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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

In "Big Claus and Little Claus" Hans Christian Andersen succeeded in writing one of the most popular of his stories without making any significant changes in the tradition as he had learned it. The material itself is so diverting that it has pleased not only the literary audience which he addressed but also the listeners to tales in all parts of the world. We need not inquire too curiously as to why men of all countries and stations delight in the successful accomplishment of a swindle, but the truth seems to be that if the terms of the transaction are clearly understood, a story of clever cheating receives a universal response. This tale of The Rich and the Poor Peasant (Type 1535) has been told in European literature since its appearance in the Latin poem Unibos in the tenth century and has seldom been omitted from any collection where it was at all appropriate. But it is also immensely popular as an oral tale. A hasty survey of easily available versions shows 875. It appears in nearly every collection of stories over the whole of Europe and Asia; it is among the most popular stories in Iceland and Ireland, in Finland and in Russia, in India and the Dutch East Indies. It is well known not only on the North African coast but is also found in many parts of central and south Africa. In the western hemisphere it has been reported all the way from Greenland to Peru. Eleven North American Indian versions show borrowings from the Scandinavians, the French, and the Spanish. It appears in the French tradition of Missouri, Louisiana, and Canada; in the English of Virginia, the Spanish of Puerto Rico and Peru, the Portuguese of Brazil and Massachusetts, and the Negro of Jamaica and the Bahamas.

It is natural that in these hundreds of occurrences considerable variation should appear, both in the order and the nature of the details. But all versions conform sufficiently well to a norm to make identification easy and unmistakable. The story frequently begins with a piece of blackmail. A man is set to watch a chest which is falsely said to be full of money, or he is asked to guard a wooden cow which is supposed to be a real cow. The rascal brings it about that the object is stolen and demands damages. The cheater next takes along a supply of lime or ashes and succeeds in selling this under the pretext that it is gold. Another trick is the sale of some pseudo-magic object—a cow-hide [p. 166] or a bird-skin that is alleged to accomplish marvels. Sometimes this object is exchanged for a chest in which an adulteress has hidden her paramour. The rascal is usually given a large sum of money by the frightened lover in payment for his freedom. These adventures with the adulteress and her lover sometimes occur independently (Motif K1574). The next cheat, the unsuccessful imitation, we have met before in stories of magic or the miraculous. [259] Here, however, there is no magic, but only a pretense of it. The rascal claims to have a flute (or a fiddle or knife, or the like) which will bring people back to life. His confederate, a woman, plays dead, and he apparently revives her. The rich peasant buys the magic object, kills his own wife so as to use it, and then is unable to bring her back to life. Sometimes before and sometimes after this adventure the poor peasant reports the large price that he has received for his cow-hide. The rich peasant is therefore induced to kill all his cows in order to sell their hides. He finds, of course, that it was only the frightened lover in the chest who would pay an exorbitant price for a cow-hide. Eventually the cheater is caught and is placed in a sack or a chest where he must await execution of his sentence. A shepherd finds him there and asks what he is doing. The cheater says that he is the angel Gabriel on the way to heaven or that he has been put in the sack because he will not marry the princess. The shepherd is only too glad to take his place so as to receive the good things he tells about. [260] The rich peasant now sees the escaped cheater and asks him where he came from. He tells him that he has been down in the river where he has acquired many sheep, that the way to get them is to dive down after them. The rich peasant dives off the bridge and kills himself.

As indicated, several of these traits occur independently and may constitute complete anecdotes in themselves. The order in which the incidents occur is also treated with great freedom. Particularly is there a frequent mixture of the elements of this tale with that of Cleverness and Gullibility (Type 1539), if, indeed, the two are actually to be thought of as independent stories. In the latter tale much is made of the sale of worthless animals and objects under the pretense that they are either magic or marvelous. Sometimes a cow is sold as a goat, a rabbit as a letter-carrier, or it may be a magic hat which is supposed to pay all bills, a wand that revives the dead, or a pot that cooks of itself. He also has a horse that is alleged to drop gold. By means of placing a gold coin in the horse's dung, he is able to persuade the buyer. After many such tricks the young man has himself buried alive and when his enemy comes to where he is, stabs him with a knife from out of the ground.

Most reporters of folktales have not distinguished this latter type from [p. 167] the more familiar story of The Rich and the Poor Peasant. It is clear, however, that this particular type is very well known all around the Baltic and in Russia. The tradition seems to center in Finland, where 253 versions are listed.

One difficulty in a comparative study of tales like the two we have just noticed is the fact that they are little more than a loose series of single anecdotes. Types of this kind have a natural instability very baffling to the investigator of folktale origins and dissemination.

A story represented by the old French romance of Trubert of the thirteenth century has some elements in common with The Rich and the Poor Peasant. The Youth Cheated in Selling Oxen (Type 1538) concerns itself with the revenge which the hero takes on his enemies. He masks as a carpenter and persuades the man who has cheated him to go to the woods to look at trees. He gives him a good beating and exacts a large sum of money before he will stop. Later he masks as a doctor and again beats his enemy.

In some versions he also avenges himself on the purchaser's wife. Eventually he is arrested and condemned to be hanged. But he persuades a miller to take his place by the old trick of lying about the good things awaiting him. [261] In some versions the story ends with the youth having himself buried and stabbing his enemy from the ground. [262]

Although this tale has never attained extraordinary popularity in any country, it has been collected orally in every part of Europe. No comparative study of the tale seems to have been made, but it would seem probable that we have here a literary invention which has been taken over into the repertory of oral story-tellers.

The material handled in the tale of The Rich and the Poor Peasant and in the two other related stories just examined has been freely drawn upon to make other combinations. One of these has attained some currency in northern and eastern Europe—The Clever Boy (Type 1542). It will be noted that almost every incident belongs in one of these tales, though the story of The Master Thief (Type 1525) has furnished at least two traits. A brother and sister live together but are poor, and the brother goes out to make a living by Tooling people. He reports to the king that he has some marvelous "fooling sticks," and he gets the king's horse by borrowing it to ride home for them. In other versions he sells the king a wolf to guard his fowls and a bear to keep watch over his cows. He sells the king what he says is a self-cooking kettle and a marvelous staff to hang it on. He feigns to kill and resuscitate his sister with a magic pipe, which the king buys and experiments with disastrously. The hero now puts on his sister's clothes and is taken into the palace as a companion of the princess. A prince comes as a suitor to the supposed maiden, who leaves just in time, but not before the princess is with [p. 168] child. The story may end in several ways: he may be caught and put in a cask or sack, where he exchanges places with a shepherd; he may be condemned to be hanged but again persuades someone to take his place; or the king may be so impressed with his cleverness that he takes him as son-in-law.

We have here about as clear a case of a folktale concocted out of others as it is possible to find. When the incidents from other stories are eliminated, there seems to remain nothing but the brother and sister as confederates in their swindles, and the access to the princess through masking as a girl. Even these motifs can easily be found elsewhere. [263]

A very diverting story which seems to be rather well known in Scandinavia and Finland [264] is The Man Who Got a Night's Lodging (Type 1544). In this tale the rascal feigns deafness and always accepts hospitality before it is offered. He deliberately misunderstands everything. For example, he takes the host's horse out of the stable and puts his own in. He is supposed to pay for his lodging with a goat skin: he takes one of the man's own goats. At the table they put poor food before him but he always manages to get the best. At night he succeeds in sleeping with the wife or the daughter. He eats the food which the wife has put out in the night for her husband. Having seduced the women, he now threatens to tell about it, and they confess. The husband becomes very angry and is going to kill the trickster's horse, but kills his own instead.

The tale of the rascal who seduces his host's wife and then tells on her has many variations in the literature of jests, especially those of the Renaissance. One told by Hans Sachs and by Johannes Pauli, The Parson's Stupid Wife (Type 1750), has received some oral currency in northern and eastern Europe.

A mercenary lover makes the parson's wife believe that chickens can be taught to talk. At her request, he undertakes to hatch out hens' eggs, and he receives a large amount of corn to feed the chickens. When the chickens do hatch, he declares that they sing, "The peasant has slept with the parson's wife." He is allowed to keep the corn.

The four tales of tricksters just considered are all of relatively limited popularity and serve as good examples of the fact that tales of this nature may often be well known in one area without spreading to neighboring countries. But the extreme popularity of The Rich and the Poor Peasant shows that sometimes these stories may be almost universal in currency.

Another trickster tale which is well known both in the Orient and the Occident is The Student from Paradise (Paris) (Type 1540). As told in most of Europe, it begins with a wandering student who tells a woman that he is just back from Paris. She thinks he has said "from Paradise" and she immediately gathers together a sum of money and a quantity of goods for him to take to her late husband. The student has hardly gone with the misappropriated [p. 169] goods when the woman's son returns home. He realizes the cheat and sets out to overtake the student and recover the goods. He finds the student, who tells him that the thief has just escaped through the Woods. They are too thick to ride through, so that the man leaves his horse, which the student rides away. In other versions the student tells him that the thief has gone to heaven by way of a tree. The man lies on his back to look for the ascending thief and meantime the student steals the horse.

This jest is popular in the joke collections of the Renaissance, and as an oral tale it is related not only in all parts of Europe but in Asia as far east as Indonesia. Antti Aarne has accorded the tale a thorough study based upon more than 300 oral versions. He finds that the play upon words (Paris, Paradise) is essentially a European trait and is absent from the Oriental. In the eastern stories the deceased to whom a present is sent is the woman's son rather than her husband, as in the European. In the latter part of the tale the report that the thief has escaped up a tree is Oriental; the escape through the woods European. Aarne is uncertain as to which of these forms is the earlier. In his discussion of Aarne's work, Kaarle Krohn [265] concludes that an origin in India is very likely. It must be said, however, that the evidence as to the direction in which this tale has moved is inconclusive.

One of the most important elements in many trickster tales is the use made by these rascals of the desire most people have to avoid scandal. Almost as strong is the fear of being haled into a law court. In a story whose oral distribution extends from the British Isles to central Asia—The Profitable Exchange (Type 1655)—both these fears are played upon to the enrichment of the cheater. He has asked hospitality, since he has only one grain of corn left. The corn is eaten by the cock and when he threatens suit, he is allowed to keep the cock as damages. Later he has the same experience when the hog eats the cock, and when an ox eats the hog. The story may very well end at this point, but it frequently proceeds with further profitable exchanges. [266] He barters his ox for an old woman's corpse, which he sets up so that the princess knocks her over (Motif K2152). In order to avoid the scandal that will come from the accusation of murder, she marries the rascal. The ending of the story is often not well integrated with the main plot. Sometimes it is said that he and the princess have a son who surpasses even his father in cunning. In others, he places the princess whom he has won in a bag, but he is at last outwitted, for someone substitutes a worthless object or an animal and lets the princess escape.

In his thorough monograph on this tale, Christiansen, [267] who has started with a discussion of a story from the Scottish island of Barra and one from County Kerry in Ireland, concludes: "So far some main lines in the distribution [p. 170] of the tale emerge. The versions from Kerry and from Barra belong to a chain of tradition running through France to Italy. It is, however, difficult to discern how the further development went. Perhaps the tale is a combination, made in Italy(?) or somewhere in Southern Europe, from those two motifs, the lucky exchanges, and the girl in the bag. Outside of Europe both these incidents occur as separate stories, as some brief references will show." The lucky exchange by itself occurs frequently in African tales, and the substitution of an animal or object in the bag is practically worldwide. [268]

The humor of the folk does not always make close discrimination between stupidity and cleverness. Sometimes a story begins with a series of absurd actions where we are amused at their utter foolishness. But later the fool turns out to be really clever. This pattern is well enough known in romantic stories of the Male Cinderella type; [269] but the mixture is also found in tales designed for humor. [270] Such a tale of mixed motifs is The Good Bargain (Type 1642). It appears in Basile's Pentamerone in the seventeenth century and is known throughout central Europe, both north and south, but has not been reported from either the east or the west of the continent. Many of the separate motifs appear by themselves, so that the tale has no well-integrated plot. A numskull throws money to frogs so that they can count it, [271] or he sells meat to dogs or butter to a signpost. He complains of his losses to the king and thus makes the princess laugh for the first time. Though the king offers her to the boy as a reward, he does not want to marry her. The king therefore tells him to return later for his reward. When he does so, he promises the doorkeeper to share the reward with him. It turns out that the boy is to be rewarded with a beating, which the doorkeeper receives instead. At the end of the tale the boy is summoned before the king on the complaint of a certain Jew. He borrows the Jew's coat and then discredits his testimony by predicting successfully that the Jew would even claim the coat which the boy is wearing.

Tales both of clever tricks and of stupid action are very likely to have extremely loose plots and to be susceptible of easy addition and subtraction. Indeed, for a whole series of such relatively unstable stories, it is much more convenient to examine anecdotes separately with only incidental attention to some of the ways in which they are occasionally combined. Thus a considerable number of incidents listed by Aarne in his type index as having to do with stupid people or with clever tricksters [272] are not mentioned here but will be noticed along with other similar motifs in a later chapter. [273] [p. 171]