The Battle of the Birds

Illustration by Arthur Rackham, from The Allies Fairy Book from 1916. The king's son asks the giant for his youngest daughter's hand in marriage.

The Battle of the Birds (Scottish Gaelic: Cath Nan Eun)[1] is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands. He recorded it in 1859 from a fisherman near Inverary, John Mackenzie[2] and was, at the time, building dykes on the Ardkinglas estate.[3][4]

The tale is classified in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as ATU 313, "The Magic Flight" ("Girl Helps the Hero Flee") or "The Devil's (Ogre's/Giant's) Daughter".

  1. ^ Campbell, John Francis (1890). Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Vol. 1. Alexander Gardner. p. 38.
  2. ^ Campbell, John Francis (1890). Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Vol. 1. Alexander Gardner. p. viii.
  3. ^ Campbell, John Francis (1890). Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Vol. 1. Alexander Gardner. p. 38.
  4. ^ Fleming, Maurice (2002). Not of this World: Creatures of the Supernatural in Scotland. Mercat Press. p. 85. ISBN 978-1-84183-040-7.