English Fairy Tales: Notes

Now it is remarkable how accurately all this corresponds to the Dark Tower of 'Childe Rowland', allowing for a little idealisation on the part of the narrator. We have the long dark passage leading into the well-lit central chamber, and all enclosed in a green hill or mound. It is, of course, curious to contrast Mr Batten's frontispiece with the central chamber of the How, but the essential features are the same.

Even such a minute touch as the terraces on the hill have their bearing, I believe, on Mr MacRitchie's 'realistic' views of Faerie. For in quite another connection, Mr G. L. Gomme, in his book, The Village Community (W. Scott), pp. 75-98, has given reasons and examples [to these may be added lona (cf. Duke of Argyll, lona, p. 109).] for believing that terrace cultivation along the sides of hills was a practice of the non-Aryan and pre-Aryan inhabitants of these Isles. Here, then, from a quarter quite unexpected by Mr MacRitchie, we have evidence of the association of the King of Elfland with a non-Aryan mode of cultivation of the soil. By Mr Gomme's kindness I am enabled to give an illustration of this.

Altogether it seems not improbable that in such a tale as 'Childe Rowland' we have an idealised picture of a 'marriage by capture' of one of the diminutive non-Aryan dwellers of the green hills with an Aryan maiden, and her recapture by her brothers. It is otherwise difficult to account for such a circumstantial description of the interior of these mounds, and especially of such a detail as the terrace cultivation on them. At the same time it must not be thought that Mr MacRitchie's views explain all fairy tales, or that his identifications of Finns = Fenians = Fairies = Sidhe = 'Pechs' = Picts, will necessarily be accepted. His interesting book, so far as it goes, seems to throw light on tales about mermaids (Finnish women in their 'kayaks') and trolls, but not necessarily on fairy tales in general. Thus, in the present volume, besides 'Childe Rowland', there is only 'Tom Tit Tot' in his hollow, the green hill in 'Kate Crackernuts', 'The Cauld Lad of Hilton', and perhaps the 'Fairy Ointment', that are affected by his views.

Though Childe Rowland may contain traces of primitive custom, it is clear that in its present state it is of tolerably late date. We can, indeed, separate in it successive strata of social conditions. The extreme unction is Roman Catholic, and yet the latest indication of the story, which must therefore date before 1530. The reference to the Childe, if meant to indicate the heir, is feudal in character, while the heirship of the younger son carries us back to 'Borough English' and Anglo-Saxon times. The good brand that never struck in vain is at least of the Iron Age, while the Dark Tower, the terraces on the hills, and the Elfin King recall neolithic man with his cannibalism implied in the 'Fee-fi-fo-fum'. The story thus carries us through all the stages of civilisation up to the verge of modem times.

Finally, there are a couple of words in the narrative that deserve a few words of explanation: 'Widershins' is probably, as Mr Batten suggests, analogous to the German 'wider Schein', against the appearance of the sun, 'counter-clockwise' as the mathematicians say--i.e. W., S., E., N., instead of with the sun and the hands of a clock; Mr Gollancz, in the Academy, suggests 'Wider Sinn', i.e. in an opposite direction. 'Bogle' is a provincial word for 'spectre', and is analogous to the Welsh bwg, 'goblin', and to the English insect of similar name, and still more curiously to the Russian 'Bog'--God, after which so many Russian rivers are named. I may add that 'Burd' is etymologically the same as 'bride', and is frequently used in the early romances for 'Lady'.

22. MOLLY WHUPPIE

SOURCE Folk-Lore Journal, ii, p. 68, forwarded by Rev. Walter Gregor. I have modified the dialect and changed 'Mally' into 'Molly'.

PARALLELS The first part is clearly the theme of 'Hop o' my Thumb', which Mr Lang has studied in his 'Perrault', pp. civ, cxi (cf. Köhler, Occident, ii, 301). The change of night-dresses occurs in Greek myths. The latter part wanders off into 'rob giant of three things', a familiar incident in folk-tales (Cosquin, i, 46-47), and finally winds up with the 'out of sack' trick, for which see Cosquin, i, 113; ii, 209; and Kohler, in Occident und Orient, ii, 489-506, on Campbell, No. xvii, Maol Chlioban, which was undoubtedly the source of our story. Kennedy's Fireside Stories, No. 1, 'Hairy Rouchy', is exactly similar, showing the story to be originally Celtic.

23. RED ETTIN

SOURCE 'The Red Etin', in Chambers's Pop. Rhymes of Scotland, p. 89. I have reduced the adventures from three to two, and cut down the herds and their answers. I have substituted riddles from the first English collection of riddles, The Demandes Joyous of Wynkyn de Worde, for the poor ones of the original, which are besides not solved. 'Ettin' is the English spelling of the word, as it is thus spelt in a passage of Beaumont and Fletcher (Knight of Burning Pestle, i, 1), which may refer to this very story, which, as we shall see, is quite as old as their time. It is the 'Jötunn' of the Eddas (Dasent, Norse Tales, p. cxxvii).

PARALLELS 'The Red Etin' is referred to in The Complaynt of Scotland, about 1548. It has some resemblance to 'Childe Rowland', which see. The 'death index', as we may call tokens that tell the state of health of a parted partner, is a usual incident in the theme of the Two Brothers, and has been studied by the Grimms, i, 421, 453; ii, 403; by Köhler on Campbell, 0cc. u. Or., ii, 119-20; on Gonzenbach, ii, 230; on Bladé, 248; by Cosquin, l.c., I, 70-72, 193; by Crane, Ital. Pop. Tales, 326; and by Jones and Kropf, Magyar Tales, 329. Mr Hartland devotes vol. ii of his Perseus to the 'Life Token'. Riddles generally come in the form of the 'riddle-bride-wager' (cf. Child, Ballads, i, 415-19; ii, 519), when the hero or heroine wins a spouse by guessing a riddle or riddles. Here it is the simpler Sphynx form of the 'riddle task', on which see Köhler in Jahrb. rom. Phil., vii, 273, and on Gonzenbach, 215.

24. GOLDEN ARM

SOURCE Henderson, l.c., p. 338, collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould in Devonshire. Sir E. Burne-Jones remembered hearing it in his youth in Warwickshire, where I have also traces of it as 'The Golden Leg'.

PARALLELS The first fragment at the end of Grimm (ii, 467, of Mrs Hunt's translation) tells of an innkeeper's wife who had used the liver of a man hanging on the gallows, whose ghost comes to her and tells her what has become of his hair, and his eyes, and the dialogue concludes

For similar 'surprise packets' see Cosquin, ii, 77.

REMARKS It is doubtful how far such gruesome topics should be introduced into a book for children, but, as a matter of fact, the Κάθαρσισ of pity and terror among the little ones is as effective as among the spectators of a drama, and they take the same kind of pleasant thrill from such stories. They know it is all make-believe just as much as the spectators of a tragedy. Every one who has enjoyed the blessing of a romantic imagination has been trained up on such tales of wonder.

25. TOM THUMB

SOURCE From the chap-book contained in Halliwell, p. 199, and Mr Hartland's English Folk and Fairy Tales. I have omitted much of the second part.

PARALLELS Halliwell has also a version entirely in verse. 'Tom Thumb' is 'Le petit Poucet' of the French, 'Däumling' of the Germans, and similar diminutive heroes elsewhere (cf. Deulin, Contes de ma Mere l'Oye, 326), but of his adventures only that in the cow's stomach (cf. Cosquin, ii, 190) is common with his French and German cousins. M. Gaston Paris has a monograph on 'Tom Thumb'.

26. MR FOX

SOURCE Contributed by Blakeway to Malone's Variorum Shakespeare (1790), to illustrate Benedick's remark in Much Ado About Nothing (I, i, 146): 'Like the old tale, my Lord, "It is not so, nor t'was not so, but, indeed, God forbid it should be so" '; which clearly refers to the tale of Mr Fox. 'The Forbidden Chamber' has been studied by Mr Hartland, Folk-Lore Journal, iii, 193 seq. 'Be bold' is Britomart's motto in the Faërie Queene, and one may also refer to 'Bloody Jack' (Ingoldsby Legends).

PARALLELS Halliwell, p. 166, gives a similar tale of 'An Oxford Student', whose sweetheart saw him digging her grave. 'Mr Fox' is clearly a variant of the theme of 'The Robber Bridegroom' (Grimm, No. 40, Mrs Hunt's translation, i, 389, 395; and Cosquin, i, 180-1).

27. LAZY JACK

SOURCE Halliwell, 157, from Yorkshire.

PARALLELS The same story occurs in Lowland Scotch as 'Jock and his Mother', Chambers, l.c., 101; in Ireland as 'I'll be Wiser Next Time', Kennedy, l.c., 39-42, and his Fireside Stories, p. 30. Abroad it is Grimm's Hans im Glück (No. 83). The 'cure by laughing' incident is 'common form' in folk-tales (cf. Köhler on Gonzenbach, Sicil. Märchen, ii, 210, 224; Jones and Kropf, Magyar Tales, 312).

28. JOHNNY-CAKE

SOURCE American Journal of Folk-Lore, ii, 60 (cf. No. for July 1891).

PARALLELS Another variant is given in the same Journal, p. 277, where reference is also made to a version, 'The Gingerbread Boy', in St Nicholas, May 1875. Chambers gives two versions of the same story, under the title 'The Wee Bunnock', the first of which is one of the most dramatic and humorous of folk-tales. Unfortunately, the Scotticisms are so frequent as to render the Droll practically untranslatable. I have, however, made an attempt in More English Fairy Tales, 57. Also in Ireland as 'The Wonderful Cake' (Kennedy, Fireside Stories, p. 19). 'The Fate of Mr Jack Sparrow' in Uncle Remus is similar to that of Johnny-Cake.

29. EARL MAR'S DAUGHTER

SOURCE From the ballad of the same name as given in Mr Allingham's Ballad Book; it is clearly a fairy tale and not a ballad proper. The name Florentine is sufficient to prove that the tale does not belong to the Celtic area.

PARALLELS The lover visiting his spouse in guise of a bird is a frequent motif in folk-tales. The oldest known post-classic form occurs in Ireland in a prologue to the saga entitled 'Togail Brudne da Derga', 'The Destruction of da Derga's Fort', which must be as old as the early eleventh century, and is probably centuries older (cf. Mr Nutt, Folklore, ii, 87).

30. MR MIACCA

SOURCE From memory of Mrs B. Abrahams, who heard it from her mother some x years ago (x > 40). I have transposed the two incidents, as in her version Tommy Grimes was a clever carver and carried about with him a carven leg. This seemed to me to exceed the limits of vraisemblance even for a folk-tale.

PARALLELS Getting out of an ogre's clutches by playing on the simplicity of his wife, occurs in 'Molly Whuppie' (No. 22), and its similars. In the Grimms' Hansel and Grethel, Hansel pokes out a stick instead of his finger that the witch may not think him fat enough for the table.

REMARKS Mr Miacca seems to have played the double role of a domestic Providence. He not alone punished bad boys, as here, but also rewarded good, by leaving them gifts on appropriate occasions, like Santa Claus or Father Christmas, who, as is well known, only leaves things for good children. Mrs Abrahams remembers one occasion well when she nearly caught sight of Mr Miacca, just after he had left her a gift; she saw his shadow in the shape of a bright light passing down the garden.

31. DICK WHITTINGTON

SOURCE I have cobbled this up out of three chap-book versions: (1) that contained in Mr Hartland's English Folk-Tales; (2) that edited by Mr H. B. Wheatley for the Villon Society; (3) that appended to Messrs Besant and Rice's monograph.

PARALLELS Whittington's cat has made the fortune of his master in all parts of the Old World, as Mr W. A. Clouston, among others, has shown, Popular Tales and Fictions, ii, 65-78 (cf. Köhler on Gonzenbach, ii, 251).

REMARKS If Bow Bells had pealed in the exact 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.

32. THE STRANGE VISITOR

SOURCE From Chambers, I.c., 64, much Anglicised. I have retained 'Aihlate 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; cf. 'The Sprightly Tailor' in my Celtic Fairy Tales.

33. 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

for

The story is still extant near Bamborough, Mrs Balfour informs me.

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 herd was Kempe or Champion Owain, the Welsh hero who flourished in the sixth century. Childe Wynd therefore = Childe Owain. The 'Deliverance Kiss' has been studied by Prof. Child, l.c., ii, 306. 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'. On the rowan-tree, see Rhys's Hibbert Lectures. There is certainly something Celtic about the Laidly being and the deliverance kiss, as Mr Nutt has pointed out, Academy, April 30, 1892; and Miss Weston has shown the connection in her Legend of Sir Gawain, p. 49. Indeed, may not Owein be identical with Gawain ?

34. CAT AND MOUSE

SOURCE Halliwell, p. 154.

PARALLELS Scarcely more than a variant of 'The Old Woman and her Pig' (No. 4), 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.).

35. THE FISH AND THE RING

SOURCE Henderson, l.c., p. 326, from a communication by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould. There is a similar legend told of Stepney Church.

PARALLELS 'Jonah rings' have been put together by Mr Clouston in his Popular Tales, i, 398, etc.; 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. Köhler on Gonzenbach, ii, 220, and 'the substituted letter' by the same authority in 0cc. 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 preordained marriage' in folk-tales in Henderson, l.c.

REMARKS The tale is the feminine form of the legend of 'The Man Born to be King', familiar to us from Mr Morris's setting in his Earthly Paradise. He derived this from Nouvelles Françoises du Treizième Siècle, which he has himself translated under the title Old French Romances. In my introduction to his translation I have pointed out that this particular romance has a Byzantine source, an Ethiopic version of which has recently been discovered by Dr E. Kuhn. The story is, indeed, told under the title of Constant the Emperor as a sort of folk etymology of the name Constantinople. It seems probable that the tale was thus brought from Byzantium to France and England and became localised in different forms at Stepney and York. Curiously enough, the letter to 'kill bearer' is found in India, and is, of course, familiar from the Iliad. But whatever its ultimate source, there can be little doubt that this tale is more immediately derived from the Byzantine Romance of the Emperor Constant.

36. 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. The latter part of our tale occurs in the Welsh 'Fables of Catwg' in the Iola MS.

37. 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. Köhler on Gonzenbach, ii, 206). Though I have suggested in Indian Fairy Tales that she was originally a jealous co-wife.

38. 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, Bogies, 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 'lub-bar-fiend' in L'Allegro has all the characteristics of a Brownie.

39. 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, 53-54; ii, 66, 171. To these add the Irish versions of Kennedy, Fireside Stories, p. 25, 'The Three Gifts', and Croker, Fairy Legends, 'The Legend of Bottle Hill'.

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.'

 40. FAIRY OINTMENT

SOURCE Mrs Bray, The Tamar and the Tavy, i, 74 (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 (thirteenth century), Otia Imper., iii, 85, and three Breton tales given by M. Sébillot (Contes, ii, 42; Litt. orale, 23; Trad. et Superst., i, 109). Cf. Prof. Child, i, 339; ii, 505. A Welsh one is given in Y Cymmrodor, vii, 197. Mr Hartland has summarised his conclusions in his Science of Fairy Tales.

41. 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. 17.

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 World's End'. The well of this name occurs also in the Scotch version of the 'Three Heads of the Well' (No. 43). Abroad it is the Grimms' first tale, while frogs who would a-wooing go are discussed by Prof. Kohler, 0cc. 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. 23.

42. 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. An Irish version with the Gaelic was given in Folk-Lore for March 1891. Mr Hartland, in Notes and Queries, l.c., 87, refers to Pitré'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 his own unintelligible gibberish; he, not understanding his own lingo, falls a victim to the flames, and she marries the servant who had taken the message.

43. THE THREE HEADS OF THE WELL

SOURCE Halliwell, p. 158, from a chap-book. The second wish has been somewhat euphemised.

PARALLELS The story forms part of Peele's Old Wives' Tale, where the rhyme was

It is also in Chambers, l.c., 105, where the well is at the World's End (cf. No. 41). 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. 37) is a pleasant contrast to this.