I've always been a fan of the somewhat creepy fairy tale, Rumplestiltskin, which was published by the Grimm brothers in 1812. When I was researching my 'Irish Fairy Tales, Myths and Legends' book for Scholastic, I came across folklorist, Patrick Kennedy's story 'The Lazy Beauty and her Aunts' in his 1870's book 'The Fireside Stories of Ireland.' an irish version of Rumpelstiltskin! I couldn't believe it.
I set about retelling it and employed the services of writer and Gaeilgoir, Patricia Forde, to correct the rather poor Irish in the story. I wrote, what I hoped was an improved version of Kennedy's story and was deligted to update the Rumpelstilskin Wikipedia page (my first time to ever do this!) to include an irish version of the story.
I felt quite proud of myself and left Rumplestilskin behind, thinking that the matter had been dealt with.
This year, however, while researching a new book, I came across another Irish version of the tale called 'The White Hen' in Mary McGarry's 1973 book, 'Great Fairy Tales of Ireland.'
McGarry cites the story as a retelling, so I set out to find the original. Despite extensive research, I couldn't find out anything about Mary McGarry or where she had found the story. It was only when I Googled the name of the Rumpelstiltskin charcter in her story (Tirminion) that I found the original tale which was published in Duffy's Fireside Magazine in November 1852. This made it even older than Patrick Kennedy's version! I would have to update the Wikipedia entry again.
The magazine story was credited to an anonymous author with the initials, L. N. F.
And so, I set out to find this mysterious author. My searches for an author with these initials who would have been living in Ireland in 1852 yielded no results. An image seach however, led me to a handwitten manuscript that had been auctioned by Adam's in 2008. It was written by a poet called Ellen Fitzsimon, who turned out to be the daughter of the Liberator, Danial O' Connell. I also learned James Duffy (publisher of Duffy's Fireside Magazine) had published some of her work.
I had found my L.N. F.
But why had Ellen Fitzsimon used these initials? Well, she often signed her work as LN. F, the first two letters being a phonetic spelling of her name Ellen. Somehow, a dot had mistakenly placed after the L in the magazine.
I have updated the Rumpelstiltskin Wikipedia entry to include my discovery.
I used to be sceptical about Wikipedia but if the people who edit it are as obsessive as me, then it is perhaps the best enclopedia out there!
My findings may not have been of the magnitude of last week's discovery of an unseen Bram Stoker manuscript, but to me, it felt as special.
Hopefully, my own retelling of Ellen Fitzsimon's 'The White Hen' will make it into my next book!
