Si jeune et tendre femelle
N'aimant qu'enfantins ebats,
Avoit mis dans sa cervelle
Que Ricdin-Ricdon, je m'appelle,
Point ne viendroit dans mos laqs:
Mais sera pour moi la belle
Car on tel nom ne sçait pas.
There is a good deal of learned and mythologic speculation in MM. Grimm, as to the spinning of gold, for which we must refer the reader to their work. The dwarf has here, as usual, his abode in the almost inaccessible part of the mountains. In the original he rends himself asunder in his efforts to extricate the foot which in his rage he had struck into the ground.
The Goose-Girl, p. 142.—"Die Gänse-magd" of MM. Grimm; a story from Zwehrn. In the Pentamerone, iv. 7, there is a story which remarkably agrees with the present in some of its circumstances. The intended bride is thrown overboard while sailing to her betrothed husband, and the false one takes her place. The king is dissatisfied with the latter, and in his passion sends the brother of the lost lady (who had recommended his sister) to keep his geese. The true bride, who has been saved by a beautiful mermaid, or sea-nymph, rises from the water, and feeds the geese with princely food and rose-water. The king watches, observes the fair lady combing her beautiful locks, from which pearls and diamonds fall; and the fraud is discovered. The story of the Goose-Girl is certainly a very remarkable one, and has several traits of very original and highly traditional character. Tacitus mentions the divination of the ancient Germans by horses. Saxo Grammaticus also tells how the heads of horses offered in sacrifices were out off: and the same practice among the Wendi is mentioned by Prætorius. The horse without a head is mentioned by the Quarterly Reviewer as appearing in a Spanish story, and he vouches for its having also migrated into this country. "A friend," he adds, "has pointed out a passage in Plato de Legibus, lib. vi., in which the sage alludes to a similar superstition among the Greeks." Where the horse got his name of Falada MM. Grimm profess not to know, though the coincidence of the first syllable inclines them to assign to it some consanguinity with Roland's steed. The golden and silvery hair is often met with in these tales, and the speaking charm given by the mother (which is in the original a drop of blood, not a lock hair) is also not uncommon.
In the original, an oath is extorted by force from the true bride, and it is that which prevents her disclosure of the story to the king, who finds out a plan for her evading the oath, by telling the tale into the oven's mouth, whence of course it reaches him, though in a sufficiently secondhand way to save the fair lady's conscience.
Faithful John, p. 149.—"Der getreue Johannes;" from Zwehrn. Another somewhat similar story is current in Paderborn. The tale is a singular one, and contains so much of Orientalism that the reader would almost suppose himself in the Arabian Nights' Entertainments.
In the Pentamerone, iv. 9, is a story very much resembling this: the birds who foretell and forewarn against the disasters are two doves; and the whole happens by the contrivance, and is finally remedied by the power of an enchanter, the lady's father, who had sent the perils that menace the prince, in revenge for the carrying away of his daughter.
It should be added, that in the original, the father really cuts off the heads of his two children, who are restored to life in reward for his faith.
The reader will observe the coincidence of one portion of the story with the Greek fable of the Garment of Dejanira.
The Blue Light, p. 158.—"Das blaue Licht;" a Mecklenburg story. In the collection of Hungarian Tales of Georg von Gaal, it appears that there is one like this, called "The Wonderful Tobacco Pipe."
Ashputtel, p. 163.—"Aschen-puttel." Several versions of this story are current in Hesse and Zwehrn, and it is one of the most universal currency. We understand that it is popular among the Welsh, as it is also among the Poles; and Schottky found it among the Servian fables. Rollenhagen in his Froschmäuseler (a satire of the sixteenth century) speaks of the tale of the despised Aschenpössel; and Luther illustrates from it the subjection of Abel to his brother Cain. MM. Grimm trace out several other proverbial allusions even in the Scandinavian traditions. And lastly, the story is in the Neapolitan Pentamerone, under the title of "Cennerentola." An ancient Danish ballad has the incident of the mother hearing from her grave the sorrows of her child ill-used by the stepmother, and ministering thence to its relief. "The Slipper of Cinderella finds a paralled, though somewhat sobered, in the history of the celebrated Rhodope;"—so says the Editor of the new edition of Warton, vol. i. (86).
The Young Giant and the Tailor, p. 171.—This is compounded of two of MM. Grimm's tales, "Der junge Riese" and "Das tapfere Schneiderlein," with some curtailments, particularly in the latter. The whole has an intimate connection with the oldest Northern traditions, and will be recognised as concurring in many of its incidents with the tales of Owl-glass, Hickathrift, &c., so well known, and on which a good deal was said in the notes to the earlier portion of the volume. The service to the smith is a remarkable coincidence with Siegfried's adventures; and the mill-stone that falls harmless, reminds us of Thor's adventure with Skrymmer. The giant, moreover, is in true keeping with the Northern personages of that description, for whom the shrewd dwarf is generally more than a match; and the pranks played belong to the same class of performances as those of the hero Grettir when he kept geese upon the common. MM. Grimm quote a Servian tale given by Schottky, which resembles closely the conflict of the wits between the giant and the young man.
See further on the subject of the smith, the remarks of the Editor of the new Edition of Warton's History of English Poetry, in his Preface (p. 89).
The Crows and the Soldier, p. 183.—"Die Krähen;" a Mecklenburg story. MM. Grimm mention a similar tale by the Persian poet Nisami, recently noticed by Hammer; and they also notice coincidences in Bohemian and Hungarian tales.
Peewit, p. 187, is a translation of a story called Kibitz, from the Volks-Sagen, Märchen, und Legenden, of J.G. Büsching; but the tale in almost all its incidents coincides in substance with "Das Bürle"
