Irish Legends with Storyteller Eddie Lenihan: How The Faeries Came to Be Ep 2 — Transcript

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1. 0:46most people I think have that feeling of some  bit of spirit in them there is some kind of be
2. 0:56a religion formal religion or be belief in the  fairies or be believe in charity or be to believe
3. 1:03in because we're built that way we're built that  way there is something that touches most people if
4. 1:11only you could find it be it on here hello how  are you hello how are you yeah and I find even
5. 1:19that salute a person on the street and sometimes  it frightens people it frightens the living life
6. 1:26in a person to be saluted but sometimes it  brings the most remarkable kind of a response
7. 1:33and pass on it frightens some people but  other people it brings a smile a small thing a
8. 1:40small thing I think ordinary people have their own  way of remembering things which is quite different
9. 1:48than the official version of so many things and  the folklore version tends to be more lively
10. 1:56because what would I say the word for it is  official versions of things tend to be stuffy
11. 2:02they come out of books that are written by  official people reports tend never to be read
12. 2:15and I think they're never meant to be read whereas  something that is directly from the people's mouth
13. 2:23you will read you listen to I do think and  something that was around the fire at night
14. 2:34was to be listened to and that's why I have
15. 2:38we'll say in a book like Meeting the Other  Crowd the fairy books that I did is exactly
16. 2:46from the recordings that I made and that's the  reason why it's already in its 14th edition
17. 2:52I let the people tell their own stories as they  told them in their own words that's what people
18. 2:57like when God was in his heaven  sitting in his golden chair
19. 3:10all the angels and archangels and thrones  and dominions and all the other kinds of
20. 3:17people that were in heaven all they had to do was  adore him bow down bow down and adore him a good
21. 3:27pensionable job and likely to last forever but  there was one of those archangels the bright one
22. 3:36Lucifer and he was watching and he was watching  all the time and he was wondering what would
23. 3:43it be like to be up there in the golden  chair looking down at where we are here
24. 3:51and he watched God because God was like  everybody else you see he had to go out to the
25. 3:57back place occasionally a donkey's house as they call it in Connemara
26. 4:02and Lucifer was watching  this and waiting his chance
27. 4:06and plucking up courage all the time and one of  the times that God was gone out the back place
28. 4:14Lucifer jumped up into the  chair the golden chair and
29. 4:22isn't this the place to be because whoever was  in the golden chair the crowd below adored an
30. 4:30adorned and adored and here they were now adoring  Lucifer himself wonderful feeling but he had
31. 4:38forgotten one thing because like a lot of smart  people that have one little kink he had forgotten
32. 4:46that God would be coming back and when God came  back in the back door pulling up his trousers
33. 4:55after being at the place outside and when  he came in and saw who was in his chair he
34. 5:02lost his temper entirely and what  to do only open the floor of heaven
35. 5:09opened the floor of heaven and down went  everybody who was there and not just them
36. 5:16but the golden chair and Lucifer in it because  remember gold is very heavy down it went
37. 5:32like the stars of heaven but luckily for for most  of the ones in the background and for us too maybe
38. 5:43Michael the archangel he was over in the  corner standing on the rafter making the tea
39. 5:50and he saw what was happening and he said to God  master master he says do something quick quick
40. 5:56and we'll be alone here in heaven and God  saw that he was right and he immediately
41. 6:03closed the floor at heaven again and and
42. 6:11thank you master he said
43. 6:15but of course for the ones that were  falling falling falling it was too late
44. 6:20and especially Lucifer
45. 6:24and the chair by then down down they had fallen  into the dark place into the pit however that
46. 6:43but when God closed the floor of heaven  when the ones that were already falling
47. 6:52they froze where they were and  the ones that had fallen to earth
48. 6:58they stayed there and they today are the  earth fairies the ones that you'll find
49. 7:05in the forts the fairy forts and the ones that  had fallen into water and the water fairies you'll
50. 7:15find them in the rivers the seas the lakes and  the ones that are still falling through the air
51. 7:23and the air fairies and that's how our ancestors  distinguished between the three types of fairies
52. 7:31the earth fairies the water fairies the  air fairies and it will just show you even
53. 7:38though there weren't bookish people because they  hadn't books they hadn't books Ireland remember
54. 7:43was a very very poor country who had books at  that time except maybe the clergy or maybe the
55. 7:51the lawyers or maybe people like that lovely  people all maybe had no books but they had curious
56. 8:00minds when they were talking around the fire at  night they wanted to know things like this and
57. 8:06that was their answer for how the fairies in  their varying degrees came to be and the other
58. 8:13great thing I always found about Irish people was  they had a sense of humor about their own religion
59. 8:22they had a sense of humor about God going  to the toilet if around the world today when
60. 8:30you have so many wars about religion and  people killing each other about religion
61. 8:37people have that sense of humor about religion  wouldn't it be a wonderful wonderful thing Irish
62. 8:44people did have that on the go and we should give  them great great credit for that and but I'm
63. 8:49listening to all people today as I have been doing  for the last 43 years I have often listened to
64. 8:57them and I have thought well isn't it isn't that  a gift isn't it a gift to be able to laugh at very
65. 9:05very serious philosophical things and still believe  thoroughly in those same philosophical things
66. 9:13I think when those people turn up at the  gates of heaven they'll get a welcome
67. 9:20come in and you'll meet the man himself and you'll  meet the wise like Saint Peter and you'll meet
68. 9:28the Archangel Gabriel and you'll meet Michael  the man who was making the tea above on the rafter
69. 9:33and I'll bet he'd have a cup for you but the  notion of Michael the Archangel making tea
70. 9:39above on the rafter in heaven when you consider  that tea was only introduced to Ireland in the
71. 9:4419th century it's such a wonderful notion it's  I think those stories they're a gift to humanity
72. 10:02there are two versions of how the fairies  came to be the that story there and the
73. 10:08story of the Tuatha De Dannan the Tuatha De Dannan would be I suppose the official version
74. 10:14of the fairies being defeated in the second battle  of Moytura and having to retreat underground you
75. 10:25would have to read about it in order  to find out it's not so convincing
76. 10:31it's not so convincing whereas this one might  not be convincing either but it's mighty amusing
77. 10:39it's it's the kind of story that sitting around  the fire at night it was always a competition
78. 10:48there's my story tell one better than that if you  can that was the way when stories were stories and
79. 10:54there was an audience for storytelling around  the fire at night when you had to do something
80. 10:59when there was no television you had to be able  to do something there was always this notion of
81. 11:05'is cuma nó muc fear gan scéal'  other stories of no more account than a pig
82. 11:11if you went into a house at night and  you couldn't do something tell a story
83. 11:14sing a song recite play a tune dance  a step as one old man put it for me
84. 11:21you'd be cut by the scruff of the neck and the  hasp of the ass and out the door you were useless
85. 11:27you were only taking up space you were only using  up good air get out go home and that was the truth