Favorite Folktales From Around the World

by Jane Yolen

  This English noodle story is the classic silly tale, known throughout the world. In the Grimm collection it is “Clever Elsie,” and it is that version which gives it its tale type, 1450. Thompson says that it is probably Oriental and literary in origin, but it is now widespread in the oral tradition. The Indian version, “The Silly Weaver Girl,” is quite short, and her audience merely laughs at her instead of joining in her foolishness. Some variants, such as “What Shall Baby’s Name Be?” conclude without the search for the other sillies. In the Siberian tale “The Fools,” it is the girl’s hiccoughs and the need to keep them from her suitors that start off the silliness. In the search many different kinds of fools are discovered. Besides the cow, trousers, and moon incidents in the English tale, there are such incidents as a tall man trying to get into a small house (Greece), watering oxen with a spoon (Italy), leading a camel from the field (Siberia), and even the scatological Greek incident of someone showing his backside to an old woman who promises to recognize him again by his lovely face. “It seems everybody is dumber than my wife,” concludes the husband in the Italian “Cicco Petrillo,” “so I’d better go back home.”

  Nasr-ed-Din Hodja in the Pulpit: Allan Ramsay and Francis McCullagh, Tales from Turkey (London: Simpkin, Marshall, Hamilton, Kent, 1914).

  From Turkey, the Hodja is both gull and rogue. The Turkish government has put its imprimatur on the historical Hodja, claiming officially that he was born in the village of Hortu and died in 1284. There are Afro-American as well as Italian versions of this story. It is tale type 1826, “The parson has no need to preach.”

  Lazy Jack: James Orchard Halliwell, Popular Rhymes and Nursery Tales of England (London: John Russell Smith, 1849), pp. 37–39.

  This classic English numbskull tale is about a boy so literal-minded that he does exactly what he has been told whether or not it fits the situation. Tale type 1696, this story seems to have its origins in Chinese Buddhistic sources. It can be traced up through Renaissance jestbooks. A highly popular tale, it has been collected all over Europe in some 200 versions as well as throughout Asia, Africa, and America in both the white and the Native American cultures.

  Chelm Justice: Nathan Ausubel, A Treasury of Jewish Folklore (New York: Crown Publishers, 1948), p. 337.

  The Jewish inhabitants of Chelm, like the English Gothamites, are considered collectively stupid and have a cycle of stories attributed to them.

  Those Stubborn Souls, the Biellese: Italy Calvino, Italian Folktales (1980; New York: Pantheon Books, 1981), p. 60.

  The Biellese are not only considered stupid, like their counterparts in Chelm, but stubborn as well. In Trieste it is not the Biellese but the Friulians who star in this Italian tale.

  The Drovers Who Lost Their Feet: Américo Paredes, Folktales of Mexico (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1970), p. 151.

  This is the Mexican version of a famous noodle tale, type 1288, which is popular in Europe, India, and America.

  The Old Man and Woman Who Switched Jobs: Lone Thygesen-Blecher and George Blecher, Swedish Folktales (New York: Pantheon Books, forthcoming).

  Commonly known as “The Husband Who Would Mind the House,” this Swedish tale is type 1408 and is found in the ballad tradition as “The Cow on the Roof.” In Scandinavia almost 200 variants have been collected. The story has had a renaissance in American feminist circles.

  The Two Old Women’s Bet: Richard Chase, Grandfather Tales (Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1948), pp. 156–60.

  “The merry wives’ wager,” type 1406, is here given an Appalachian setting. There are parallel stories from Turkey and Israel and all the way to the Scandinavian countries. Included in this story is tale type 1313, “The man who thought himself dead.” The incident about the naked man who believes himself clothed in the finest cloth served, in its Scandinavian versions, as a pattern for Hans Christian Andersen’s “The Emperor’s New Clothes.”

  A Stroke of Luck: Linda Degh, Folktales of Hungary (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1965), pp. 147–49.

  This variant is from Hungary, but this tale, type 1381, has been found all over Europe and North Africa. It was extremely popular in medieval literature, finding its way into both jest books and fabliaux.

  The Sausage: Claire Booss, Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales (New York: Avenel Books/Crown Publishers, 1984), pp. 179–81.

  This story (motif J2071, “Foolish wishes”) comes from Sweden, but the story itself is much older than this version, having originally to do with the wanderings of the saints over the earth. The brothers Grimm printed it as “The Poor Man and the Rich Man,” with different incidents but the same basic motif.

  Nail Soup: Booss, Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales, pp. 181–86.

  A variant of tale type 1548, “The soup-stone,” this Swedish story is also known as “The Old Woman and the Tramp.” It is popular worldwide. Other soup starters have included stones (France) and an axe (Russia).

  Old Dry Frye: Chase, Grandfather Tales, pp. 100–105.

  This American Southern mountain thigh-slapper is a variant of the basic tale type 1537, “The corpse killed five times.” It is well known through the medieval fabliau tradition and has been collected in Europe, Asia, and Africa as well as in America in both the white and the Native American cycles. There is even a Siberian version, “The Unlucky Corpse.”

  Bye-bye: Diane Wolkenstein, The Magic Orange Tree and Other Haitian Folktales (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1978), pp. 190–91.

  This Haitian story is closely related to the Oriental tale type 225, “The crane teaches the fox to fly.”

  The Barn Is Burning: Roger D. Abrahams, Afro-American Folktales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1985), pp. 293–95.

  An Afro-American version of the popular English story “Master of All Masters,” greatly elaborated and used in the master-slave tradition of the American South. Versions of this tale (type 1562A) have been collected all over Europe and the Americas. In Mexico, the trickster Pedro de Urdemalas is credited with fooling the mistress of the house.

  HEROES: LIKELY AND UNLIKELY

  The Birth of Finn MacCumhail: Jeremiah Curtin, Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland (Boston: Little, Brown, 1906), pp. 204–20.

  One of the great Irish folk heroes, Finn is born in a typical mythic-hero way: fulfilling a prophecy. The slaughter of all the male children born on a certain day comes from long Oriental tradition (see Herod’s edict about the sons of the Israelites at the time of Jesus’ birth; likewise the pharaoh’s edict at the time of Moses). Other common motifs include the blinding of the one-eyed giant (tale type 1137, as in the Greek Polyphemus story), escaping in ram disguise (same story, motif K603), and the talking ring (similar to a Florentine story). In any Irish story, Finn can always be recognized: he is the one chewing on his thumb to get knowledge, a trait so outstanding as to have its own motif (D1811.1).

  Li Chi Slays the Serpent: Moss Roberts, Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (New York: Pantheon Books, 1979), pp. 129–31.

  There are many stories of brave women in folklore, though the late-nineteenth-century collectors who anthologized world folklore for children (especially Andrew Lang) tended to leave women warriors out. The idea of offering a young woman (or maiden or virgin) to a dragon as a sacrifice is an old one, but in China dragons were beneficent fertility gods, which is why the “dragon” in this tale is a “serpent.” Nevertheless, the story is well within the dragon-slayer tradition (tale type 300).

  The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs: Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1944, 1972), pp. 151–58.

  This story is tale type 461 crossed with type 930, “The rich man and his son-in-law.” As an independent tale it has been found all over Europe; more than 300 variants have been collected. In the combined version, the story has gotten as far as China, Africa, the Thompson River Indians in British Columbia, and the Portuguese in Massachusetts. It is one of the most studied tale types in the world.

  The Longwitton Dragon
: Katharine Briggs, British Folktales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977), pp. 147–49.

  From the North Country of England comes this strange dragon-slayer story (tale type 300). The idea of a dragon drawing its strength from the water is similar to the Greek traditional belief that dryads drew their strength from their trees. This dragon, though, may have come originally from the Orient, as it is there that dragons are associated with the element of water.

  The Orphan Boy and the Elk Dog: Richard Erdoes and Alfonso Ortiz, American Indian Myths and Legends (New York: Pantheon Books, 1984), pp. 53–60.

  This story is about the introduction of horses (called Elk Dogs) to the Blackfoot tribe.

  Molly Whuppie: Joseph Jacobs, English Fairy Tales (London: David Nutt, 1898), pp. 130–35.

  From England comes this tale of a hardy heroine. The giant’s variation from the traditional “Fee-fi-fo-fum” is slight. The trick of the substituted necklaces (caps in some variants) is motif K1611. Clarkson and Cross make much of the line “bridge of one hair,” likening it to the Norse Bifrost, the bridge giants could not cross, and linking it to the Scottish belief that witches could ride over a single-hair bridge (see Atelia Clarkson and Gilbert B. Cross, World Folktales: A Scribner Resource Collection [New York: Scribner’s, 1984]).

  The Beginning of the Narran Lake: Henrietta Drake-Brockman, Australian Legendary Tales (Sydney: Angus & Robertson, 1953), pp. 12–14.

  This is an Aboriginal pourquoi tale starring a brave if formidable husband, “who having wooed his wives with a nulla-nulla kept them obedient by fear of the same weapon.” The wives are swallowed by Kurrias (crocodiles). Only in a wonder tale could the digestive process be so avoided (see “Red Riding Hood” et al.).

  The Flying Head: Erdoes and Ortiz, American Indian Myths and Legends, pp. 227–28.

  This Iroquois tale stars a young mother who, in the traditional manner of the unlikely hero, says, “Someone must make a stand against this monster. It might as well be me.” Her method of dispatching him is reminiscent of the European story, type 1131, in which hot porridge burns the giant’s throat.

  The Story of the Youth Who Went Forth to Learn What Fear Was: The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, pp. 29–39.

  This is the classic German tale, type 326. Note similarities to “The Man Who Had No Story,” in the “Telling Tales” section.

  WONDER TALES, TALL TALES, AND BRAG

  “Having heard, for the first time …”: Rudolf Erich Raspe, The Adventures of Baron Munchausen (London: Shenval Press, 1948), p. 3.

  Talk: Harold Courlander and George Herzog, The Cow-Tail Switch and Other West African Stories (New York: Henry Holt, 1947), pp. 25–29.

  This African tale of the Ashanti people is a cumulative story that gets its power from the repetitious pattern and the joking last line. Motif B210.2, “Talking animal or object refuses to talk on demand” (like “The Talking Skull” in the Introduction to this book), is the progenitor of the tale. There are parallel stories in England and America, and of course throughout Africa.

  The King of Ireland’s Son: Brendan Behan, Brendan Behan’s Ireland: An Irish Sketchbook (New York: Bernard Geis Associates, Random House, 1962), pp. 136–41.

  The opening sentence of this Irish wonder tale is a mini-tall tale in itself. It is related to tale type 550, “The bird, the horse and the princess.” The hiding game may be found in many tales of type 329, “Hiding from the Devil.”

  The Goose Girl: Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm, The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1944, 1972), pp. 404–11.

  This Cinderella cousin is from Germany, tale type 533, with 14 European variants from France to Russia and a single instance in Africa. In America there is a Zuni Indian version in which the girl herds turkeys.

  The Princess on the Glass Hill: Joanna Cole, Best-Loved Folktales of the World (Garden City, N.Y.: Doubleday, 1982), pp. 345–52.

  A popular Norwegian tale, this is type 530. It falls into two sections: the acquisition of the magic horse, and the ride up the mountain. The first part is related to tale type 300, “The dragon slayer,” found throughout the world. A similar Egyptian story has a prince who reaches the princess’s chamber “seventy ells above the ground.”

  The Promises of the Three Sisters: Hasan M. El-Shamy, Folktales of Egypt (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1980), pp. 63–72.

  Hasan El-Shamy says in his notes that this is an extremely popular story, normally told by women. There are 14 variants in Egypt as well as North Africa and the Berber communities, and it is found as far west as Ireland. It is tale type 707, “The three golden sons,” and has a literary history and, in Stith Thompson’s words, “one of the eight or ten best known plots in the world.”

  The Magic Mirror of Rabbi Adam: Howard Schwartz, Elijah’s Violin and Other Jewish Fairy Tales (New York: Harper & Row, 1983), pp. 187–95.

  This story is from a sixteenth-century Jewish source in Eastern Europe. Sorceror’s duels are motif D1719.1, “Contest in magic.”

  The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle: Katharine Briggs, British Folktales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977), pp. 40–42.

  This English version of the Grimm “The Fisher and His Wife,” tale type 555, leaves out both the fisherman and the magic fish, but the moral of the story is certainly the same. It is a widely distributed tale in both Eastern and Western Europe and in such widely scattered areas as Puerto Rico and parts of Asia.

  The Magic Pear Tree: Moss Roberts, Chinese Fairy Tales and Fantasies (New York; Pantheon Books, 1979), pp. 51–52.

  The Taoist priest in this Chinese story is from the White Lotus Society tradition.

  Faithful John: The Complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, pp. 43–51.

  Tale type 516, “The faithful servant,” is a Grimm story which includes a number of traveling motifs such as the language of animals and the resuscitation by blood (motif E113), to name just two. Its distribution ranges from Portugal to India. The Indian variants have been around for some two thousand years: the eleventh-century Ocean Streams of Story included a fully developed version. The turning-to-stone and disenchantment-by-blood themes can also be found in a literary story, the thirteenth-century romance Amis and Amiloun.

  Four Hound-Dog Stories: “The Best Coon-and-Possum Dog,” B. A. Botkin, A Treasury of Mississippi River Folklore (New York: American Legacy Press/Crown Publishers, 1955), pp. 150–51; “Hare and Hound,” Michael J. Murphy, “The Folk Stories of Dan Rooney of Lurgancanty,” Ulster Folklife 11 (1965): 80–86; “The Maryland Dog,” George G. Carey, Maryland Folklore and Folklife (Cambridge, Md.: Tidewater Publishers, 1970), p. 44; “The Split Dog,” Richard Chase, American Folk Tales and Songs (1956; New York: Dover Publications, 1971), pp. 97–98.

  These four short tall tales come from Ireland and America. Variations occur all over the American South. Literary versions have been printed in hunting magazines, folklore volumes, and regional newspaper columns. Motif X1215.11, “Lie: The split dog,” is an example of how popular these hound-dog stories can be. Sometimes they are even attributed to historical personages: “Davy Crockett and Old Bounce” is a Kentucky version of the split dog.

  SHAPE SHIFTERS

  “In the ocean sea …”: Montague Summers, The Werewolf (New York: University Books/Crown Publishers, 1966), quoted from Nancy Garden, Werewolves (Philadelphia: J. B. Lippincott, 1973), pp. 37–38.

  The Doctor and His Pupil: Paul Delarue, The Borzoi Book of French Folk Tales (New York: Alfred A. Knopf, 1956).

  From France, this is tale type 325, “The magician and his pupil,” a story that is well known in India (where it probably originated) and Europe. Its literary history in Europe begins with Straparola in the sixteenth century. The story can also be found in the Near East, parts of America, Siberia, the Philippines, and North Africa. The battle of the sorcerers is older than the tale, dating back at least to the Early Middle Kingdom of Egypt, 1200 B.C.

  The Swan-Maiden: Claire Booss, Scandinavian Folk and Fairy Tales (New York: Avenel
Books/Crown Publishers, 1984), pp. 248–50.

  Stories of swan-maidens are found; throughout Europe; this one comes from Sweden. As usual in this type of story, the swan-maiden is seen first in a group of her peers. In E.S. Hartland’s The Science of Fairy Tales (1891), an entire chapter is dedicated to swan-maiden stories.

  Sister Alionushka, Brother Ivanushka: Aleksandr Afanas’ev, Russian Fairy Tales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1945, 1973), pp. 406–10.

  This is the Russian version of the Grimm’s “Little Brother, Little Sister,” type 450. A puzzling story since the kid is never disenchanted, it seems to be missing the ending to bring it to a completely satisfying conclusion. A literary version appeared in Basile’s Pentamarone in the seventeenth century, and the tale is popular in Germany, the Balkans, Russia, Italy, and the Near East.

  The Blacksmith’s Wife of Yarrowfoot: Katharine Briggs, British Folktales (New York: Pantheon Books, 1977), pp. 277–79.

  This Scottish tale has versions throughout the British Isles, in the Southern United States, and even in Scandinavia. Motif G241.2.1, “Witch transforms man to horse and rides him,” and motif G243, “Witch’s Sabbath,” are included in this tale.

  The Seal’s Skin: Jacqueline Simpson, Icelandic Folktales and Legends (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1972), pp. 100–102.

  This is the Icelandic version of the classic selchie (selkie, selky, or silky) story. Selchies were thought to be men on the land and seals in the sea, as the folk ballad “The Great Silkie of Sule Skerry” has it. Stories about them are common along the coasts of the northern seas—in Iceland, the Scandinavian countries, and Scotland. Like the swan-maiden stories, the selchie tales concern transformation by skin, type 400. The earliest known selchie story from Iceland is from a manuscript by Jon Gudmundsson the Learned, 1641.

  The Wounded Seal: Thomas Keightley, The Fairy Mythology (1892; London: Wildwood House, 1981), pp. 394–95.

  This selchie story from Scotland deals with “sympathetic magic,” the like-calls-to-like idea. The seal-folk, also known by the Celts as the roane, were thought by some to be the original fairies. The Shetlanders call them sea trows.