The intention has been, however, to make it conform to the laws
governing certain beings commonly regarded in this country as
mythical, as those laws are revealed in the folk-lore of many peoples,
and particularly of the Irish people. Almost every incident in which
the fairies are concerned might occur, and very many of them do
actually occur, in Irish folk-lore. But in a real folk-tale there are
usually only two or three, or, at any rate, only a few, of the
characteristic incidents, while this story attempts to combine many of
them.
The shorter stories wherewith the main story is interspersed are all,
to the best of my information and belief, genuine Irish folk-tales. I
have told them in my own way, of course. I have sometimes condensed
and sometimes elaborated them, but I have seldom, if ever, I think,
materially changed their substance. I have never had the opportunity
to collect such stories as these for myself, and if I had, I should
probably find that I had not the ability. I have therefore had to turn
for the substance of these tales to collections made by others--men
whose patient and affectionate care and labor have preserved a great
mass of the beautiful Irish legends, which, without them, might have
died.
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