qualities rather than to knighthood.
Source.—From the Chap-book, c. 1660, in the Pepysian Library, edited for the Villon Society by Mr. G.L. Gomme. Mr. Nutt, who kindly abridged it for me, writes, “Nothing in the shape of incident has been omitted, and there has been no rewriting beyond a phrase here and there rendered necessary by the process of abridgment. But I have in one case altered the sequence of events putting the fight with the giant last.”
Parallels.—There are similar adventures of giants in Hunt’s Cornish Drolls. Sir Francis Palgrave (Quart. Rev., vol. xxi.), and after him, Mr. Gomme, have drawn attention to certain similarities with the Grettir Saga, but they do not extend beyond general resemblances of great strength. Mr. Gomme, however, adds that the cartwheel “plays a not unimportant part in English folk-lore as a representative of old runic faith” (Villon Soc. edition, p. xv.).
Remarks.—Mr. Gomme, in his interesting Introduction, points out several indications of considerable antiquity for the legend, various expressions in the Pepysian Chap-book (“in the marsh of the Isle of Ely,” “good ground”), indicating that it could trace back to the sixteenth century. On the other hand, there is evidence of local tradition persisting from that time onward till the present day (Weaver, Funerall Monuments, 1631, pp. 866-7; Spelman, Icenia, 1640, p. 138; Dugdale, Imbanking, 1662 (ed. 1772, p. 244); Blomefield, Norfolk, 1808, ix., pp. 79, 80). These refer to a sepulchral monument in Tylney churchyard which had figured on a stone coffin an axle-tree and cart-wheel. The name in these versions of the legend is given as Hickifric, and he is there represented as a village Hampden who withstood the tyranny of the local lord of the manor. Mr. Gomme is inclined to believe, I understand him, that there is a certain amount of evidence for Tom Hickathrift being a historic personality round whom some of the Scandinavian mythical exploits have gathered. I must refer to his admirable Introduction for the ingenious line of reasoning on which he bases these conclusions. Under any circumstances no English child’s library of folk-tales can be considered complete that does not present a version of Mr. Hickathrift’s exploits.
Source.—Told to Mrs. Balfour by Mrs. M. of S. Northumberland. Mrs. M.’s mother told the tale as having happened to a person she had known when young: she had herself seen the Hedley Kow twice, once as a donkey and once as a wisp of straw. “Kow” must not be confounded with the more prosaic animal with a “C.”
Parallels.—There is a short reference to the Hedley Kow in Henderson, l.c., first edition, pp. 234-5. Our story is shortly referred to thus: “He would present himself to some old dame gathering sticks, in the form of a truss of straw, which she would be sure to take up and carry away. Then it would become so heavy that she would have to lay her burden down, on which the straw would become ’quick,’ rise upright and shuffle away before her, till at last it vanished from her sight with a laugh and shout.” Some of Robin Goodfellow’s pranks are similar to those of the Hedley Kow. The old woman’s content with the changes is similar to that of “Mr. Vinegar.” An ascending scale of changes has been studied by Prof. Crane, Italian Popular Tales, p. 373.
Source.—Collected by Mrs. Gomme from an old woman at Deptford. It is to be remarked that “Gobborn Seer” is Irish (Goban Saor = free carpenter), and is the Irish equivalent of Wayland Smith, and occurs in several place names in Ireland.
Parallels.—The essence of the tale occurs in Kennedy, l.c., p. 67, seq. Gobborn Seer’s daughter was clearly the clever lass who is found in all parts of the Indo-European world. An instance in my Indian Fairy Tales, “Why the Fish Laughed” (No. xxiv.). She has been made a special study by Prof. Child, English and Scotch Ballads, i., 485, while an elaborate monograph by Prof. Benfey under the title “Die Kluge Dirne” (reprinted in his Kleine Schriften, ii., 156, seq.), formed the occasion for his first presentation of his now well-known hypothesis of the derivation of all folk-tales from India.
Remarks.—But for the accident of the title being preserved there would have been nothing to show that this tale had been imported into England from Ireland, whither it had probably been carried all the way from India.
Source.—Halliwell, Nursery Rhymes.
Parallels.—It is possible that this is an Eastern “sell”: it occurs at any rate as the first episode in Fitzgerald’s translation of Jami’s Salaman and Absal. Jami, ob. 1492, introduces the story to illustrate the perplexities of the problem of individuality in a pantheistic system.
Lest, like the simple Arab in the tale, I grow perplext, O God! ’twixt ME and THEE, If I—this Spirit that inspires me whence? If THOU—then what this sensual impotence? In other words, M. Bourget’s Cruelle Enigme. The Arab yokel coming to Bagdad is fearful of losing his identity, and ties a pumpkin to his leg before going to sleep. His companion transfers it to his own leg. The yokel awaking is perplexed like the pantheist.
If I—the pumpkin why on YOU? If YOU—then where am I, and WHO? Source.—Told to Mrs. Balfour by a little girl named Sally Brown, when she
