ISBN:
9780691252704
Language:
English
Pages:
1 Online-Ressource (264 p.)
,
10 b/w illus
Series Statement:
Oddly Modern Fairy Tales 28
Keywords:
Folklore
;
LITERARY CRITICISM / General
;
Brittany
;
Caroline Pedler
;
Illustrated
;
Michael Wilson
;
Princeton University Press
;
Princeton: literature
;
The Midnight Washerwoman and Other Tales of Lower Brittany by François-Marie Luzel
;
fairy tales
;
folklore
;
folktales
;
oral story
;
story performance
;
storytelling
;
traditional storytelling
;
translation
Abstract:
Twenty-nine Breton tales, as told over a series of long winter nights, featuring an ingenious miller, a Jerusalem-bound ant, a mad dash at midnight, and moreIn the late nineteenth century, the folklorist François-Marie Luzel spent countless winter evenings listening to stories told by his neighbors, local Breton farmers and villagers. At these social gatherings, known as veillées, Luzel recorded the tales in unusual detail, capturing a storytelling tradition that is now almost forgotten. The Midnight Washerwoman and Other Tales of Lower Brittany collects twenty-nine stories gathered by Luzel, many translated into English for the first time. The tales are presented in a series of five imaginary veillées, giving readers a unique opportunity to listen in on a long-ago winter's night of storytelling.Some of the stories mix the apparently supernatural with the everyday-as in the title tale, when a mysteriously nocturnal washerwoman causes three handsome lads to flee so quickly they lose their clogs in the process. Others invite listeners to root for the underdog, as when a simple miller outwits a powerful seigneur. Another tale must have been greeted with raucous laughter as it recounts an ascending ladder of obstacles-from a mouse to a cat to a man to God (or the Devil) himself-confronted by a traveling ant. Michael Wilson, the volume's editor and translator, provides a substantive introduction that discusses Luzel's work and the significance of Breton storytelling
Note:
Frontmatter
,
Contents
,
Acknowledgments
,
Preface
,
Introduction: François-Marie Luzel, Folklorist of Lower Brittany
,
The Tales
,
First Veillée
,
1. Cadiou the Tailor
,
2. The Priest of Saint Gily
,
3. The Purveyor of Paradise
,
4. The Just Man
,
5. The Light-Fingered Cow
,
Second Veillée
,
6. Goazic Who Went to the Land of Earthly Delights and Tricked Death for Five Hundred Years
,
7. The Two Friends (A Ghost Story)
,
8. The White Lady (A Ghost Story)
,
9. The Midnight Washerwoman (Plougonven)
,
10. The Devil's Horse
,
11. The Little Ant Going to Jerusalem and the Snow
,
Third Veillée
,
12. The Three Hairs from the Devil's Golden Beard
,
13. The Three Promises or The Devil Outwitted
,
14. Goulaffre the Giant
,
15. The Miller and His Seigneur
,
16. Jean and His Rod of Iron
,
Fourth Veillée
,
17. The Night Crier
,
18. The Burning Whip
,
19. The Midnight Washerwoman (Soëzic)
,
20. The Midnight Washerwoman (The Spinner)
,
21. Jean the Strong and the Three Giants
,
22. The Fisherman's Two Sons
,
23. The Cat and the Two Witches
,
Fifth Veillée
,
24. The Night Dancers
,
25. The Cooking-Pot Man
,
26. The Toad-Man
,
27. The Enchanted Princess
,
28. The Devil's Wife
,
29. N'oun-Doaré
,
About the Tales
,
Notes
,
Bibliography
,
In English
DOI:
10.1515/9780691252704
URL:
Cover
(lizenzpflichtig)
Permalink
