You would think that since this is such a thin book, I would finish reading it ASAP but it has taken me a few months to get to this! I carried with me to Malaysia, out of Malaysia, and through the new year before I picked it up. It’s even weirder when you think about the fact that I like myths and legends.

So anyway, The Celtic Twilight reminds me of The People of The Sea, in that it’s basically Yeats writing down various stories that people have told him. It does differ from The People of The Sea in that The Celtic Twilight feels a lot more like a diary, and contain bits of dreams and other experiences by Yeats. In a way, it’s a collection of oral-tales about fairies in Ireland but not done in a very systematic or intentional manner (as seen by the dates on each entry).

I found the language here to be beautiful. Two examples:

“What is literature but the expression of moods by the vehicle of symbol and incident? […] Let us go forth, the teller of tales, and seize whatever prey the heart long for, and have no fear.”

“It is one of the great troubles of life that we cannot have any unmixed emotions. There is always something in our enemy that we like, and something in our sweetheart that we dislike.”

While I don’t think this is required reading for people who are starting to learn about Irish folklore due to the personal nature of this book, those who are looking for obscure stories told in a beautiful way may want to pick this up.