Irish Legends for Kids: Heroes, Druids, Myths, Magic, & More from Ancient Ireland
Many thanks to History Brought Alive and Book Sirens for
providing me with an advanced copy of Irish Legends for Kids: Heroes,
Druids, Myths, Magic, & More from Ancient Ireland. I was very excited
to see this book available for review since I’ve traveled to Ireland and have
family there. I’m also interested in Irish mythology and culture, so I was
curious to see what this book has to offer. The book has 21 short chapters that
provide the background and meanings for various heroes and heroines from Irish
mythology and legends, as well as examining some places like the Giant’s Causeway
and Tir Na Nóg, the otherworld, and animals like the Glas
Gaibhnenn, a sacred cow that provides abundance for the people of Ireland. The
chapters are not incredibly detailed, which is probably good for younger
readers. However, I felt like some of the chapters offered limited details to
the stories, and others that focused on legends like the Banshee presented a
story about a farmer named Eamon and his grandmother that I never heard of.
When I tried to look up this story, I couldn’t find any information about it.
The story presents a kind of sanitized, less terrifying version of the Banshee
character, where the cry of the Banshee serves as a reminder to Eamon to value
the time he spends with his grandmother before she dies. The events of the
story are reinforced by the lessons presented at the end of the chapter. While
I can see how this is a good way to introduce the concept of inevitability and
acceptance of death, I’ve never heard of the Banshee legend framed in this way.
Furthermore, Banshees tend to appear as a woman with long, streaming hair and
is frequently a harbinger of death. In the stories that I’ve read, Banshees
often force individuals to change their ways or try to escape death but inevitably
succumb to the cry of the Banshee as a result of their moves to evade the
inevitable. Again, maybe this kinder version was a way to make the legend less scary
to younger readers, but I always thought that the ghostly image of the
screaming Banshee was really intriguing. Other chapters like the one about the
Druids really offered nothing meaningful, and I wondered why it was even
included. The Druids were real people who lived in Ireland, England, and other
areas prior to the Roman invasion. They were priests and intellectuals whose
mounds and stone structures throughout Ireland and England have left nearly as
many questions as answers as to who these people were and how they lived. The chapter
tells about a chief druid named Cathbad yet it doesn’t really discuss much
about the lives of druids, where they lived, or even what legacy they have left
in Ireland. In addition, there is a chapter that discusses the possible Celtic
influences on the Holy Grail story, but this also feels out of place since the
connections are not well developed and seem superficial. There are many other
possible influences on the Holy Grail story, and it seemed strange to focus on
a Welsh legend with influences that also include Christianity.
This book has some good moments, but it is also somewhat
formulaic. The chapters present the story, and then each story has a “lesson”
to be learned from the events. I found that many of the lessons were similar
and focused on generic ideas about bravery and courage, helping and sharing,
and acceptance and love. Furthermore, these lessons didn’t include many
specific details and seemed like they could refer to almost any story, myth or
legend. At first, I thought that this would be a good resource for younger
readers, but as I read through the 21 chapters, I found the lessons to be
repetitive and banal. I wonder if using questions or prompts to encourage readers
to think about what the stories mean to them might be a more engaging way to
encourage critical thinking and analysis of these stories. For example, instead
of presenting the meaning, the writers could ask something like “The legend of
St. Patrick presents a story about hardships and challenges. What do you think
St. Patrick learned from his experiences?” or “Deirdre of the Sorrows tells a
story about love and loss. What lessons might Deirdre and Naoise have learned
from their experiences? What kind of leader do you think King Conchobar was
based on his behaviors?” I felt like I was reading the same message, and even
disagreeing with some of the conclusions that the authors of this book reached
about these stories that dealt with death, treachery, and betrayal.
Although there were some important stories and characters
from Irish mythology, the overviews were often generic. Furthermore, the book
did not always include pronunciations of characters’ names. Celtic Gaelic has a
different pronunciation from English, and some of the names did not include
pronunciations (Naoise, Lebeorcham, Glas Gaibhnenn, Tobar Segais, Sionann).
I wasn’t sure why some of the names earlier in the book included
pronunciations, which I found helpful, but names in the later chapters did not.
There were some names that are still around today (Patrick, Brigid, Deirdre),
but many of these names are not as common in English, so including a
pronunciation key would have been helpful. In addition, I think this book could
have been enhanced with images, especially for the legendary creatures like the
Selkie, the Harp of Dagda, and Giant’s Causeway. Seeing the Giant’s Causeway would
help to understand the unique shape of the rocks to better understand how much
they are like stepping stones. Furthermore, presenting images of the Harp of
Dagda, which as the authors note is the only musical instrument that serves as
a country’s national symbol, would also help readers better understand the
image’s significance and beauty. I also would have liked to see some comparative
pictures of Samhain, the ancient Celtic festival that has evolved into
Halloween. I also think that providing some images for readers to compare and
contrast the similarities and differences would help readers better understand how
Halloween has evolved from this Celtic tradition.
Overall, this was a book that has some interesting moments,
but I kept wondering whether I would have been better off just reading
Wikipedia. The writing is generic and bland, and while it may be suited to a
younger audience, it still felt like it lacked any real connection with readers.
The book was also incredibly repetitive, with each chapter forcing a kind of
lesson learned, but often failing to include specific details or missing the
mark on some important lessons. Many of the lessons were the same. Without any
human author attributed to the book, I wondered whether this book was a produce
of artificial intelligence. The repetitive structure and lack of specific
details, as well as the kind of rote, banal tone of the book made me think that
the references included at the end of the book were fed into an AI prompt and
produced this output. While there are some overviews of Irish myths and
legends, there are many other good resources available at libraries and online.
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