Page 10 - @ccess 2 Reader´s Book

STORIES ON STAGE Practice 2

Ludic and literary environment
SOCIAL LANGUAGE PRACTICE: Read theater plays.

Adapted by Aaron
Shepard

The Giant’s Wife
A Tall Tale of Ireland
TRACK 12

Before you start reading and listening...

PREVIEW: When Fin MacCool is threatened by another
giant, only his wife’s wits might save him.

GENRE: Folktales, tall tales, legends
CULTURE: Irish
THEME: Wits vs. power, heroines
CHARACTERS: 7
READER AGES: 12–15
LENGTH: 10 minutes
ROLES: Narrators 1–4, Fin (male), Oona (female),
Cuhullin (male)

NOTES: This popular tale brings together Fin MacCool
and Cuhullin, the two greatest heroes of Irish legend.
Carleton’s version of the tale, which he called “A
Legend of Knockmany,” appeared in William Butler
Yeats’s 1888 collection Folk and Fairy Tales of the Irish
Peasantry. This script, though, is based not directly on
that version but on a retelling of it on the classic BBC
television show “Jackanory”.

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