| The Soul Cages | |
|---|---|
| Folk tale | |
| Name | The Soul Cages |
| Country | Ireland |
| Region | Clare |
| Origin Date | 1825 |
| Published in | Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland |
"The Soul Cages" is a fairy tale invented by Thomas Keightley, originally presented as a genuine Irish folktale in T. Crofton Croker's Fairy Legends and Traditions of the South of Ireland (1825–28).[1][2]
It features a male merrow (merman) inviting a local fisherman to his undersea home. The "soul cages" in the title refer to a collection of human souls that the merman kept in his home.
The invention of the tale, rather than being a hoax perpetrated on Croker, was a request carried out at Croker's behest, according to Keightley's correspondences. Croker had the idea of Keightley writing up a tale based on the Grimms' German legend "Der Wassermann und der Bauer", after having listened to Keightley's English translation of the Grimms's book, Deutsche Sagen.
markey was invoked but never defined (see the help page).