I recently read The Types of the Irish Folktale by Sean ´O Súilleabháin and Reidar Th. Christiansen. This led me to the Schools' Collection - an effort by Irish folklorists to preserve old traditions by enlisting schoolchildren.
Fortunately for me, they are now in the process of digitizing this database! However, it took me a while to decipher the way the type index listed the examples of Type 700 found in the Schools collection. The website uses the format “The Schools’ Collection, Volume ----, Page ---. A few interesting trends showed up as I went through this. Probably the most prominent trend is that I can't read Gaelic. Especially handwritten Gaelic. So much handwriting. Variants of Thumbling
Variants of Thumbling that use the name “Tom Thumb”
Variants of the Young Giant
Other Tale Types
Gaelic, unable to read
Does not match These were listed in the Type Index, but do not seem to be variants of Type 700. I may have made a mistake in transcription here.
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As I search, I continually encounter a few resources that remain unavailable to me through the Internet and the American library system. I’ve decided to post them here, and should I find them and be able to read them, I’ll tick them off.
“Master Thumb,” retold by Htin Aung – What is the character’s name in the original dialect?? May 15, 2016: Miiiight have possibly found it, maybe. https://mmstorytellers.wordpress.com/2014/08/09/ငလက္မ/ Tale of the “hedgehog-sized boy.” The folklore collection of Jakob Hurt III, 27, 339/44. Estonian Literary Museum. “Thumb Boy” – name in original Oroqen dialect.
“Draganka,” from Senovo. Recorded by Milena Benovska in 1990. The only lead I’ve found on this is the title of a thesis by Benovska - "Териоморфни митически персонажи в българския фолклор/ Theriomorphic mythical characters in Bulgarian folklore." A couple of equivalents:
"Story-type Analysis of Mongolian Folktale Sheep-Tale Boy" Nights of Baghdad – Iraqi Folktales “A Dwarf.” Zong In-sob, Ondol Yawa, Nihonshoin, pp. 380, 1927. May 15, 2016: Found equivalent. Irish Thumblings. I recently checked out The Types of the Irish Folktale, which listed a lot of references for the Thumbling tale type, but to my disappointment, they've been pretty hard to track down.
Chinese Thumblings.
Miscellaneous Books
Good news and bad news. I found a book called Traditional Storytelling Today: An International Sourcebook, which includes at least a few examples of Type 700. It mentions Solnicho and Piperko, or Sultanka and Piperko from Senovo, Ossenets, and also a variant of Type 700b from Senovo, known as Draganka. Draganka is a little girl who drowns in a pot of beans. This was recorded in 1990 by Milena Benofska.
Another version is included in Collection of Folklore, Science and Letters vol. 16-17 and a variant starring an anthropomorphic rat appears in Shapkarev's Sbornik ot Bulgarski narodni oumocvorenia, vol. 8. Now if only I READ BULGARIAN The Story of Lentil (حكاية حبة العدس): A story from Kuwait. A woman is shocked when Allah answers her prayer and gives her a daughter the size of a lentil; she hides the child in a basket. However, the girl’s cousin, the Sultan’s son, is getting married. The neighbors learn that his paternal cousin is still unmarried and waiting him, and tradition demands that he marry her. The Sultan’s son sets things right and marries her, and she becomes a beautiful woman. Recounted in Spanish as “Lenteja” in ¿Qué es el folklore?, a doctoral thesis by Afrah Mulla Ali in 2011.
Katanya: In a Jewish oral tale from Turkey, a lonely old beggar woman is given a single date by a poor merchant (actually the prophet Elijah in disguise). The date hatches into the finger-sized Katanya, “the little one,” who sets to work cleaning the woman’s old house. They become a happy family; Katanya sleeps in a teacup, wears a hat made of a rabbit tail, nutshells for shoes, and rose petal dresses. A prince is drawn to her beautiful voice and invites the pair to the palace, where he marries Katanya.
I finally finally FINALLY found another female variant! Here, right here! Google Translate, thank you!
http://collectifconte.ish-lyon.cnrs.fr/Valorisation/Voyage_Tom_Pouce/page_espagne.html Yes, it's in French. But the story's Spanish and it's a variant of the generic Thumbling tale with a female protagonist called Maria comme l'ail, or Maria like Garlic. Still have to find out what that means in Spanish, but still, it's another girl. |
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Researching folktales and fairies, with a focus on common tale types. Archives
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