final defeat and in so far is  

evangelium, giving a fleeting glimpse of Joy, Joy  beyond the walls of the world, poignant as grief.”

That’s from Tolklien’s 1947  essay “On Fairy-Stories”.

There is little doubt that Tolkien’s famed  fairy otherworld, Middle-Earth, was inspired,  

at least in part, by the Otherworlds of Irish  mythology, like Tír na nÓg, the Land of Youth;  

Magh Mell, the Plain of Happiness; and  Dún Scaith, the Fortress of Shadows.

And I’d be remiss not to mention that Tolkien’s  Elves were likely inspired by the Tuatha Dé  

Danann (the Irish hero-gods), while the Men  of Tolkien’s Middle-Earth were potentially  

based on the Milesians (the human Celts who  would inevitably displace the Irish gods).

Then there’s Middle-Earth’s big bad Sauron with  his fiery eye who bears more than a striking  

resemblance to Irish mythology’s big bad, Balor  of the Evil Eye, who is described as having “a  

venomous fiery eye” and whose death-stare  could set “the whole countryside ablaze.”

And those quotations come from folklorist and  professor Dáithí Ó hÓgáin’s 1991 book Myth,  

Legend & Romance: An encyclopaedia  of the Irish folk tradition.

Oh, and obviously the Orcs are based  on Balor’s underlings, the Fomorians,  

monstrous beings who come from “under the  worlds of men,” according to the 7th-century  

elegy Cethri meic Airtt Mis-Telmann  (or The Four Sons of Art Mes-Telmann).

But I digress.

What’s particularly fascinating about Irish  fairytales is that we can map the degradation  

or de-evolution of their settings and  characters from sacred to secular,  

from divine to “merely” supernatural.

The sun-god Lugh, for example, an important  god in Celtic mythology and later a member of  

the Tuatha Dé Danann in Irish mythology, lost  his divine status in folkloric interpretations  

and was eventually reduced to “little stooping  Lugh,” or Lugh-chromain—anglicized as leprechaun.

And of course that mischievous little  bugger is now a staple of Irish fairytales.

Indeed, the very concept of fairies  has Irish mythological roots.

The hills and tumuli that dot the Irish  countryside, called sídhe in Old Irish, became the  

dwelling places of the Tuatha Dé Danann after they  were driven underground by the invading Milesians.

These ancient gods were thus reimagined  as the aes sídhe, the people of the hills,  

popularly known as fairies, and their  hills reimagined as fairy mounds.

The most famous (or infamous) of the aes sídhe is  

the bean sídhe, the woman of the  hills or woman of the fairies.

An Example of a Myth, Legend, Folktale,  and Fairytale All Rolled into One

If there is any one story that encapsulates the  

extreme difficulty of pigeon-holing  stories into specific categories,  

it is the myth/legend/folktale/fairytale  of the Giant’s Causeway.

Located in County Antrim in Northern Ireland,  the Giant’s Causeway is a geological wonder  

consisting of tens of thousands of  (mostly) hexagonal basalt columns.

As the story goes, the causeway once extended  across the North Channel, connecting Ireland to  

Scotland, and was constructed so that an Irish  giant might do battle with a Scottish giant.

There is clearly a mythical element here,  

as the story explains the  origins of a natural phenomenon.

But when you consider that the Irish  giant in question is none other than  

Fionn mac Cumhail, the Irish hero, we  seem to veer more into “legend” status.

Only here’s the thing:

In the majority of legends concerning Fionn,  

he may have supernatural abilities and  weapons, but he’s certainly no giant.

So his involvement with the Giant’s Causeway  

sounds more like folktale  or fairytale than legend.

To make some semblance of sense of all of  this, and to close out this video before I  

(completely) lose my mind, I’ll leave you  with this quotation from famed Irish poet  

W. B. Yeats’s 1888 book, Fairy and  Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry:

“When the pagan gods of Ireland–the  Tuath-De-Danān–robbed of worship and  

offerings, grew smaller and smaller in the popular  imagination, until they turned into the fairies,  

the pagan heroes grew bigger and bigger,  until they turned into the giants.”

If you enjoyed this video please  like and comment and basically  

just tap all of the shiny buttons  and by the end of it make sure you  

are subscribed to the Irish Myths  channel, that really, really helps.

And if you want to learn about the  darker side of Irish mythology,  

check out my book Irish Monsters in Your  Pocket: A Tiny Little Book About Irish  

Dragons, Werewolves, Vampires, Banshees,  Headless Horsemen, & Other Beastly Beings.

My name is I. E. Kneverday. editor of the short  

story collection Neon Druid and the creator  of Irishmyths.com. Thanks for comin out.