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The Man and the Girl at the Underground Mansion

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The Man and the Girl at the Underground Mansion (Danish: Karlen og pigen i den underjordiske herregård) is a Danish folktale collected by theologue Nikolaj Christensen in the 19th century, but published in the 20th century by Danish folklorist Laurits Bodker.

It is related to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom and distantly related to the Graeco-Roman myth of Cupid and Psyche, in that the heroine is forced to perform difficult tasks for a witch.

Summary

A man and a girl work at a farm. The man gifts the girl a black ribbon, which is stolen by a fox. The man goes after the fox and ends up at a country mansion. The girl hangs some clothes on the hanger at the farm, which are snatched by the same fox. The girl chases after the animal and arrives at the same mansion. The girl becomes a servant and is made to unload a dung heap and to wash a black cloth white as part of her tasks.

A man offers to help her in exchange for becoming the girl's sweetheart. The girl declines his offer, but the man helps her anyway: he strikes the dung heap and the cloth with a red wand. Next, the girl learns the man is set to be married to the farmer's daughter, and the girl is ordered to get jewels for the upcoming wedding. The man warns her that the jewel box belongs to a witch, and on the way there, she must fix a broken plank of a bridge, milk a cow, give water to a bull, shake a tree, enter the witch's house and accept the food she will offer (a milk bowl), but give it to the dog. The girl follows the instructions to the letter and gets the jewel box from the witch. The girl escapes, despite the witch commanding the dog, the cow, the bull, the tree and the bridge to stop her. At a safe distance, the girl opens the box and a bird flies out of it. The man appears to her, beats the box with the wand, and the bird flies back into it.

Lastly, the girl is set to hold a torch near the married couple. The girl holds the torch until it nearly burns her fingers, but the man puts the torch out and, in the dark, kills his bride and her mother. He marries the girl and they live in the mansion.[1]

Analysis

Tale type

The tale is classified in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index as tale type AaTh 428, "The Wolf": the heroine works for a witch and is forced to perform impossible tasks (such as washing a black object white and vice-versa), but she prevails with the aid of a wolf. One of the heroine's tasks is to go to another witch (the first witch's sister) and get from her a box with songs or a bridal dowry for the first witch.[2] In some variants, the heroine is sent with a letter to a second witch, who is to get the letter and kill the heroine.[3]

According to Danish scholar Inger Margrethe Boberg, the heroine's helper in type 428 may be a young man cursed to be an animal in Northern Europe, while in variants from Southern Europe her helper is the witch's own son, who falls in love with the heroine.[4]

However, tale type AaTh 428 is considered by scholars as a fragmentary version of the tale of Cupid and Psyche, lacking the initial part about the animal husband and corresponding to the part of the witch's tasks.[5][6][7][8] Accordingly, German folklorist Hans-Jörg Uther revised the international classification system and subsumed previous type AaTh 428, "The Wolf", under the new type ATU 425B, "Son of the Witch".[9]

Variants

The second revision of the folktale index, published in 1961 by Stith Thompson, located variants in Denmark, Sweden, Finland and among the Finnish-Swedish.[10] Thompson and Swedish scholar Waldemar Liungman [sv] listed variants of the type in Italy, Spain, Portugal, Norway, Iceland and Russia.[11][12]

Denmark

In a Danish tale from Vedersø [da] and published in magazine Skattegraveren with the title Hundebruden ("The Bride of the Hound"), a couple have a son named Jens Peter. After his mother dies, his father remarries, but Jens Peter's stepmother, a witch, turns him into a poodle hound. One day, a girl comes to work for the stepmother, and she orders her to milk four she-goats, then to winnow a pile of grains with a bottomless sieve, and finally to go to the witch's sister's house in a remote farm and ask for bread. The poodle hound helps the girl in all tasks, with the condition that the girl gives him three kisses and calls him "rosenmund" ("rosy-mouth"). They also throw the witch stepmother in an oven and kill her. At the end of the tale, the girl decapitates the dog, as per his request, and turns him back to Jens Peter.[13]

Danish scholars Axel Olrik and Inger Margrethe Boberg summarized a Danish tale collected by philologist Ida Falbe-Hansen from Funen, with the title Lille Per og lille Maren ("Little Per and Little Maren"). In this tale, the titular Per and Maren follow a ball to a hill-woman's lair, and work for her. Maren is forced to wash a piece of black wool white, then black again. Per helps her in this first task. Next, Maren is tasked with cleaning heaps of dung. Thirdly, she is ordered by the witch to go to the witch's sister's house and fetch ballads for the witch's daughter's wedding. Per intercepts Maren before she travels to Hell, and advises her: Maren is to oil gate hinges, shake a pear tree, turn loaves of bread inside an oven, milk a cow and give ladles to servants and groats to chicken. While in Hell, she must not eat anything, get the ballads and escape. Maren follows his warnings and walks out of Hell with a basket with ballads, but she peeps into the basket and the ballads fly out of it. Per appears and brings them back into the basket. Lastly, Maren is made to hold candles next to the witch's daughter and Per, but the boy asks the bride to trade places with Maren and hold them. The candles burn the witch's daughter. Per and Maren kill the witch, the lair becomes a castle and they live there.[14][15]

Sweden

Waldemar Liungman named tale type 428 in Sweden as Der musizierende Schrein oder Der Auftrag bei der Schwester der Hexe ("The Music-playing Wooden Box or the Orders from the Witch's Sister").[16]

In a tale collected by G. A. Åberg from Strömfors with the title Te trölla prinsn, a girl finds work with an old woman. The first task is to wash black wool white. The girl cries over the impossibility, until a wolf appears to her with a magic wand. With the wolf's help, the girl accomplishes the task. The old woman, then, orders her to wash the white wool back into black. As the third task, the old woman gives the girl a letter and orders her to deliver it to her sister, who lives across the lake. The wolf gives another magic wand to the girl to create a dry passageway across the lake, and bread, firewood and two breadspades. The girl walks to the old woman's sister and gives the bread to two oxen, throws the firewood in a bonfire and gives the breadspade to two women by a stove. The girl gives the letter to the old woman's sister, who invites her in to eat some sausages. The girl accepts the food, but hides it in her clothing to trick the old woman. At the end of the tale, the girl disenchants the her wolf helper, who was a prince under a curse.[17][18]

August Bondeson collected a Swedish tale titled Svarte Joder ("Black Joder"): a poor old man is starving on Christmas Eve, and loudly declares he wishes to trade his daughter Inga for a cake. Suddenly, the door opens and a person offers the man a cake, in exchange for Inga. So a deal is made, and the person takes Inga with him. The man lives with Inga, but only appears at night. Inga's father pays her a visit and asks her about her mysterious husband. After listening to his daughter's tale, the man suggests Inga takes a light to her bed at night to better see her husband. Inga takes a candle to her bed and spies on the man asleep beside her: he is a handsome man. A drop of wax falls on him and he wakes up, lamenting to Inga that a witch cursed him into another form unless he married her daughter, but now they must go to the witch's house. Inga takes service with the witch, who, before she leaves, orders the girl to wash black clothes white. However, as much as Inga tries to wash them, the clothes keep getting blacker. A man named Svarte Joder offers his help, if she calls him he friend. Inga declines his offers, but Svarte Joder helps her in the task. Next, the witch orders Inga to grind groats. Thirdly, the witch is preparing her daughter's wedding, and orders Inga to go to the witch's sister (also a sorceress) to get a box, and the girl must not look inside. Svarte Joder intercepts Inga and warns her not to eat anything in the sorceress's house. The girl goes there and is offered a calf's foot, which she hides in her clothing. Inga gets the box and leaves the house. On the road, Inga opens up the box and its contents fly over to a nearby treetop. Svarte Joder appears and places the contents back into the box. Lastly, the witch marries her daughter to Svarte Joder (back to human form), and forces Inga to hold torches in her hands for the whole night, hoping the torches will burn her. Svarte Joder approaches Inga and offers to release her from the task if she says she wants him to be her friend. Inga agrees and trades places with the witch's daughter, so that she, and not Inga, is burned by the torches. It happens so. The next morning, the witch goes to check on Svarte Joder, and, seeing that Inga is on the bed, and her daughter burned to ashes, explodes in anger.[19][20]

Iceland

Icelandic scholar Einar Ólafur Sveinsson located an Icelandic tale published by author Jon Árnáson, which he related to Cupid and Psyche, but supposed it was a combination of fragments of different stories. In this tale, a girl named Helga loses her favorite cow Bukolla, and looks for her in the mountains. She does not find it, but meets a troll witch, for whom she is forced to perform difficult tasks. The girl is helped by an ugly person called Dordingull, and the last task is for her to go to the Queen of the Dales (a character that Sveinsson considered to be a local and demythified Persephone).[21] The vile ogress sends Helga to the Queen of the Dales or Dale-queen (Icelandic: Daladrottning) to get a brooch she left there and a game of chess. Dordingull advises her to sit at the Dale-queen's table, make the sign of the cross to bless the tableware and eat not of the food the Queen offers, but to hide some portions in her clothes.[22][23]

Finland

Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne listed 6 variants of type 428 in Finland, five of them in manuscript versions.[24]

See also

References

  1. ^ Christensen, Nikolaj. Folkeeventyr fra Kær herred. Udgivet af Laurits Bodker. Kobenhavn: Akademisk forlag, 1963-1967. pp. 218-220.
  2. ^ Liungman, Waldemar. Die Schwedischen Volksmärchen: Herkunft und Geschichte. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022 [1961]. pp. 97-98. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/9783112618004-004
  3. ^ Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Third Printing. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 [1961]. p. 143.
  4. ^ Boberg, I. M. (1938). "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche". In: Classica et Medievalia 1: 196.
  5. ^ Anderson, Walter. "IV. Besprechungen". In: Fabula 1, no. 2 (1958): 284. https://doi.org/10.1515/fabl.1958.1.2.283
  6. ^ Swahn, Jan Öjvind. The Tale of Cupid and Psyche. Lund, C.W.K. Gleerup. 1955. p. 379.
  7. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  8. ^ Liungman, Waldemar. Die Schwedischen Volksmärchen: Herkunft und Geschichte. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022 [1961]. p. 98. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/9783112618004-004
  9. ^ Uther, Hans-Jörg. The types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, based on the System of Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson. Volume 1: Animal tales, tales of magic, religious tales, and realistic tales, with an introduction. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia-Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004. p. 250. ISBN 9789514109560.
  10. ^ Aarne, Antti; Thompson, Stith. The types of the folktale: a classification and bibliography. Folklore Fellows Communications FFC no. 184. Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 1973 [1961]. p. 145.
  11. ^ Thompson, Stith (1977). The Folktale. University of California Press. p. 100. ISBN 0-520-03537-2.
  12. ^ Liungman, Waldemar. Die Schwedischen Volksmärchen: Herkunft und Geschichte. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022 [1961]. p. 98. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/9783112618004-004
  13. ^ Skattegraveren. Volume 11. Januar-Juni 1889. pp. 188-192 (Tale nr. 553).
  14. ^ Olrik, Axel. Kilderne til Sakses oldhistorie: en literaturhistorisk undersøgelse. Volume 2: Sakses oldhistorie, norrøne sagaer og Danske sagn. Copenhagen: Wroblewski, 1894. pp. 237-238. OCLC 791764264.
  15. ^ Boberg, I. M. (1938). "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche". In: Classica et Medievalia 1: 196-197.
  16. ^ Liungman, Waldemar. Die Schwedischen Volksmärchen: Herkunft und Geschichte. Berlin, Boston: De Gruyter, 2022 [1961]. p. 97. https://doi-org.wikipedialibrary.idm.oclc.org/10.1515/9783112618004-004
  17. ^ Äberg, G. A. Nyländska folksagor. Helsingfors: Tidnings- & Tryckeri-Aktiebolagets Tryckeri. 1887. pp. 280-282 (Tale nr. 230).
  18. ^ Hackman, O. Finlands svenska folkdiktning. Skrifter / utgivna av Svenska litteratursällskapet i Finland. Helsingfors. 1917. pp. 159-160 (summary); 520 (classification).
  19. ^ Bondeson, August. Samlade skrifter. Tredje delen: Historiegubbar på Dal. Stockholm: Albert Bonniers Förlag. pp. 394-399.
  20. ^ Boberg, I.M. (1938). "The Tale of Cupid and Psyche". In: Classica et Medievalia 1: 190.
  21. ^ Sveinsson, Einar Ólafur. The Folk-Stories of Iceland. Revised by Einar G. Pétursson. Translated by Benedikt Benedikz. Viking Sociery for Northern Research; University College London, 2003. pp. 242-243. ISBN 0 903521 53 9.
  22. ^ Árnason, Jón, ed. (1866). "Bukolla". Icelandic Legends. Translated by Powell, George E. J.; Magnússon, Eirikur (Second series ed.). London: Longmans, Green and Co. pp. 511–519.
  23. ^ Rittershaus, Adeline. Die neuisländischen Volksmärchen. Halle: Max Niemeyer, 1902. pp. 79-81.
  24. ^ Aarne, Antti. Finnische Märchenvarianten. Verzeichnis der bis 1908 gesammelten Aufzeichnungen. FFC 5. Hamina: Suomalaisen Tiedeakatemian Kustantama, 1911. pp. XIXff, 37.
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