Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

II – The Complex Tale

4. Magic and marvels

B. Magic Objects

A general pattern is found in nearly all stories of magic objects. There is the extraordinary manner in which the objects are acquired, the use of the objects by the hero, the loss (usually by theft), and the final recovery. Of these tales, we shall first examine The Magic Ring (Type 560). This story was one of the first to receive exhaustive treatment by the so-called Finnish method. After a close examination and analysis of several hundred versions, Aarne [63] constructs an "archetype," somewhat as follows:

A poor (or impoverished) young man spends the little money he has in order to rescue a dog and later a cat who are about to be killed. With the help of these animals he also rescues a serpent who is in danger of being burned. The thankful serpent takes him to his home, where his father gives him a stone (sometimes with a hole in it). By means of this magic object the young man constructs a beautiful castle and wins a princess for a wife. The stone, however, is stolen from him by a stranger, and through the magic power of the stone the castle and the wife are likewise removed far away. The helpful animals now set forth to recover the magic object. The dog swims, carrying the cat on his back, and succeeds in crossing the river to the opposite bank where the thief dwells. In front of the castle the cat catches a mouse and threatens it with death if it will not get for her the stone which the thief is holding in his mouth. In the night, the mouse tickles the lips of the sleeping thief with its tail. The thief must spit the stone up onto the floor. The cat receives it and carries it away in its mouth. On the way home as they are crossing the river the dog demands the stone so that he can carry it. But he lets it fall out of his mouth, and a fish swallows it. Later they are [p. 71] able to catch the fish, to recover the stone, and to bring it to their master. He immediately has his castle returned and joins his wife, with whom he lives happily ever after.

 

In most of the European versions, of course, we deal with a magic ring rather than a stone. But Aarne is convinced that the stone represents the older form of the story. Although he did not have available nearly so large a collection of versions as it would be possible to assemble today, his discussion shows that there can be little doubt that the tale was made up in Asia, probably in India, and that it has moved from there into Europe. It was certainly well established there before the seventeenth century, when it was apparently heard in Italy by Basile, who tells the story in his Pentamerone. While the tale is undoubtedly more popular in eastern Europe than in western, it is told, at least sometimes, in almost every country or province on the Continent. It has been reported from the Highland Scottish, and the Irish, but seems not to be known in Iceland. It is popular through North Africa and the Near East and has penetrated as far south as Madagascar and the Hottentot country. Eastward of India the tale has been recorded several times in farther India, the Dutch East Indies, and the Philippines. A clear enough version is also current in Japan. The French have brought the story to the Indians of the Maritime Provinces and to Missouri. There are Portuguese versions (from the Cape Verde Islands) in Massachusetts, and Spanish in Argentina. If, as Aarne contends, the story started in India, it has gone a long way and has made itself thoroughly at home in the western world.

The same general pattern is, of course, familiar in the tale of Aladdin and His Wonderful Lamp (Type 561). The finding of the lamp in the underground chamber and the magic effects of rubbing it, the acquisition of castle and wife, the theft of the lamp and loss of all his fortune, and the final restoration of the stolen lamp by means of another magic object is known to all readers of the Arabian Nights, even of the most juvenile collections. Though this tale has entered somewhat into the folklore of most European countries, it has never become a truly oral tale. Its life has been dependent upon the popularity of the Arabian Nights, especially since their translation by Galland a little over two hundred years ago. There was, indeed, doubt for a good while as to whether the Aladdin story really belonged to the canon of the Arabian Nights, and it was suggested that it was a concoction of Galland himself. But the authenticity of the story as a part of the Thousand and One Nights has now been sufficiently proved. It is doubtful, however, whether the story has ever been a part of the actual folklore of any country.

Much the same relationship between written and oral versions is to be seen in the closely related tale, The Spirit in the Blue Light (Type 562) . The form in which it is now told over a considerable part of Europe has undoubtedly been influenced, and in most cases is the direct result of its artistic [p. 72] telling by Hans Christian Andersen in his Fyrtojet (The Tinder Box). As in the Aladdin story, a fire steel, or tinder box, is found in an underground room. With this the hero makes a light, in response to which a spirit comes to serve him. Among other adventures, he has his servant bring the princess to him three nights in succession. He is discovered and in his confusion loses his tinder box. As he is about to be executed he asks permission to light his pipe. A comrade has brought back his tinder box to him and given it to him in prison. As he lights his pipe, his spirit helper appears and rescues him.

In spite of the fact that this tale was carefully studied by Aarne, [64] he has not very clearly distinguished this tradition from that of Aladdin and, indeed, the two are almost inextricably mixed up. The essential difference is that in this tale the magic object is lost through accident rather than through the plot of an enemy. Though the tale is not unknown in southeastern Europe, its greatest popularity is in the Baltic states and Scandinavia. Not all these versions have been analyzed, but it would seem probable that Hans Christian Andersen has had a predominant influence in the dissemination of this story.

Three other tales of the loss and recovery of magic objects have been studied together by Antti Aarne. [65] The magic objects they treat of are, respectively, three, two, and one. By far the most popular of the three is The Table, the Ass, and the Stick (Type 563), and indeed it seems likely that the other two are little more than special developments of this type.

A poor man receives from a benefactor a table, a tablecloth, or sack which supplies itself with food. This is stolen from him by the host at the inn where he stays and an object identical in appearance is substituted for it. When the poor man goes home and tries to produce food, he fails. When he goes again to his benefactor he is given a marvelous ass or horse which will drop all the gold he may desire. The host at the inn plays the same trick a second time, and the man finds himself possessed of a worthless animal. The third time the benefactor gives him a magic cudgel and with this he compels the host to return the magic objects he has stolen.

This tale has a very extensive distribution, and is present in almost every collection of stories in Europe and Asia. It is told almost throughout Africa and has been carried frequently to both North and South America. Aside from the present day oral forms in India, there is indication that a tale with most of its essentials was current at least as early as the sixth century after Christ, since it appears in a collection of Chinese Buddhistic legends. [66] After all his extensive study of the versions of this tale, Aarne is undecided as to whether it has moved from Asia into Europe or vice versa. [67] [p. 73]

In the same study Aarne has handled the related story which involves only two magic objects. This is usually known as The Magic Providing Purse and "Out, Boy, Out of the Sack!" (Type 564). Aarne is surely right in thinking of it as a special development of the story just treated. The magic objects are received in the same way. The first of these, usually a purse, is stolen by a neighbor and it is recovered by the use of a magic sack which either draws the enemy into it or contains a manikin which beats him until called off. There is a rather free exchange in the kinds of magic objects between this tale and that of the magic tablecloth. It may well be that we have here nothing more than an abbreviated form of the latter in which the number of objects is reduced from three to two. At any rate, this particular form appears in a very limited area around the eastern end of the Baltic Sea. The single versions reported for Norway and for Flanders are quite isolated from the main area in which this type has developed.

Of somewhat wider distribution is the third of these stories treated in Aarne's study. In this there is only one object, a magic mill or pot (Type 565). The hero receives a magic mill which grinds meal or salt, and which only the owner can command to stop. Sometimes it is a girl who is given a magic pot which fills with porridge and which will obey no one but its owner. The tale may proceed in any one of three ways. In one, the girl's mother commands the pot to work, but the house overflows with porridge before the daughter can return and stop it. Or the man who steals the mill sets it to grinding meal and must call the owner to the rescue. The third ending is more tragic: A sea-captain steals the salt mill and takes it aboard ship, where he commands it to grind salt. He is unable to stop the mill, which keeps on grinding even after the ship sinks under the weight of the salt. This is the reason why the sea is salt.

Aarne comes to the conclusion that this tale, confined as it is to northern Europe from Finland to Norway, is a special development of the story with two magic objects which we have just discussed. A particular subgroup, that concerning the salt mill, he thinks has been developed by a mixture with an old seaman tradition about why the sea is salt.

A tale of magic objects known to the literary world through the Fortunatus legend is The Three Magic Objects and the Wonderful Fruits (Type 566). This story resembles the other handling of magic objects in that it involves their loss and recovery. Three men each receive a magic object from some supernatural being, a manikin, an enchanted princess, or the like. One of them is given a self-filling purse or a mantle with an inexhaustible pocket, another a traveling cap that will take him wherever he wants to go, and the third a horn (or a whistle) that furnishes soldiers. Two of the objects are stolen by a princess with whom the hero plays cards. By means of the traveling cap they transport the princess to a distant place, usually an island, but she succeeds in using the cap to wish herself back home. The [p. 74] hero now being deserted happens to eat an apple which causes horns to grow on his head, but later he finds another apple, or another kind of fruit, which removes the horns. With both kinds of apples in his possession he returns to the court and succeeds in enticing the princess into eating one of the apples. Horns grow on her head. In payment for curing her with the other apple, he receives back the magic objects.

The story is not always satisfactorily motivated. The three companions soon drop out of sight, and the hero is left alone to complete his adventures. In those versions in which the objects are received from enchanted princesses, the hearer expects to learn more about these women and vainly imagines that they are going to end as wives for the three companions. In spite of these inconsistencies, however, this is, as far as Europe is concerned, one of the most popular of all the tales of magic objects. It is distributed rather evenly over the whole continent, but does not extend any appreciable distance into Asia. Though some features of the narrative are to be found in the Persian Tuti-Nameh, and more remotely in the Indic collection Sukasaptati, the fully developed story seems to be essentially oral and west European. [68] It has been carried by the French into America, where it is told by the Penobscot Indians in Maine, and by the Portuguese from Cape Verde Islands to Massachusetts.

Another story in which three magic objects regularly appear is that of The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn (Type 569). This tale is not generally so popular as the one concerning the marvelous fruits, but it has a much wider distribution. It seems to be about as well known in Indonesia and India as it is in Ireland. It has never been systematically studied, and a cursory examination of its distribution does not throw much light on its history. It appeared in Germany in literary form as early as 1554 and has been frequently used by later writers. Its popularity in the old tradition of such countries as Germany, Flanders, Ireland, and Russia would indicate that it has had a vigorous life quite aside from the literary tradition.

The details of the transactions in this story differ a good deal from version to version, though the general outline is clear enough. The youngest of three brothers finds a magic object, exchanges it for another, and by means of the second gets hold of the first again. By such trick exchanges he comes into possession of the three magic objects which give the tale its title, and with these he is able to produce an indefinite amount of food and a huge army. He makes war against the king and succeeds in all his enterprises.

This tale differs from the other stories of magic objects in that there is no loss or recovery. The simplicity of the plot makes it natural that it has attached itself to other stories with ease.

Considerable resemblance to the tale of the wonderful fruits is also found [p. 75] in The Magic Bird-Heart (Type 567). [69] On the basis of his careful analysis, Aarne has reconstructed the probable form of the original tale:

Fate has brought into the possession of a poor man a magic bird which lays golden eggs. The man sells the precious eggs and becomes rich. Once he goes on a trip and leaves the bird with his wife to take care of. In his absence the man who has bought the eggs (sometimes another) comes to the wife and engages in a love affair with her and persuades her to prepare and serve the marvelous bird for his meal. The bird possesses a wonderful trait, that whoever shall eat its head will become ruler and whoever swallows its heart will find gold under, his pillow when he has been sleeping. The bird is killed and prepared, but by chance falls into the hands of the two sons of the man who is absent on his journey. Knowing nothing of the wonderful characteristics of the bird, they eat the head and the heart. The lover does not yet give up his plan, for he knows that a roast which is prepared from the eaters of the bird will have the same effect as the bird itself, and he demands that the boys shall be killed, and finally persuades the mother to agree. The hoys suspect the plot, and flee. The one who has eaten the head arrives in a kingdom where the old ruler has just died and the new one must be chosen. Through some type of marvelous manifestation the young man is chosen ruler. The other boy receives all the gold he wishes. In the course of his adventures he is betrayed by a girl and an old woman. He punishes the girl by using his magic power to turn her into an ass so that she will be severely beaten. But at last he restores her to her human form. In most versions the boys eventually punish their mother.

The story of the magic bird-heart has been cited in the older literature as an illustration of a tale which has travelled from India into Europe. Aarne's exhaustive study, however, while indicating an Asiatic origin, concludes that the most plausible home for the story is western Asia, perhaps Persia. It is well known in eastern Europe, especially in Russia and around the Baltic, but it is to be found in western and southern Europe as well. It is frequently found in North Africa and is reported once from much farther south in that continent. The French have taken it to Canada, where they still tell it, and from them it has doubtless been learned by the Ojibwas of southern Ontario. Though it is found in the Persian Tuti-Nameh of around 1300 a.d., Aarne demonstrates clearly that its life has been primarily oral and practically un influenced by literary retellings.

In a considerable number of the stories about the ownership of magic objects the hero comes into possession of these objects by means of a trick which he plays upon certain devils or giants. He finds them quarreling over the possession of three magic objects (or it may be that three heirs to the property are quarreling), and he undertakes to settle the quarrel. He must [p. 76] hold the object, but as soon as he gets hold of it, he uses it to get possession of the other objects. He then goes on his adventures, which may consist of the performance of tasks assigned to the suitors of a princess, or the freeing of the princess from an enchantment. But this method of acquiring the magic objects is by no means confined to any particular folk story, and it is a real question whether one is justified in considering that we have here a real folktale. It is, perhaps, convenient for cataloguing purposes to list it with an appropriate number (Type 518), but it is essentially an introductory motif (D832) which may lead into almost any story in which magic objects can be used for the performance of tasks, for effecting rescues, or for acquiring wealth. [70]

Considered as a motif, it has a long history. It appears in unmistakable form in a Chinese Buddhistic collection of the sixth century after Christ, in the Ocean of Story (eleventh century), and in the Thousand and One Nights. Aside from its subordinate role in connection with other tales, there are a considerable number of versions in which the principal interest seems to be in this trick. In one way or another, the motif has a very extensive distribution throughout Europe and Asia. It is common in North Africa and appears occasionally much further south. Because of its wide distribution, of its association with so many different folktales, and of its easily ascertainable antiquity, this story (or tale motif, if you like) affords many interesting problems for anyone who may undertake to write its history.

An interesting variation on the story of the hero with his three magic objects is that known from the Grimm collection as The Jew Among Thorns (Type 592). The tale is widely distributed over every part of Europe, but, except for single and apparently sporadic appearances in Indonesia and among the Kabyle of North Africa, it has not traveled east or south. It has been reported in English tradition in Virginia, among the Missouri French and the Jamaica Negroes. It has been so frequently treated in literature, especially in Germany and England, ever since the fifteenth century, that these literary forms have undoubtedly affected the oral tradition. For whatever reason, the story appears with unusual variation of detail. Perhaps a thorough comparative study of the relationship of the more than two hundred and fifty reported versions with the many literary treatments would clarify its complicated history.

The story has many points in common with several we have been examining. The hero is driven from home by an evil stepmother or he is dismissed from service with a pittance after many years of labor. He gives the small amount of money he has to a poor man, and in return he is granted the fulfillment of three wishes. Most important of these is for a magic fiddle which compels people to dance. Usually he asks for a never-failing crossbow [p. 77] and for the power of having all his desires obeyed. Other magic objects or powers besides these frequently appear in this story. In the course of his adventures he meets a monk, or more frequently a Jew, and they shoot at a bird on a wager. As the loser of the contest, the Jew must go into the thorns naked and get the bird. With his magic fiddle the hero compels the Jew to dance in the thorns. In some versions this whole episode of the dancing in the thorns is replaced by a story of the defeat of a giant by making him dance. Eventually the boy is brought to court for his misdeeds and is condemned to be hanged. As a last request he secures permission to play on his fiddle, and he compels the judge and all the assembly to dance until he is released.

Anyone acquainted with European folktales will recognize a number of motifs in this story which he has already encountered in other tales. Its central unifying idea seems to be the magic fiddle and the dancing it compels. The evil stepmother, the dismissal from service with a pittance, the helping of the poor man with the last penny, and the escape from execution by an illusory last request show affinities with many other tales. A consequence of this abundance of folktale commonplaces is the fact that there are many points at which this story may lead imperceptibly into other well-known plots. [71]

We have already encountered several magic animals, aside from the many helpful beasts which assist in the action of folktales. The hen that lays golden eggs, in Jack and the Beanstalk, and the horse or donkey which drops gold for its master are but two of these. Perhaps most surprising of all magic animals is the half-chick. Because he appears so frequently in French tales, he is usually known by his French title, Demi-coq (Type 715). The very fact of his being only a half animal has caused the tellers of this tale to permit themselves the greatest extravagances of invention. Two children are left a cock as their only inheritance. They divide it by cutting it in two. One of them receives the help of a fairy godmother who makes the half-cock magic. Demi-coq now sets out on his adventures. He first wishes to recover some borrowed money. Under his wings, or elsewhere in his body, he takes with him some robbers, two foxes, and a stream of water. When he goes to the castle and demands the money, he is imprisoned with the hens, but the foxes eat them up. Likewise in the stable, the robbers steal the horses. When he is to be burned, the stream puts out the fire. He is finally given the money. The story usually ends with the discomfiting of the king. When, in spite of all his tricks, Demi-coq is eaten by the king, he keeps crowing from the king's body.

This story has been studied, as far as the western European versions are concerned, by Ralph S. Boggs. [72] His conclusion is that the center of the development is Castile and that the tale spread from there throughout France and was carried to various parts of South America —Brazil, Chili, and [p. 78] Argentina—by Portuguese and Spanish settlers, and to the Cochiti Indians of New Mexico and to Missouri by the Spanish and French, respectively. In the literature of the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries the story appeared twice, once in France and once in Spain. It is referred to in a play published in France in 1759. Boggs is of the opinion that the Spanish tale given literary treatment in the early nineteenth century by Fernán Caballero has been of primary importance in the development of this story in southwest Europe. This tale is, however, not confined to that area, but, with some variations, is found throughout most of the continent and as far east as India. It is very unevenly distributed. No versions have been reported from the British Isles, from Germany, or Czechoslovakia. On the other hand, the Finns possess nearly a hundred, and it is popular in Estonia and Russia. As a supplement to Boggs's study, a treatment of the tale in the other areas would be illuminating.

Seldom in folktales does any thought seem to be given to the processes by which marvelous objects may be constructed: their existence is merely taken for granted. One exception to this statement is the tale of The Prince's Wings (Type 575). It usually begins with a contest in the construction of a marvelous object. A skillful workman makes wings (or sometimes a magic horse) that will carry one through the air. A prince buys the wings from the workman and flies to a tower in which a princess is confined. They fly away together and when the father of the princess offers half his kingdom as a reward for her return, the prince flies back with her and enforces the bargain.

The essential part of this story, the journey on the flying horse or with the wings, appears in several Oriental tales, notably in the Thousand and One Nights and in the Ocean of Story, and it is familiar to the readers of medieval romance through the adventures of Cléomadès. It does not appear to be known in oral tradition outside of northern and eastern Europe. Of three tales of magic objects known only in Scandinavia and the Baltic countries, the most popular is the story of the young man who has power to make all women love him (Beloved of Women, Type 580). By means of this power he secures magic objects and eventually marries a queen. Not more than a half dozen versions have been reported of the other two tales. One of these is Fiddevav (Type 593) in which an old woman gives the hero a magic stone and advises him to go to a peasant's house at night, to say nothing but "Thanks," and to lay the stone in the ashes. The stone prevents fire from being made, and all who poke in the ashes, the daughter, the housewife, the preacher, etc. must keep saying "Fiddevav" until they are released from the magic. This happens only when the hero receives the peasant's daughter. The second tale, The Thieving Pot (Type 591), tells how a peasant exchanges his cow for a magic pot which goes out and steals food and money from the peasant's rich neighbors.

These last two tales are good examples of stories known in a relatively [p. 79] small area. If other parts of the world had been as thoroughly explored for tales as Scandinavia and the countries of the eastern Baltic, there would doubtless be hundreds of other such stories which have never wandered far from the place where they were originally told.

[63] Vcrgleichende Märchenforschungen, pp. 3-82.

[64] As a part of his study of The Magic Ring (Vergleichende Märchenforschung, pp. 5 3-82).

[65] Die Zaubergaben (Journal de la Société Finno-Ougrienne, XXVII, Helsinki, 1911, pp. 1-96).

[66] Chavannes, 500 Contes, III, 256, No. 468.

[67] For a discussion of this question, see Krohn, Übersicht, pp. 51-2.

[68] This conclusion has been reached by Aarne's thoroughgoing analysis of the tale (Vergleichende Märcheniorschungen, pp, 85-142).

[69] See the extensive study by Aarne (Vergleichende Märchenjorschungen, pp. 143-200). For the opening of this tale as an introduction to The Two Brothers (Type 303), see p. 28, above.

[70] Bolte-Polívka (II, 331) point out that this introduction appears in Types 302, 306, 313B, 400, 401, 507A, 552, and 569.

[71] For a list of the most usual of these combinations see analysis for Type 592.

[72] The Halfchick Tale in Spain and France.

Types:

302, 303, 306, 313B, 400, 401, 507A, 518, 552, 560, 561, 562, 563, 564, 565, 566, 567, 569, 575, 580, 591, 592, 593, 715

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.

Types:

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

Part Two

The Folktale from Ireland to India

III – The Simple Tale

4. Legends and traditions

A. Mythological Legends

The student of popular legend and tradition cannot fail to be impressed with the fertility of imagination with which man has viewed the world around him. The simple taleteller of today, receiving much of his legendary material from an even more unlettered past, finds ready for his use a wealth of accounts, not only of the marvels of the present world and remarkable happenings of historic times, but also even of the very beginnings of the earth and the establishment of the present order of animals and men.

For all those peoples whose religious background is Christian, Mohammedan, or Jewish the legends concerning creation are normally based upon the Old Testament account. [364] But there has been no feeling that this account is so sacred that it cannot be elaborated. A very considerable number of legends have grown up around such Biblical stories as the Garden of Eden and the Flood. [p. 236]

When working within this Biblical tradition, the story-teller has not usually gone back to primeval chaos and divine creation, but has been content to interest himself first of all in the Garden of Eden, in man's creation, and his loss of Paradise. Well known, of course, is the fact that man was made from clay (A1241) and that the first woman was made from his rib (A1275.1). But it is more unusual to hear that Adam's body was made of eight things: his trunk from earth, his bones from stone, his veins from roots, his blood from water, his hair from grass, his thoughts from wind, and his spirit from the clouds (A1291). And it must have been a primitive misogynist who started the rumor that Eve had really been created from a dog's tail (A1224.3).

Satan consistently opposes God in his creation, but he is always unsuccessful except in his adventure with Eve. He has seen God form various animals and then breathe life into them. He tries the same thing, but his animals always remain lifeless (A1217). Another story, apparently for getting that the devil cannot make the animals, divides the creation of all beasts between the two antagonists. The ill-disposition or unpleasantness of certain animals comes from the fact that they are the devil's creations (A1751).

The success of Satan in the Garden (A1331.1) seems to be familiar to all story-tellers, though quite generally the fruit eaten is not that of the tree of knowledge of good and evil. It was certainly an apple, as proved by the Adam's apple where it stuck in Adam's throat (A1319.1). The interest in Paradise Lost and in Adam and Eve generally ceases after they are expelled from the garden, but there have been preserved some traditions which give us a last glimpse of the first mother. She has so many children that she is ashamed when God pays her a visit. She hides some of them, and thus they fail to receive the blessing which God gives to all those who are in sight. This story is given as an explanation of superior and inferior classes of people, of downtrodden races (A1650.1), of the existence of monkeys (A1861.1), or of peoples of the underworld (F251.4).

Legends about floods appear in many parts of the world. [365] Many of these are independent growths, sometimes reminiscent of actual local catastrophes. But the most important of all flood legends is that which tells about Noah and his ark. Wherever Biblical tales have been learned, this one is sure to be popular because of its dramatic and picturesque details. Just as this legend afforded the medieval dramatist one of his best opportunities for a humorous treatment of a Biblical worthy, [366] it has given taletellers everywhere an opportunity to elaborate details afforded by the interesting situation. Perhaps most assiduous in the development of these flood legends [p. 237] have been the peoples of Siberia. In areas farther away from the original home of the Noah legend missionaries have made it familiar, and it often appears along with similar tales from the local folklore. This is particularly true of the North American Indians and of the inhabitants of the Pacific islands.

The escape from the deluge in the ark (A1021), the pairs of animals preserved so that they may escape destruction (A1021.1), and the bird scouts sent out from the ark (A1021.2)—these three elements are nearly always present. The lodging of the ark on the mountain is closely paralleled by many tales in which people escape from the flood by ascending a mountain (A1022), but it is not at all certain that the Bible story is the source of these. In addition to these canonical incidents, popular imagination has supplied a number of details. A few of these will illustrate the manner in which the flood legend has been used to explain the characteristics of some animal or some other present-day situation.

It appears, for example, that the devil was in a way to be drowned and wanted a place on the ark in spite of Noah's objection. One story tells how he forbids Noah's wife to enter the ark until Noah has also invited him in (K485; Type 825). Some say that Noah loses patience and calls out, "The devil! Come in!" The devil comes in and turns himself into a mouse (C12.5.1). After the devil is in the ark as a mouse, he gnaws a hole in the bottom of the ark. Thereupon Noah asks the help of the lion. The lion sneezes, and a cat comes from the lion's nostril and eats the mouse (A1811.2). Two animals are obstreperous and suffer the consequences. The griffin refuses to go on the ark and hence is drowned and is now extinct (A2232.4), and the unicorn is thrown from the ark and suffers the same fate (A2214.3).

Such are a few of the popular variations on the Noah and Adam legends. They will serve to show the way in which popular fancy has handled the sacred writings. Besides these two groups of Bible legends are found many more, such as the Tower of Babel (C771.1) and the confusion of tongues (A1333), and many incidents concerning the childhood of Jesus.

Popular imagination, even among those people who receive their creation legends from Genesis, has many things to say about the universe, and the earth and its inhabitants. Many of these explanations seem very old, and certainly go back to a time before the present religions fixed the thinking of these peoples.

It is clear that nineteenth century scholars exaggerated beyond all reason the importance of the stars in the thinking of our early story-tellers. [367] Nevertheless, such phenomena as the Milky Way (A778), the Pleiades (A773), and the Great Bear (A771) have produced a number of legends [p. 238] concerning their origin. The Milky Way is sometimes thought of as a pathway of souls, as a river, as a hunting party, or as a stitched seam in the sky; the Pleiades are nearly always imagined as seven sisters, and pretty stories are invented to tell how one of them has been lost.

Neither the sun nor the moon occupies a large place in actual legend. [368] Popular imagination has largely confined its interest in the sun to tales about how it is stolen (A721.1). Usually it is thought of as being in the possession of some monster who keeps it hidden in a box or a pot so that it is of no use to mankind. As to the moon, there are two points of interest: the figures on its surface and its monthly phases. One school of mythologists bases its theories upon the observation that the moon with these two characteristics appears to all mankind and furnishes a common object of interest everywhere. The "Man in the Moon" (A751) is not always a man, though he may well be thought of as one who has been sent there in punishment for his misdeeds. What is he doing? Some people imagine he is making a big fire, some that he is carrying buckets of water. Many others contend that we are looking at a rabbit or a frog; and the list could be greatly extended. For the phases of the moon (A755) a number of explanations are given. Most of them seem trivial, and no well recognized stories have attached themselves to this phenomenon. The sun, the moon, and the stars, vast as these are, do not furnish a sufficiently broad scope for the folk imagination. For, outside of the earth they trod on and the heavenly bodies which they could see, our story tellers have imagined many other realms. Some of these are a part of their regular religious conceptions: heaven, hell, and sometimes purgatory. The relation of popular conceptions of these lands of the dead to early folk thought on the one hand and to learned theological disputation on the other is a subject of much interest, but belongs essentially to the history of religions. [369]

But popular imagination has devised still other worlds. Sometimes these are thought of as above, sometimes below, and sometimes merely remote. There are frequent stories of journeys to earthly paradises on distant islands or across mystic rivers or on some inaccessible mountain (F111). The Irish have always been especially fond of stories of marvelous voyages, to the Land of Women (F112), it may be, or to the realm of youth (D1338.7), or to Avalon [370] (E481.4.1) where the dead are healed. But by no means all of the "otherworld" ideas in European folklore are Irish. Many of them [p. 239] are certainly Oriental [371] and others are so widespread as to make source hunting an impossible quest. The rainbow bridge to the land of the dead (F152.1.1) is not confined to Norse mythology, and the mysterious for bidding river which one must ford in order to pass over into the evil land (F141.1.1) was traversed by many heroes before Browning sent Child Roland on his quest for the Dark Tower. Some other interesting concepts concerning the other worlds make clear enough the fact that great distances have never been a part of these popular conceptions. The lower world can be reached by descending a rope (F96) or going down a stair (F94), and a descent from the upper world may be made in the same way, not only by the angels at Bethel, but also by human heroes and heroines. On the way from the sky the rope may be too short to afford safe return. [372]

A very common legend is that of the city below the sea, a kind of sub marine other-land (F133). Such legends may sometimes be based upon a real knowledge of sunken coasts, though this can be true for only a small number. Somewhat analogous to these ideas is that of the sunken continent, the Lost Atlantis (cf. Z692). But that speculation is certainly literary.

In contrast to the number of legends and traditions concerning the heavenly bodies and other worlds, the stories about the formation of the earth, its present conditions, and the establishment of its human and animal inhabitants appear in almost overwhelming numbers. Any realistic view of the available body of oral legend and tradition, whether among primitive peoples or among unlettered groups in our own culture, compels the conclusion that the taleteller's imagination has concerned itself primarily with things of this earth.

The main act of creation of the earth has not ordinarily entered into Western tradition, since that tradition has received as orthodox the explanations either of one of the great mythologies or of the Hebrew scriptures. On the other hand, there are many tales explaining the presence of particular features of landscape (A901). Certain mountains, for example, are said to be caused by stones which are dropped from a giant's clothes, or because God's sieve broke and let through large stones, or because giants hurled boulders back and forth (A965 and A966). Another large group of legends concerns indentions on rocks. These are explained as being the footprints left by some primitive man or animal, frequently by one of the gods (A972).

One of the most common legends, known in the Old World, but a particular [p. 240] favorite of the American Indians, is that of a cliff which has served as a point from which lovers have leapt to their tragic death (A985). Sometimes, of course, this legend is merely a local story and makes no pretense of explaining the presence of a cliff.

Such are a few of the groups of explanatory legends concerning the formation of the land. As to the sea, the most puzzling feature has been the saltness of its water, and various legends have attempted to account for this. The most familiar is the tale of the stolen salt mill which will stop grinding only at the command of its master. A ship captain takes it aboard his ship, and it continues to grind salt until the ship is sunk and the whole sea has been filled with it. [373]

Legends explanatory of the weather are much more common in primitive folklore than in that of the West. There is much resemblance in these legends in all parts of the world, though the ideas are so general that no actual historic relationship between them need be assumed. The tale of Aeolus, who confines the winds in a cave (A1122) and lets them out at will appears not only in classical mythology but also in places so widely separated as Siberia, New Zealand, and California. Similarly widespread is the story of the giant bird who causes the winds by the flapping of his wings (A1125). The bird flaps too hard, and the hero cuts his wings so as to make him more moderate. This latter tale was known not only in ancient Babylonia, but in Iceland as well, and it has been reported among the North American Indians of Nova Scotia [374] and the Negroes of Georgia.

Finally, among weather legends should be mentioned those accounting for the rain and snow. Not much originality is shown in these, the most usual explanation of rain being from tears (A1131.1), or snow from the feathers or clothes of a witch (A1135.1). The latter idea appears in several forms: sometimes she is said to be picking geese and letting the feathers fall.

In relating those legends based upon the Old Testament an account has already been given of the popular traditions concerning Creation and Paradise Lost, as well as the Flood. But there are several stories about the beginnings of human life and culture which are not based upon the Scriptures. Among these are the practically world-wide myths of the theft of light (A1411), and the theft of fire (A1415). The latter is told in especially rich detail in all parts of the world. Some of the correspondences between remote versions of this legend—for example, the preservation of the fire in a hollow reed not only in the Greek myth but in tales from [p. 241] Indians of California and of Bolivia—present an interesting problem of comparative folklore.

By far the largest number of explanatory legends everywhere are concerned with animals, their creation and the establishment of their special characteristics. The teller of folktales is no evolutionist. He has a tendency to explain all present-day animals in terms of the behavior of some mythical ancestor. Some act has brought about the creation of a species of animals or a change in their make-up or habits. We have already mentioned the creation of animals by God and the devil, [375] thus accounting for at least two large classes of creatures, the good and the bad. Three legends of the creation of animals (A1700 to A2199) will illustrate the whole group. The flea is created in order to give women work (A2032.2); various kinds of birds owe their origin to Pharaoh's drowned army (A1901); and the flounder with his flat side is a descendant of a fish only half eaten by the Virgin Mary (A2126).

It is with the special bodily characteristics or habits of animals that legend has mostly concerned itself. Usually, such legends assume that a change was made in an ancient animal and that this change has persisted in all its descendants. Thus in a tale we have already noted (Type 47A), the rabbit laughs at a funny sight and splits his lip so that forever after his descendants are marked by the hare-lip (A2211.2). The ant and the spider have a dispute in heaven. God decides the dispute in favor of the ant and throws the spider out. His great fall and injury account for the narrow waists of modern spiders (A2214.2). We have already learned how the bear lost his tail when his foolish ancestor fished through the ice at the fox's suggestion (Type 2). Many animals have their present colors because an ancestor got into the fire and was burned or singed (A2218), or because in some adventure he has colors spilled on him (A2219.1).

If an animal's characteristics are pleasant, or otherwise favorable, they are often ascribed to a reward given to the ancestral animal for some deed of kindness or piety. A whole series of animal characteristics are accounted for because of help given to Christ at his Crucifixion (A2221.2): the robin's red breast, the permission to flies to eat at the king's table, and the immunity of swallows' nests from destruction. On the contrary, some of the ancient animals were discourteous and were properly punished (A2231). Thus the horse, when the saint wishes to use him, always excuses himself on the ground that he is still eating. The saint curses him, "May you always be eating," and his descendants keep grazing to this day. The flounder also is punished for discourtesy. When God asks him where he is going he does not answer, but merely turns his head. Since that time all flounders have had crooked mouths.

Ancient animals were punished for various kinds of misdeeds. The Aesop [p. 242] fables have popularized the tales of those who make immoderate requests (A2232): the camel who asks for horns and as a punishment is given short ears, and the bees who pray for a sung but are punished by having their first sting fatal to themselves.

We have already noticed in another connection a group of tales in which animals are chastised for their refusal to help in some common task, usually the building of a road or the digging of a well (Type 55). Sometimes such tales are recounted as a part of the cycle of the fox and the wolf and the interest is in the tricks and deceptions practiced. But frequently these stories also explain the present-day characteristics of the animals concerned (A2233). Thus laziness on this occasion explains why the snake may not use the road, why the dog must remain out of doors, or why certain animals may not drink from a river or spring.

Besides rewards and punishments, many other reasons are assigned for the change from the ancient animal which is now seen in his descendants. Sometimes one animal borrows a member or quality from another and refuses to return it (A2241). [376] Sometimes a mere exchange of qualities accounts for some characteristics. [377] A considerable group of tales gives account of contests, usually races, in which the result determines the animal's form or habits. [378] Transformation of a person to an animal is sometimes cited as a reason for certain qualities which suggest human beings. Most famous of these stories is that of the shepherd who is transformed to a bird and still calls his sheep (A2261.1). This tale is used to account for various bird cries. Grimm told a pretty story of this kind about the hoopoe. In his collection is also found the explanation of the enmity existing between the cat and the dog. [379] The cat loses the dog's certificate of nobility and thus forfeits his friendship.

One remarkable thing about origin legends of this kind in countries dominated for millennia by the great historic religions is how few of them ascribe animal changes to the direct act of God. We have already seen in apocryphal accounts of creation how God and the devil both created animals, [380] and how this fact explains many present-day characteristics. It will not do to finish this account of origin legends without mention of the picturesque story of how the hog received his round snout. It seems that in the midst of the creation of the hog a great fire broke out, so that God had to leave the job half done (A2286.1.1).

Though many of these explanatory legends are told over wide areas, [p. 243] the relative number of them which are purely local is much greater than is true with the regular folktale. Such local legends have a great deal of interest for their own sake and for an understanding of the folklore to which they belong. But in a broad treatment of explanatory myths, it is, of course, impossible to do more than indicate the general nature of these legends in Western culture.

[364] For an excellent treatment of legends based upon the Old Testament and still current as oral tales, see Dähnhardt, Natursagen, vol. I.

[365] For bibliography of flood legends, see A1010.

[366] The Play of the Flood (in The Towneley Plays, Early English Text Society, extra series, LXXI).

[367] See p. 384, below.

[368] This, in spite of the fact that some writers on mythology find practically all folktales nothing more than broken down sun myths or moon myths. See pp. 371ff. and 384, below.

[369] For some of these concepts, see the following motif numbers: A671. Hell; A692. Islands of the Blest; A661. Heaven; E481.4. Beautiful land of the dead; and E755.3. Souls in Purgatory.

[370] See A. H. Krappe, "Avallon," Speculum, XVIII (1943). 303-322.

[371] For an excellent discussion of the whole otherworld concept, see H. R. Patch, "Some Elements in Mediaeval Descriptions of the Otherworld," Publications of the Modern Language Association, XXXIII, 601-643.

[372] The rope from the sky (F51) is very popular in primitive tales. The ladder to the upper world (F52) appears more frequently in a religious context, where the upper world is usually the Christian Heaven. One of the most famous medieval books of exempla was called Scala Celi.

[373] This motif appears as a part of a regular folktale, Type 565.

[374] My own investigation of the tales of the North American Indians began with just this point. In his Algonquin Legends of New England, Charles Godfrey Leland had called attention to the interesting parallel between this Indian tale and an Icelandic myth, and he was convinced of historic connections, probably by way of Greenland and the Eskimos. Such connection is, of course, not impossible.

[375] P. 236, above.

[376] For tales of this kind concerning the nightingale and the blindworm, and also the jay and the cuckoo, see Types 234 and 235.

[377] See The Dove's Egg-substitution, Type 240.

[378] See The Pike and the Snake Race to Land (Type 252) and The Ant Carries a Load as Large as Himself (Type 280).

[379] See The Dog's Certificate (Type 200).

[380] See A1751, p. 236, above.

Types:

2, 47A, 55, 200, 234, 235, 240, 252, 280, 565, 825

Motifs

A661, A671, A692, A721.1, A771, A773, A751, A755, A778, A901, A965, A966, A972, A985, A1010, A1021, A1021.1, A1021.2, A1022, A1122, A1125, A1131.1, A1333, A1135.1, A1217, A1224.3, A1241, A1275.1, A1291, A1319.1, A1331.1, A1411, A1415, A1650.1, A1700-A2199, A1751, A1811.2, A1861.1, A1901, A2032.2, A2126, A2211.2, A2214.2, A2214.3, A2218, A2219.1, A2221.2, A2231, A2232, A2232.4, A2233, A2241, A2261.1, A2286.1.1, C12.5.1, C771.1, D1338.7, E481.4, E481.4.1, E755.3, F52, F94, F96, F111, F112, F133, F141.1.1, F152.1.1, F251.4, K485, Z692