Every folk tale on a page once lived only in someone's mouth. Somebody had to sit down, listen, and write it. Who were they, and what did they leave out?
Between 1937 and 1939, Irish schoolchildren were sent out with notebooks. Their teachers asked them to collect stories, sayings and customs from their own families and neighbours.
More than half a million pages came back (around 740,000 in total). That is the Schools Folklore Collection, and it still sits in the National Folklore Collection today.
A story has a different name in each language:
Here is one kind of entry those children wrote, in words close to a child's own voice:
My grandmother told me that if you leave milk out for the fairies on May Eve, they will not spoil the butter. She said her mother did it every year, and so did she. I asked her if she still does it. She laughed and said she does not leave the milk now, but she still thinks about it when May comes.
Your job — notice:
Ireland was not alone. Across Europe, over the 1800s and early 1900s, people were writing down the stories their neighbours told — in many different languages.
Watch the map on the board. When your teacher opens a country, help name the language the stories would have been spoken in. Find Ireland first, then one other country.
Open your copy. Write one story or saying from your own family, the way the 1937 children did.
Include who told it to you and what they said. If you know whether they still believe it or still do it, add that too. A short saying counts.
You can write in English, Irish, or another language your family uses at home.
If you cannot think of one yet, write who you will ask at home tonight — that is a full answer.
Collectors in many languages wrote down the same animal characters. The same animals walk through stories told in Irish, French, German and Spanish — let's see which animal words sound related.
Worked example first:
Now hunt the pairs on the board with the class. For each pair, help decide: cousins, or not really related?
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