School: Camross, Mountrath

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   “There was a smith one time...”

   

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   So the young man persuaded the smith to let on he was a doctor. They went to the sick man's house and were brought to his room. The young man ordered up a big pot of boiling water and he cut off the sick man's head and threw it into it. He gave it a few stirs in the pot and up came a grand young man's head to the top of the water.The young man lifted it up and clapped it on to the old man's body and immediately the sick man rose up cured and shook hands with the supposed doctor. The man gave a great dinner to all his friends and he made the tow stay for the night. So they left in the morning and that day they heard of a smith in Dublin who offered £250 to anyone who could prove he was a better smithy than he was. So the young man persuaded the old smith to try for it. They went to the Dublin smith and the first thing the Dublin smith did was to blow the bellows and a field of wheat sprang up, and then the old smith blew the bellow and a flock of pigeons appeared and ate the wheat. Then the Dublin smith blew his bellows again and a salmon leaped out in the stream in front of the forge and the old smith blew the bellows and an otter appeared and went after the salmon and brought his back. He got £250. They journeyed on again. The young man asked the old smith for the price of a pair of boots as hes were bad. The old smith said he had no change handy but that he's gibe it when he had.They came to a heap of stones and lay down and fell asleep.

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT0753: Christ and the Smith

   Language

   English

   Collector

   P.J. Heffernan

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Camros, Co. Laoise

   Informant

   Timmy Maher

   Gender

   Male

   Age

   75

   Address

   Camros, Co. Laoise