These stories are offered in the hope that they may help promote the
love of reading in our boys and girls. After all, our duty in teaching
reading is not in the subject matter but in the desire. If we show to
the child that the art of reading is the golden key which will unlock
the storehouse of life enjoyment, and give him the love for the secrets
of the printed page, we may consider that our educational effort has
been well spent. So the primary object in writing these stories has not
been to chronicle history but to give the child something interesting
and entertaining.
The early Celts have little literature other than these stories, which
have been handed down from generation to generation by word of mouth.
Most of the tales in this book have been taken from the Ossianic Saga.
Whether Finn belongs to history or mythology detracts no jot from the
absorbing interest of his exploits.
I have tried to make the story of Finn something of a connected
narrative. To do this I have taken incidents from various versions; I
have left out much unsuitable to children, and I have changed some
incidents to conform to the modern standards of morals. The chronology
of arrangement is my own, but I have tried to preserve the spirit of the
originals.
No collection of Irish folk stories could be brought out were it not for
the work of those many scholars who have spent years in collecting and
translating the tales of the Celtic race. To our American linguist,
Jeremiah Curtin, and to the Irish scholars: Sir Douglas Hyde, Dr. Joyce,
Eleanor Hull, Lady Gregory, T. W. Rolleston and others, my thanks are
due. Their splendid research work has made possible such a volume as
this.