N., instead of with the sun and the hands of a clock; why it should have an unspelling influence is hard to say. '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.”
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. Kohler, 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. 46-7), and finally winds up with the “out of sack” trick, for which see Cosquin, i. 113; ii. 209; and Kohler on Campbell, in Occident and Orient, ii. 489-506.
Source.–'The Red Etin” in Chambers’s Pop. Rhymes of Scotland, p. 89. I have reduced the adventurers 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.
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 Kohler on Campbell, Occ. u. Or., ii. 119- 20; on Gonzenbach, ii. 230; on Blade, 248; by Cosquin, l.c., i. 70-2, 193; by Crane, Ital. Pop. Tales, 326; and by Jones and Kropf, Magyar Tales, 329. Riddles generally come in the form of the “riddle-bride-wager” (cf. Child, Ballads, i. 415-9; ii. 519), when the hero or heroine wins a spouse by guessing a riddle or riddles. Here it is the simpler Sphinx form of the “riddle task,' on which see Kohler in Jahrb. rom. Phil., vii. 273, and on Gonzenbach, 215.
Source.–Henderson, l.c., p. 338, collected by the Rev. S. Baring-Gould, in Devonshire. Mr. Burne-Jones remembers hearing it in his youth in Warwickshire.
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
“SHE: Where is thy liver?
IT: Thou hast devoured it!”
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 katharsis 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.
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, “Daumling” 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.”
Source.–Contributed by Blakeway to Malone’s Variorum Shakespeare, to illustrate Benedick’s remark in Much Ado about Nothing (I. i. 146): “Like the old tale, my Lord, ’It is not so, nor ’twas 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.
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).
Source.–Halliwell, 157.
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. Abroad it is Grimm’s Hans im Gluck (No. 83). The “cure by laughing” incident is 'common form” in folk-tales (cf. Kohler on Gonzenbach, Sizil. Marchen, ii. 210, 224; Jones and Kropf, Magyar Tales, 312).
