More Reading: Nursery Rhymes

This was my first time reading many of these nursery rhymes. Most were just simple little jingles about nothing at all, but some were actually kind of deep. I really just found myself reading them for the flow and simplicity. I guess that's why they've been a favorite of young kids for a long time. They're easy to understand and memorize.

From The Nursery Rhyme Book edited by Andrew Lang. Link to rhymes

Unicorn and Lion

Reading Notes: Billy Duffy and the Devil

I thoroughly enjoyed reading Billy Duffy and the Devil. It's always kind of cool to see the ways in which the characters fool the Devil or Death in order to prolong their lives and such. It usually catches up to them, but Billy was able to fool him until the very end. I thought that once he reached hell the Devil would have something extremely bad worked up for him to do for eternity, but instead Billy put him in his place one more time. I also found it funny that the Celts owned their affinity for drinking and expressed it by saying Billy was typical in that he only worked until he had enough money to buy his booze. If Billy had been less self-centered and instead of squandering everything on booze and gambling, he may actually have been able to help people out. 

From the story Billy Duffy and the Devil, and excerpt from Welsh Fairy Tales and Other Stories by Peter Emerson. Link to story 

A man and the Devil
Source: Wikimedia Commons

Reading Notes: Welsh Fairy Tales and Other Stories Part A

This reading was predominantly about fairies and their battles against witches and other evil-doers. I think that it's awesome that the Welsh decided to give a phenomenon that they noticed such as fairy rings such an awesome back story. In most cases, the fairies could only use their magic to reverse curses and such, but require a human to actually inflict harm on the bad people. I wouldn't mind seeing a fairy taking on a more prominent role.

Man-made Fairy Ring
Source: Wikimedia Commons