More Celtic Fairy Tales Part 31

x.x.xVII. THE GREEK PRINCESS AND THE YOUNG GARDENER.

_Sources._--Kennedy, _Fireside Stories_, pp. 47-56.

_Parallels._--Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, lvi.; _Mac Iain Direach_, ii. 344-76. He gives other variants at the end. The story is clearly that of the Grimms' "Golden Bird," No. 57. They give various parallels in their notes. Mrs. Hunt refers to an Eskimo version in Rae's _White Sea Peninsula_, called "Kuobba the Giant and the Devil." But the most curious and instructive parallel is that afforded by the Arthurian Romance of Walewein (_i.e._, Gawain), now only extant in Dutch, which, as Professor W. P. Ker has pointed out in _Folk-lore_, v. 121, exactly corresponds to the popular tale, and thus carries it back in Celtdom to the early twelfth century at the latest.

x.x.xVIII. THE RUSSET DOG.

_Source._--I have made up this Celtic Reynard out of several fables given by Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, under the t.i.tle "Fables," vol.

i. pp. 275 _seq._; and "The Keg of b.u.t.ter" and the "The Fox and the little Bonnach," vol. iii. Nos. lxv. lxvi.

_Parallels._--The Fox's ruse about a truce among the animals is a well-known aesop's Fable; see my edition of _Caxton's aesop_, vol. ii. p.

307, and _Parallels_, vol. i. p. 267. The trick by which the c.o.c.k gets out of the fox's mouth is a part of the Reynard Cycle, and is given by Chaucer as his "Nonne Preste's Tale." How the wolf lost his tail is also part of the same cycle, the parallels of which are given by K. Krohn, _Bar_ (_Wolf_) _und Fuchs_ (Helsingfors, 1889), pp. 26-8. The same writer has studied the geographical distribution of the story in Finland, accompanied by a map, in _Fennia_, iv. No. 4. I have given a mediaeval Hebrew version in my _Jews of Angevin England_, pp. 170-2. See also Gerber, _Great Russian Animal Tales_, pp. 48-50. The wolf was originally the bear, as we see from the conclusion of the incident, which professes to explain why the wolf is stumpy-tailed. "The Keg of b.u.t.ter" combines two of the Grimm stories, 2, 189. "The Little Bonnach"

occurs also in English and has been given in two variants in _English Fairy Tales_, No. xxviii.; and _More English Fairy Tales_, No. lvii.

_Remarks._--It would lead me too far afield to discuss here the sources of Reynard the Fox, with which I hope shortly to deal at length elsewhere. But I would remark that in this case, as in several others we have observed, the stories, which are certainly reproductions, have received the characteristic Celtic dress. It follows that we cannot conclude anything as to the origin of a tale from the fact that it is told idiomatically. On the other hand, the stories of "The Fox and Wrens" and "The Fox and the Todhunter," and "How the Fox gets rid of his Fleas," have no parallels elsewhere, and show the possibility of a native beast tale or cycle of tales.

x.x.xIX. SMALLHEAD AND THE KING'S SON.

_Source._--Mr. Curtin's "Hero Tales of Ireland," contributed to the _New York Sun_.

_Parallels._--Campbell's No. xvii., "Maol a Chliobain," is the same story, which is also found among the Lowlanders, and is given in my _English Fairy Tales_, No. xxii., "Molly Whuppie," where see notes for other parallels of the Hop o' My Thumb type of story. King Under the Waves occurs in Campbell, No. lx.x.xvi.

XL. THE LEGEND OF KNOCKGRAFTON.

_Source._--Croker, _Fairy Legends of South of Ireland_.

_Parallels._--Parnell's poem, _Edwin and Sir Topaz_, contains the same story. As he was born in Dublin, 1679, this traces the tale back at least 200 years in Ireland. Practically the same story, however, has been found in j.a.pan, and translated into English under the t.i.tle, "Kobutori; or, The Old Man and the Devils." In the story published by Kobunsha, Tokio, the Old Man has a lump on the side of his face. He sees the demons dancing, and getting exhilarated, joins in. Thereupon the devils are so delighted that they wish to see him again, and as a pledge of his return take away from him his lump. Another old man, who has a similar lump on the other side of his face, hearing of this, tries the same plan, but dances so badly that the devils, not wis.h.i.+ng to see him again, and mistaking him for the other old man, give him back the lump, so that he has one on each side of his face.

I may add here that Mr. York Powell informs me that No. xvii. of the same series, ent.i.tled, "s.h.i.+ppietaro," contains a parallel to the "Hobyahs" of _More English Tales_.

_Remarks._--Here we have a problem of diffusion presented in its widest form. There can be little doubt that "The Legend of Knockgrafton" and "Kobutori," one collected in Ireland and to be traced there for the last 200 years, and the other collected at the present day in j.a.pan, are one and the same story, and it is impossible to imagine they were independently produced. Considering that Parnell could not have come across the j.a.panese version, we must conclude that "Kobutori" is a recent importation into j.a.pan. On the other hand, as "the Hobyahs"

cannot be traced in England, and was collected from a Scottish family settled in the United States, where j.a.panese influence has been considerable, it is possible that this tale was derived from j.a.pan within the memory of men still living. It would be highly desirable to test these two cases, in which we seem to be able to observe the process of the diffusion of Folk Tales going on before our eyes.

XLI. ELIDORE.

_Source._--Giraldus Cambrensis, _Itinerarium Cambriae_, I. viii. I have followed the Latin text tolerably closely.

_Parallels._--Mr. Hartland has a paper on "Robberies in Fairyland," in _Arch. Rev._, iii. 39 _seq._ Davies, _Mythology of the British Druids_, p. 155, tells a story of a door in a rock near a cave in the mountains of Brecknock, which was left open for Mayday, and men used to enter, and so reach that fairy island in the middle of the lake. The visitors were treated very hospitably by their fairy hosts, but on the condition that they might eat all, but pocket none; for once, a visitor took away with him a fairy flower, and as soon as he got outside the door the flower vanished, and the door was never more opened. "The Luck of Edenhall,"

still in existence, is supposed to be a trophy brought back from a similar visit.

_Remarks._--Mr. Hartland suggests that these legends, and the relics connected with them, are in some way connected with the heathen rites prevalent in these islands before the introduction of Christianity, which may have lingered on into historic times. The absence of sunlight in this account of the House of the Fairies, as in "Childe Rowland" (on which see note in _English Fairy Tales_), may be regarded as a point in favour of Mr. MacRitchie's theories as to the identification of the fairies with the mound-dwellers. The object of the expectoration was to prevent Elidore's seeing his way back. Thus the fairies prevent the indiscretions of the human midwives they employ.

XLII. THE LEECHING OF KAYN'S LEG.

_Source._--MacInnes, _Folk-Tales from Argyles.h.i.+re_, vii., combined with Campbell of Tiree's version.

_Parallels._--The earliest version, from an Egerton MS. of the fifteenth century, has been printed by Mr. S. H. O'Grady in his _Silva Gadelica_, No. 20, with an English version, pp. 332-42. Mr. Campbell of Tiree has given a short Gaelic version in the _Transactions of the Gaelic Society of Inverness_, 78-100. Campbell of Islay collected the fullest version of this celebrated story, which is to be found among his ma.n.u.script remains now in Edinburgh. Mr. Nutt has given his English abstract in _Folk-lore_, i. 373-7, in its original form. The story must have contained twenty-four tales or episodes of stories, nineteen of which are preserved in J. F. Campbell's version. For parallels to the various incidents, see Mr. Nutt's notes on MacInnes, pp. 470-3. The tale is referred to in MacNicol, _Remarks on Dr. Johnson's Journey to the Hebrides_, 1779.

_Remarks._--Nothing could give a more vivid idea of what might be called the organisation of the art of story-telling among the Celts than this elaborate tale. Mr. Nutt is inclined to trace it, even in its present form, back to the twelfth or thirteenth century. It occurs in an MS. of the fifteenth century in an obviously unoriginal form which shows that the story-teller did not appreciate the significance of many features in the folk-tale he was retelling, and yet it was orally collected by the great Campbell in 1871, in a version which runs to 142 folio pages.

Formally, its interest consists in large measure in the curious framework in which the subsidiary stories are imbedded. This is not of the elaborate kind introduced into Europe from the East by the Crusades, but more _naive_, resembling rather, as Mr. Nutt points out to me, the loosely-knit narratives of Charles Lever in his earlier manner.

XLIII. HOW FIN WENT TO THE KINGDOM OF THE BIG MEN.

_Source._--J. G. Campbell, _The Fians_ (_Waifs and Strays_, No. iv.), pp. 175-92.

_Parallels._--_The Voyage to Brobdingnag_ will occur to many readers, and it is by no means impossible that, as Swift was once an Irish lad, _The Voyage_ may have been suggested by some such tale told him in his infancy. It is not, however, a part of the earlier recorded Ossianic cycle, though over-sea giants occur as opponents of the heroes in that as well as in the earlier Ultonian cycle.

XLIV. HOW CORMAC MAC ART WENT TO FAERY.

_Source._--Kindly condensed by Mr. Alfred Nutt from an English version by Mr. S. H. O'Grady in _Ossianic Society's Publications_, vol. iii. The oldest known version has been printed from fourteenth century MSS., by Mr. Whitley Stokes, _Irische Texte_, iii. I. The story existed in some form in the early eleventh century, as it is cited in the epic catalogue contained in the Book of Leinster.

_Parallels._--Mr. Nutt in his _Studies on the Legend of the Holy Grail_, p. 193, connects this visit of Cormac to the Otherworld with the bespelled Castle incident in the Grail Legend, and gives other instances of visits to the Brug of Manannan. Manannan Mac Lir is the Celtic sea-G.o.d.

XLV. RIDERE OF RIDDLES.

_Source._--Campbell, _West Highland Tales_, No. xxii. vol. ii. p. 36, _seq._ I have modified the end, which has a polygamous complexion.

_Parallels._--Campbell points out that the story is in the main identical with the Grimms' "Rathsel," No. xxii. There the riddle is: "One slew none, and yet slew twelve." MacDougall has the same story in _Waifs and Strays_, iii. pp. 76 _seq._

_Remarks._--There can be no doubt that the Celtic and German Riddle Stories are related genealogically. Which is of the earlier generation is, however, more difficult to determine. In favour of the Celtic is the polygamous framework; while on the other hand, it is difficult to guess how the story could have got from the Highlands to Germany. The simpler form of the riddle in the German version might seem to argue greater antiquity.

XLVI. THE TAIL.

_Source._--Campbell, No. lvii.

_Parallels._--Most story-tellers have some formula of this kind to conclude their narrations. Prof. Crane gives some examples in his _Italian Popular Tales_, pp. 155-7. The English have: "I'll tell you a story of Jack a Nory," and "The Three Wise Men of Gotham" who went to Sea in a Bowl:

"If the bowl had been stronger, My song would have been longer."

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