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]

In addition to the fable collections and the medieval animal cycle, several other important groups of literary works have told animal tales that are also known in popular tradition. The collection of Buddhist tales known as the Jātaka, [347] the long series of books of exempla or illustrative stories told by the medieval priests, [348] and the extensive work of the composers of new fables in the Renaissance [349] are the three most important of these. [p. 225]

Mention has already been made of the fact that the story of the fox who succeeds in stealing the young magpies appears originally in the Panchatantra. It later received literary treatment in the Reynard cycle and in Hans Sachs. Alongside this purely artistic tale, and doubtless influenced by it, there developed a folktale well known in northern and eastern Europe. In this story (Type 56A) the fox threatens to push down the tree in which the magpie has its young. The crow gives good advice to the magpies and saves them. The fox avenges himself, plays dead, and catches the crow. The action in the latter part of the tale is the reverse of that in the literary fable.

Rather popular from Germany eastward is the story of the old dog as the rescuer of the child (Type 101), a story appearing in Steinhöwel's fifteenth century collection of fables. A farmer makes plans for killing a faithful old dog. The wolf has made friends with the dog, and works out a plan whereby the dog can be saved. The latter is to rescue the farmer's child from the wolf. When the wolf has permitted the plan to succeed, he wants to be allowed to steal the farmer's sheep. But the dog objects, and loses the wolf's friendship.

The medieval collections of exempla did not usually contain many animal tales except those already made familiar by fable books. One animal story, however, which seems from its distribution and general history to be essentially an oral tradition (Type 120), has found a place in Pauli's Schimpf und Ernst of the early sixteenth century. This tells of a wager between the fox and the hog as to which of them shall see the sunrise first. The fox places himself on a hill facing the east; the hog in a lower place facing the high trees to the west. The sun shines on the top of the trees, and the hog wins. This tale is known from Ireland to central Siberia, and has an interesting analogue in Japan.

Appearing first in the Jātaka and then spreading prodigiously as an oral tale is the story of the Tarbaby (Type 175). The essential point of the anecdote is that the trickster (most often the rabbit) is caught by a tarbaby (or some kind of sticky image). In a large number of cases the rabbit's enemies debate as to how he shall be punished. He agrees to various kinds of punishment, anything they suggest, but begs not to be thrown into the brier patch. Thinking to do him most injury, they throw him into the briers and he escapes (Type 1310). [350] This tale of the tarbaby has been studied very thoroughly by A. M. Espinosa, on the basis of more than 150 versions, which he has later supplemented by the addition of 115. [351] From India it seems clear that this story has reached the Negroes and Indians of America by several paths. It came from India to Africa, where it is a favorite and where it received some characteristic modifications before being [p. 226] taken by slaves to America. Another path was through Europe to the Hispanic peninsula and thence to American colonies. The third, but apparently very unimportant route, was directly across Europe.

In his second folktale monograph Kaarle Krohn discusses stories involving a man and a fox. [352] One of them is a definitely literary fable, The Ungrateful Serpent Returned to Captivity (Type 155). The main part of his study, however, is concerned with the tale of Bear Food (Type 154), the history of which is much more difficult to clarify, As will be seen, the story really consists of three separate episodes. A man in his anger at their laziness scolds his horses and calls them "bear food." The bear overhears and comes and demands the horses. A fox approaches and agrees to help the man from his predicament, but demands from the man geese or chickens in return for the service. The fox goes into the woods and imitates the barking of dogs, so that the bear is frightened and killed. The man now goes for the geese, but instead brings back in his bag dogs which attack the fox and chase him to his hole. Here the fox holds a conversation with his feet, his eyes, his ears, and his tail, and asks each of them how they could have helped him in his flight. The tail admits that it did not help. Thereupon the foolish fox sticks out his tail, which is seized upon by the dogs. The three parts of this story, (1) the "bear food" episode, (2) the deceptive payment given the fox, and (3) the fox's conversation with his bodily members, have not always been handled together. The first part would seem to have a more definitely literary relation than the last two. It is missing in the versions of the tale from Germany and the Romance countries, but Krohn feels that its presence in the Roman de Renart and in exemplum literature bespeaks its earlier presence in western Europe. He feels that the whole story is so well known over all of Europe that it is essentially a part of European folklore, though he admits the possibility that more adequate collections from India and the Orient might change his conclusions.

Almost all of the animal anecdotes thus far discussed have shown some kind of literary relationship. [353] But for animal tales there has also been a vigorous oral tradition not dependent upon literary works either as origin or as modes of dissemination. A thorough account of these purely folk stories, even in the European and Asiatic areas, would be extremely tedious, since almost every country has developed a large number of them which have not been taken over into other lands. A cursory examination of The Types of the Folk-Tale (especially pages 22 to 43 and 214 to 220) and of the various folktale surveys [354] will show these local tales for a number of different countries. They are particularly frequent in the Baltic states and in Russia. [p. 227]

Besides these stories of very limited distribution, there remain a number of traditional oral tales which have gained currency over a larger area.

The story told in Grimm of The She-fox's Suitors (Type 65) in which the widowed she-fox proves her faithfulness by rejecting suitors who do not resemble her deceased husband has a wide circulation in Germany and is known in Scandinavia. There are reasonably, close parallels from the Gypsies and analogues apparently unrelated in various parts of Africa. A much more definite tradition appears in a story which finds its greatest concentration in Finland and Lithuania, but is also known in Hungary and among Cape Verde Islanders in Massachusetts. It tells of the dog who acts as the wolf's shoemaker (Type 102). He keeps demanding material for the shoes, so that he eventually eats up the cow, the hog, etc. which are furnished him.

Two fable-like oral tales have their greatest popularity in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. The Norwegians are especially fond of telling how the mouse, in order to placate the cat, tells her a story. The cat answers, "Even so, I eat you up" (Type 111). In some way this story has traveled to Indonesia, where it has been reported in three versions. The anecdote in which the rat persuades the cat to wash her face before eating and thus escapes (Type 122B) has traveled from the Baltic countries in another direction: it is known in at least four different areas of Africa.

Tales of the way in which a small and weak animal overcomes a very large one occur in many parts of the world. There is probably no connection between the numerous African anecdotes of this kind and the story of The Titmouse and the Bear (Type 228) which seems to be confined to Finland and Estonia, though very popular there. In this tale the titmouse ruffles up her feathers but does not succeed in fooling her own children. In her own form, however, she flies into the bear's ear and kills him.

Mention may also be made at this place of a story obviously related to the cumulative tales soon to be discussed. In this story of The Lying Goat (Type 212) a father sends his sons, one after the other, to pasture the goat. Nevertheless, the goat always declares that he has had nothing to eat. The father angrily sends his sons from home and learns, when he himself tries to pasture the goat, that he has been deceived. This tale is popular in most parts of Europe, but has not been reported from outside.

Some of the most interesting of animal tales are sometimes not told as simple stories but may have attached to them some explanation accounting for the form or present habits of the animal. If the main purpose of such tales is this explanation, we usually consider them as origin tales, of which, as we shall see, [355] there are a large number in every country. But in some of the stories the explanatory element seems to be quite secondary to the interest of the tale itself. Such is the account of the animals as road-builders (Type 55). [p. 228]

The fox acts as overseer and punishes the lazy animals. The various kinds of punishment which he gives them accounts for some feature in the present day descendant of that animal. This tale is very popular in Finland and is also widely known in Africa, and has been reported from the American Indians of the southeastern United States. [356]

Animals sometimes obtain another's characteristics by failing to return things which they have borrowed. Thus the nightingale and the blindworm used each to have one eye. The nightingale borrowed the blindworm's and refused to return it, so that she now has two and the blindworm none. The latter is always on a tree where the nightingale has her nest and in revenge bores holes in the nightingale's eggs (Type 234). This tale has been reported mainly from Germany and France, but the similar story of the way in which the jay borrows the cuckoo's skin and fails to return it (Type 235) is primarily Baltic, though analogues are known in Indonesia.

Two other tales of birds are apparently confined to Scandinavia and the Baltic countries. In the first (Type 236), the thrush teaches the dove to build small nests, so that ever afterward she has kept on doing so. In the other (Type 240), the dove and the magpie exchange their eggs, the seven dove's eggs for the two of the magpie. This accounts for the fact that the dove always lays two eggs.

Generally speaking, fish have not interested taletellers very much, though the wonder tale contains magic fishes, and the Munchausen [357] cycle has large exaggerations about great catches of fish. One origin tale (Type 252) concerning fish has acquired some popularity in Finland and Lapland. The pike races the snake to the land. The winner is to remain on land, but since the pike loses his race, he remains in the water.

When one considers all the kinds of animal tales current in the folklore of Europe and Asia, he will be impressed by the great variety of anecdotes which have been attached to animal heroes. This variety proceeds not only from the interest in the nature and qualities of actual animals, but also from the inveterate habit of making up animal tales which is common to the story-tellers of all lands. Animal stories look for their origin, therefore, not only to continuing invention stimulated by animal life, but to artistic activity extending in range from the skillful taletellers of primitive tribes to the cultivated composers of the Hindu, the classical, and the medieval fables. [p. 229]