The Folktale
Stith Thompson
Wrestling match won by deception: bear as “grandfather.” A man challenged by an ogre persuades the latter to wrestle with his old grandfather instead. By this he means a bear. (Cf. K11.6, K15.1.) *Type 1071; Köhler-Bolte I 477ff.; *Hackman cf. K12. |
The Folktale from Ireland to India III – The Simple Tale 1. Jests and Anecdotes C. Contests Won by Deception |
The teller of popular tales does not always draw a sharp distinction between the fool and the clever man. It is not unusual to find that the numskull has suddenly acquired wisdom, so that he goes out on a successful career of cheating and deceiving. No doubt tales of clever adventurers and rascals are interesting for their own sake, but they have an added dramatic value if the successful cheater overcomes great handicaps, mental or physical. If the handicaps are mental, the success often comes from sheer luck. But if the hero is very small or weak or slow-footed he usually succeeds because he has a shrewd head on his shoulders. Popular ever since the days of Aesop has been the story of the race between the hare and the tortoise. In its classical form it usually tells how the swift hare goes to sleep just short of his goal and permits the slow tortoise to beat him. Though this tale ( Belonging to the same cycle, but nearly always told of a contest between two animals, is the story of how one of the contestants steals a ride on the other's back ( A special form of the deceptive race has developed in eastern Europe ( The story of The Brave Tailor ( This whole group of incidents which sometimes form part of the cycle of The Brave Tailor and which sometimes appear as self-sufficient anecdotes would make that tale one of the most interesting for a thorough comparative study. It would be very interesting to know with some certainty the relation between such independent incidents and a tale-type into which they may be appropriated and in which they become dependent members. But thus far no such study has been adequately carried out. Anecdotes of various other kinds of contests are not hard to find in folk tales. Sufficient to illustrate these is the contest in eating or drinking in which the trickster provides a bag for the food or a hole through which the water escapes, while the ogre eats or drinks himself to death ( |
[305] These incidents, as well as the one in which the hero stabs a bag of prepared blood and thus persuades the ogre to stab himself ( |
Types: 221, 250, 275, 1060, 1061, 1062, 1063, 1070, 1071, 1072, 1074, 1085, 1088, 1535, 1640 |
Motifs G524, K11.1, K11.2, K11.3, K11.6, K12.1, K12.2, K18.2, K18.3, K25.1, K61, K62, K63, K81.1, K82.1 |