English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (the mitten read aloud .txt) 📕

Remarks.—If Bow Bells had pealed in the exact and accurate nineteenth century, they doubtless would have chimed

Turn again, Whittington, Thrice and a half Lord Mayor of London.

For besides his three mayoralties of 1397, 1406, and 1419, he served as Lord Mayor in place of Adam Bamme, deceased, in the latter half of the mayoralty of 1396. It will be noticed that the chap-book puts the introduction of potatoes rather far back.

XXXII. THE STRANGE VISITOR

Source.—From Chambers, l.c., 64, much Anglicised. I have retained “Aih-late-wee-moul,” though I candidly confess I have not the slightest idea what it means; judging other children by myself, I do not think that makes the response less effective. The prosaic-minded may substitute “Up-late-and-little-food.”

Parallels.—The man made by instalments, occurs in the Grimms’ No. 4, and something like it in an English folk-tale, The Golden Ball, ap. Henderson, l.c., p. 333.

XXXIII. THE LAIDLY WORM.

Source.—From an eighteenth-century ballad of the Rev. Mr. Lamb of Norham, as given in Prof. Child’s Ballads; with a few touches and verses from the more ancient version “Kempion.” A florid prose version appeared in Monthly Chronicle of North Country Lore for May 1890. I have made the obvious emendation of

O quit your sword, unbend your bow

for

O quit your sword, and bend your bow.

Parallels.—The ballad of “Kempe Owein” is a more general version which “The Laidly Worm” has localised near Bamborough. We learn from this that the original hero was Kempe or Champion Owain, the Welsh hero who flourished in the ninth century. Childe Wynd therefore = Childe Owein. The “Deliverance Kiss” has been studied by Prof. Child, l.c., i. 207. A noteworthy example occurs in Boiardo’s Orlando Inamorato, cc. xxv., xxvi.

Remarks.—It is perhaps unnecessary to give the equations “Laidly Worm = Loathly Worm = Loathsome Dragon,” and “borrowed = changed.”

XXXIV. CAT AND MOUSE.

Source.—Halliwell, p. 154.

Parallels.—Scarcely more than a variant of the “Old Woman and her Pig” (No. iv.), which see. It is curious that a very similar “run” is added by Bengali women at the end of every folk-tale they tell (Lal Behari Day, Folk Tales of Bengal, Pref. ad fin.)

XXXV. THE FISH AND THE RING.

Source.—Henderson, l.c., p. 326, from a communication by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould.

Parallels.—“Jonah rings” have been put together by Mr. Clouston in his Popular Tales, i. 398, &c.: the most famous are those of Polycrates, of Solomon, and the Sanskrit drama of “Sakuntala,” the plot of which turns upon such a ring. “Letters to kill bearer” have been traced from Homer downwards by Prof. K�hler on Gonzenbach, ii. 220, and “the substituted letter” by the same authority in Occ. u. Or., ii. 289. Mr. Baring-Gould, who was one of the pioneers of the study of folk-tales in this country, has given a large number of instances of “the pre-ordained marriage” in folk-tales in Henderson, l.c.

XXXVI. THE MAGPIE’S NEST.

Source.—I have built up the “Magpie’s Nest” from two nidification myths, as a German professor would call them, in the Rev. Mr. Swainson’s Folk-Lore of British Birds, pp. 80 and 166. I have received instruction about the relative values of nests from a little friend of mine named Katie, who knows all about it. If there is any mistake in the order of neatness in the various birds’ nests, I must have learnt my lesson badly.

Remarks.—English popular tradition is curiously at variance about the magpie’s nidificatory powers, for another legend given by Mr. Swainson represents her as refusing to be instructed by the birds and that is why she does not make a good nest.

XXXVII. KATE CRACKERNUTS.

Source.—Given by Mr. Lang in Longman’s Magazine, vol. xiv. and reprinted in Folk-Lore, Sept. 1890. It is very corrupt, both girls being called Kate, and I have had largely to rewrite.

Parallels.—There is a tale which is clearly a cousin if not a parent of this in Kennedy’s Fictions, 54 seq., containing the visit to the green hill (for which see “Childe Rowland”), a reference to nuts, and even the sesame rhyme. The prince is here a corpse who becomes revivified; the same story is in Campbell No. 13. The jealous stepmother is “universally human.” (Cf. K�hler on Gonzenbach, ii. 206.)

XXXVIII. THE CAULD LAD OF HILTON.

Source.—Henderson’s Folk-Lore of Northern Counties, 2nd edition, published by the Folk-Lore Society, pp. 266-7. I have written the introductory paragraph so as to convey some information about Brownies, Bogles, and Redcaps, for which Henderson, l.c., 246-53, is my authority. Mr. Batten’s portrait renders this somewhat superfluous.

Parallels.—The Grimms’ “Elves” (No. 39) behave in like manner on being rewarded for their services. Milton’s “lubbar-fiend” in L’Allegro has all the characteristics of a Brownie.

XXXIX. ASS, TABLE AND STICK.

Source.—Henderson, l.c., first edition, pp. 327-9, by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould.

Parallels.—Mr. Baring-Gould gives another version from the East Riding, l.c., 329, in which there are three brothers who go through the adventures. He also refers to European Variants, p. 311, which could now be largely supplemented from Cosquin, i. 53-4, ii. 66, 171.

Remarks.—As an example of the sun-myth explanation of folk-tales I will quote the same authority (p. 314): “The Master, who gives the three precious gifts, is the All Father, the Supreme Spirit. The gold and jewel-dropping ass, is the spring cloud, hanging in the sky and shedding the bright productive vernal showers. The table which covers itself is the earth becoming covered with flowers and fruit at the bidding of the New Year. But there is a check; rain is withheld, the process of vegetation is stayed by some evil influence. Then comes the thunder-cloud, out of which leaps the bolt; the rains pour down, the earth receives them, and is covered with abundance—all that was lost is recovered.”

Mr. Baring-Gould, it is well-known, has since become a distinguished writer of fiction.

XL. FAIRY OINTMENT.

Source.—Mrs. Bray, The Tamar and the Tavy, i. 174 (letters to Southey), as quoted by Mr. Hartland in Folk-Lore, i. 207-8. I have christened the anonymous midwife and euphemised her profession.

Parallels.—Mr. Hartland has studied Human Midwives in the Archaeol. Review, iv., and parallels to our story in Folk-Lore, i. 209, seq.; the most interesting of these is from Gervase of Tilbury (xiii. cent.), Otia Imper., iii. 85, and three Breton tales given by M. Sebillot (_Contes_, ii. 42; Litt. orale, 23; Trad. et Superst., i. 109). Cf. Prof. Child, i. 339; ii. 505.

XLI. THE WELL OF THE WORLD’S END.

Source.—Leyden’s edition of The Complaynt of Scotland, p. 234 seq., with additional touches from Halliwell, 162-3, who makes up a slightly different version from the rhymes. The opening formula I have taken from Mayhew, London Labour, iii. 390, who gives it as the usual one when tramps tell folk-tales. I also added it to No. xvii.

Parallels.—Sir W. Scott remembered a similar story; see Taylor’s Gammer Grethel, ad fin. In Scotland it is Chambers’s tale of The Paddo, p. 87; Leyden supposes it is referred to in the Complaynt, (c. 1548), as “The Wolf of the Warldis End.” The well of this name occurs also in the Scotch version of the “Three Heads of the Well,” (No. xliii.). Abroad it is the Grimms’ first tale, while frogs who would a-wooing go are discussed by Prof. K�hler, Occ. u. Orient ii. 330; by Prof. Child, i. 298; and by Messrs. Jones and Kropf, l.c., p. 404. The sieve-bucket task is widespread from the Danaids of the Greeks to the leverets of Uncle Remus, who, curiously enough, use the same rhyme: “Fill it wid moss en dob it wid clay.” Cf., too, No. xxiii.

XLII. MASTER OF ALL MASTERS.

Source.—I have taken what suited me from a number of sources, which shows how widespread this quaint droll is in England: (i) In Mayhew, London Poor, iii. 391, told by a lad in a workhouse; (ii) several versions in 7 Notes and Queries, iii. 35, 87, 159,

398.

Parallels.—Rev. W. Gregor gives a Scotch version under the title “The Clever Apprentice,” in Folk-Lore Journal, vii. 166. Mr. Hartland, in Notes and Queries, l.c., 87, refers to Pitr�‘s Fiabi sicil., iii. 120, for a variant.

Remarks.—According to Mr. Hartland, the story is designed as a satire on pedantry, and is as old in Italy as Straparola (sixteenth century). In passionate Sicily a wife disgusted with her husband’s pedantry sets the house on fire, and informs her husband of the fact in this unintelligible gibberish; he, not understanding his own lingo, falls a victim to the flames, and she marries the servant who had taken the message.

XLIII. THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL.

Source.—Halliwell, p. 158. The second wish has been somewhat euphemised.

Parallels.—The story forms part of Peele’s Old Wives’ Tale, where the rhyme was

A Head rises in the well, Fair maiden, white and red, Stroke me smooth and comb my head, And thou shalt have some cockell-bread.

It is also in Chambers, l.c., 105, where the well is at the World’s End (_cf._ No. xli.). The contrasted fates of two step-sisters, is the Frau Holle (Grimm, No. 24) type of Folk-tale studied by Cosquin, i. 250, seq. “Kate Crackernuts” (No. xxxvii.) is a pleasant contrast to this.

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