The Soul Cages (story) facts for kids

The Soul Cages is a special fairy tale. It was first written by Thomas Keightley. He published it as if it were a real Irish folktale in a book called Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825–28). This story is about a male merrow, which is like a merman. He invites a local fisherman to visit his home under the sea. The "soul cages" in the story are where the merman keeps the souls of sailors who have drowned.

Story Summary

The tale takes place in Dunbeg Bay, which is in Doonbeg, County Clare, Ireland. A fisherman named Jack Dogherty also liked to search the beach for useful things. He really wanted to meet a merrow, just like his father and grandfather had.

Jack finally saw a male merrow. He then learned he could often see the creature at Merrow's Rock on windy days. One day, a storm forced Jack to hide in a cave. There, he came face-to-face with the merrow. The merrow introduced himself as Coomara, which means "sea-dog." He had green hair and teeth, a red nose, scaly legs, a fish-tail, and small fin-like arms. They talked for a long time about their cellars. They both collected bottles from shipwrecks.

Coomara set up a meeting for a week later. He arrived carrying two special hats. The second hat was for Jack. Wearing it allowed Jack to go underwater. Coomara invited Jack to his home under the sea. The merman told Jack to hold onto his fish-tail as they dived deep into the ocean.

The merman welcomed Jack into his underwater shack. Inside, it was dry and warm with fires burning. The furniture was simple. They ate a wonderful seafood meal and enjoyed many fine drinks. Then, Coomara showed Jack a collection of cages. They looked like lobster pots. Coomara explained that these cages held the souls of drowned sailors. Coomara thought he was helping them by bringing them to a dry place. But Jack was shocked and decided he had to free the souls.

Jack later threw a rock into the sea to call Coomara. This was the signal they had agreed on. Jack had convinced his wife, Biddy, to leave the house for a religious trip. Now, he invited Coomara to his home. Jack offered Coomara drinks from his own cellar. He planned to get the merman drunk. Then, he would sneak out with the special hat and rescue the souls. The first day, his plan did not work. The next day, he gave the merman a very strong drink called poteen. Jack got this drink from his brother-in-law.

This time, Jack managed to free some of the souls. But his wife returned home and saw the merman. Jack told his wife the whole story. She forgave him because he had done a good deed.

The merman never seemed to notice that the souls were gone. He and Jack met many more times. Jack kept freeing more souls. But one day, the merman did not respond when Jack threw the rock. Jack never saw Coomara again.

Story Background

Thomas Keightley was one of the people who collected stories for T. Crofton Croker's book. However, Keightley was not given credit for his work. Later, Keightley published "The Soul Cages" in his own book, The Fairy Mythology (1828). In a later edition, he admitted that this story was not a real folktale he had collected. Instead, he had made it up himself. He based it on a German legend called "The Peasant and the Waterman." This German story was one of the Brother Grimm's tales.

Some people thought Keightley had played a trick on Croker and others. But Keightley wrote a letter to Wilhelm Grimm in 1829. In the letter, he said that making up the story was Croker's idea. He also said that the "Soul Cages" story published was not exactly as he had written it. Croker had changed some parts.

It is tricky to know if the story was truly a folktale. Keightley later said he found people in County Cork and County Wicklow who knew similar tales. In these versions, the souls were kept in "things like flower-pots" instead of lobster pots. One expert thought Keightley's made-up story became popular over time. It might have then become part of real oral traditions. However, Keightley's 1829 letter suggests he met people who knew the legend from childhood. This means the story might have existed before he wrote it down.

Keightley set the story in Dunbeg Bay, County Clare. A person named Thomas Johnson Westropp collected stories about mer-folk in County Clare. He could not find this specific tale near Doonbeg or Kilkee. But he still seemed to think the story was real, even with some doubts.

Later Impact

Even though "The Soul Cages" was a made-up story, it became very popular. Many people thought it was a real Irish folktale. It has been included in many collections of folktales. This happened even after Keightley admitted he invented it.

For example, William Butler Yeats included it in his book Fairy and Folk Tales of the Irish Peasantry (1888). Yeats seemed to believe the story was real. He thought it must be a local tale from a small area. Kevin Crossley-Holland also chose the story for his collections, even knowing it was invented.

"The Soul Cages" might have inspired Oscar Wilde's fairy tale "The Fisherman and his Soul." A literary critic named Richard Pine suggested this connection.

The musician Sting released an album called "The Soul Cages" in 1991. Sting made this album after his father passed away. It talks about his childhood in Newcastle upon Tyne. The song "The Soul Cages" on the album includes these lyrics: "He's the king of the ninth world, The twisted son of the fog bells toll, In each and every lobster cage, A tortured human soul"

See also

In Spanish: Las jaulas del alma (historia) para niños