 | Tales Until Dawn: The World of a Cape Breton Gaelic Story-Teller Subjects: Folklore -- Nova Scotia -- Cape Breton Island; Tales -- Nova Scotia -- Cape Breton Island; Storytellers -- Nova Scotia -- Cape Breton Island; Cape Breton Island (N.S.) -- Social life and customs; Joe Neil MacNeil holds in his memory a wealth of Gaelic folktales, learned in his youth in Cape Breton. For over a decade, he has told his tales to John Shaw, a specialist in Celtic folklore and fluent speaker of Gaelic. Shaw has recorded, transcribed, edited, and translated the tales and folklore into English. This rich and entertaining collection is the result of their collaboration. Folktales, anecdotes, proverbs, expressions, rhymes, superstitions, and games are presented in translation and, in the cloth edtion, in the original as well. All variations of the genre are represented: a fragment from the Ulster cycle, some items from the Fenian cycle, hero and wonder tales, fairy and witch lore, romantic tales, tales of the exemplum type, tales of cleverness, "numbskull" stories, animal tales, and tall tales. Shaw John : John Shaw is the editor and translator of Tales Until Dawn: The World of a Cape Breton Gaelic Story-Teller and Brigh an Òrain: A Story in Every Song. He is senior lecturer in ethnology at the University of Edinburgh. |
