"The Hedley Kow" is an English fairy tale, particular to the village of Hedley on the Hill in Northumberland. [2] It was collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales in 1894. [1] The story concerns a shapeshifting trickster known as the Hedley Kow.
A poor woman finds a pot on the road. She thinks it must have a hole for it to be discarded, but optimistically decides she might find a use for it as a flowerpot. Looking inside she discovers it is full of gold pieces, and decides to drag it home in her shawl. She drags it for a while, but when she looks back, the pot has become a lump of silver. She decides this is better than gold, as it is less likely to be stolen, and goes on. After a time she turns back again, to find the silver has turned into a chunk of iron. She observes this will be easier to sell, and that the penny pieces it will bring would be safer than either gold or silver. She goes on again, and when she turns back a third time, the iron has become a rock. She exclaims how convenient this will be as a doorstop, and happily goes home.
When she reaches her home, the rock transforms again, revealing itself to be the Hedley Kow, a mischievous shapeshifting creature. The creature trots off laughing, leaving the woman staring after it. She proclaims that it was quite a thing to have seen the Hedley Kow for herself, and goes inside to think about her good luck.
The Hedley Kow was a kind of elf noted for its mischievous habits of shapeshifting. Similar creatures include the Brag, also from Northumberland, and the Dutch Kludde and Oschaert. [3] However, the old woman's equanimity in face of the creature's changes distinguishes this tale.
The German fairy tale "Hans in Luck" has a similar sequence in which the character believes that every change is for the better. The Hedley Kow is likewise catalogued under ATU 1415 Lucky Hans. [4]
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"Hansel and Gretel" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812 as part of Grimms' Fairy Tales. It is also known as Little Step Brother and Little Step Sister.
Werewolf fiction denotes the portrayal of werewolves and other shapeshifting therianthropes, in the media of literature, drama, film, games and music. Werewolf literature includes folklore, legend, saga, fairy tales, Gothic and horror fiction, fantasy fiction and poetry. Such stories may be supernatural, symbolic or allegorical. A classic cinematic example of the theme is The Wolf Man (1941) which in later films joins with the Frankenstein Monster and Count Dracula as one of the three famous icons of modern day horror. However, werewolf fiction is an exceptionally diverse genre, with ancient folkloric roots and manifold modern re-interpretations.
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The Blue Mountains is a fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book (1894), but provided no bibliographical information and its origin remains obscure.
Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in his Celtic Fairy Tales. It is Aarne-Thompson type 709, Snow White. Others of this type include Bella Venezia, Nourie Hadig, La petite Toute-Belle and Myrsina.
Lovely Ilonka is a Hungarian fairy tale published in Ungarische Märchen by Elisabet Róna-Sklarek. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.
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The Snake Prince is an Indian fairy tale, a Punjabi story collected by Major Campbell in Feroshepore. Andrew Lang included it in The Olive Fairy Book (1907).
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Kiranmala is a Bengali folktale collected by author Dakshinaranjan Mitra Majumder and published in the compilation Thakurmar Jhuli, a collection of Bengali folk tales and fairy tales.
The full text of The Headley Kow at Wikisource
