The Rogues' Holiday/ The Troublesome Visitors

While reading The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales this weekend, I came across two stories that were so similar, they had to be variants of the same tale:

The Rogues' Holiday:

A rooster and a hen decided to take a trip into the country to hunt for nuts. They came across a pile, but as they were eating and gathering them, a duck came along and accused them of stealing her winter stash. The rooster and the duck fought, and the duck lost. As punishment, the rooster hooked the duck up to a cart made of nut shells and forced her to pull the couple back home. Along the way, they encountered a pin and a needle who were traveling on foot. The pin and needle asked to ride along, and as they were small the rooster and hen allowed it. (The duck, obviously, had no say in the matter.) Because of the duck's short legs, the group only made it as far as an inn before it became too dark. Though they had no money, the rooster convinced the innkeeper that he could have an egg from the hen and from the duck in the morning for his breakfast. Early the next morning though, the rooster and the hen made a breakfast of the hen's egg, moved the sleeping needle and pin to the innkeeper's chair and towel, and flew out the window home. The duck, awoken by their flight, found a stream and swam back home, and the innkeeper was stabbed by pin and scratched by the needle when he went to sit down and then wash his face. The story ends with the important, if somewhat common thought of, "then [the innkeeper] took an oath that he would never again admit such knaves into his house -- ragamuffins who ate a great deal, paid nothing, and above all, instead of thanks, performed knavish tricks."

Slightly less cruel is the story of The Troublesome Visitors.

The Troublesome Visitors:

In this story, a rooster and a hen decide to visit their old master, Dr. Korbes. They build a cart and hook up 4 mice to it and begin their journey. Along the way, the encounter and pick up a cat, a millstone, an egg, a duck, a needle, and a pin. The arrive at Dr. Korbes house and find that he is not at home, however that does not stop them from making themselves comfortable. The rooster and hen nested on a perch, the cat crawled into the fireplace, the duck wattled out to a stream, the egg rolled up in a towel, the needled sat (point upward) in a chair, the pin jumped into the bed, and the millstone sat over the entrance door. When Dr. Korbes came home at night, the cat threw ash in his face as he tried to light a fire, the duck splashed him with water from the stream as he tried to get the ash out of his eyes, the egg broke on his face and glued his eyes shut as he tried to wipe off the water, the needle pricked him, the pin scratched him, and the millstone dropped on his head and killed him when he tried to leave. The rooster and hen were nowhere to be seen during Dr. Korbes' last hours. The story ended with, "this Dr. Korbes must really have been a very wicked, or a very injured man."

The Rogues' Holiday is also listed as The Pack of Ragamuffins in other books. The Aarne Thompson classifcation code for these stories is AT 210. I need to learn more about Aarne Thompson. Yay, more research!

Clever Elfe/The Six Fools

While reading through my copy of The Complete Brothers Grimm Fairy Tales, I came across the story of Clever Elfe. The story begins very similarly to one of Zora Neale Hurston's collected folktales that we have in the library, The Six Fools. (Original Hurston story found in Hurston's Every Tongue Got to Confess (HarperCollins, 2001))

In Hurston's version, a young man comes courting a young girl, whose parents believe her to be very clever. While the young man is visiting, the parents send the girl to the basement to get the man some cider. While down in the cellar, the girl starts thinking about their wedding, their marriage, and what to name their first child. She lets the cider run during this and stays in the cellar thinking. Eventually the mother goes down to find out what is taking so long. She finds her daughter standing and thinking, with cider up to her ankles. The daughter explains what she has been thinking about and the mother joins her. The father eventually goes down, the cider is now at their waist's and the cycle continues. Eventually the young man goes down the cellar and finds the three with cider up to their necks. When they tell him what they've been thinking about, he tells them that they are all fools and he won't marry the girl until he finds three people who are as big a fool as they are. As he travels, he finds:

1. A man who attempts to jump into his pants by jumping in the air.
2. A woman who tries to brighten up her kitchen by hauling sunshine into her house in a wheelbarrow.
3. A farmer feeding his cow on the roof.

Once he finds these three, he returns to the girl, only to discover that she's married another man in his time away from her. It leaves the reader with the question: Who's the biggest fool?

Elfe's story is slightly different. In Elfe's story, Elfe's parents believe her to be the cleverest girl ever. They brag of her cleverness to a young man named Hans, but do not tell him of her idleness or her laziness. Like with Hurston, she goes down to the cellar to fetch him some cider, but instead of thinking about a child, she notices a crossbar left in the ceiling by a mason. She starts crying because she believes that if she marries Hans, she will be killed by the crossbar. The cycle of people going down to find Elfe is similar, but is expanded to include servants, all of whom find her extremely clever for finding out this information. Eventually Hans goes down stairs and find the group crying with cider or ale all around them. Unlike Hurston's young man, Hans believes Elfe is quite clever for seeing this, and marries her. He takes her home, still unaware of her idleness, and they have a few wonderful days together. Eventually Hans goes out to earn some money and he asks Elfe to cut down the corn in their field. She goes out to the field and falls asleep, waking up hours later. By this time, Hans is extremely upset that she isn't at home, the work isn't done, and his supper isn't ready. He finds her in the corn field and covers her with a fowler's net covered in tiny bells and heads home. When Elfe awakens, she begins to walk home in the dark, but the sound of the bells confuse her until she's not sure who she is. When she gets back to their cottage, she knocks on the window and asks Hans if Elfe is home. He tells her that she is, and Elfe exclaims, "Then I am not the clever Elfe after all." Elfe wanders from house to house inquiring who she is, but no one will let her in and she is never heard from again. The story ends with the humorous moral, "So, after all, it is better to be industrious than clever."

Isn't that a great message to keep the children in line?

:)