School: Maio (roll number 13119)

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1. An Old Story - Gobán Dubh and the Giant (continued)

   

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   straighten crooked. He told the giant what she said, but he would not be let home for it, so the giant's son was sent. He said he wanted crooked straight to straighten crooked.
   Mary said it was in the big black chest, but he would have to get it himself. He stood on a stool and reached into the chest, but Mary threw him in, and locked the chest. The giant wanted his son, so he had to leave Mary's husband home. The giant was angry because Goban began to build nicer houses than his. He said he would kill him if he could not eat as much as him. Goban went home to Mary and told her what the giant said.
   She made a bag out of a sheepskin and sewed it to the outside of her husband's shirt. She told him that for every spoonful he should eat he should put six into the bag. When they were eating, the giant ate all he could, and Goban put the food into the bag. Then he said to the giant, "I bet you a bag of gold that you cannot do what I can do, "Sure I could, why could'nt I do what a little man like you could do," said the giant. The Goban stuck his knife in through the bag, and out fell all the food. "That is easy," said the giant. He stuck his knife in through his side, and he fell to the ground dying. His last words were "Goban won, so he has Mary, but ye can revenge it on him. Then his wife made holes in the bottom of the houses, and there was a great earth-quake. It turned Carriga upside down. Some of it went down to Splink and the giant's grave is there still. More of it landed at the lower

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT0875: The Clever Peasant Girl

   AT1088: Eating Contest

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Peggy O' Connor

   Gender

   Female

   Informant

   Rose Mc Cabe

   Gender

   Female

   Age

   75

   Address

   Carrigagh, Co. Meath