Tuesday, May 13, 2008

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English Fairy Tales

I. Tom Tit Tot

Source.-Unearthed by Mr. E. Clodd from the "Suffolk Notes and Queries" of the Ipswich Journal, andreprinted by him in a paper on "The Philosophy of Rumpelstiltskin" in Folk-Lore Journal, vii. 138-43. I have reduced the Suffolk dialect.

Parallels.-In Yorkshire this occurs as "Habetrot and Scantlie Mab," in Henderson's Folk-Lore of Northern Counties, 221-6; in Devonshire as "Duffy and the Devil" in Hunt's Romances and Drolls of the West of England, 239-47; in Scotland two variants are given by Chambers, Popular Rhymes of Scotland, under the title "Whuppity Stourie." The "name-guessing wager" is also found in "Peerifool", printed by Mr. Andrew Lang in Longman's Magazine, July 1889, also Folk-Lore, September, 1890. It is clearly the same as grimm's "Rumpelstiltskin" (No. 14); for other Continental parallels see Mr. Clodd's article, and Cosquin, Contes pop.de Lorraine, i. 269 seq.

Remarks.-One of the best folk-tales that have ever been collected, far superior to any of the continental variants of this tale with which I am acquainted. Mr. Clodd sees in the class of name-guessing stories, a "survival" of the superstition that to know a man's name gives you power over him, for which reason savages object to tell their names. It may be necessary, I find, to explain to the little ones that Tom Tit can only be referred to as "that," because his name is not known till the end.