Week 12 Reading: Celtic Tales Part B

 For part B of the celtic tales section, I decided to take notes on Brewery of Eggshells.

Illustration from Celtic Fairy Tales by John D. Batten (1892) 


Plot

This story is pretty short and simple. A mother has twins. She is one day called away to visit a neighbor rather far away. Although she doesn't want to, she leaves her children alone at home. She rushes back as soon as she can. She rushes even faster under worry when she sees a pair of "old elves of the blue petticoat" in the street. Her children were fine in their cradle. Over time, however, the twins did not grow. Their father proclaimed that they were not their children. Distressed, the mother went to the Wise Man of Llanidloes. He told her to cook and egg shell and offer it as dinner to the reapers (I'm not sure if this is the children or someone else). If the children say weird stuff for a child, toss them in the lake. If not, leave them be. The mother does so and the children say a weird rhyme:

Acorn before oak I knew,
An egg before a hen,
But I never heard of an eggshell brew
A dinner for harvest men.

So, she tosses them in the lake. The goblins in their blue trousers (I assume these were the elves) come and save them and the real twins are returned to their mother.

Thoughts

This story was a bit confusing but, I think it offered up a lot of room to play with. I could tell the story from the goblin perspective or the babies. I could tell the story of the mother's errand and her worry about her children. I could ditch all but the basic premise and tell a modern baby swap story. As simple and seemingly unexplained as it is, I love the ending. Just toss the bad ones out and get your good ones back!

Bibliography. Brewery of Eggshells from Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1892)

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