iries sometimes take away
mortals to their palaces in the fairy forts and
pleasant green hills." This conception is often
referred to as the Earthly Paradise or the Isle
of Youth. It is represented in the King Arthur
stories by the Vale of Avalon to which the
weeping queens carried the king after his
mortal wound in "that last weird battle in the
west." Conn the Hundred-fighter reigned in the
second century of the Christian era (123-157
A.D.), and this story of his son must have
sprung up soon after. According to Jacobs, it
is the oldest fairy tale of modern Europe.

The following version of the tale is from
Joseph Jacobs' _Celtic Fairy Tales_, which with
its companion volume, _More Celtic Fairy
Tales_, forms a standard source book for the
usable stories in that field. Mr. Jacobs, as
always, keeps to the authoritative versions
while reducing them to forms at once available
for educational purposes.

CONNLA AND THE FAIRY MAIDEN

Connla of the Fiery Hair was son of Conn of the Hundred Fights. One day
as he stood by the side of his father on the height of Usna, he saw a
maiden clad in strange attire towards him coming.

"Whence comest thou, maiden?" said Connla.

"I come from the Plains of the Ever Living," she said, "there where is
neither death nor sin. There we keep holiday alway, nor need we help
from any in our joy. And in all our pleasure we have no strife. And
because we have our homes in the round green hills, men call us the Hill
Folk."

The king and all with him wondered much to hear a voice when they saw no
one. For save Connla alone, none saw the Fairy Maiden.

"To whom art thou talking, my son?" said Conn the king.

Then the maiden answered, "Connla speaks to a young, fair maid, whom
neither death nor old age awaits. I love Connla, and now I call him away
to the Plain of Pleasure, Moy Mell, where Boadag is king for aye, nor
has there been sorrow or complaint in that land since he held the
kingship. Oh, come with me, Connla of the Fiery Hair, ruddy as the dawn,
with thy tawny skin. A fairy crown awaits thee to grace thy comely face
and royal form. Come, and never shall thy comeliness fade, nor thy
youth, till the last awful day of judgment."

The king in fear at what the maiden said, which he heard though he could
not see her, called alo