The Flying Dutchman and Other Folktales from the Netherlands

Copyright © 2008 by Theo Meder

It was night, it was night, it was a pitch-dark night.

Seven robbers were sitting in the shadow of a blade of grass.

The leader said: "I say, Piet, tell us a story."

And Piet started:

"It was night, it was night, it was a pitch-dark night.

Seven robbers were sitting in the shadow of a blade of grass.

The leader said: "I say, Piet, tell us a story."

And Piet started:

"It was night, it was night, it was a pitch-dark night .... "

This repetitive formula tale is internationally known as folktale type ATU 2013, "There was once a woman; the woman had a son." This (unpublished) version was told to me by storyteller Heleen Kooij in Baarn (Utrecht) on November 10, 1998.