Celtic Fairy Tales Part 33

XII. KING O'TOOLE AND HIS GOOSE.

_Source_.--S. Lover's _Stories and Legends of the Irish Peasantry_.

_Remarks_.--This is really a moral apologue on the benefits of keeping your word. Yet it is told with such humour and vigour, that the moral glides insensibly into the heart.

XIII. THE WOOING OF OLWEN.

_Source_.--The _Mabinogi_ of Kulhwych and Olwen from the translation of Lady Guest, abridged.

_Parallels_.--Prof. Rhys, _Hibbert Lectures_, p. 486, considers that our tale is paralleled by Cuchulain's "Wooing of Emer," a translation of which by Prof. K. Meyer appeared in the _Archaeological Review_, vol. i. I fail to see much a.n.a.logy. On the other hand in his _Arthurian Legend_, p. 41, he rightly compares the tasks set by Yspythadon to those set to Jason. They are indeed of the familiar type of the Bride Wager (on which see Grimm-Hunt, i. 399). The incident of the three animals, old, older, and oldest, has a remarkable resemblance to the _Tettira Jataka_ (ed. Fausboll, No. 37, transl. Rhys Davids, i. p. 310 _seq._) in which the partridge, monkey, and elephant dispute as to their relative age, and the partridge turns out to have voided the seed of the Banyan-tree under which they were sheltered, whereas the elephant only knew it when a mere bush, and the monkey had nibbled the topmost shoots. This apologue got to England at the end of the twelfth century as the sixty-ninth fable, "Wolf, Fox, and Dove," of a rhymed prose collection of "Fox Fables" (_Mishle Shu'alim_), of an Oxford Jew, Berachyah Nakdan, known in the Records as "Benedict le Puncteur" (see my _Fables Of Aesop_, i. p. 170). Similar incidents occur in "Jack and his Snuff-box" in my _English Fairy Tales_, and in Dr. Hyde's "Well of D'Yerree-in-Dowan." The skilled companions of Kulhwych are common in European folk-tales (_Cf._ Cosquin, i. 123-5), and especially among the Celts (see Mr. Nutt's note in MacInnes' _Tales_, 445-8), among whom they occur very early, but not so early as Lynceus and the other skilled comrades of the Argonauts.

_Remarks_.--The hunting of the boar Trwyth can be traced back in Welsh tradition at least as early as the ninth century. For it is referred to in the following pa.s.sage of Nennius' _Historia Britonum_ ed. Stevenson, p: 60, "Est aliud miraculum in regione quae dicitur Buelt [Builth, co.

Brecon] Est ibi c.u.mulus lapidum et unus lapis super-positus super congestum c.u.m vestigia canis in eo. Quando venatus est porc.u.m Troynt [_var. lec._ Troit] impressit Cabal, qui erat canis Arthuri militis, vestigium in lapide et Arthur postea congregavit congestum lapidum sub lapide in quo erat vestigium canis sui et vocatur Carn Cabal."

Curiously enough there is still a mountain called Carn Cabal in the district of Builth, south of Rhayader Gwy in Brecons.h.i.+re. Still more curiously a friend of Lady Guest's found on this a cairn with a stone two feet long by one foot wide in which there was an indentation 4 in.

x 3 in. x 2 in. which could easily have been mistaken for a paw-print of a dog, as maybe seen from the engraving given of it (Mabinogion, ed.

1874, p. 269).

The stone and the legend are thus at least one thousand years old.

"There stands the stone to tell if I lie." According to Prof. Rhys (_Hibbert Lect._ 486-97) the whole story is a mythological one, Kulhwych's mother being the dawn, the clover blossoms that grow under Olwen's feet being comparable to the roses that sprung up where Aphrodite had trod, and Yspyddadon being the incarnation of the sacred hawthorn. Mabon, again (_i.e._ pp. 21, 28-9), is the Apollo Maponus discovered in Latin inscriptions at Ainstable in c.u.mberland and elsewhere (Hubner, _Corp. Insc. Lat. Brit._ Nos. 218, 332, 1345).

Granting all this, there is nothing to show any mythological significance in the tale, though there may have been in the names of the _dramatis personae_. I observe from the proceedings of the recent Eisteddfod that the bardic name of Mr. W. Abraham, M.P., is 'Mabon.' It scarcely follows that Mr. Abraham is in receipt of divine honours nowadays.

XIV. JACK AND HIS COMRADES.

_Source_.--Kennedy's _Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts_.

_Parallels_.--This is the fullest and most dramatic version I know of the Grimm's "Town Musicians of Bremen" (No. 27). I have given an English (American) version in my _English Fairy Tales_, No. 5, in the notes to which would be found references to other versions known in the British Isles (_e.g._, Campbell, No. 11) and abroad. _Cf._ remarks on No. vi.

XV. SHEE AN GANNON AND GRUAGACH GAIRE.

_Source._--Curtin, _Myths and Folk-Lore of Ireland_, p. 114 _seq._ I have shortened the earlier part of the tale, and introduced into the latter a few touches from Campbell's story of "Fionn's Enchantment," in _Revue Celtique_, t. i., 193 _seq._

_Parallels_.--The early part is similar to the beginning of "The Sea-Maiden" (No. xvii., which see). The latter part is practically the same as the story of "Fionn's Enchantment," just referred to. It also occurs in MacInnes' _Tales_, No. iii., "The King of Albainn" (see Mr.

Nutt's notes, 454). The head-crowned spikes are Celtic, _cf._ Mr.

Nutt's notes (MacInnes' _Tales_, 453).

_Remarks_.--Here again we meet the question whether the folk-tale precedes the hero-tale about Finn or was derived from it, and again the probability seems that our story has the priority as a folk-tale, and was afterwards applied to the national hero, Finn. This is confirmed by the fact that a thirteenth century French romance, _Conte du Graal_, has much the same incidents, and was probably derived from a similar folk-tale of the Celts. Indeed, Mr. Nutt is inclined to think that the original form of our story (which contains a mysterious healing vessel) is the germ out of which the legend of the Holy Grail was evolved (see his _Studies in the Holy Grail_, p. 202 _seq._).

XVI. THE STORY-TELLER AT FAULT.

_Source_.--Griffin's _Tales from a Jury-Room_, combined with Campbell, No. xvii. _c_, "The Slim Swarthy Champion."

_Parallels_.--Campbell gives another variant, _l.c._ i. 318. Dr. Hyde has an Irish version of Campbell's tale written down in 1762, from which he gives the incident of the air-ladder (which I have had to euphemise in my version) in his _Beside the Fireside_, p. 191, and other pa.s.sages in his Preface. The most remarkable parallel to this incident, however, is afforded by the feats of Indian jugglers reported briefly by Marco Polo, and ill.u.s.trated with his usual wealth of learning by the late Sir Henry Yule, in his edition, vol. i. p. 308 _seq._ The accompanying ill.u.s.tration (reduced from Yule) will tell its own tale: it is taken from the Dutch account of the travels of an English sailor, E. Melton, _Zeldzaame Reizen_, 1702, p. 468. It tells the tale in five acts, all included in one sketch. Another instance quoted by Yule is still more parallel, so to speak. The twenty-third trick performed by some conjurors before the Emperor Jahangueir (_Memoirs_, p. 102) is thus described: "They produced a chain of 50 cubits in length, and in my presence threw one end of it towards the sky, where it remained as if fastened to something in the air. A dog was then brought forward, and being placed at the lower end of the chain, immediately ran up, and, reaching the other end, immediately disappeared in the air. In the same manner a hog, a panther, a lion, and a tiger were successively sent up the chain." It has been suggested that the conjurors hypnotise the spectators, and make them believe they see these things. This is practically the suggestion of a wise Mohammedan, who is quoted by Yule as saying, "_Wallah!_ 'tis my opinion there has been neither going up nor coming down; 'tis all hocus-pocus,"

hocus-pocus being presumably the Mohammedan term for hypnotism.

_Remarks_.--Dr. Hyde (_l.c._ Pref. xxix.) thinks our tale cannot be older than 1362, because of a reference to one O'Connor Sligo which occurs in all its variants; it is, however, omitted in our somewhat abridged version. Mr Nutt (_ap._ Campbell, _The Fians_, Introd. xix.) thinks that this does not prevent a still earlier version having existed. I should have thought that the existence of so distinctly Eastern a trick in the tale, and the fact that it is a framework story (another Eastern characteristic), would imply that it is a rather late importation, with local allusions superadded (_cf._ notes on "Conal Yellowclaw," No v.)

The pa.s.sages in verse from pp 137, 139, and the description of the Beggarman, pp. 136, 140, are instances of a curious characteristic of Gaelic folk-tales called "runs." Collections of conventional epithets are used over and over again to describe the same incident, the beaching of a boat, sea-faring, travelling and the like, and are inserted in different tales. These "runs" are often similar in both the Irish and the Scotch form of the same tale or of the same incident. The volumes of _Waifs and Strays_ contain numerous examples of these "runs," which have been indexed in each volume. These "runs" are another confirmation of my view that the original form of the folk-tale was that of the _Cante-fable_ (see note on "Connla" and on "Childe Rowland" in _English Fairy Tales_).

XVII. SEA-MAIDEN.

_Source_.--Campbell, _Pop. Tales_, No. 4. I have omitted the births of the animal comrades and transposed the carlin to the middle of the tale. Mr. Batten has considerately idealised the Sea-Maiden in his frontispiece. When she restores the husband to the wife in one of the variants, she brings him out of her mouth! "So the sea-maiden put up his head (_Who do you mean? Out of her mouth to be sure. She had swallowed him_)."

_Parallels_.--The early part of the story occurs in No. xv., "Shee an Gannon," and the last part in No. xix., "Fair, Brown, and Trembling"

(both from Curtin), Campbell's No. 1. "The Young King" is much like it; also MacInnes' No. iv., "Herding of Cruachan" and No. viii., "Lod the Farmer's Son." The third of Mr. Britten's Irish folk-tales in the _Folk-Lore Journal_ is a Sea-Maiden story. The story is obviously a favourite one among the Celts. Yet its main incidents occur with frequency in Continental folk-tales. Prof. Kohler has collected a number in his notes on Campbell's Tales in _Orient und Occident_, Bnd.

ii. 115-8. The trial of the sword occurs in the saga of Sigurd, yet it is also frequent in Celtic saga and folk-tales (see Mr. Nutt's note, MacInnes' _Tales_, 473, and add. Curtin, 320). The hideous carlin and her three giant sons is also a common form in Celtic. The external soul of the Sea-Maiden carried about in an egg, in a trout, in a hoodie, in a hind, is a remarkable instance of a peculiarly savage conception which has been studied by Major Temple, _Wide-awake Stories_, 404-5; by Mr. E. Clodd, in the "Philosophy of Punchkin," in _Folk-Lore Journal_, vol. ii., and by Mr. Frazer in his _Golden Bough_, vol. ii.

_Remarks_.--As both Prof. Rhys (_Hibbert Lect._, 464) and Mr. Nutt (MacInnes' _Tales_, 477) have pointed out, practically the same story (that of Perseus and Andromeda) is told of the Ultonian hero, Cuchulain, in the _Wooing of Emer_, a tale which occurs in the Book of Leinster, a MS. of the twelfth century, and was probably copied from one of the eighth. Unfortunately it is not complete, and the Sea-Maiden incident is only to be found in a British Museum MS. of about 1300. In this Cuchulain finds that the daughter of Ruad is to be given as a tribute to the Fomori, who, according to Prof. Rhys, _Folk-Lore_, ii.

293, have something of the night_mare_ about their etymology. Cuchulain fights _three_ of them successively, has his wounds bound up by a strip of the maiden's garment, and then departs. Thereafter many boasted of having slain the Fomori, but the maiden believed them not till at last by a stratagem she recognises Cuchulain. I may add to this that in Mr.

Curtin's _Myths_, 330, the threefold trial of the sword is told of Cuchulain. This would seem to trace our story back to the seventh or eighth century and certainly to the thirteenth. If so, it is likely enough that it spread from Ireland through Europe with the Irish missions (for the wide extent of which see map in Mrs. Bryant's _Celtic Ireland_). The very letters that have spread through all Europe except Russia, are to be traced to the script of these Irish monks: why not certain folk-tales? There is a further question whether the story was originally told of Cuchulain as a hero-tale and then became departicularised as a folk-tale, or was the process _vice versa_.

Certainly in the form in which it appears in the _Tochmarc Emer_ it is not complete, so that here, as elsewhere, we seem to have an instance of a folk-tale applied to a well-known heroic name, and becoming a hero-tale or saga.

XVIII. LEGEND OF KNOCKMANY.

_Source_.--W. Carleton, _Traits and Stories of the Irish Peasantry_.

_Parallels_.--Kennedy's "Fion MacCuil and the Scotch Giant," _Legend.

Fict._, 203-5.

_Remarks_.--Though the venerable names of Finn and Cucullin (Cuchulain) are attached to the heroes of this story, this is probably only to give an extrinsic interest to it. The two heroes could not have come together in any early form of their sagas, since Cuchulain's reputed date is of the first, Finn's of the third century A.D. (_cf._ however, MacDougall's _Tales_, notes, 272). Besides, the grotesque form of the legend is enough to remove it from the region of the hero-tale. On the other hand, there is a distinct reference to Finn's wisdom-tooth, which presaged the future to him (on this see _Revue Celtique_, v. 201, Joyce, _Old Celt. Rom._, 434-5, and MacDougall, _l.c._ 274). Cucullin's power-finger is another instance of the life-index or external soul, on which see remarks on Sea-Maiden. Mr. Nutt informs me that parodies of the Irish sagas occur as early as the sixteenth century, and the present tale may be regarded as a specimen.

XIX. FAIR, BROWN, AND TREMBLING.

_Source_.--Curtin, _Myths, &c., of Ireland, 78 seq._