School: Lough Gur, Kilmallock (roll number 7117)

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1. Local Stories

   

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   There was once a widow who had two daughters, one who [?] was very useful and also very beautiful. She was a great help about the house, while the other was ugly and idle. The mother loved the ugly one, because she was her own child, she did not care much about the other, because she was only her step child.
   She made her do all the hard work, she had to sit by a well every day and spin until her fingers began to bleed. One day her spingle was so red with blood that she could not spin. She tried to wash it in the well. While she was washing it, she left it fall into the well, and sank to the bottom. With tears in her eyes, she ran home and told the stepmother what had happened her. She was very angry with her, and said "Scince you have left the spindle fall into the well you must go and get it out." So the poor girl had to go back again and try to get it out. She learned so far ever the edge that she sank to the bottom.
   There she found, that she was in a beautiful field, on which the sun shone brightly, and where hundreds of wild flowers grew. She walked along way across the fields until she came to a bakers oven, full of new bread, and the loaves cried to her, "O pull

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   Transcribed by a member of our volunteer transcription project.

   History Edit

   Folktales index

   AT0480: The Spinning‑Women by the Spring. The Kind and the Unkind Girls.

   Language

   English

   Collector

   Mary Anne Connell

   Gender

   Female

   Address

   Ballynagallagh, Co. Limerick

   Informant

   Richard O' Connell

   Gender

   Male

   Address

   Ballynagallagh, Co. Limerick