Folktales of England / Edition 1

by Katharine M. Briggs, Ruth L. Tongue

Overview

If wonder tales are not abundant in England, other kinds of folktales thrive: local traditions, historical legends, humorous anecdotes. Many of the favorite tales which English-speaking peoples carry with them from childhood come from a long tradition--stories as familiar to Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Spenser, and their many contemporaries as they are to us.

"This is a fine, homely feast, immediately intelligble. . . ."--Times Educational Supplement

". . . should be of special concern to Americans since many of the tales are parallel to or the source of our own folk stories."--Choice

"This is entertainment, to be sure, but is also part of man's attempts to comprehend his world."--Quartet

"Folktales of England is by all odds the most satisfactory general collection of folktales to come out of England since the advent of modern collection and classification techniques."--Ernest W. Baughman, Journal of American Folklore

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780226074948
Publisher:	University of Chicago Press
Publication date:	09/15/1968
Series:	Folktales of the World
Edition description:	New Edition
Pages:	208
Product dimensions:	5.25(w) x 8.00(h) x 0.60(d)

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Folktales of England

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By Katharine M. Briggs, Ruth L. Tongue

The University of Chicago Press

Copyright © 1965 The University of Chicago
All rights reserved.
ISBN: 978-0-226-07494-8

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CHAPTER 1

The Small-Tooth Dog

Collected by Sidney O. Addy in Norton, Derbyshire, and published in his Household Tales with Other Traditional Remains, Collected in the Counties of York, Lincoln, Derby, and Nottingham (London and Sheffield, 1895), No. 1, pp. 1–4. Addy writes in his Introduction: "In every case I have either written the tales down from dictation, or a written copy has been given to me."

This is Type 425C, Beauty and the Beast, No. 88 in Grimm, and reported throughout Europe. Lithuania leads with 30 versions. Baughman cites examples from Virginia, Massachusetts (Irish informant), New York, North Carolina, and Kentucky.

ONCE UPON A time, there was a merchant who traveled about the world a great deal. On one of his journeys thieves attacked him, and they would have taken both his life and his money if a large dog had not come to his rescue and driven the thieves away. When the dog had driven the thieves away he took the merchant to his house, which was a very handsome one, and he dressed his wounds and nursed him until he was well.

As soon as he was able to travel the merchant began his journey home, but before starting he told the dog how grateful he was for his kindness, and asked him what reward he could offer in return, and he said he would not refuse to give him the most precious thing that he had.

And so the merchant said to the dog, "Will you accept a fish that I have that can speak twelve languages?"

"No," said the dog, "I will not."

"Or a goose that lays golden eggs?"

"No," said the dog, "I will not."

"Or a mirror in which you can see what anybody is thinking about?"

"No," said the dog, "I will not."

"Then what will you have?" said the merchant.

"I will have none of such presents," said the dog, "but let me fetch your daughter, and take her to my house."

When the merchant heard this he was grieved, but what he had promised had to be done, so he said to the dog, "You can come and fetch my daughter after I have been at home for a week."

So at the end of the week the dog came to the merchant's house to fetch his daughter, but when he got there he stayed outside the door, and would not go in. But the merchant's daughter did as her father told her, and came out of the house dressed for a journey and ready to go with the dog.

When the dog saw her he looked pleased, and said, "Jump on my back, and I will take you away to my house." So she mounted on the dog's back, and away they went at a great pace until they reached the dog's house, which was many miles off.

But after she had been a month at the dog's house she began to mope and cry.

"What are you crying for?" said the dog.

"Because I want to go back to my father," she said.

The dog said, "If you will promise me that you will not stay at home more than three days I will take you there. But first of all," said he, "what do you call me?"

"A great, foul, small-tooth dog," said she.

"Then," said he, "I will not let you go."

But she cried so pitifully that he promised again to take her home. "But before we start," said he, "tell me what you call me."

"Oh!" said she, "your name is Sweet-as-a-honeycomb."

"Jump on my back," said he, "and I'll take you home." So he trotted away with her on his back for forty miles, when they came to a stile.

"And what do you call me?" said he, before they got over the stile.

Thinking that she was safe on her way, the girl said, "A great, foul, small-tooth dog." But when she said this, he did not jump over the stile, but turned right round about at once, and galloped back to his own house with the girl on his back.

Another week went by, and again the girl wept so bitterly that the dog promised to take her to her father's house. So the girl got on the dog's back again, and they reached the first stile as before, and then the dog stopped and said, "And what do you call me?"

"Sweet-as-a-honeycomb," she replied.

So the dog leaped over the stile, and they went on for twenty miles until they came to another stile.

"And what do you call me?" said the dog, with a wag of his tail.

She was thinking more of her own father and her own home than of the dog, so she answered, "A great, foul, small-tooth dog."

Then the dog was in a great rage, and he turned right round about and galloped back to his own house as before. After she had cried for another week, the dog promised again to take her back to her father's house. So she mounted upon his back once more, and when they got to the first stile, the dog said, "And what do you call me?"

"Sweet-as-a-honeycomb," she said.

So the dog jumped over the stile, and away they went — for now the girl made up her mind to say the most loving things she could think of — until they reached her father's house.

When they got to the door of the merchant's house, the dog said, "And what do you call me?"

Just at that moment the girl forgot the loving things that she meant to say, and began, "A great ..." but the dog began to turn, and she got fast hold of the door-latch, and was going to say "foul," when she saw how grieved the dog looked and remembered how good and patient he had been with her, so she said, "Sweeter-than-a-honeycomb."

When she had said this she thought the dog would have been content and have galloped away, but instead of that he suddenly stood up on his hind legs, and with his fore legs he pulled off his dog's head, and tossed it high in the air. His hairy coat dropped off, and there stood the handsomest young man in the world, with the finest and smallest teeth you ever saw.

Of course they were married, and lived together happily.

CHAPTER 2

The Green Lady

Printed by Alice B. Gomme in FolkLore, VII(1896), 411–14, "The Green Lady: A Folktale from Hertfordshire." Lady Gomme heard the tale as a child from her nursemaid, Mary Ann Smith, who forgot some of the rhymes.

The story contains episodes I, V, VI, and VII from a celebrated international tale, Type 480, The Spinning-Women by the Spring. The Kind and the Unkind Girls. In Grimms' Household Tales it is No. 24, "Frau Holle." A full-length study has been published by Warren E. Roberts, The Tale of the Kind and Unkind Girls (Berlin, 1958),which examines over nine hundred versions. The distribution is densest in northern Europe, with Finland, Estonia, and Sweden each reporting over one hundred texts. It is well known in India; Folktales of Japan, a companion volume in this series, gives three examples (Nos. 33, 34, 35).

Baughman lists several shorter or longer English variants of Type 480: Addy, Household Tales, No. 10, "The Little Watercress Girl," and No. 18, "The Glass Ball"; Henderson, Northern Counties (1879 ed.), pp. 349–50; Grice, North Country, "The Ji-Jaller Bag," pp. 108–10. Hartland gives an 1823 chapbook version in English Fairy and other Folk Tales, "The Princess of Colchester," pp. 20–24, reprinted by Jacobs in English Fairy Tales, pp. 232–37. A cante-fable text from Kentucky is reprinted in R. M. Dorson, Buying the Wind (Chicago, 1964),pp. 206–209.

Common motifs include G204, "Girl in service of witch"; Q42.1.1, "Child divides last loaf with fairy (witch, etc.)"; D1821.3.6, "Magic sight by looking through keyhole"; B470.1, "Small fish as helper"; and Q2, "Kind and unkind."

ONCE UPON A time, there was an old man who had two daughters. Now one of these girls was a steady, decent girl, and the other was a stuck-up, proud, conceited piece; but the father liked her best, and she had the most to eat, and the best clothes to wear.

One day, the nice girl said to her father, "Father, give me a cake and a bottle of beer, and let me go and seek my fortune."

So the father gave her a cake and a bottle of beer, and she went out to seek her fortune. After she had walked a weary while through the wood, she sat down by a tree to rest herself, and eat her cake and drink her beer. While she was eating, a little old man came by, and he said, "Little girl, little girl, what are you doing under my tree?"

She said, "I am going to seek my fortune, sir; I am very tired and hungry, and I am eating my dinner."

The old man said, "Little girl, little girl, give me some dinner too."

She said, "I have only a cake and a bottle of beer; if you like to have some of that, you may."

The old man said he would; so he sat down and they ate the cake, and drank the beer all up. Then the little girl was going on further, and the old man said: "I will tell you where to seek your fortune. Go on further and further into the wood, until you come to a little old cottage, where the Green Lady lives. Knock at the door and when she opens it, tell her you've come to seek service. She will take you in; mind you be a good girl, and do all she tells you to do, and you'll come to no harm."

So the little girl thanked him kindly and went on her way. Presently she came to the little cottage in the wood, and she knocked at the door. Then the door was opened by a pretty Green Lady, who said, "Little girl, little girl, what do you want?"

"I've come to seek service, ma'am," said the little girl.

"What can you do?" asked the Green Lady.

"I can bake and I can brew, and about the house all things can do," said the little girl.

"Then come in," said the Green Lady, and she took her into the kitchen. "Now," said she, "you must be a very good girl; sweep the house well; make the dust fly; and mind you don't look through the keyhole, or harm will befall you."

The little girl swept the house and made the dust fly.

Then the Green Lady said, "Now, go to the well, and bring in a pail of nice clean water to cook the supper in. If the water isn't clean, change it and change it till it is."

Then the little girl took a pail and went to the well. The first pail she drew, the water was so muddy and dirty, she threw it away. The next pailful she drew, the water was a little clearer, but there was a silver fish in it.

The fish said, "Little girl, little girl, wash me and comb me, and lay me down softly."

So she washed it and combed it, and laid it down softly. Then she drew another pailful. The water was a little clearer, but there was a gold fish in it.

The fish said, "Little girl, little girl, wash me and comb me, and lay me down softly."

So she washed it and combed it, and laid it down softly. Then she drew another pailful. There was clear water, but there was still another fish who said the same thing as the others; so she washed this one too, combed it, and laid it down softly. Then she drew another pailful, and this was quite fresh and clear.

Then the three fish raised their heads and said:

They who eat the fairies' food
In the churchyard soon shall dwell.
Drink the water of this well,
And all things for thee shall be good.
Be but honest, bold and true,
So shall good fortune come to you.

Then the little girl hasted to the house, swept up the kitchen, and made the dust fly quickly, for she thought she would surely be scolded for being away so long, and she was hungry too. The Green Lady then showed her how to cook the supper, and take it into the parlor, and told her she could take some bread and milk for herself afterwards. But the little girl said she would rather have a drink of water and some of her own cake; she had found some crumbs in her pocket you must know. Then the Green Lady went into the parlor, and the little girl sat down by the fire. Then she was thinking about her place, and what the fish had said, and she wondered why the Green Lady had told her not to look through the keyhole. She thought there could not be any harm in doing this, and she looked through the keyhole, when what should she see but the Green Lady dancing with a bogey! She was so surprised that she called out:

"Oh! what can I see?
A green lady dancing with a bogey."

The Green Lady rushed out of the room and said: "What can you see?"

The little girl replied,

"Nothing can I see, nothing can I spy,
Nothing can I see till the days high die."
[The day I die?]

Then the Green Lady went into the parlor again to have her supper, and the little girl again looked through the keyhole. Again she sang:

"Oh! what can I see?
A green lady dancing with a bogey."

The Green Lady rushed out: "Little girl, little girl, what can you see?"

The girl said,

"Nothing can I see, nothing can I spy,
Nothing can I see till the days high die."

This happened a third time, and then the Green Lady said: "Now you shall see no more," and she blinded the little girl's eyes. "But," said the Green Lady, "because you have been a good girl, and made the dust fly, I will give you your wages and you shall go home."

So she gave her a bag of money and a bundle of clothes, and sent her away. So the little girl stumbled along the path in the dark and presently she stumbled against the well. Now, there was a fine young man sitting on the edge of the well, and he told her he had been sent by the fish of the well to see her home, and would carry her bag of money and her bundle for her. He told her, too, before starting on her journey, to bathe her eyes in the well. [Rhyme missing here.] This she did and she found her eyes come back to her, and she could see as well as ever. So the young man and the little girl went along together, until they arrived at her father's cottage; and when the bag was opened, there was all sorts of money in it, and when the bundle was opened, there was all sorts of fine clothes in it. And the little girl married the young man, and they lived happy ever after.

Now, when the other girl saw all the fine things her sister had got, she came to her father and said, "Father, give me a cake and a bottle of beer, and let me seek my fortune."

Her father gave her a cake and a bottle of beer, and the same things happened to her as to her sister. But when the old man asked her for some dinner, she said, "I haven't enough for myself; so I can't give you any," and when she was at the Green Lady's house, she didn't make the dust fly, and the Green Lady was cross with her; and when she went to the well and the fish got into her pails of water, she said the fishes were wet, sloppy things, and she wasn't going to mess her hands and clean frock with them, and she threw them back roughly into the well; and she said she wasn't going to drink nasty cold water for her supper, when she could have nice bread and milk; and when the Green Lady put her eyes out for looking through the keyhole, she didn't get a bag of money and a bundle of clothes or her wages, because she hadn't made the dust fly, and she had no one to help her and take her home. So she wandered about all night and all day, and she died; and no one knows where she was buried or what became of her.

CHAPTER 3

Tom Tit Tot

Reprinted by Edward Clodd in "The Philosophy of Rumpelstiltskin," Folk-Lore Journal, VII (1889), 138–43, from the Ipswich Journal, Notes and Queries, edited by the noted collector of gipsy folktales, F. Hindes Groome, who received the tale from a lady who had heard it in childhood from a West Suffolk nurse.

Clodd was fascinated by this folktale as an example of survival from the savage belief of magic in names, and developed his study into a full-length book, Tom Tit Tot, An Essay on Savage Philosophy in Folk-Tale (London, 1898). The most famous version is Grimm No. 55, "Rumpelstilzchen." This story is Type 500, The Name of the Helper, most heavily reported in Ireland, Germany, Denmark, and Finland. Key motifs are H521, "Test: guessing unknown propounder's name"; H1092, "Tasks: spinning impossible amount in one night"; and N475, "Secret name overheard by eavesdropper."

In England, a long Cornish droll was printed by Robert Hunt in Popular Romances from the West of England, First Series(London, 1865], pp. 273–84, under the title "Duffy and the Devil." Hartland reprinted the present text in English Fairy and Other Folk Tales, pp. 28–34. Robert Chambers gives a Scottish text in The Popular Rhymes of Scotland, pp. 262–63. An American Negro text from North Carolina is in the Journal of American Folklore, XXX (1917, 198. Three versions of Type 500 appear in Folktales of Norway, a companion volume in this series, Nos. 5,[7, and 159.

The present text is told in West Suffolk dialect. "Maw'r" or "Mawther" is the curious Suffolk word for a daughter or young maid. "Gatless" means heedless or senseless.

WELL, ONCE UPON a time, there were a woman and she baked five pies. And when they come out of the oven, they was that overbaked, the crust were too hard to eat. So she says to her darter —

"Maw'r," she says, "put you them there pies on the shelf an' leave 'em there a little, an' they'll come agin," — she meant, you know, the crust 'ud get soft.

But the gal, she says to herself, "Well, if they'll come agin, I'll ate 'em now." And she set to work and ate 'em all, first and last.

Well, come supper time, the woman she said, "Goo you and git one o' them there pies. I daresay they've come agin now."

(Continues...)

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Excerpted from Folktales of England by Katharine M. Briggs, Ruth L. Tongue. Copyright © 1965 The University of Chicago. Excerpted by permission of The University of Chicago Press.
All rights reserved. No part of this excerpt may be reproduced or reprinted without permission in writing from the publisher.
Excerpts are provided by Dial-A-Book Inc. solely for the personal use of visitors to this web site.

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Table of Contents

I. Wonder Tales
1. The Small-Tooth Dog
2. The Green Lady
3. Tom Tit Tot
4. Mossycoat
5. Little Rosy
6. The Man Who Wouldn't Go Out at Night
II. Legends
Encounters with Unnatural Beings
7. Fairy Merchandise
8. Goblin Combe
9. The Fairy Follower
10. Pixy Fair
11. The Fairy Midwife
12. The Green Mist
13. The Apple-Tree Man
14. Tibb's Cat and the Apple-Tree Man
15. The Man in the Wilderness
16. The Old Man at the White House
17. Why the Donkey is Safe
18. The Hunted Soul
19. The Sea Morgan and the Conger Eels
Curses and Ghosts
20. Tarr Ball and the Farmer
21. The Four-Eyed Cat
22. The Witch's Purse
23. The Gipsy's Curse
24. The Open Grave
25. Annie Luker's Ghost
26. The Son Murdered by His Parents
27. Company on the Road
28. Room for One More
Giants
29. The Giant of Grabbist and the "Dorcas Jane"
30. The Giant of Grabbist and Hawkridge Church
31. The Giant of Grabbist and the Whitstones
32. The Giant of Grabbist and the Stones of Battlegore
Saints
33. St. Wulfric and the Greedy Boy
34. The Devil and St. Dunstan
35. St. Adelme
36. St. Aloys and the Lame Nag
Historical and Quasi-Historical Traditions
37. St. David's Flood
38. The Legend of Gold Hill
39. The Grey Goose Feathers
40. Swayne's Leaps
41. The Lost Bride
42. The Thievish Sexton
43. Mr. Fox's Courtship
44. Drake's Cannon Ball
45. Marshall's Elm
46. Jack White's Gibbet
Modern Legends
47. The Foreign Hotel
48. The Stolen Corpse
49. The Half-Cup of Tea
50. The Five-Pound Note
III. Jocular Tales
Devils and Spirits
51. The Curious Cat
52. The Last Man Hanged
53. Dolly and the Duke
54. Summat Queer on Batch
55. A Cure for a Witch
Heaven, Hell, and Parsons
56. A Paddock in Heaven
57. The Two Chaps who went to Heaven
58. The Three Premiers who went to Heaven
59. The Parsons' Meeting
60. The Churchyard
61. The Parson and the Parrot
62. The Man that stole the Parson's Sheep
Tales about Children
63. The Two Little Scotch Boys
64. Father, I Think
65. King Edward and the Salad
66. The Rich Man's Two Sons
67. The First Banana
"Rhozzums" (Short Humorous Tales, often about Local Characters)
68. The Farmer and the "Parson"
69. The Irishman's Hat
70. The Three Foreigners
71. The Deaf Man and the Pig Trough
72. The Borrowdale Cuckoo
73. Growing the Church
Husband and Wife
74. The Jamming Pan
75. The Contrary Wife
76. Knife or Scissors
77. The Farmer and His Wife and the Mirror
78. The Three Obedient Husbands
79. The Lazy Wife
Master and Man
80. The Lad Who Was Never Hungry
81. Take a Pinch of Salt With It
82. Old Charley Creed
83. The Hungry Mowers
Shaggy Dogs
84. The Farmer and His Ox
85. The Two Elephants
86. The Horse Who Played Cricket
87. The Pious Lion
88. The Tortoise's Picnic
Tall Tales and Absurdities
89. The Dog and the Hares
90. The Man Who Bounced
91. Mark Twain in the Fens
92. The Endless Tale
Glossary
Bibliography
Index of Motifs
Index of Tale Types
General Index