Adventures of Gilla Na Chreck An Gour ("The Fellow in the Goatskin") is an Irish fairy tale collected by folklorist Patrick Kennedy and published in Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (1866). The tale was also published by Irish poet Alfred Perceval Graves in his Irish Fairy Book (1909). Joseph Jacobs published the tale as The Lad with the Goat-Skin in his Celtic Fairy Tales.
The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 650A, "Strong John".
Summary
In Enniscorthy, a woman is so poor that she gives her son (an ash-lad), who lives around the hearth, a goat-skin to wrap around the waist. When he is "six foot high" and nineteen years old, his mother sends him to the forest to fetch some "bresna". He finds a nine-foot-high giant in the woods and spares his life, gaining a club from the giant. When sent again, he meets a two-headed giant who gives Tom (Gilla's name) a magical fife that makes people dance, and a three headed giant who gives him a "green ointment" that grants immunity against burns, wounds and scalding.
Later, he walks down the road and reaches a city. There he learns that the King of Dublin's daughter hasn't laughed in seven years, and intends to make her laugh three times. The second time, Tom uses the magical fife to command a terrible wolf to dance. On that same night, the king tells Tom he needs a powerful flail to vanquish the Danes. So Tom "travelled and travelled till he came in sight of the walls of hell" and talked to the devils to loan him the flail.
His rival at court, a fellow named Redhead, tries to wield the flail and fails, which creates a scene so comical that the princess bursts out laughing. The princess accepts Tom as his husband. The Danes, eventually, give up their plans of invading Dublin, so frightened they were of rumors of the flail.
Analysis
Tale type
This tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 650A. These types refer to stories where the hero shows superhuman strength as he matures. Sometimes the hero is the fruit of the union between a human and an otherworldly character. In addition, some stories of type 650A feature an episode of type ATU 1000, "Anger Bargain (Bargain not to become angry)".
This tale, in particular, also shows an episode of the tale type ATU 571, "All Stick Together" or "Making the Princess Laugh".
Folklorists Johannes Bolte and Jiri Polivka, in their commentaries to the Grimm fairy tales, listed this tale as connected to Grimm's fairy tale The Young Giant, another story of type ATU 650.
Motifs
The name of the hero
Folklorist Jeremiah Curtin commented that the name Gilla na Grakin (Gilla na g-croicean) means "the fellow (or youth) of the skins" and refers to a servant boy. The name also appears as component of many Irish names. In the same vein, Joseph Jacobs noted that the "Gilla" character (or "The Lad with the Skin Coverings") was a popular figure in Celtic tales.
As pointed by James MacDougall, the name could also be written in Gaelic as Gille nan Cochla-craicinn, Gille nan Cochulla-craicinn or Gille nan Cochuill-chraicinn, all meaning "The Lad of the Skin-Coverings" or "The Lad of the Skinny Husks". These "skinny husks" could mean either the skin of an animal that grants a magical transformation, or simply garments made of animal skin.
Scholarship on Celtic studies states that the name also appears as the identity assumed by hero Ceudach or Céadach, the protagonist of "the most popular of all Fenian folk-tales". In variations of the legend, either Ceudach is given this name by the king or by his wife, or he uses this moniker to conceal his true identity.
Variants
Europe
In a Gaelic story, Scéal Ghiolla na gCochall Craicionn ("The Story of the Lad in Goat Skins"), published in 1906 by British linguist Edmund Crosby Quiggin, two men (Céadach mac ríogh na dTulach and Lonndubh mac ríogh na Dreólainne), apprentices of blacksmith Gaibhdín Gabhna dispute the hand of the maiden Scaith Shioda ní Mhanannán. After the maiden decides who shall be her future husband (by his guessing which of two doors she entered and following after), Céadach leaves his hometown and adventures in the woods, dressed only in animal skins. One day, the hunting party of prince Fionn mac Cumhaill find him cooking some game and alert the prince. Ceádach is brought to the king's presence and receives the name Ghiolla na gCochall Craicionn. The tale was also published by Jeremiah Curtin in 1890 with the name Gilla na Grakin and Fin MacCumhail, the blacksmith's apprentices were named Césa MacRi na Tulach and Lun Dubh MacSmola, and the maiden Scéhide ni Wánanan.