School: Liathdruim

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   “One upon a time there was a man who did know what fear was.”

   

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   "You won't go like the one last night" said he.
   The man in the coffin spoke and said, "You are the best man I ever met. I cannot go to heaven because I have gold and jewels hidden at the threshold of the door". He told him where to get a bar of iron to raise the boards and get the gold and jewels and to give them to the lady of the house who was his wife. Then the man slept again.
   The women came in the morning and knocked at the window and got no reply for awhile. At last he jumped up and answered the call. She asked him was he afraid and he said "Is it your little spirit of a husband to make me afraid"
   He gave her the gold and jewels. She asked him to stay and marry her daughter and she would give him her house and all she possessed. He refused and said that he would go until he knew what it was to be afraid. She told him to go back to bed and rest for a while and he did so.
   She sent the servant-boy with a net to the river to catch a dish of eels. She put the eels in under the blankets. They crept all over him. He jumped and screamed and said all the devils in hell were around him. She asked him was he afraid then and he said he was.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT0326: The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Kenny

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Newtown Daly, Co. Galway

   Informant

   Edward Kenny

   Relation

   Parent

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   60

   Address

   Newtown Daly, Co. Galway