PODCAST · arts

Stories from the Ballads, Told to the Children by Mary Esther Miller MacGregor (1876 - 1961)

by LibriVox

Listen, children, for you will wish to hear where I found the tales which I have told you in this little book.It is long, oh! so long ago, that they were sung up hill and down dale by wandering singers who soon became known all over the country as minstrels, or ofttimes, because they would carry with them a harp, as harpers.In court, in cottage, by princes and by humble folk, everywhere, by every one the minstrels were greeted with delight.To such sweet music did they sing the songs or ballads which they made or perchance had heard, to such sweet music, that those who listened could forget nor tale nor tune.In those far-off days of minstrelsy the country was alive with fairies. Over the mountains, through the glens, by babbling streams and across silent moors, the patter of tiny feet might be heard, feet which had strayed from Elfinland.It was of these little folk and of their visits to the homes of mortals that the minstrels