II - The Complex Tale

2. Supernatural Adversaries

A. Orgres and Witches

In the folktale generally known under the title of Bluebeard the evil creature who steals the maidens is usually conceived of as having human form and sometimes has no supernatural characteristics. To the literary world the story has become known through Perrault's famous collection of 1697, and wherever that version has exerted great influence it has determined the form of the story. The principal characteristic of the Perrault version is the fact that the sisters are rescued by a brother. In most countries independent of this tradition the rescue is done by the youngest sister. [p. 36]

In both these tales two sisters, one after the other, fall into the power of an ogre or frightful man, who carries them off to his castle (sometimes situated in the lower world). He gives them the run of the castle but forbids them to enter a particular room. When they disobey an egg or a key becomes bloody and betrays them. The ogre kills them and puts their bodies aside. When the youngest sister is stolen she discovers the bodies of the first two and succeeds in bringing them back to life and hiding them. The girls are put into sacks and the husband is persuaded to carry the sacks home without looking into them. The youngest sister escapes by leaving behind a skull dressed up as a bride and by disguising herself as a bird. The story ends with the punishment of the murderous husband.

The tale in approximately this form (Type 311) is known over most of Europe from Germany eastward. Its area of greatest popularity is found in the Baltic states and in Norway. In the north, it seems to go no further east than the Urals, but it is found in Palestine and has several versions in India. It has also been carried to the Eskimos and to Puerto Rico. The story has never been thoroughly studied, but a cursory examination of the variants suggests Norway as at least an important center of dissemination of this tale, if not its original home.

As indicated above, the rescue of the sisters may be accomplished by their brother (or brothers) (Type 312). Perrault has the husband give the wife a respite from death so she can say her prayers. In this way she delays matters until her brothers arrive and can rescue her. The influence of this Perrault version has been strong in France, Belgium, and Germany. But the tale does not always appear exactly as Perrault tells it. Outside the orbit of his tradition we find the rescue accomplished by the brother with the help of his marvelous dogs or other wild animals. This latter form is found especially in Norway. But the Bluebeard tale with the brother as rescuer has had no wide distribution and does not seem ever to have attained great popularity.

In an important series of tales about witches or ogres the principal part is played by children. Best known of these stories is Hansel and Gretel (Type 327A), one of the most frequently reprinted of the Grimm tales. To the musical public it is everywhere known through the remarkable operatic interpretation of Humperdinck. The two children sent by their poverty-stricken parents into the woods, the trail of grain eaten by the birds, the gingerbread house, the appearance of the terrible witch, the fattening of the boy in the pen, and the burning of the witch in her own oven are constantly recurring motifs in this tale. It is known over all of Europe and is especially popular in the Baltic countries. It is found in Asia as far east as India, where it has been reported several times. Travelers have carried it to the remotest parts of the earth, to all parts of Africa, to Japan, to the Negroes of the West Indies, and to American Indian tribes all over the continent.

In examining the versions in distant parts of the world one is frequently [p. 37] puzzled to know whether we are dealing with a borrowing or with an independent invention. The elements of the tale are so simple that their frequent combination does not offer great theoretical difficulties. Of all the African, Oceanic, Japanese, and American Indian tales of ogres who fatten children and who are themselves killed instead it is not quite certain which are derived from the European tale. Within the continent of Europe, however, the story has such uniformity and such continuous distribution that its history as a type should not be difficult to trace. [19]

So similar in its outlines to Hansel and Gretel that in many countries it is quite impossible to disentangle the two tales is the story popularized by Perrault under the title Le Petit Poucet (Type 327B). [20] In this tale the tiny hero (no bigger than a thumb) accompanied by his brothers comes to the house of the ogre (or giant). Realizing that the ogre intends to kill them in their beds as they sleep, the hero exchanges the nightcaps of his brothers and himself with the ogre's children so that their father cuts off their heads and lets the hero and his brothers escape.

The trick of the exchange of caps is by no means confined to tales with the Thumbling hero but may appear in any context where there are several children in the power of an ogre. The tale in very much the form Perrault tells it occurs in nearly all parts of Europe, though it is not generally so popular as Hansel and Gretel. It has been carried to the North American Indians of British Columbia, presumably by French Canadians, but apparently it has not been reported in other continents.

Especially popular in Norway and the Baltic states is the related tale (Type 327C) in which the ogre or witch carries the hero home in a sack. He usually escapes from her by substituting some animal or object in the sack. Eventually, however, he is confined and fattened for slaughter like Hansel and escapes by the same trick, burning the ogre in his own oven. This tale is so close to that of Hansel and Gretel that the two are seldom clearly differentiated. Indeed, the whole cycle of stories concerning the children and the ogre seems to form a definite tale type (327) which may appear with a considerable variety of incidents, the most usual of which are those which we have here recognized as 327A, 327B, and 327C. The whole complex seems to be European, though it is possible to find somewhat similar tales of children and ogres in other continents. There are, for example, tales among the Africans, the American Negroes, and the American Indians in which a person being carried in a sack by an ogre escapes by substituting an object [p. 38] or animal. [21] Actual borrowing of this incident from the European tale is highly problematical. The incident is so simple that it may well have been independently invented by the American Indians and by African tribes from whom it was brought to America in the days of slavery.

In the stories of children and ogres just mentioned the hero and his companion fall into the power of the ogre by an unlucky chance. But sometimes the adventure with the ogre is deliberately sought, since the hero wishes to steal his magic objects. Such is true in the tale known to English readers as Jack the Giant Killer (Type 328). The reason for the theft from the giant is the principal point in which the tale varies from version to version. One introduction especially characteristic of British tradition is Jack and the Beanstalk. [22] As a result of a foolish bargain Jack acquires some beans which his mother throws away. Overnight a beanstalk grows to the sky and the next day Jack climbs up on this stalk and finds himself in the upper world. In his wanderings above he finds an old woman who tells him about a giant and his magic possessions. Jack goes to the giant's house and is hidden in the oven by the giant's wife. He sees the giant get treasure from his hen who lays golden eggs. While the giant is asleep Jack steals the hen, descends the bean stalk, and brings riches to himself and his mother. In like manner he steals from the giant purses filled with gold and silver, and escapes, in spite of the barking of the giant's magic dog. Finally he steals the giant's magic harp and escapes down the beanstalk. The giant tries to follow, Jack cuts down the beanstalk, and he falls to his death.

This particular form is one of the most popular of English folktales. It differs in many respects from the story as told in other countries. The undertaking to steal from the giant is sometimes for the purpose of revenge for former ill treatment, sometimes to help a friendly king, and sometimes it is a task assigned by the king at the suggestion of jealous rivals. The tricks the hero uses to defeat the giant are many. Sometimes he makes him think that a great army is approaching and locks him up to protect him. Sometimes he oversalts the giant's food and steals the objects when he goes out for water, and sometimes he distracts the giant's attention by fishing through the chimney. The objects stolen also vary: a magic light, a marvelous horse, a self-playing violin or harp occur most frequently. To aid in his escape the hero tricks the giant into giving him certain magic objects such as a cap of knowledge, an invincible sword, a cloak of invisibility, or the giant's seven-league boots. The giant is sometimes enticed into a cage and taken to court, though usually he is tricked into killing himself. The experiences at the giant's house are frequently like those of Hansel with the witch. The fattening of the hero and the burning of the giant in his own oven may occur [p. 39] in either story, and likewise in either story there may appear the incident of the magic flight. Either the hero (and his companions) are transformed into objects or other persons so as to deceive the pursuer (Transformation Flight, D671), or else the fugitives throw behind them magic objects which become obstacles in the giant's path (Obstacle Flight, D672).

This story of the theft from the giant seems from the versions thus far reported to be primarily a north-central European tale. It is very popular in Finland and Norway and has been collected as far south as Spain and Roumania, but it apparently does not exist in Russia or anywhere east of it. The French tell it in eastern Canada and have taught it to American Indian tribes from Nova Scotia to British Columbia. [23]

In two closely related tales the "ogre" is a fierce animal, usually a wolf. To English readers, these stories are known as Little Red Ridinghood (Type 333) and The Three Little Pigs (Type 123). The essential difference is that in the former the wolf deceives a child and in the latter, small animals. In many versions of both tales the conclusions are identical. Little Red Ridinghood (Le Petit Chaperon Rouge, Rotkäppchen) has become one of the best known "fairy tales" for those who depend upon the printed page for the stories they tell their children. The version usually read in books is that of Perrault (1697) or, less frequently, that of Grimm. The little girl, going through the woods to see her grandmother, is accosted by the wolf who reaches the grandmother's house ahead of her. The wolf kills the grandmother and takes her place in bed. When the little girl arrives, she is astonished at the "grandmother's" large ears, large eyes, etc. ("Grandmother, what makes your ears so large?—To hear the better, my child," etc.) until finally she inquiries about the long teeth. From this point on, there are two different endings to the story. In one of them the little girl is rescued at the last moment by someone who chances to come to the house. But this ending seems to be designed for the nursery on the theory that children would be shocked unless the little girl were rescued. The other ending permits the wolf to devour not only the grandmother, but also the little girl. When the rescuers arrive, the wolf is cut open and his victims rescued alive.

This tale of Little Red Ridinghood has never had wide circulation where folktales are learned by word of mouth. Even in France and Germany, where the largest number is reported, practically all are based upon Perrault or Grimm. It does not extend east beyond the Russian border. The frequent African versions belong partly to this type and partly to the Three Little Pigs: The child is human, but the rest of the story is essentially an animal tale.

The Three Little Pigs (Type 123) tells of the adventures of the young animals—seven goats, three pigs, or the like—who are left at home by their mother in their house and are warned not to open the door to the wolf. [p. 40] Several times they succeed in keeping the wolf off but he finally makes them believe that he is their mother. In order to do this, he paints himself or puts flour on his paws, or else he has his voice changed by an operation such as swallowing hot iron or having it filed down by a goldsmith or silversmith. At any rate, the wolf succeeds in entering and devouring the young animals. When the mother returns, the wolf is cut open and the animals rescued.

This story has had a long history. In a simple form it appears in some of the early collections of Aesop's Fables, and was frequently retold from that source throughout the Middle Ages. No comparative study of the tale has been made, so that the geographical limitations of the various incidents have not been determined. The story as a whole, however, is popular over all of Europe and well out into Siberia. It has not been reported farther east. One puzzling feature in the dissemination of this tale is its frequent and wide spread African occurrence, in contrast to its failure to get into Asia and its infrequency in America. The African and Russian versions apparently come from the same tradition, since they all have the operations on the voice of the wolf. It is impossible without a serious investigation to say more with certainty about the development and history of the Three Little Pigs.

Within the last few years it has become known to millions through the delightful cinema treatment by Walt Disney and by the catchy song "Who's Afraid of the Big Bad Wolf?"

[19] The type has not been studied with any thoroughness. Its origin in India would seem highly problematical, though that is the assumption of Cosquin's article, "Le conte de la chaudiére bouillante et le feinte maladresse dans l'lnde et hors de l'lnde," Revue des traditions populaires, XXV, i, 65, 126.

[20] In English it is sometimes known as Tom Thumb, though that title is also applied to the talc relating the many adventures of the tiny hero which constitute Type 700. For this reason it is less confusing to use the recognized French title for the story here under consideration.

[21] See (motif K526, with bibliography there given. (Citations of motifs like the present refer to Thompson, Motif-Index.)

[22] See Bolte-Polívka, II, 511.

[23] Those versions of this tale in which the tasks are assigned through the machinations of a jealous rival merge imperceptibly into the tale of The Master Thief (Type 1525).

123, 311, 312, 327, 327A, 327B, 327C, 328, 333, 700, 1525

K526

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

6. Tasks and quests

Prominent in the action of a very large number of folk stories is the performance of difficult, and sometimes impossible, tasks and quests. Frequently such compulsory labors form only a subordinate part of the story, [116] the principal interest of which is an extensive plot in which these tasks are of only incidental importance. In contrast to such tales there are some half a dozen in which the performance of tasks or the accomplishment of quests is the most important event of the entire action.

The quests on which the heroes of folktales set forth are frequently impossible or strange, but none stranger than those undertaken by The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is (Type 326). The hero has heard of fear but does not know what it is. He goes out on a search for it and tries various frightful experiences which have been suggested to him. He plays cards with the devil in a church; he steals clothes from a ghost; he spends the night under a gallows, and another in a cemetery; he stays in a haunted house where dead men's limbs fall down the chimney; he overcomes ghost like cats; he plays ninepins with a dead man whose members have been reassembled; he cuts the devil's fingernails; or, lastly, he has himself shaved by a ghostly barber. In spite of all his efforts he fails to discover fear. Later, after his marriage, he learns what fear is when cold water is thrown on him or when eels are put down his back while he is asleep.

In exactly this form the story does not have any early literary treatments. Straparola in the sixteenth century wrote a story about a boy who went on a [p. 106] quest for death, and one of the Icelandic sagas tells of a similar journey to find out what anger is. [117] As an oral tale in very much the form we have outlined it is present throughout the European continent, in the British Isles, and in Iceland. It seems to be popular in all parts of this area, and only a special investigation could determine the part of Europe where the tale may have originated. For it is certainly European: it does not occur in Asia or Africa, and where it appears in the New World it has obviously been carried by European settlers. [118]

The assignment of tasks to suitors by the father of the prospective bride is a prominent motif in several well-known stories (Motifs H310-H359). Much less usual is the imposition of tasks by the maiden herself, but this is the central motif of Grimm's tale -of The Sea-Hare (Type 329). A princess is possessed of magic windows which give her the power of seeing everything. She assigns her suitors the task of hiding themselves from her. Those who fail have their heads placed on stakes before the palace. [119] After his elder brothers have lost their lives in this attempt, the youngest undertakes the task. He receives the help of grateful animals or, in some versions, of an old man. With their aid he hides himself in a raven's egg and in the belly of a fish, but the princess discovers him even there. As a last resort he has himself transformed into an insect under the princess's hair. In her anger she breaks her magic windows and thus loses her power. The youth is eventually disenchanted and marries the princess.

The tale is made up of a great many motifs which are mere folktale commonplaces: the suitor tasks, the helpful animals, the successful youngest son, transformation and disenchantment, and the final happy marriage. Nevertheless, the outlines of the tale are distinct enough wherever it is known. Nowhere can it be said to be popular, but some versions occur in most countries from Iceland to the Caucasus. It does not seem to have had any literary treatment, nor to have been carried to other continents. Its distribution would suggest that it is essentially eastern European.

Certain elements of the tale just discussed are found in a story which is popular in Norway but is apparently confined to that country. In this tale of The King's Tasks (Type 577) it is the king who imposes tasks on his daughter's suitors. The youngest son, through his kindness to an old woman, receives magic objects and information, and with these succeeds where his elder brothers have failed.

The assigner of tasks in folk narratives is sometimes the hero's father. In a story made popular through its literary handling by Madame d'Aulnoy [p. 107] in 1710 under the title The White Cat (La Chatte Blanche [Type 402]), the youngest of the three brothers succeeds best in the quests set by his father. The youths are sent out to bring back the best of various things—the most beautiful bouquet, the finest of chains, the best of bread, the smallest of dogs, the finest of horses, and finally the most beautiful bride. The hero is helped by an animal, frequently a cat, but sometimes a mouse or frog. She eventually changes herself into a beautiful maiden and marries him.

The Grimms use this plot for two of their stories, one with a frog and the other with a cat as the transformed heroine. Except for this inconsistency in the kind of animal who acts as the hero's helper, the story maintains a clear and vigorous tradition in the folklore of all of Europe. Somewhat more than 300 versions have been recorded. Two variants are known from Armenia and one from North Africa; otherwise it seems to have remained in Europe.

Two tales of quests are so much alike that it is convenient to consider them at the same time. In both stories a king sends his sons out on a quest; in both the youngest succeeds and eventually overcomes the treachery of his elder brothers. The first of these tales is The Bird, the Horse, and the Princess (Type 550). At night a bird steals golden apples from the king's orchard, but while doing so drops a golden feather. The king orders his sons to find the bird. As in so many tales of this kind, the two elder boys are discourteous to animals or to an old woman and fail, but the youngest, because of his kindness, receives their help. As the brothers leave, they find a place where three roads part and where inscriptions on each tell what will happen if that road is chosen. Each brother chooses a different road. The hero reaches the tree of the golden bird, but he finds that he may not have the bird until he undertakes further quests. He succeeds in accomplishing these, receives a magic horse, wins a princess, and, along with the magic bird, reaches home. His elder brothers rob him and throw him into a well or a den. He is helped out by a friendly fox or wolf to which he feeds meat. The fox is decapitated and becomes a prince. The hero is restored to his wife and possessions.

This story has a considerable literary history. With slight variations it is known in the Thousand and One Nights and has appeared since that time frequently in literary reworkings. [120] The story is, however, so well established in the oral repertory of taletellers in practically every country of Europe, and fits in so well with the general spirit of many other common oral tales that its essentially popular nature seems unmistakable. It is quite as well known in Scandinavia as it is in Italy and Russia and the Baltic states, and, indeed, all the rest of Europe. It is almost equally popular in western and southern Asia, where it appears in a number of versions in Armenia, India, Indonesia, and central Africa, and is told by the French in Missouri. With so many Asiatic versions balanced against so many European, it is quite impossible, [p. 108] without exhaustive study, to hazard a guess as to where this tale may have originated.

From the general likeness of plot, the identity of many details, and the similarity of the geographical pattern of their occurrences in folklore, it seems reasonable to suppose that this tale and that one which the Grimms called The Water of Life (Type 551) have had much the same history. A mere hasty comparison of the several hundred versions of each of the tales is not sufficient to determine which of these gave rise to the other or whether two stories with the same basic outline have, in the course of time, converged into something like twin types. Future research will doubtless clarify the mutual relation of these stories. It would seem that the first has much the older literary history and is known in Asia. The second has no Asiatic distribution, but has been carried to both North and South American continents.

The plot of The Water of Life, as its name indicates, concerns a quest for a magic healing water or for some other marvelous remedy. The sick or blind king sends his three sons out on this quest. As in the other tale, the two elder brothers are unkind and the youngest kind to animals or an old person. With their aid he succeeds where his brothers have failed. He not only secures the water of life (or of youth), but he also reaches a magic garden where he sees a princess asleep. He lies by the princess and on his departure, writes his name, leaves it with her, and returns home. [121] As in the other tale, his treacherous brothers rob him and throw him into a well or den and he is helped by the fox or wolf. The princess comes seeking the father of her child. After overcoming the treachery of the elder brothers she finds the hero and marries him.

[116] Among such stories already discussed are the following: Jack the Giant Killer (Type Type 328), The Devil's Riddle (Type 812), Tom-Tit-Tot (Type 500), The Three Old Women Helpers (Type 501), The Monster's Bride (Type 507A), Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful (Type 531), The Devil as Advocate (Type 821B), The Healing Fruits (Type 610), The Gifts of the Dwarfs (Type 611), The Two Travelers (Type 613), The Three Oranges (Type 408), and The Wolf (Type 428). Still to be discussed are the following: The Prince and the Armbands (Type 590), The Spinning-Women by the Spring (Type 408), The Journey to God to Receive Reward (Type 460A), The Journey in Search of Fortune (Type 460B), The Prophecy (Type 930), The Dream (Type 725), Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard (Type 461), The Clever Peasant Girl (Type 875), The Son of the King and of the Smith (Type 920), and The Master Thief (Type 1525).

[117] For these literary references, see Bolte-Polívka, I, 32 and 37.

[118] It has been reported from the Zuñi Indians and from the Spanish-speaking peoples of New Mexico, from the Missouri French, from the Cape Verde Islanders in Massachusetts, and from British tradition in Virginia.

[119] An old and familiar motif, appearing both in Greek mythology and in medieval romance; see Motif H901.1.

[120] For a discussion of the literary history of the tale, see Bolte-Polívka, I, 511.

[121] It will be noticed that the entire episode with the sleeping princess appears also in quite another connection in the story of The Hunter (Type 304).

326, 328, 329, 402, 408, 428, 460A, 460B, 461, 500, 501, 507A, 531, 550, 551, 577, 590, 610, 611, 613, 725, 812, 821B, 875, 920, 930, 1525

H310-H359, H901.1

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

9. The higher powers

A. Justice

2. Wishes Rewarded and Punished

One of the purposes of the good teller of folktales is to see that wickedness is properly punished. It is not always easy to discover the unworthy or the evildoing. But, as all story-tellers know, one of the best ways to search the heart is to see what use one will make of unlimited power. If a person is naturally modest and kind, such power will be only a strength; but if he is overbearing and unkind, it will certainly bring about his downfall. So it happened in the amusing old story of The Fisher and His Wife (Type 555). As it is told in the German-speaking and Slavic countries, and occasionally in France and Spain, a poor fisher catches a fish who is really a transformed monster. He heeds the pleas of the fish to be put back in the water and is rewarded by the promise that all the wishes of the fisherman's wife shall be granted. In the Italian versions, and sometimes in the French, the granting of these wishes is secured in another fashion: the husband climbs a beanstalk to heaven, [191] and there secures this concession either from God or from the doorkeeper of Paradise. In any case, the wife begins to use her wishes. The principal point of the story consists in a description of the increasing extravagance of the wife's wishes and their amazing consequences. She wishes to be a duke, then king, then pope. When at the end she aspires to be God himself, she loses all her good fortune.

As we have indicated, this story is well known in both eastern and western Europe. It has been carried by the Spanish to Puerto Rico and by the Dutch to the East Indies. In Indonesia it is told alongside of similar tales, presumably native, but parallel to a story current in Japan. [192] In this tradition it is also brought into close relation with a cumulative story known as Stronger and Strongest (Motif Z41.2). A peculiar development of The Fisher and His Wife in a few variants among the Russians and Letts has the man as the maker of the foolish wishes.

Whereas The Fisher and His Wife would seem to be essentially an oral tale, the story of The Wishes (Type 750A), which the Grimms call The Poor Man and the Rich Man, has a long and somewhat complicated literary background. As usually told by the peasants of Europe, it belongs to the [p. 135] series of tales about the wanderings of Christ and the saints on earth, [193] a theme frequently treated in medieval literature. The other part of the story, the foolish wishes, was likewise popular in the writings of the Middle Ages, but belongs primarily to the literature of fabliaux and jestbooks.

Christ and Saint Peter are wandering on the earth as simple travelers. When they ask hospitality, they are sometimes refused and sometimes gladly entertained. In either case, the hosts are rewarded by being given the power of fulfilling three wishes. The story is very little concerned with the wise and successful wishing of the hospitable peasant. But the story-teller lingers on the foolish use made of the three wishes, and the consequent discomfiture of the man who has been unkind in his treatment of strangers. Three general types of foolish wishes appear in these stories. In his anger the man may make two extreme wishes (that his horse may have his neck broken, or his wife may stick to the saddle, or the like), and he must use the third wish to undo the first two. Or, frequently, he transfers his first wish to his wife, who wastes it on some trifle. In his anger, he wishes the trifle in her body, and then must use his third wish to remove it. In a third group of these tales, only one wish is given to each of the peasants, usually to keep on doing all day what one begins. The hospitable peasant begins some profitable action (getting good linen), whereas the other thoughtlessly throws water on his pig and must keep on doing it all day long. [194]

The details of these wise and foolish wishes vary a good deal, but the idea is always the same, rewards and punishments, based upon magic, for treatment accorded to holy or supernatural persons. In spite of the saints' legend atmosphere, the whole intent of the tale is facetious. It is therefore interesting as a combination of three traditions—the wonder tale (filled with magic), the pious legend, and the humorous story. It has entered into the folklore of nearly all countries of Europe. But in its complete form it does not seem to be known elsewhere. The three foolish wishes, not connected with the saints' legend, is also found over practically all of Europe and has analogues in Indonesia and Korea.

A very similar tale of Hospitality Rewarded (Type 750B) tells how the pious beggar is refused hospitality at a house where a wedding or other festival is going on, but he is graciously received in the home of a peasant, who kills his only cow to entertain his guest. The peasant finds that his cow has been brought back to life, or that in its place a number of new cows have appeared. This story is known over a good part of Europe, but the details differ considerably. Von Sydow has shown [195] that this goes back to a legend of Saint Germanus, which is found in Nennius as early as the eighth century, [p. 136] and which he considers to be of Welsh origin. A similar legend is well known in Scandinavian mythology in connection with Thor's journey to Utgard.

[191] Like Jack with his beanstalk; see Type 328.

[192] For discussion, see DeVries, Volksverhalen, I, 356, No. 1; II, 356, No. 100.

[193] For other tales of this kind, see p. 150, below.

[194] For the literary history of the foolish wishes, see Bolte-Polívka, II, 213; Bédier, Fabliaux, pp. 212ff. and 471. See also Motif J2071 with references there given.

[195] Danske Studier, 1910, pp. 91ff.

328, 555, 750A, 750B

J2071, Z41.2

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

10. The three worlds

A. Journey to the Other World

If one considers the multiform origins of the European and Asiatic folktale—the basic traditions going back perhaps to prehistoric times, the older Oriental tale collections with their reflections of ancient religions, the Celtic and Norse mythological stories, and the legends of the medieval Church—he will not be surprised to find that beliefs in other worlds than this in which we live are not only to be taken for granted as a part of the imaginative background of folktales but constitute the real focus of interest in a number of stories. We have already noticed tales in which the hero makes a journey to the other world. Sometimes this is thought of as the lower world, like Dante's Hell. Such it was in The Devil's Contract (Type 756B) and in The Man as Heater of Hell's Kettle (Type 475), to mention only two. In other tales the concept [p. 147] of an upper world, the Christian Heaven, is clear. We have already seen the smith who tries unsuccessfully to get into both Hell and Heaven (Type 330). Sometimes the direction in which the journey to the other world is made is very vaguely indicated. It is not unusual to find this realm across a body of water, [218] but it must be remembered that Charon's boat seemed to carry Greek souls across a lake or stream, but nevertheless into a lower world. Celtic tradition has been particularly interested in terrestrial other worlds lying across mountains or on distant islands.

It is all but impossible to come to any understanding of the way in which a story-teller visualizes his other world. For most of the European folktales, it seems fair to assume a belief in three worlds: the earth on which one lives in his normal state of being; the upper world, or the Christian Heaven, but sometimes merely another realm where extraordinary things happen; thirdly, a lower world compounded of ideas from vision literature as illustrated in Dante, of old Greek conceptions of Hades, and perhaps of even more ancient beliefs in a hierarchy of worlds. These upper and lower worlds are not always far removed, for trees may grow to the upper world in a single night [219] and a rope may be sufficient to let one down into the lower. [220]

In the two somewhat related stories which we shall now notice, the other world seems very vaguely imagined. The first of these, Friends in Life and Death (Type 470), is known in literature through the legend of Don Juan. [221] The tale frequently begins with the pledge of two friends never to part. When one of them dies, the living friend invites the dead man to visit him on Christmas, and he goes with him when he returns to the other world. The other opening of the story is that peculiar to the Don Juan legend: a man in a churchyard invites a skull, or a memorial statue, to dinner, and then is compelled to go off with the skull. In any case, the living man makes the journey to the other world. On the way he sees many strange sights. Among them are fat and lean kine (as in the story of Joseph), a broad and narrow road, people and things that continually strike one another, and the like. The living man goes to sleep by a stream of water and when he wakes he finds that he is covered with moss. He also sees in the other world houses of feast and of mourning. When he returns to this world he finds that he has been away for many centuries. All is changed and he knows no one. The ending of the tale varies. Sometimes he dies the next day by falling from a tree or from a high place. Other versions report that he vanished after prayer.

This story has appeared in Europe in literary form since the beginning of [p. 148] the thirteenth century [222] and it was popular in the collections of exempla used by the priesthood. But its oral history is by no means confined to Roman Catholic countries. An excellent Tartar version is reported from Siberia, and it is also popular in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries.

Closely related to this in many of its motifs is The Bridge to the Other World (Type 471). As far as its introduction is concerned, the action is already familiar to us. [223] Three brothers, one after the other, set out on a quest. Sometimes this is to find their lost sister, but it may be any kind of quest to a distant land. On the way, the boys are appointed to herd seven foals (or oxen) and at the end of the day they are to bring back a sample of the animals' food. The elder brothers get into trouble. Sometimes they are lured away by a bird, or they yield to the suggestions of an old woman that they rest. In any event, they turn aside from a certain bridge which they should have crossed and are consequently turned into stone. The youngest brother, on the other hand, crosses the bridge which leads over into another world. In this world most unusual things happen. Animals pass in and out of a church and become human beings. Stones continually strike on each other. Wild boars fight. And the hero sees fat and lean kine and many another strange sight. From the altar in the church he takes bread and wine to carry back with him. The animals follow him back and he cuts off their heads and disenchants them. A religious explanation is given of everything that he has seen. The story ends, with the disenchantment of his brothers.

The relation of certain parts of this tale with the one immediately preceding is obvious. The strange sights in the other world are frequently the same in the two stories, and in both cases constitute the center of interest. There may be some connection between these tales and the story of The Angel and the Hermit, already noticed (Type 759), in which we have peculiar events which are later explained and made reasonable.

But the story of The Bridge to the Other World is well known as an independent tale. There are early literary parallels in India, and the tale appears as we know it in Europe in the Seven Sages tradition. [224] Orally, it does not seem to have become really popular except in Norway, Iceland, and Russia, though excellent versions are reported from Brittany, Mexico, North Africa, and especially from the Tartars of Siberia.

[218] Such is usually true in the stories of The Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard (Type 461).

[219] See Jack and the Beanstalk, Type 328.

[220] See The Bear's Son, Type 301.

[221] For a discussion of the relation of the Don Juan legend to this tale, see Bolte, Zeitschrift für vergleichende Litteraturgeschichte, XIII, 389.

[222] For its use in literature, see Köhler, Kleinere Schriften, II, 224ff. A recent definitive study is Dorothy Epplen MacKay, The Double Invitation in the Legend of Don Juan, Stanford University, 1943.

[223] See, for example, a number of the tales discussed on pages 105ff., above, under the heading "Tasks and Quests."

[224] For these Oriental relationships, see: Oertel, Studien zur vergleichenden Litteraturgeschichte, VIII, 123, and Chauvin, Bibliographie, VIII, 160, No. 168.

301, 328, 330, 470, 471, 475, 756B, 759

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

12. Origin and history of the complex tales

Not every complex tale known to story-tellers of the area we are considering has found a place in the discussion just concluded. But practically all of those omitted are of very limited distribution. [283] With each tale the main facts about its history and its occurrences in oral tradition have been indicated wherever conclusions seemed possible. While discussing each tale, I have had before me a summary of the scholarship which has been devoted to it and a complete list of oral versions insofar as the extensive reference books and regional surveys now available made this possible. Frequently the mere bringing together of this material was sufficient to compel conclusions about the tale which do not seem likely to need revision. But when all tales with such clear-cut histories have been considered, there remain a large number which present problems sufficient to occupy the attention of scholars for many a decade to come.

Of these complex tales, along with a few closely related simple anecdotes, we have examined somewhat over two hundred. The order in which they have been taken up has been determined by their subject matter. And that means that tales about the same kinds of characters or incidents have been brought together, often when there was no organic relationship between them and when they had little if anything in common in their origin and history. When so much remains dark about the beginnings and about the vicissitudes of so large a number of our folktales, no complete account of them can be based upon historical categories.

Nevertheless, in a very tentative way it may be of interest to see which of our tales have a history that can be proclaimed with some confidence, which of them show great probabilities of proper solution, and which of them still present difficult problems.

That many of our European and Asiatic folktales go back to a literary source is as clear as any fact of scholarship can be made. There would thus seem to be no reason to doubt that an Oriental literary text is responsible for the subsequent development of a considerable number of tales which have received oral currency in Europe and sometime in the Orient. In the older Buddhistic sources [284] are found: Death's Messengers (Type 335); Six Go Through the Whole World (Type 513A); The Three Snake Leaves (Type 612); [p. 177] The Two Travelers (Type 613); The Animal Languages (Type 670); "Think Carefully Before You Begin a Task" (Type 910C); The Brave Tailor (Type 1640); and Doctor Know-All (Type 1641). In the Ocean of Story, a Sanskrit collection brought together in the twelfth century but based upon much older material, there appear, as probable originals of the European oral tradition, versions of: Wise Through Experience (Type 910A); The Servant's Good Counsels (Type 910B); and Faithful John (Type 516). From other collections of literary tales originating in India appear to come: The Bridge to the Other World (Type 471); The Four Skillful Brothers (Type 653); The Wise Brothers (Type 655); and One Beggar Trusts God, the Other the King (Type 841). From various literary sources in India the incidents which make up two of our related tales have been taken and unified at some point before they entered into the oral tradition of the west. [285] These two are : The Son of the King and of the Smith (Type 920); and The King and the Peasant's Son (Type 921). Whatever may be the ultimate source of the stories in the Thousand and One Nights, several of our old folktales are found in that work in much the form in which these stories first reached European taletellers. Among these tales appearing in the Arabian Nights are: Siddhi Numan (Type 449*); Aladdin (Type 561); Open Sesame (Type 676); Luck and Wealth (Type 736); Hatch-penny (Type 745); Oft Proved Fidelity (Type 881); The Treasure of the Hanging Man (Type 910D); and The Forty Thieves (Type 954). Finally, of these tales of Oriental origin, may be mentioned one which appears in the Persian collection, The Thousand and One Days. This is The Prophecy (Type 930).

Similarly, an ultimate origin in European literature seems unmistakable for a dozen or more of the stories current today, whether locally or over the complete European-Asiatic area. Three of the tales which we have noticed certainly go back to Greek literature: Oedipus (Type 931) to Sophocles; Rhampsinitus (Type 950) to Herodotus; and The Wolf and the Kids (Type 123) to the Aesop collection. A fourteenth century Latin poem, the Asinarius, is responsible for the very few oral versions of The Ass (Type 430). Folktales have borrowed very freely from saints' legends: certainly Pride Is Punished (Type 836) is a mere oral treatment of the legend of Polycarp. The great collections of illustrative tales which in the Middle Ages went under the name of Exempla contained a considerable number of folktales. Frequently it is impossible to tell whether they may be reworkings of oral tradition, but sometimes it is quite evident that the oral tale is taken directly from the literary collection. This is clearly true of: Friends in Life and Death (Type 470); The Boy Who Learned Many Things (Type 517); The Three Languages (Type 671); The Angel and the Hermit (Type 759); and Who Ate the Lamb's Heart (Type 785). At least two tales seem to have been learned from the work of the German Meistersinger: The Faithful Wife (Type 888); and [p. 178] The Pound of Flesh (Type 890). Of course, both of these tales were used by Shakespeare, and that fact has doubtless been of influence on their subsequent popularity. Many stories have undoubtedly originated among the people of Italy, and it is sometimes difficult to know whether a tale recounted by those great writers of novelle beginning with Boccaccio was learned from the people or was invented by the author. For at least three of our folktales such literary invention by the novella writer seems the most reasonable hypothesis. The Wager on the Wife's Chastity (Type 882) is in Boccaccio's Decameron; The Luck-Bringing Shirt (Type 844) in the Pecorone of Ser Giovanni; and The Taming of the Shrew (Type 901) in the Nights of Straparola. The Pentamerone of Giambattista Basile of the early seventeenth century is almost completely made up of oral folktales, though transformed into an extraordinary literary style. But it is probable that he invented several tales by freely combining traditional material. Such seems to be the situation with The Forsaken Fiancée (Type 884). Finally, at least one tale given currency by the Grimms, The Two Girls, the Bear, and the Dwarf (Type 426), comes directly from a German literary collection of stories which appeared in 1818.

The fact that one may cite a literary form of a story, even a very old version, is by no means proof that we have arrived at the source of the tradition. Nothing is better authenticated in the study of traditional narrative than the fact that the literary telling of a tale may represent merely one of hundreds of examples of the story in question and have for the history of the tradition no more significance than any other one of the hundreds of variants at hand. Apuleius's telling of Cupid and Psyche and the author of Tobit's version of The Grateful Dead Man tale appear both to be rather late and somewhat, aberrant forms of much older oral tales. With this warning in mind, the careful student should be slow in arriving at the conclusion that a stated literary document is the fountainhead of a particular narrative tradition. For those tales which we have just listed, the actual dependence on the literary source has seemed well established. In addition to these, there are a considerable number for which there is a well-known early literary form to which the weight of evidence would point probably, but not quite certainly, as the actual source. Some of these tales have been very popular among story-tellers, and have spread over two or more continents, and some have had only a very limited acceptance among the people. The degree of popularity and the geographical extent of the distribution is a fact which must be taken into consideration with every tale when we are trying to judge the question of its ultimate literary or oral invention. For this reason, in listing the tales with probable literary sources, it is helpful to indicate briefly what type of oral distribution each has.

At least related to the old Greek story of The Cranes of Ibycus is the tale The Sun Brings All to Light (Type 960; oral: Spain to Russia). From saints' [p. 179] legends at least two oral tales appear to have been taken: Hospitality Rewarded (Type750B; oral: scattered thinly over most of Europe); and Christ and the Smith (Type 753; oral: all Europe, especially the Baltic states). Certainly influenced by some of the legends of the popes, if not directly borrowed from them, is The Dream (Type 725; oral: moderately popular in eastern Europe and the Baltic states). In addition to the folktales which we are sure have come from books of Exempla, there are several where such an origin seems likely: The King and the Robber (Type 951A; oral: Germany and the Baltic states, sporadic in Hungary and Russia); The Old Robber Relates Three Adventures (Type 953; oral: thinly scattered, Ireland to Roumania); and "We Three; For Money" (Type 1697; oral: thinly scattered over all Europe). The influence of the chivalric romance in general is seen in The Bride Won in a Tournament (Type 508) which was told in Straparola's Nights and received frequent literary treatment in the Middle Ages and Renaissance, but has been collected orally only in three versions in Lithuania.

The rich prose literature of medieval Iceland has in it many folktale elements, most of which doubtless go back to popular tradition. But this may not have been true in all cases: an Icelandic prose tale of 1339 seems to lie back of the oral tale Godfather Death (Type 332; oral: Iceland to Palestine, especially the Baltic states, but not Russia). A medieval chronicle of 1175 probably forms the beginning of the tradition later carried on through French and German jestbooks and at least one English play, and connected with the name of a famous Lord Mayor of London. This is Whittington's Cat (Type 1651; oral: scattered from western Europe to Indonesia, especially popular in Finland).

The jestbooks of the Renaissance contain a number of folktales. In many cases, these were taken from older literary collections, or indeed from oral tradition. But occasionally they seem to have served as a real source for tales which now belong to the folk. Such would seem to be true of The Wishes (Type 750A; oral: popular throughout Europe, sporadic in China); The Tailor in Heaven (Type 800; oral: scattered thinly over Europe, sporadic among Buryat of Siberia); The Devil as Advocate (Type 821; oral: all Europe, especially Baltic, moderately popular); Sleeping Beauty (Type 410; oral: scattered thinly over Europe, one-third of versions Italian, based on Basile); and The Three Brothers (Type 654; oral: confined to Europe).

A German literary tale of the thirteenth century may well be the beginning of The Frog King (Type 440; oral: Germany to Russia only). The habit of writing literary folktales was carried on into the eighteenth century, both in France and in Germany. Many of these tales never assumed any oral popularity. On the other hand, The Girls Who Married Animals (Type 552), although concocted by Musäus at the end of the eighteenth century of authentic oral material, combined with an analogous tale in Basile, has since entered into the stream of oral tradition in the form he then designed. Its [p. 180] oral distribution shows the greatest inconsistency and indicates frequent direct use of the literary source.

For all the tales mentioned thus far in this summary there seems a strong probability of ultimate literary origin. But it cannot be too frequently repeated that the fact of the appearance of a tale in some literary document is no proof that it did not originate among the people. Oral tales have been a very fruitful source For literary story-tellers everywhere. It thus happens that frequently the literary appearance of a story only represents one of many hundreds of versions and is, of course, less important in the history of the tale than the oral variant from which the story was borrowed. It is not always easy to tell when a story belongs primarily to oral tradition and frequently the problem of priority is quite unsolvable. But a very considerable number of tales appearing in literary collections show such a preponderance of oral variants, as well as other indications of popular origin, that their literary appearance would seem to be purely incidental. There can be little doubt that they are all essentially oral, both in origin and in history.

Several such oral tales have found a place in Oriental literary collections. In the Hindu fable collection, the Panchatantra, occurs a good part of the tale of Luck and Intelligence (Type 945); it also occurs in recent literary form in India, but has a vigorous life in popular tradition of India and the Near East, and sporadically as far afield as Germany and the Philippines. In the Ocean of Story, as well as in the Thousand and One Nights, occur fragments of Devils Fight over Magic Objects (Type 518; oral: all Europe, western Asia, and North Africa) and of The Prince's Wings (Type 575; oral: sparingly over north and eastern Europe). In the Ocean of Story, likewise, there is an analogue of The Girl as Helper in the Hero's Flight (Type 313). This story does not otherwise appear in central Asia but is one of the most popular of all oral folktales in Europe and America; it is no wonder that it has been retold by such story-tellers as Straparola and Basile. Two tales popular in the tradition of the Near East appear in the Persian Tuti Nameh: The Grateful Animals (Type 554; oral: Europe and Asia, especially Baltic countries) and The Magic Bird-heart (Type 567; oral: eastern and southern Europe, and Persia; origin probably in Persian tradition). In an Arabic history of the ninth century appears an abbreviated version of The King and the Abbot (Type 922), though Walter Anderson has shown that the tradition is certainly oral, in spite of frequent literary treatments in Europe. Likewise, the occurrence of the story of The Monster in the Bridal Chamber (Type 507B) in the apocryphal Book of Tobit does not carry the implication that this version is the source of the tradition: it is obviously a late and considerably modified form of the story, which appears to have developed orally in the Near East.

Much more frequently have oral tales found a place in one or more European collections of literary stories. In another place more specific mention [p. 181] is made of popular tales embedded in the Greek or Latin classics. [286] Sometimes these retellings represent rather faithfully what must have been the plot of one of our oral tales at the time and place it was heard, though there may be radical adaptation to literary form or fashion. Such is true of the retelling of the tale of Polyphemus (Type 1137) by Homer, of Cupid and Psyche (Type 425) by Apuleius, and of Perseus and Andromeda (a version of Type 300? ) by various writers of myths.

It is sometimes difficult to tell whether such a classical story as that of Perseus is really a version of a folktale now current in Europe. There is little doubt, however, that the appearance of the story of The Dragon-Slayer (Type 300) in connection with that of The Two Brothers (Type 303) in Icelandic saga does represent an actual version of an oral tale, apparently originating in France, and now known by almost every taleteller in the world. In Icelandic saga there also appears a version of The Clever Peasant Girl (Type 875), though this does not represent its source, which is certainly oral and central European. The learning of animal speech by eating the flesh of a serpent occurs in a German and Baltic oral tale (Type 673) and also in the Siegfried story, but this is the only parallel, and the resemblance may not indicate actual relationship.

In other literary forms of the Middle Ages there occasionally appear oral tales. Geoffrey of Monmouth, in telling the story of King Lear, includes the incident of Love Like Salt (Type 923), widely known, not only through Shakespeare's treatment, but also as a part of the Cinderella cycle (Type 510). The chivalric romances, likewise, contain much that must have been taken directly from the people. Marie de France thus tells the tale of The Prince as Bird (Type 432), which, though certainly oral, has been frequently retold by both medieval and Renaissance writers. In some versions of the Tristram story occur elements of The Clever Horse (Type 531; oral: western Europe to the Philippines, origin probably India), and in an Icelandic saga of the fourteenth century there is a much clearer version. In the Fortunatus romance, which occurs in many forms, there is found a version of The Three Magic Objects and the Wonderful Fruits (Type 566), essentially west European folk tradition. The Gesta Romanorum, and later, Hans Sachs, have versions of The Three Doctors (Type 660), a tradition well known from Ireland to Russia. Despite the fact that the French and German fabliaux are usually literary in content, at least two oral tales are used in such collections: The Hero Catches the Princess with Her Own Words (Type 853) and King Thrushbeard (Type 900).

Though the jestbooks which were in vogue during the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries normally consist of very simple anecdotes, occasionally they included a complex folk story, like Hansel and Gretel (Type 327A); Master Pfriem (Type 801); One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes (Type 511); The [p. 182] Student from Paradise (Type 1540); or The Three Lucky Brothers (Type 1650). The latter story also appears in a collection of novelle. These prose tale collections, beginning as early as Boccaccio's Decameron, sometimes contain stories which the author had heard, though they are usually much changed in style from what must have been the oral original. Such is true of The Smith Outwits the Devil (Type 330), and of Six Go Through the Whole World (Type 513). The latter tale appears in many other literary collections, both Oriental and European.

For the history of the folktale, two collections in the novella tradition are especially important. Insofar as they contain folktales, they are either purely oral stories or else tales of literary origin which had already become a part of the folklore of Italy. Many of these oral tales have their first literary appearance in these collections. In the Pleasant Nights of Straparola in the sixteenth century are versions of: The Magician and His Pupil (Type 325; apparently of oral origin in India); The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is (Type 326); The Youth Transformed to a Horse (Type 314; one of the most popular of oral tales); Cap o' Rushes (Type 510B); The Three Golden Sons (Type 707); Our Lady's Child (Type 710); The Cat Castle (Type 545A); Puss in Boots (Type 545B); and The Lazy Boy (Type 675).

An even longer list of oral tales is found for the first time in the Pentamerone of Basile, 1634-36. Among them are: The Maiden in the Tower (Type 310); The Black and the White Bride (Type 403); The Three Oranges (Type 408); Little Brother and Little Sister (Type 450); The Maiden Who Seeks her Brothers (Type 451); The Spinning-Woman by the Spring (Type 480); The Three Old Women Helpers (Type 501); Dung-beetle (Type 559); The Magic Ring (Type 560); The Louse-Skin (Type 621); The Carnation (Type 652); Snow-White (Type 709); and The Good Bargain (Type 1642).

The folktale collection of Charles Perrault which appeared in 1697 is hardly to be considered as literary at all, but rather as a group of fairly faithful versions of oral tales. The later French collections of Madame D'Aulnoy, on the other hand, were definitely literary, and seldom contained any real folktales which had not already appeared in writers like Straparola or Basile. Exceptions are The Mouse as Bride (Type 402) and The Shift of Sex (Type 514).

Such are the principal collections of literary tales which have given us versions of oral stories. To complete the list, one would have to make several miscellaneous additions. The King and the Abbot (Type 922) appears in a German poem of the thirteenth century and frequently thereafter; the oral tradition of how Peter's Mother Falls from Heaven (Type 804) is given in a fifteenth century German poem; The Monster's Bride (Type 507A) appears in a sixteenth century English comedy; Bearskin (Type 361) is [p. 183] retold by Grimmelshausen in 1670; and Demi-coq (Type 715) is given a French name because of his appearance in a French story written in 1759.

Such is the list of those tales which, although they have appeared in one or more literary collections, seem quite certainly to be oral, both in origin and in history. Sometimes their subsequent popularity has been greatly increased by the fact that they have been charmingly retold by Basile or Perrault. Otherwise, their history is in no essential respect different from that large group of stories to which we shall now turn. These belong to the folklore of Europe and Asia, and have never had the fortune to appeal to any literary story teller. We know them only in oral form and can therefore speak with almost complete certainty of their origin among the people. Here belong some of the most interesting of all folktales.

Most of the European stories which originated in the Orient either go back to literary sources in the East or else, in spite of their origin in popular Oriental tradition, have received literary treatment in Asia or in Europe. Such tales, of literary origin or handling, have just been discussed. There remain a few which seem to have developed orally in Asia and to have reached Europe entirely by word of mouth. Such is true of Three Hairs from the Devil's Beard (Type 461), very often told in connection with the tale of The Prophecy (Type 930). The latter story is Oriental, but is found in early Buddhistic material. [287] The widely diffused tale of The Little Red Bull (Type 511*), while showing relation to several well-known European stories, probably comes from Oriental folk tradition.

By far the largest number of purely oral European and Asiatic tales seem quite certainly to have developed in Europe. The great majority of these are confined to the European continent, but some of them are worldwide in their distribution. Examples of the latter are The Dragon-Slayer (Type 300), John the Bear (Type 301), and The Two Brothers (Type 303). [288] Some European oral tales have traveled far into the Orient: Bluebeard (Type 311); The Journey to God to Receive Reward (Type 460A); The Journey in Search of Fortune (Type 460B); The Wild Man (Type 502); The Speaking Horsehead (Type 533); and The Profitable Exchange (Type 1655). Others have gone no further than the Near East: The Princess Transformed into Deer (Type 401); The Princess on the Glass Mountain (Type 530); Strong John (Type 650); The Juniper Tree (Type 720); and The Greater Sinner (Type 756C).

A considerable number of oral stories have received very wide distribution over the entire European continent but, except for purely sporadic occurrences, they do not appear elsewhere. To this list belong: The Hunter (Type 304); [p. 184] The Dwarf and the Giant (Type 327B); Hiding from the Devil (Type 329); The House in the Wood (Type 431); The Water of Life (Type 551); The Fisher and His Wife (Type 555); The Rabbit-herd (Type 570); The Self-righteous Hermit (Type 756A); The Devil's Contract (Type 756B); The Singing Bone (Type 780); The Peasant in Heaven (Type 802); The Birthmarks of the Princess (Type 850); The Golden Ram (Type 854); The King and the Soldier (Type 952); The Robber Bridegroom (Type 955) and The Clever Maiden Alone at Home Kills the Robbers (Type 956B).

The stories just listed are well represented in all parts of Europe, so that without special investigation it is not easy to say just where the story has developed. With a large number of tales, however, we find that, in spite of occurrences over the entire continent, their area of great popularity is clearly limited, sometimes to a single country, more often to a group of neighboring peoples. Such tales with occurrences primarily in eastern Europe are: The Princess in the Shroud (Type 307); The Faithless Sister (Type 315); and The Prince and the Arm Bands (Type 590). These last two are closely related and seem to have their center in Roumania.

General European tales most popular in eastern and northern Europe are: The Danced-Out Shoes (Type 306); Lenore (Type 365); The Helpful Horse (Type 532); and The Snares of the Evil One (Type 810).

Especially characteristic of Scandinavia and the Baltic states are: The Boy Steals the Giant's Treasure (Type 328, the English story of Jack the Giant Killer); Bear-skin (Type 361); The Man as Heater of Hell's Kettle (Type 475); The King is Betrayed (Type 505); The Spirit in the Blue Light (Type 562—popularly influenced by H. C. Andersen's treatment); The Greedy Peasant Woman (Type 751); Sin and Honor (Type 755; also very popular in Ireland); The Devil's Riddle (Type 812); The Hero Forces the Princess to Say "That is a Lie" (Type 852); The Youth Cheated in Selling Oxen (Type 1538); The Clever Boy (Type 1542); and The Man Who got a Night's Lodging (Type 1544).

Rather widespread traditions having their focus definitely in Scandinavia are: The Man from the Gallows (Type 366); The Princess Rescued from Robbers (Type 506B); The Wonder Child (Type 708); The Princess Confined in the Mound (Type 870); and The Little Goose-Girl (Type 870A).

Oral tales distributed over all Europe, but especially characteristic of the western countries, are: The Giantkiller and his Dog (Bluebeard) (Type 312); The Nix of the Mill-pond (Type 316); Little Red Riding Hood (Type 333); Bargain of the Three Brothers with the Devil (Type 360); The Healing Fruits (Type 610); and The Presents (Type 620).

Finally, at least two tales seem to be especially characteristic of British tradition: Tom-Tit-Tot (Type 500) and Out-riddling the Judge (Type 927). The special form of Type 328 known as Jack the Giant Killer and that known as Jack and the Beanstalk represent peculiar British developments. [p. 185]

There has been no attempt in this book to give notice to all folktales known in Europe and Asia, especially to the hundreds of oral stories which are told in only a single locality or which have never traveled far from their original home. A considerable number of such stories local to Roumania, Hungary, Wallonia, and Russia may be examined in the excellent folktale surveys of these countries. [289] Of such of them as appear in the Aarne-Thompson Types of the Folk-Tale, it will be noticed that a large number of the local tales are characteristic of the Baltic area. It must be borne in mind that very exhaustive lists have been made of the Finnish and Estonian tales, [290] so that these large numbers are no cause for wonder. Of these oral tales in the main part of the Aarne-Thompson index, the following seem to be confined to the Baltic states: a version of The Black and the White Bride (Type 403C); The Girl in the Form of a Wolf (Type 409); Punishment of a Bad Woman (Type 473); "Iron is More Precious than Gold" (Type 677); The Rich Man's and the Poor Man's Fortune (Type 735); The Cruel Rich Man as the Devil's Horse (Type 761); The Princess who Murdered her Child (Type 781); Solomon binds the Devil in Chains in Hell (Type 803); The Deceased Rich Man and the Devils in the Church (Type 815); The Devil as Substitute for Day Laborer at Mowing (Type 820); The Boastful Deer-slayer (Type 830); The Dishonest Priest (Type 831); The Disappointed Fisher (Type 832); How the Wicked Lord was Punished (Type 837); and The Wolves in the Stable (Type 1652).

Local to the Baltic and Scandinavian countries are: [291] a version of The Children and the Ogre (Type 327C); The Vampire (Type 363); The Prince as Serpent (Type 433); The Raven Helper (Type 553); The Magic Providing Purse (Type 564); The Magic Mill (Type 565; sporadic in Ireland, Greece, and France); Beloved of Women (Type 580); The Thieving Pot (Type 591); Fiddevav (Type 593); The Gifts of the Dwarfs (Type 611); The Beautiful and the Ugly Twin (Type 711); The Mother who Wants to Kill her Children (Type 765); the Prodigal's Return (Type 935); and At the Robbers' House (Type 956A).

A much smaller group are limited to the Baltic states and Russia: The Strong Woman as Bride (Type 519); The Man Who Flew like a Bird and Swam like a Fish (Type 665; also in Bohemia); The Punishment of Men (Type 840); The Bank Robbery (Type 951B); and Cleverness and Gullibility (Type 1539; 253 versions in Finland alone, sporadic in Greece, Turkey, and America).

Though the groups of peoples just noticed are represented by a large number [p. 186] of local stories, some tales of limited dissemination occur almost everywhere. Thus The Faithless Wife (Type 315B*) belongs to the Baltic and Balkan states and Russia. Hans my Hedgehog (Type 441) is known from Norway to Hungary, but depends entirely upon the Grimm version. Born from a Fish (Type 705) seems purely Scandinavian, and four tales apparently are known only in Norway: The Animal Sons-in-law and their Magic Food (Type 552B); The King's Tasks (Type 577); The Children of the King (Type 892); and Like Wind in the Hot Sun (Type 923A). Confined to south eastern Europe is The Serpent Maiden (Type 507C). Primarily Italian, but also known in Russia, is The Wolf (Type 428). Central European, primarily German, are the three varieties of The Serpent's Crown (Types 672A, B, and C). And two tales, except for occasional appearances of the Grimm version in other countries, seem to be limited to German tradition: Jorinde and Joringel (Type 405) and The Girl as Flower (Type 407).

In the rapid summary just completed it seems clear that for most of the complex tales of the European and Asiatic areas some generalizations are safe. Though we may not be able to say just when or just where a tale originated, or whether it was first an oral story or a literary creation, the general probabilities are such as we have indicated. Many questions of detail within the limits of these probabilities will engage the efforts of future scholars.

There still remain a considerable number of these complex tales where the evidence at present available is either insufficient to lead to general conclusions or else is so overwhelming in amount that it has never yet been properly utilized for systematic investigation.

For some tales, when the data are all assembled, the question as to whether they are essentially literary or oral seems quite unsolvable without much further study. Among such tales are: The Gifts of the Little People (Type 503); The Princess Rescued from Slavery (Type 506A); The Jew Among Thorns (Type 592); Tom Thumb (Type 700); The Maiden Without Hands (Type 706); Christ and Peter in the Barn (Type 752A); The Forgotten Wind (Type 752B) ; The Saviour and Peter in Night-Lodgings (Type 791); The Lazy Boy and the Industrious Girl (Type 822); The Princess who Cannot Solve the Riddle (Type 851); and The Parson's Stupid Wife (Type 1750).

In another group the question as to whether the tale is essentially Oriental or European is still not satisfactorily solved: The Ogre's (Devil's) Heart in the Egg (Type 302); The Spirit in the Bottle (Type 331); The Prince as Bird (Type 432); The Man Persecuted because of his Beautiful Wife (Type 465); The Table, the Ass, and the Stick (Type 563); and "All Stick Together" (Type 571).

Finally, a half dozen stories well known over the entire world present major problems of investigation, because of the great mass of materials at [p. 187] hand, much of unorganized. Each of them offers a challenge to scholarship. These six tales The Man on a Quest for his Lost Wife (Type 400); Cinderella (Type 510A); The Bird, the Horse, and the Princess (Type 550); The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn (Type 569); The Master Thief (Type 1525); and the Rich and the Poor Peasant (Type 1535). [p. 188]

[283] An exhaustive treatment would include a considerable number of such tales of purely local development for Lithuania, for Roumania, for Russia, and for India. The material for the first three of these countries may be examined in the surveys of Balys, Schullerus, and Andrejev, respectively (see references on pp. 420f.). No adequate survey of the material for India has yet been made. I have been working upon one for some years and have reasonable hopes of completing it.

[284] These are best represented by (1) Cowell, The Jātaka; (2) Chavannts, 500 Contes.

[285] For a discussion of this point, see p. 160, above.

[286] See pp. 278ff., below.

[287] See pp. I39f., above.

[288] The other tales which are distributed over the world and have received literary treatment have already been discussed.

[289] For Roumania, Hungary, and Wallonia, see FF Communications Nos. 78, 81, and 101 respectively. For the Russian, see Andrejev, Ukazatel' Skazočnich Siuzhetov.

[290] The number of purely Baltic tales would be greatly increased by inclusion of all those listed in Balys' Motif Index, which appeared after the Aarne-Thompson Index, and also by citing many of the "Types not Included" from the Aarne-Thompson Index.

[291] Single sporadic occurrences elsewhere are disregarded.

123, 300, 301, 302, 303, 304, 306, 307, 310, 311, 312, 313, 314, 315, 315B*, 316, 325, 326, 327A, 327B, 327C, 328, 329, 330, 331, 332, 333, 335, 360, 361, 363, 365, 366, 400, 401, 402, 403, 403C, 405, 407, 408, 409, 410, 425, 426, 428, 430, 431, 432, 433, 440, 441, 449*, 450, 451, 460A, 460B, 461, 465, 470, 471, 473, 475, 480, 500, 501, 502, 503, 505, 506A, 506B, 507A, 507B, 507C, 508, 510, 510A, 510B, 511, 511*, 513, 513A, 514, 516, 517, 518, 519, 530, 531, 532, 533, 545A, 545B, 550, 551, 552, 552B, 553, 554, 555, 559, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 569, 570, 571, 575, 577, 580, 590, 591, 592, 593, 610, 611, 612, 613, 620, 621, 650, 652, 653, 654, 655, 660, 665, 670, 671, 672A, 672B, 672C, 673, 675, 677, 700, 705, 706, 707, 708, 709, 710, 711, 715, 720, 725, 735, 736, 745, 750A, 750B, 751, 752A, 752B, 753, 755, 756A, 756B, 756C, 759, 761, 765, 780, 781, 785, 791, 800, 801, 802, 803, 804, 810, 812, 815, 820, 821, 822, 830, 831, 832, 836, 837, 840, 841, 844, 850, 851, 852, 853, 854, 870, 870A, 875, 881, 882, 884, 888, 890, 892, 900, 901, 910A, 910B, 910C, 910D, 920, 921, 922, 923, 923A, 927, 930, 931, 935, 945, 950, 951A, 951B, 952. 953, 954, 956A, 956B, 960, 1137, 1525, 1535, 1538, 1539, 1540, 1542, 1544, 1640, 1641, 1642, 1650, 1651, 1652, 1655, 1697, 1750

Number of Borrowing of European-Asiatic Tales by Indonesians, African, and American Indians

Type

Indonesianx

Africanx

Americanx Indianx

1. The Theft of Fish		5	7
2. Tail-Fisher		3	13
4. Carrying the Sham-Sick Trickster		5
5. Biting the Foot	13	16
6. Inquiring about the Wind		2
7. Calling of Three Tree Names		1
8. The Painting	2	7
9A. The Unjust Partner: Bear Threshes		7
9B. The Unjust Partner: Corn and Chaff			2
15. Theft of Butter (Honey) by Playing Godfather		13	2
21. Eating His Own Entrails	1	1
30. Fox Tricks Wolf into Falling into a Pit		1
31. Fox Climbs from Pit on Wolf's Back	15
33. Fox Plays Dead and is Thrown out of Pit and Escape	20	5
36. Fox in Disguise Violates the She-Bear	1
37. Fox as Nursemaid for Bear	7	30
38. Claw in Split Tree	11	2
47A. Fox Hangs by Teeth to Horse's Tail		2	1
49. Bear and the Honey			2
50. Sick Lion	1
55. Animals Build a Road		18	1
56. Fox Steals Young Magpies		7
60. Fox and Crane			3
62. Peace Among Animals			1
72. Rabbit Rides Fox a-Courting	1	6	7
73. Blinding the Guard		2	2
100. Wolf as Dog's Guest Sings			1
101. Old Dog as Rescuer of Child			1
104. Cowardly Duelers			3
105. Cat's Only Trick		2
111. Cat and Mouse Converse	3
122A. Wolf Seeks Breakfast		2
122B. Cat Washes Face before Eating		5
123. Wolf and Kids			1
125. Wolf Flees from Wolf-Head		12
130. Animals in Night Quarters			1
154. "Bear-Food"		6	1
155. Ungrateful Serpent Returned to Captivity	12
156. Splinter in Bear's Paw		1
157. Learning to Fear Men		1	1
175. Tarbaby and Rabbit	2	39	23
210. Cock, Hen, etc. on Journey	10
221. Election of Bird King	2
222. War of Birds and Quadrupeds		4
225. Crane Teaches Fox to Fly	4	3	43?
228. Titmouse Tries to be Big as Bear	1	8
235. Jay Borrows Cuckoo's Skin	3
248. Dog and Sparrow	1
249. Ant and Cricket			3
275. Race of Fox and Crayfish	26		1
295. Bean, Straw, and Coal			3
300. Dragon-Slayer	1		14
301. Three Stolen Princesses			16
302. Ogre's Heart in Egg	2		1
303. Twins or Blood-Brothers	3		3
307. Princess in the Shroud		2
311. Rescue by Sister (Girls in Sacks)		5	1
313. Girl as Helper in Hero's Flight		2	33
314. Youth Transformed to Horse (Goldener)	24	4	15
325. Magician and Pupil	1
326. Learning What Fear Is			2
327A. Hansel and Gretel	6	8	10
327B. Dwarf and Giant	3
327C. Devil Carries Hero in Sack		9	6?
328. Boy Steals Giant's Treasure			6
331. Spirit in Bottle			1
333. Red Ridinghood; Six Little Goats		16
400. Quest for Lost Wife	37	11	29
401. Princess Transformed into Deer		1
402. Mouse (Cat, etc.) as Bride	1
403. Black and White Bride	1	15	6
408. Three Oranges		1
425. Search for Lost Husband (Cupid and Psyche)	5	5	1
432. Prince as Bird		1
450. Little Brother and Little Sister		3
451. Maiden Who Seeks her Brothers			1
461. Three Hairs from Devil's Beard	17	1	1
471. Bridge to Other World	1	1	1
480. Spinning Woman by the Spring	6		3
506. Rescued Princess: Grateful Dead	6		1
507. Monster's Bride: Grateful Dead			1
510A. Cinderella	2	3	4
510B. Cap o' Rushes		2	1
511. One-Eye, Two-Eyes, Three-Eyes	3
513. The Helpers (Extraordinary Companions)		2	3
514. Shift of Sex	1
516. Faithful John		1
518. Devils Fight over Magic Objects		2
531. Clever Horse		3	2
533. Speaking Horse-head		6
545. Cat as Helper (Puss in Boots)	2	10
550. Bird, Horse, and Princess	4	4
551. Sons on Quest for Remedy		4
552A. Three Animal Brothers-in-Law			1
554. Grateful Animals	11
555. Fisher and His Wife	5
559. Dungbeetle		1	4
560. Magic Ring	36	8	2
561. Aladdin	1		2
563. Table, Ass, and Stick	7	14	4
566. Three Magic Objects and Wonderful Fruits	2		1
567. Magic Bird-heart	13	1	1
569. Knapsack, Hat, and Horn	5		5
570. Rabbit-herd	1	1
571. "All Stick Together"		1
590. Prince and Arm Bands			1
592. Jew Among Thorns	1
612. Three Snake-Leaves	2
613. Two Travelers		5	1
621. Louse-Skin	3
650. Strong John	27	3	4
653. Four Skillful Brothers	8	12
655. Wise Brothers	1	2
670. Animal Languages	6	23
671. Three Languages		2
675. Lazy Boy	2
676. Open Sesame	1	9
700. Tom Thumb		5	1
706. Maiden Without Hands		6	2
707. Three Golden Sons		8	1
709. Snow White		6
750. The Wishes: Hospitality Rewarded	1	1	3
780. Singing Bone		8
781. Princess Who Murdered her Child		12
785. Who Ate the Lamb's Heart?	1
851. Princess who Cannot Solve Riddle	3	2
852. Princess Forced to Say, "That is a Lie."	1	2
853. Princess Caught with her own Words			2
854. Golden Ram			1
875. Clever Peasant Girl	3	3
882. Wager on Wife's Chastity	2
900. King Thrushbeard		1?
901. Taming of the Shrew			1
910. The Good Precepts		2
921. King and Peasant's Son	1	2
922. King and Abbot	1
923. Love Like Salt		1
930. Prophecy for Poor Boy		1	1
931. Oedipus	1
935. Prodigal's Return			1
945. Luck and Intelligence	8	1
950. Rhampsinitus	1
1000. Anger Bargain	5		2
1004. Hogs in Mud, Sheep in Air	2	3	4
1012. Cleaning the Child	1
1015. Whetting the Knife	2
1030. Crop Division	1
1031. Roof as Threshing Flail			2
1060. Squeezing the Stone	1	1	1
1061. Biting the Stone		1	1
1062. Throwing the Stone	1		1
1063. Throwing Contest with Golden Club			1
1074. Race with Relatives in Line	6	38	12
1085. Pushing Hole in a Tree			1
1088. Eating Contest: Food in Bag			20
1115. Attempted Murder with Hatchet		10
1119. Ogre Kills Own Children: Substitutes in Bed		14	5
1149. Children Desire Ogre's Flesh	10	4
1157. Gun as Tobacco Pipe		1
1200. Sowing of Salt		1
1250. Bringing Water from Well: Human Chain		1	2
1260. Porridge in Ice Hole	1
1276. Rowing without Going Forward	4
1278. Bell Falls into Sea: Mark on Boat	2
1310. Crayfish as Tailor: Drowned	18	22	31
1319. Pumpkin as Ass's Egg, Rabbit as Colt			1
1350. Loving Wife: Man Feigns Death		1?
1360C. Old Hildebrand			1
1380. Faithless Wife: Husband Feigns Blindness		1
1384. Quest for Person Stupid as Wife		2
1386. Meat as Food for Cabbage	7
1415. Lucky Hans	2		1
1430. Man and Wife Build Air Castles	7	1
1525. Master Thief	2		6
1528. Holding Down the Hat	2		1
1530. Holding up the Rock		11	3
1535. Rich and Poor Peasant	10	16	11
1537. Corpse Killed Five Times	3		2
1539. Cleverness and Gullibility	7		3
1540. Student from Paradise (Paris)	3
1541. For the Long Winter			2
1542. The Clever Boy: Fooling-Sticks			8
1563. "Both?"			3
1585. Lawyer's Mad Client			1
1590. Trespasser's Defense			1
1610. To Divide Presents and Strokes		2
1611. Contest in Climbing Mast			1
1612. Contest in Swimming			1
1640. Brave Tailor	3		4
1641. Doctor Know-All	21	3
1642. The Good Bargain: Money to Frogs			4
1651. Whittington's Cat	2	2
1653. Robbers under Tree	2	1	5
1655. Eaten Grain and Cock as Damages		10	1
1685. Foolish Bridegroom	6	1
1696. "What Should I Have Said?"	6	4	2
1698A. Search for Lost Animal: Deaf Person	1
1698B. Travelers Ask the Way: Deaf Peasant		1
1730. Three Suitors Visit Chaste Wife	2	3
1737. Parson in Sack to Heaven		1
1775. Hungry Parson			3
1920A. Lying Contest: "Sea Burns"	1
1930. Schlaraffenland		3
2028. Troll (Wolf) Cut Open		1
2030. Old Woman and Pig	2	4
2031. Frost-bitten Foot	4	3
2033. Nut Hits Cock's Head		3
2034C. Lending and Repaying, Progressive Bargains		22
2035. House that Jack Built		4
2400. Ground Measured with Horse's Skin			1

1, 2, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9A, 9B, 15, 21, 30, 31, 33, 36, 37, 38, 47A, 49, 50, 55, 56, 60, 62, 72, 73, 100, 101, 104, 105, 111, 122A, 122B, 123, 125, 130, 154, 155, 156, 157, 175, 210. 221, 222, 225, 228, 235, 248, 249, 275, 295, 300, 301, 302, 303, 307, 311, 313, 314, 325, 326, 327A, 327B, 327C, 328, 331, 333, 400, 401, 402, 403, 408, 425, 432, 450, 451, 461, 471, 480, 506, 507, 510A, 510B, 511, 513, 514, 516, 518, 531, 533, 545, 550, 551, 552A, 554, 555, 559, 560, 561, 563, 566, 567, 569, 570, 571, 590, 592, 612, 613, 621, 650, 653, 655, 670, 671, 675, 676, 700, 706, 707, 709, 750, 780, 781, 785, 851, 852, 853. 854. 875, 882, 900, 901, 910, 921, 922, 923, 930, 931, 935, 945, 950, 1000, 1004, 1012, 1015, 1030, 1031, 1060, 1061, 1062, 1063, 1074, 1085, 1088, 1115, 1119, 1149, 1157, 1200, 1250, 1260, 1276, 1278, 1310, 1319, 1350, 1360C, 1380, 1384, 1386, 1415, 1430, 1525, 1528, 1530, 1535, 1537, 1539, 1540, 1541, 1542, 1563, 1585, 1590, 1610, 1611, 1612, 1640, 1641, 1642, 1651, 1653, 1655, 1685, 1696, 1698A, 1698B, 1730, 1737, 1775, 1920A, 1930, 2028, 2030, 2031, 2033, 2034C, 2035, 2400