Story - The Housewife and the Fairies
I found this story in Mac-Talla, vol 11, issue 5, but a version of it was appeared in Lady Wilde's Ancient Legends of Ireland as "The Horned Women" and another in Tales of the West Highlands vol. 2.
The Housewife and the Fairies
an old story
Fada fada ron a seo ...
There weren't any supermarkets. People couldn't just walk into a store and buy new clothes. Someone had to make them. More than that, someone had to make the cloth before they could sew the clothes. That someone was the woman of the house.
There were many steps to making cloth out of wool ; teazing, combing, carding, pulling, winding, spinning and, of course, weaving. It took a long time to make a shirt or a pair of pants or a dress.
There once was a woman who was totally fed up with making cloth. Night after night, she was working to make cloth after her husband and family had gone to rest. Combing and carding, teazing and pulling, spinning the thread, setting up the loom, weaving, and heating water for waulking. Night after night.
One night, worn out with the work, she said, "O won't someone come, from land or from sea, from far or from near, to help me make this cloth?"
No sooner had she said that when she heard a knock at the door and a voice cried out in a strange language that she understood to mean : "A great gift good housewife, open the door to me, and as long as I live, you have."
She rose and when she'd opened the door a strange woman wearing a dark green outfit came in past her and she sat down at the spinning-wheel.
No sooner had she done that, there was a hard blow on the door and a cry in the exact same words before, "A great gift good housewife, open the door to me, as long as I live, you have."
When the housewife answered another supernatural one came inside, and she took up the distaff.
And then a great blow, harder and louder, came asking to come inside and offering to help.
When the door was opened another strange woman came inside, and she sat carding.
When she began working, came an even louder knocking at the door and a voice cried out : "A great gift good housewife, open the door quickly, as long as I live you have."
When the door was opened, another wonderous person floated in, her clothes the same as the rest, and when she was situated she began to comb the wool.
Then came another loud barrage of blows, and when she came in she began to pick threads out of the wool.
They were now coming faster and more impetuous, one after another, with noise and clatter greater and louder, until the house was as full of them as it could hold.
Then began the work in earnest, combing and carding, pulling and teazing, spinning and weaving quickly, quickly, and the water on the fire for waulking; combing and carding, pulling and teazing, spinning and weaving quickly, quickly, and the water on the fire for waulking; combing and carding, pulling and teazing, spinning and weaving quickly, quickly, and the water on the fire for waulking, faster and faster.
And the noise was filling the house completely full, the whirring of the wheel, the creaking of the distaff and the industry of the loom, louder and louder.
The good housewife tried, as best she could, to put a stop to the uproar; running from one to another, but there were too many to keep up with.
While they were working, they were wanting food but the world couldn't hold food for them. The longer the night went, the more they wanted and the more they worked, the more they needed. She was running preparing food and she was running fetching more wool. At the middle of the night the good housewife was falling over with exhaustion, trying to deal with their demands.
She tried then to waken the man of the house; she thought that he could drive out the company; but she wasn't able to. It was like trying to move a millstone! He wouldn't move and he wouldn't speak, no matter how much she yelled at him. When she'd failed and she didn't know what she could do, she thought to go to an old wise man of the town for advice.
She left while her unpleasant company eating everything that she'd made for them and she went to the wise man and told him of her trouble and how the man of the house wouldn't waken.
He scolded her for her lack of commonsense to be asking for help from the supernatural, saying : "As long as you live you must be careful, never to ask or wish for anything unseemly or awkward, because you might get it and so bring misfortune on yourself."
He said, "The man of the house is under a spell, and before he will waken these unwelcome people, whom you wished for, need to leave the house, and then a little of the waulking water must be thrown on him."
She asked then in what way she could drive the people away, and he told her to return home and stand on the rise at the door of the house and cry out in a loud voice three times that Dunbhurg was burning. The company would race outside to see the sight for themselves and when she had gotten them all outside the house and the door closed on them, she was to turn the wrong way over or to put upside-down everything that they'd been working on.
She returned with the information that she'd gotten, and when she reached the hill across from the door she yelled so shrilly and so hard that people further and wider than she could see could hear her : "There's a fire on Dunbhurg! Dunbhurg is burning! Dunbhurg is aflame!"
Even before she finished crying out, the fairy company was outside the house, squeezing together and trampling on one another to see who of them would be first in the holovohorohe" to reach the door and they were yelling --
"My wife and my children, my cheese and my crock of butter,
My sons and my daughters, and my chests of flour,
My (honey)comb and my (wool)cards, the thread and the distaff,
My cow on the fetter, and the pails of milk,
Horse in bridle, baskets and ??
and the land deciding, my hammer and my anvil.
Dunbhurg is on fire! If Dunbhurg is burning,
so is my joy and my mirth burning."
Everyone of them lamented the best thing of value that they had as they went out on the Dun.
When the housewife had got them outside the door, she went inside as fast as she could and she shut and barred the door on them and as she'd been entrusted she put into disorder everything on which the lords and ladies had been working.
She took the belt off the spinning-wheel, twisted up the distaff, put the carding combs together back to back, turned the loom upside down, took the water for waulking off the fire and so on down.
Scarcely had she finished it all, and was starting to prepare food for the household, than the Good Folk returned wanting in and calling out, "A great gift good housewife, let us in."
"I can't," she said, "my hands are in the dough."
Then they cried out to the spinning-wheel : "O good wheel, rise up and open the door to us."
"How would I do that," said the spinning-wheel, "my belt is gone."
Then they cried out to the distaff : "O nimble distaff, open the door to us."
"I would do that," said the distaff, "if I weren't twisted up."
Next they said to the cards to open the door.
"We would do that happily if we could use our feet."
They then gave thought that the loom would not refuse them. The loom said that it would except that it was upside down. They flattered next the waulking water to let them in, saying to it : "Waulking water, won't you open the door?"
"I can't, I'm off the fire," said the waulking water.
They were growing impatient, and finally they were up against the end, and they made a complaint to the small bannock that was baking on the stone in the oven, and they said to it, "Small bannock, open the door quickly, we're in a hurry."
The small bannock rose and took to the door as fast as it could but the housewife was in advance of it. She went after it and she grabbed it and she pinched it, and in place of going to "sneck" the door, it was thrown into splinters on the floor.
Since they had no other way for them to get inside, they took control of the man of the house, instead of being as heavy as a mill-stone he grew as light as a feather.
When she couldn't suffer the hullabaloo any longer, the housewife remembered what she'd been asked to do with the waulking water. She took a bucketful and she threw it over the man of the house. He woke up without delay. He had the time. He rose and he opened the door and he put a stop to the uproar.
The Housewife and the Fairies
an old story
Fada fada ron a seo ...
There weren't any supermarkets. People couldn't just walk into a store and buy new clothes. Someone had to make them. More than that, someone had to make the cloth before they could sew the clothes. That someone was the woman of the house.
There were many steps to making cloth out of wool ; teazing, combing, carding, pulling, winding, spinning and, of course, weaving. It took a long time to make a shirt or a pair of pants or a dress.
There once was a woman who was totally fed up with making cloth. Night after night, she was working to make cloth after her husband and family had gone to rest. Combing and carding, teazing and pulling, spinning the thread, setting up the loom, weaving, and heating water for waulking. Night after night.
One night, worn out with the work, she said, "O won't someone come, from land or from sea, from far or from near, to help me make this cloth?"
No sooner had she said that when she heard a knock at the door and a voice cried out in a strange language that she understood to mean : "A great gift good housewife, open the door to me, and as long as I live, you have."
She rose and when she'd opened the door a strange woman wearing a dark green outfit came in past her and she sat down at the spinning-wheel.
No sooner had she done that, there was a hard blow on the door and a cry in the exact same words before, "A great gift good housewife, open the door to me, as long as I live, you have."
When the housewife answered another supernatural one came inside, and she took up the distaff.
And then a great blow, harder and louder, came asking to come inside and offering to help.
When the door was opened another strange woman came inside, and she sat carding.
When she began working, came an even louder knocking at the door and a voice cried out : "A great gift good housewife, open the door quickly, as long as I live you have."
When the door was opened, another wonderous person floated in, her clothes the same as the rest, and when she was situated she began to comb the wool.
Then came another loud barrage of blows, and when she came in she began to pick threads out of the wool.
They were now coming faster and more impetuous, one after another, with noise and clatter greater and louder, until the house was as full of them as it could hold.
Then began the work in earnest, combing and carding, pulling and teazing, spinning and weaving quickly, quickly, and the water on the fire for waulking; combing and carding, pulling and teazing, spinning and weaving quickly, quickly, and the water on the fire for waulking; combing and carding, pulling and teazing, spinning and weaving quickly, quickly, and the water on the fire for waulking, faster and faster.
And the noise was filling the house completely full, the whirring of the wheel, the creaking of the distaff and the industry of the loom, louder and louder.
The good housewife tried, as best she could, to put a stop to the uproar; running from one to another, but there were too many to keep up with.
While they were working, they were wanting food but the world couldn't hold food for them. The longer the night went, the more they wanted and the more they worked, the more they needed. She was running preparing food and she was running fetching more wool. At the middle of the night the good housewife was falling over with exhaustion, trying to deal with their demands.
She tried then to waken the man of the house; she thought that he could drive out the company; but she wasn't able to. It was like trying to move a millstone! He wouldn't move and he wouldn't speak, no matter how much she yelled at him. When she'd failed and she didn't know what she could do, she thought to go to an old wise man of the town for advice.
She left while her unpleasant company eating everything that she'd made for them and she went to the wise man and told him of her trouble and how the man of the house wouldn't waken.
He scolded her for her lack of commonsense to be asking for help from the supernatural, saying : "As long as you live you must be careful, never to ask or wish for anything unseemly or awkward, because you might get it and so bring misfortune on yourself."
He said, "The man of the house is under a spell, and before he will waken these unwelcome people, whom you wished for, need to leave the house, and then a little of the waulking water must be thrown on him."
She asked then in what way she could drive the people away, and he told her to return home and stand on the rise at the door of the house and cry out in a loud voice three times that Dunbhurg was burning. The company would race outside to see the sight for themselves and when she had gotten them all outside the house and the door closed on them, she was to turn the wrong way over or to put upside-down everything that they'd been working on.
She returned with the information that she'd gotten, and when she reached the hill across from the door she yelled so shrilly and so hard that people further and wider than she could see could hear her : "There's a fire on Dunbhurg! Dunbhurg is burning! Dunbhurg is aflame!"
Even before she finished crying out, the fairy company was outside the house, squeezing together and trampling on one another to see who of them would be first in the holovohorohe" to reach the door and they were yelling --
"My wife and my children, my cheese and my crock of butter,
My sons and my daughters, and my chests of flour,
My (honey)comb and my (wool)cards, the thread and the distaff,
My cow on the fetter, and the pails of milk,
Horse in bridle, baskets and ??
and the land deciding, my hammer and my anvil.
Dunbhurg is on fire! If Dunbhurg is burning,
so is my joy and my mirth burning."
Everyone of them lamented the best thing of value that they had as they went out on the Dun.
When the housewife had got them outside the door, she went inside as fast as she could and she shut and barred the door on them and as she'd been entrusted she put into disorder everything on which the lords and ladies had been working.
She took the belt off the spinning-wheel, twisted up the distaff, put the carding combs together back to back, turned the loom upside down, took the water for waulking off the fire and so on down.
Scarcely had she finished it all, and was starting to prepare food for the household, than the Good Folk returned wanting in and calling out, "A great gift good housewife, let us in."
"I can't," she said, "my hands are in the dough."
Then they cried out to the spinning-wheel : "O good wheel, rise up and open the door to us."
"How would I do that," said the spinning-wheel, "my belt is gone."
Then they cried out to the distaff : "O nimble distaff, open the door to us."
"I would do that," said the distaff, "if I weren't twisted up."
Next they said to the cards to open the door.
"We would do that happily if we could use our feet."
They then gave thought that the loom would not refuse them. The loom said that it would except that it was upside down. They flattered next the waulking water to let them in, saying to it : "Waulking water, won't you open the door?"
"I can't, I'm off the fire," said the waulking water.
They were growing impatient, and finally they were up against the end, and they made a complaint to the small bannock that was baking on the stone in the oven, and they said to it, "Small bannock, open the door quickly, we're in a hurry."
The small bannock rose and took to the door as fast as it could but the housewife was in advance of it. She went after it and she grabbed it and she pinched it, and in place of going to "sneck" the door, it was thrown into splinters on the floor.
Since they had no other way for them to get inside, they took control of the man of the house, instead of being as heavy as a mill-stone he grew as light as a feather.
When she couldn't suffer the hullabaloo any longer, the housewife remembered what she'd been asked to do with the waulking water. She took a bucketful and she threw it over the man of the house. He woke up without delay. He had the time. He rose and he opened the door and he put a stop to the uproar.