Padraic Colum 1 hr 32 min read

A boy comes to understand the speech of birds, and so learns of the Stone of Victory and the quest of Feet-in-the-Ashes, the swineherd's son, tales drawn from the deep well of folklore.

Padraic Colum's 1918 book is a lyrical collection of myth-steeped fairy tales for children by a fine Irish poet. Beautiful, dreamlike, richly told. Read it for a graceful garland of wonder-stories, where a gift of understanding the birds opens onto quests and marvels in Colum's luminous, folklore-rich voice.

In its time

Published in 1918, during the 1910s, lost worlds and interplanetary adventure.

Reading it

1 hr 32 min read (a novella, a full arc in one sitting or two).

Illustrated by

Dugald Stewart Walker