This tale of a false bride temporarily supplanting the true bride is common, with many delightful variations and additions, to Bulgaria (Grozdanka), Albania or Greece (Lorbeerkind), Denmark (Allerliebste Freund), and Germany (Gänsemagd of the Grimms); and it also occurs in the thirteenth-century compilations of Saxo Grammaticus (Sigrid), and in the Italian collection of the seventeenth century known as the Pentamerone.[1] It may be possible to sift and criticise this group of legends when fuller evidence, and especially evidence of the savage parallels which probably exist, has come to light. At present, I am chiefly anxious to draw attention to their presence and diffusion. Any further versions would be acceptable, but savage parallels would be of the greatest value, and have as yet eluded discovery.
Any criticism, therefore, of these stories, as of a group of legends, would as yet seem premature. But their literary interest, is, I think, their least claim to attention. The real interest of the group seems to me to lie in the possibility of these tales having originated in certain primitive ideas and usages, which at present can be only guessed at, but which it may be quite possible to trace and follow out
- ↑ I owe to Dr. Weinhold, President of the Verein für Volkskunde, the reference to the "False Bride" in the article on Saxo Grammaticus published by Herr Olrik in the Zeitschrift des Vereins für Volkskunde, vol. ii. No. 3, p. 252; in Herr Olrik's article will be found the Danish "Allerliebste Freund", and others. The remaining references are: Kreck, Trad. Lit., p. 82; Zeitschrift für Ethnologie, vol. vii, p. 236-7, where Mannhardt gives many further references, and speaks of the tale as one widely diffused through South Europe; Hahn, Griechische und Albanische Märchen, p. 163, No. 21; "Goose Girl", Grimm's German Stories, English ed., Reprint, p. 151; Pentamerone, iv, 7. Mr. Jacobs informs me that the mention in his paper on the "Science of Fairy Tales" (Folk-lore Congress, 1891, Report, p. 77) of the Substituted Bride as a type in folk-tales, referred to such stories as the Goose-Girl. The Handbook of Folk-lore recently issued by the Society classifies, in the section on Folk-tale Types, the Pentamerone version as Type No. 26, and names it the "Bertha Type".
