One of the most interesting literary products of the Middle Ages in western Europe is the collection of animal tales which eventually formed the satirical epic known from its most famous example as the Roman de Renart. The literary history of this group of writings is not to our purpose. [332] But no discussion of the oral tale in Europe can neglect stories with such vitality as those which are collected by the scores and sometimes hundreds in lands around the Baltic, which even seven hundred years ago were well enough known to form an animal epic, and which within the past four centuries have traveled to Africa and on slave ships to all parts of the New World.

A considerable group of these tales early aroused the interest of Kaarle Krohn, and to them he applied for the first time the rigorous analytical study which has later become known as the historical-geographical method. [333] He observed that these tales still had a very vigorous life in Finland and Russia, and that most of them also formed a part of the Reynard cycle. By a close analysis of the details, he examined the question of origin and subsequent history of these stories.

He found that in practice one particular series of episodes was ordinarily handled as a unit. In this series the stupid bear or wolf is placed in opposition to the sly fox. Such an opposition Krohn does not find in the literary fables, but it is an essential part of this whole group of episodes, [334] as well as of a few related independent stories. The cycle which forms the principal part of Krohn's study usually consists of five parts, any one of which may also be found as a self-sufficient anecdote.

The fox sees a man hauling a wagon load of fish. He lies down in the road where the wagon must pass and plays dead. The man throws him onto the wagon of fish and the fox throws the fish off behind and carries them away. He tells his friend the bear about his experience. In some versions of the tale the bear tries the same trick but is caught and killed (Type 1). In others the fox suggests to the bear how he, too, may get fish, namely by fishing with his tail through a hole in the ice. He freezes fast and when he is attacked, he loses his tail (Type 2). As an independent episode, this is often used to explain why the bear has no tail. While the bear has been fishing through the ice, the fox has gone to a woman's house and told her about the bear. While she is away chasing the bear, the fox slips into the house where the woman has been churning and feasts on the milk and [p. 220] butter. When the woman returns she drives him out and beats him with the churn-dash, so that he is all covered with butter and milk. When he finds the bear, who is complaining about his misfortunes in the ice, he claims to have had an even worse time and makes the bear believe that his brains have been knocked out (Type 3). In fact, the fox is in such a poor way that he says the bear must act as his riding horse. As he is riding the bear, he sings out, "The sick is carrying the well," but misreports the song to the stupid bear. Eventually, however, the bear realizes the deception and throws him off (Type 4). [335] The fox now escapes into a hole under the roots of a tree with the bear after him. When the bear seizes him by a hind leg, the fox calls out, "Bite ahead, you are only biting the tree root." The bear lets loose and they go on their separate ways (Type 5). [336]

Although three out of five of these episodes (Types 1, 2, and 4) find a place in the medieval animal epic, Krohn brings forth convincing evidence that the whole cycle developed in the folk tradition of northern Europe. He infers from the distribution of the complete cycle, as well as of the independent parts, that the combination has existed for about a thousand years. He finds that the antagonist to the fox is the bear in western and southern Finland, and the wolf in northeast Finland. Speaking of his own study, he says,

It was clear that into Finland there came from the west Scandinavian versions, and from the east Russian versions of one and the same tale, and that Finland was not a land through which tales traveled, but was rather the final destination of two streams of tradition. . . . The most southern part of northern Europe which can be conceived of as the home of the tale of the bear and the fox is northern Germany. . . . We can conclude that in Germany the whole chain of adventures was present before the settling of the Saxons. . . . From Germany on the one hand the original form with the bear reached Scandinavia and on the other hand the form with the wolf, influenced by the fable literature and the animal epic, reached Russia. [337]

The other adventures of the fox and the wolf (or bear) more frequently appear as independent tales. In general, Krohn finds that they have much the same history as the regular cycle. In one of these episodes (Type 7) they wager as to which of them can first name three different trees. The bear names different varieties of the same tree, so that the fox wins the wager. In another (Type 8) the bear sees a magpie and envies its colors. The fox offers to paint him so that he will be even more beautiful. Following the fox's prescription, the bear lies on a haystack which the fox sets fire [p. 221] to. The bear gets thoroughly burned. Sometimes this episode explains why the bear's fur now has a singed appearance. [338]

Neither of these two episodes entered the animal epic, but they are favorites in northern Europe. The tale of how the fox played godfather (Type 15), however, does appear in the Reynard cycle, though its origin seems to be in the northern Germanic countries. In this story the fox pretends that he has been invited to be a godfather of a newborn child. In this way he sneaks away and steals the butter or honey which he and the bear have stored in common. Each time he returns, the bear asks him the name of the child. The fox always replies in a manner suggesting the truth. For example, he says that the child's name is "Well Begun," "Half Done," or the like. When the bear realizes what has happened, they fall into a dispute as to which has stolen the provisions. The fox smears the sleeping bear with the honey or butter and thus proves that he is the thief. As those familiar with the Grimm collection will remember, the tale is frequently told of a cat and a mouse, or of a cock and a hen. Of all the stories belonging to this general cycle, this is perhaps the best known in other parts of the world than central Europe. It is to be found in most parts of Asia, all over Africa, in the Negro, the Spanish, the Portuguese, and the French traditions in America, and among the North American Indians.

In contrast to the wide popularity of the tale of the fox as godfather, the episode in Reynard the Fox concerning the oath on the iron (Type 44) is apparently not found outside of Russia and Yugoslavia. It usually appears as a sequel to the more popular tale. In the dispute concerning the theft of the supplies, the fox denies his guilt and swears by touching an iron trap. The bear follows his example, but hits the iron so hard that his paws are caught.

The fox's persuasive powers are shown in two more stories studied by Krohn, both of which are confined to the folklore of northern Europe. The first of these (Type 20C) begins with a cumulative tale in which the animals flee because they are afraid that the world is coming to an end or that there will be a war. Their fear has been caused by a nut which has fallen on the cock's head. [339] In their despair, they agree that they shall eat each other up. The fox persuades them that the smallest should be eaten first. Frequently as a part of this tale the fox induces the wolf to eat his own entrails (Type 21).

Some of the other episodes studied by Krohn, and having much the same history as the main cycle, are Aarne's Types 36, 37, and 43. In the first of these the fox in disguise violates the she-bear who is caught in a tree cleft. To avoid later recognition, he covers himself with soot and is mistaken for [p. 222] the pastor. In the second of these episodes the bear searches for a nursemaid for the young bears. The fox takes service and eats the young bears up. In the third, the bear builds a house of wood and the fox one of ice. In the summer the fox tries to drive the bear out of his house.

Gerber [340] believes that the last of these tales, as, indeed, all of the incidents concerned with building or construction, belongs essentially to a series of transactions between a man and a demon or ogre. [341] He says:

The connection between the Northern animal tale and the Norman or North-French demon tale is unmistakable, and, like the next adventure [the deceptive crop division], [342] and perhaps also the one following, is a proof of the close relations between the tales of the bear and the fox and the demon tales. The demon tale was most likely the source of the other because it is more natural. Is it in the relation between these tales that we are to seek, perhaps, the reason why the fox is called Michael with all Scandinavians?

Another story of the bear or wolf and the fox which seems to be definitely outside the cycle we have been considering is about how the bear is persuaded to bite the seemingly dead horse's tail (Type 47A). He is dragged off by the horse and the hare sees him and asks him where he is going. The hare laughs so much that he splits his lip. Sometimes in this tale the dupe is a fox. Krohn is convinced that this is not an original Bear (Wolf)-Fox tale, but that it only later passed over into this group and that finally, in the north, the characters were reversed. The latter part of the tale, about the hare, belongs to a group of legends, many of them doubtless of independent origin in various parts of the world, which explain how the hare obtained his split lip.

Throughout the entire group of animal tales thus far discussed the dupe is sometimes the bear and sometimes the wolf, but the clever animal is almost consistently the fox. It is interesting that as these have spread from their original home, the fox has given way to the hare or the rabbit and even to the lowly spider. [343]

In addition to those animal tales studied by Krohn, several other episodes from the Reynard cycle are known in folk tradition. The simple tale of the wolf who is the guest of the dog and who drinks too much and insists on singing until he is attacked and killed (Type 100) was not only retold by fabulists in the Renaissance but is also familiar over all of Europe and in central Asia, and has even been found among the American Indians of the Southwest. Another dog story belonging to the Reynard cycle shows [p. 223] much more definite Oriental affinities, and probably origin, since it appears in the Jātaka and is popular today in India and surrounding countries. This is the tale of The Dog and the Sparrow (Type 248). A man has run over the dog, who is a friend of the sparrow. The sparrow takes vengeance, so that the man loses his horse, his property, and finally his life. Whatever its origin, the tale has become well known all over Europe and has been recorded among the Negroes of Jamaica.

The Reynard cycle also contains several incidents concerned with a war between groups of animals. These are not always clearly separated, but the whole series seems to come eventually from the Orient, probably, from India. Sometimes there is a war between the domestic and wild animals. A cat raises her tail and the cowardly wild animals think it is a gun and flee (Type 104). Or the war may be between the birds and the quadrupeds. In this case, the fox's lifted tail is to be the signal for attack. The birds arrange for the gnat to stick the fox under the tail. He drops it, and the quadrupeds flee (Type 222). In the third anecdote, the cowardly wild animals do not even have the excuse of a war. They have never seen a cat before, and hide from her. When she shrieks, the bear falls out of the tree and breaks his backbone (Type 103). All three of these tales are very popular, especially in the Baltic states, and two of them have been recorded in various parts of America.

Finally, in the Reynard cycle, are to be mentioned the two related animal tales which have received more thorough study than any other. The first of these is sometimes not strictly an animal story, but may be concerned almost entirely with objects (Type 210); the other deals entirely with animals (Type 130). In the first, Aarne [344] conceives that the original Asiatic form tells how an egg, a scorpion, a needle, a piece of dung, and a mortar (or some other hard object) go together on a journey. They find themselves in the house of an old woman during her absence and hide themselves in various places, lying in wait to harm her. Each attacks her in his characteristic fashion and drive her forth or kill her. This form of the tale is found in India, in the Malay peninsula, and in Japan, and it has spread over a good part of Europe. The corresponding tale in Europe, however, has as its actors a group of animals who hide themselves either in a wolf's den or a robber's home. The hiding and the attack on the returning owner are the same in all forms of the tale. It is the animal versions that have been most popular in Europe and that have usually been carried to America.

The objects which journey together are also found in the story of The Bean, the Straw, and the Coal (Type 295), though in quite another connection. The coal burns the straw in two and falls into the water, and the bean laughs until he splits. This tale, found in fable collections of the sixteenth century, has a peculiar oral distribution. In Europe it is known only from Germany east but is reported as very common in the West Indies and [p. 224] is told among the American Indians in what are apparently borrowings from the French and Spanish. [345]

By no means all the stories in the northern animal cycle appeared in the medieval beast epic. Indeed, the animal cycle for countries like Finland, Estonia, Lithuania, and Russia is surprisingly extensive. In addition to the stories found in other countries and in literary works, a great many have attained popularity only in a limited geographical range and have been reported in but a few versions. In spite of their geographical limitations, however, a score or more of these are so well known in their own area that

they cannot be disregarded in any account of the animal tradition of Europe. [346]

A much more definite narrative core is found in the cumulative tale. Some thing of the nature of a game is also present here, since the accumulating repetitions must be recited exactly, but in the central situation many of these tales maintain their form unchanged over long periods of history and in very diverse environments. Such tales as The House that Jack Built or The Old Woman and Her Pig are so well known that no reader of the English language needs to have explained to him the way in which a simple phrase or clause is repeated over and over again, always with new additions. Most of the enjoyment, both in the telling and listening to such tales, is in the successful manipulation of the ever-growing rigmarole. The cumulative tale always gradually works up to one long final routine containing the entire sequence. The person examining cumulative tales, therefore, has only to look at this final formula to learn all that is to be learned about the whole tale.

One important group of cumulative tales has to do with the death of an animal, usually a cock or a hen. Perhaps best known of these is The Death of the Cock (Z31.2.1.1; Taylor, Type 2021A). [360] After he has choked to death, the hen goes out and seeks the aid of various objects and persons—stream, tree, pig, miller, baker, etc. This tale is very widely distributed over all of Europe and is known in India, but the problem of its ultimate origin is not easy to solve. Haavio and Wesselski, both of whom have treated the story very thoroughly, disagree as to the importance of the Oriental relationship. Not so well known, but still widely distributed in Europe and occasionally reported in America, is The Death of the Little Hen (Z31.2.2; Type 2022), a [p. 231] tale that seems to go back to the Panchatantra. The hen is mourned by various objects, animals, and persons, each in a characteristic fashion: flea, door, broom, cart, ashes, tree, girl. A slight modification of this tale appears in France and Denmark, where each of the mourners for the little hen performs an action which is described by some unusual or new word. For example, the table untables itself (Z31.2.2.1; Taylor, Type 2022A). In a somewhat less popular cumulative story about the little hen's death, various animals one by one join her funeral procession. Eventually the funeral carriage breaks down, or the whole procession drowns (Z31.2.1; Type 2021).

Several cumulative tales involve the eating of an object, whether as the end result of the series of happenings or the cause of the series. Most popular of these, both in Europe and America, is The Fleeing Pancake (Z31.3.1; Type 2025), frequently known in American collections as The Gingerbread Man. A woman makes a pancake (or gingerbread man) which runs away from her. Various animals try in vain to stop it. Finally the fox eats it up. The conversation between the gingerbread man and the fox has a tendency to become formalized, much like that between Red Riding Hood and the wolf—"What makes your ears so big?", etc. Two other chains of incidents concerning the eating of an object are very similar and perhaps related. The first of these is about The Fat Cat (Z31.3.2; Type 2027). While her mistress is away the cat eats the porridge, the bowl, and the ladle. When the mistress returns, she says to the cat, "How fat you are!" The cat replies, "I ate the porridge, the bowl, and the ladle, and I will eat you." After eating the mistress, the cat likewise meets various animals. Always after the same conversation she eats them. The story ends with her finally eating too many and bursting. This is essentially a Scandinavian tale, though one version has been reported from India. The other is also well known in Scandinavia, but is found in Russia, and an analogue has been taken down in east Africa. This tale is sometimes called The Fat Troll (Z31.3.4; Type 2028), and sometimes The Fat Wolf, for the story may be told of either. A troll (or wolf) eats the watcher's five horses and finally the watcher himself. When the master goes to investigate, the troll says, "I ate the five horses, I ate the watcher, and I will eat you." After he has eaten the master, the same thing happens to the wife, the servant, the daughter, the son, and the dog—always after the same piling up of threats. When he comes to the cat, however, she scratches him open and rescues all the victims.

Much like the tale of The Fleeing Pancake is that of The Goat Who Would Not Go Home (Z31.4.1; Type 2015). One animal after another tries in vain to persuade the stubborn goat to go home. Nothing avails until a wolf (sometimes a bee) bites him and drives him home. This tale of the goat has always been especially dear to children and probably for this reason is extraordinarily popular in Europe. Except in printed children's books, however, it is not known elsewhere. [p. 232]

In the cumulative tales thus far mentioned the structure has been rather simple. There has been a series of events bound together by one slender thread, and the interest has usually been a conversation containing an increasing number of details. The cumulative tale reaches its most interesting development, however, when there is not merely an addition with each episode, but when every episode is dependent upon the last. Perhaps to the English-speaking world the best known of such tales is The Old Woman and Her Pig (Z41.1; Type 2030). It will be remembered that the pig will not jump over the stile so that the old woman can go home. She keeps appealing in vain for help, but the help always depends upon her getting help from someone else. She finally persuades a cow to give her milk. The final formula is: Cow give milk for cat; cat kill rat; rat gnaw rope; rope hang butcher; butcher kill ox; ox drink water; water quench fire; fire burn stick; stick beat dog; dog bite pig; pig jump over style. In the wide extent of its distribution over Europe, Asia, Africa, and America, it is natural that the details should differ a good deal. But the whole pattern is remarkably well kept. If the tale is not actually from India originally, it is at least very well known there. [361]

Whereas The Old Woman and Her Pig has had its greatest popularity with oral taletellers, the chain known as Stronger and Strongest (Z41.2; Type 2031) is essentially literary. It is found in Oriental tale collections and appears frequently in medieval literature. Though nowhere really popular, it has traveled to every continent. The chain may go in either one of two directions. It may start with God and show how he was the ultimate cause of the frostbitten foot. Or it may likewise take the cause to the little mouse who gnawed a hole in the wall. In the first, and more extensive, version, the final formula is: God how strong you are—God who sends Death, Death who kills blacksmith, blacksmith who makes knife, knife that kills steer, steer that drinks water, water that quenches fire, fire that burns stick, stick that kills cat, cat that eats mouse, mouse that perforates wall, wall that resists wind, wind that dissolves cloud, cloud that covers sun, sun that thaws frost, frost that broke my foot.

The peculiar distribution of some of these cumulative tales is nowhere better seen than in the story of The Cock's Whiskers (Z41.3; Type 2032). It is very well known in Russia and Sweden and has been reported twice from France and once from Italy. It seems not to be known anywhere else in the world—with one interesting exception, among the Zuñi of New Mexico. In Europe this tale is about a mouse who throws a nut down and hits the cock on the head. He also steals the cock's whiskers. The cock goes to get an old woman to cure him. The final formula is: Fountain give up water for forest, forest give up wood for baker, baker give up bread for dog, dog give up hairs to cure the cock. Among the Zuñi the story collector Gushing told [p. 233] this tale as he had learned it from Crane's Italian collection, and when he returned the next year the Indians told it to him. It had become so thoroughly adapted to Zuñi ceremonialism, however, that its original cumulative nature was hardly recognizable.

The nut hitting the cock on the head appears also as an introduction to another tale which we have already noticed (Type 20C). When the nut hits him on the head, he thinks that the world is coming to an end. He sends the hen to tell the duck, the duck to tell the goose, etc. The final formula is: Fox, who told you?—Hare.—Hare, who told you?—Goose, etc. (Z41.4; Type 2033). The animals in their fear agree that they shall eat each other up, and the fox persuades them that the smallest should be eaten first. In this story, as in several similar ones, the animals sometimes appear with queer names. The hen is henny-penny; the cock, cocky-locky; the goose, goosey-poosey, etc. (Z21.3.1). This story of the end of the world is certainly as old as the Jātaka. It is most popular in Scandinavia, but has been found in most parts of the world.

Much better known in popular tradition is the formula of How the Mouse Regained Its Tail (Z41.5; Taylor, Type 2034). The cat bites off the mouse's tail and will return it in exchange for milk. The mouse goes to the cow for milk, to the farmer for hay, to the butcher for meat, to the baker for bread. Other persons mentioned are the locksmith and the miner. Not only is this common all over Europe, but there are interesting analogues from all parts of Africa. Sometimes this series of adventures is joined with the anecdote of the man who permits his grain of corn to be eaten by the cock and then demands the cock as damages (Type 1655). It will be remembered that this is essentially a cumulative tale, since the hog eats the cock, the ox eats the hog, etc.

To the English-speaking reader perhaps the most familiar of all cumulative tales is The House That Jack Built (Z41.6; Type 2035), but it is not frequently told on the continent of Europe. Some analogues appear from Africa, though they are not exact. The standard form is that with which English and American readers are acquainted. Its final formula is: This is the farmer that sowed the corn, that fed the cock that crowed in the morn, that waked the priest all shaven and shorn, that married the man all tattered and torn, that kissed the maiden all forlorn, that milked the cow with the crumpled horn, that tossed the dog, that worried the cat, that caught the rat, that ate the malt that lay in the house that Jack built.

Such are the principal cumulative tales, but this list by no means exhausts the whole store of those current in one or another part of the European and Asiatic areas. There remain, for example, the German tale of Pif Paf Poltrie (Z31.1.1; Type 2019) in which the suitor is sent from one relation to the other for consent to the wedding; and the train of troubles which come from a lost horseshoe nail (Z41.9; Taylor, Type 2039). [p. 234]

Not all chain-tales are actually cumulative, but may consist of a simple series, verbal or actual. Such, for example, are the chains which are based upon a series of numbers, like that of the origin of chess (Z21.1; Taylor, Type 2009). The inventor asks one wheat-grain for the first square, two for the second, four for the third, eight for the fourth, etc. The amount is so large that the king cannot pay. This is essentially a literary story, as are also a group of chains concerning special meanings or objects brought into relation with the numbers one to twelve" (Z21.2 and subdivisions). One of these, Ehod mi yodea (Taylor, Type 2010), has a long history in Hebrew ritual and frequently appears as a carol.

There remain two chain stories having to do with the houses that have burned down. One of them is a foolish tale in which the whole point is the difficulty of making a satisfactorily conservative answer. The usual formula is: My house burned down.—That is too bad.—That is not bad at all, my wife burned it down.—That is good.—That is not good, etc. (Z23.1; Type 2014). Though this story is not widely disseminated, it is apparently independent of literary tradition. In this respect it is quite the opposite from the almost purely bookish anecdote of the servant who broke the news of the fire to his master, a tale usually known as The Climax of Horrors ((Z41.10; Type 2040). The details of the conversation vary much in the different tellings. The servant meets his returning master and tells him that the magpie is dead. When the master inquires why, the servant says that it had overeaten on horseflesh. As the chain proceeds, it turns out that the horses have died at the fire which burned the house. Usually the man's family has burned with the house, or other dire misfortunes have overtaken him. This story was used by the medieval priests to illustrate their sermons, and drew from it incredibly strange lessons of morality and piety.

Formula tales, especially chains and cumulative stories, though they have about them many qualities which belong to games and are therefore amusing to children and to those who never grow up, have aesthetic value of their own. Their essential formal quality is repetition, usually repetition with continuing additions. This is what students of the popular ballad call "incremental repetition," a stylistic feature which adds much to the appeal of many of our finest old ballads.