The Soul Cages (story)
| 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).
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.