The Tale of the Hoodie (Scottish Gaelic: Ursgeul na Feannaig) [1] is a Scottish fairy tale, collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands . [2] Andrew Lang included it, as The Hoodie-Crow, in The Lilac Fairy Book . [3]
In the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, the tale falls under the cycle of the Search for the Lost Husband , wherein the heroine marries a prince in enchanted form, betrays him and has to search for him after he vanishes.
According to Cambpbell, the tale was collected by Hector MacLean in Islay from an informant named Ann MacGilvray, a "Cowal woman". [4]
A farmer's three daughters are each wooed in turn by a hoodie crow. The older two repulse it because it is ugly, but the youngest accepts it, saying it is a pretty creature. After they marry, the crow asks whether she would rather have it be a crow by day and a man by night, or the other way around. She chooses a crow by day, and during the night, he becomes a handsome man.
She has a son. One night, after music puts everyone to sleep, the baby is stolen. The next two years, it happens again, with two more babies. The hoodie crow takes her, with her sisters, to another house. He asks if she has forgotten anything. She has forgotten her coarse comb. The coach becomes a bundle of faggots, and her husband becomes a crow again. He flies off, but his wife chases him. Every night, she finds a house to stay in, in which a woman and a little boy live; the third night, the woman advises her that if the crow flies into her room in the night, she should catch him. She tries, but falls asleep. The crow drops a ring on her hand. It wakes her, but she is only able to grab one feather.
The woman tells her that the crow flew over the hill of poison and she will need horseshoes to follow him, but if she dresses as a man and goes to a smithy, she will learn how to make them. She does so and with the shoes, crosses the hill.
She arrives at a town to find that her husband is to marry a daughter of a great gentleman. A cook asks her to cook the wedding feast, so that he can see a race, and she agrees. She puts the ring and the feather in the broth. He finds them and demands to see the cook, and then declares he will marry her.
They go back and retrieve their three sons from the houses where she had stayed. [5]
The tale belongs to the cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, which, in the international Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index, falls under the more general type ATU 425. In this cycle, the heroine is a human maiden who marries a prince that is cursed to become an animal of some sort. She betrays his trust and he disappears, prompting a quest for him. [6] American folklorist D. L. Ashliman classified the story The Tale of the Hoodie (and its republication, The Hoodie-Crow) as type 425A, "The Animal (Monster) as Bridegroom". [7] Conversely, scholar Jan-Öjvind Swahn , in his monograph about Cupid and Psyche, classified the tale under the subsidiary type Aa 425X, a miscellaneous subtype that encompasses tales that do not fit under the more specific types Swahn adduced. [8]
The motif of the separation of the heroine from her children is located by scholarship across Celtic and Germanic speaking areas. [9] [10] [11]
"East of the Sun and West of the Moon" is a Norwegian fairy tale. It was included by Andrew Lang in The Blue Fairy Book (1889).
The Brown Bear of Norway is an Irish fairy tale collected by Patrick Kennedy which appeared in his Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (1866). It was later included by Andrew Lang in his anthology The Lilac Fairy Book (1910), though Lang misattributed his source as West Highland Tales.
Graciosa and Percinet is a French literary fairy tale by Madame d'Aulnoy. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.
The Sprig of Rosemary is a Catalan fairy tale from Spain collected by Dr. D. Francisco de S. Maspons y Labros in Cuentos Populars Catalans. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book.
"The Tale of the Queen Who Sought a Drink From a Certain Well" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as Mrs. MacTavish, Port Ellen, Islay, and noting the story could be traced back to 1548.
The Daughter of the Skies is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as James MacLauchlan, a servant from Islay.
The Three Daughters of King O'Hara is an Irish fairy tale collected by Jeremiah Curtin in Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland. Reidar Th. Christiansen identified its origin as County Kerry.
"The Little Girl Sold with the Pears" is an Italian fairy tale published by Italo Calvino in Italian Folktales, from Piedmont. Ruth Manning-Sanders included a variant, as "The Girl in the Basket", in A Book of Ogres and Trolls.
The King of Love is an Italian fairy tale from Sicily collected by Giuseppe Pitre and translated into English by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.
Le Serpentin Vert is a French fairy tale written by Marie Catherine d'Aulnoy, popular in its day and representative of European folklore, that was published in her book New Tales, or Fairies in Fashion, in 1698. The serpent is representative of a European dragon. His description is: "he has green wings, a many-coloured body, ivory jaws, fiery eyes, and long, bristling hair."
Tulisa, the Wood-Cutter's Daughter is an Indian legend published as an annex to Somadeva Bhaṭṭa's work, related to Cupid and Psyche.
The Crow is a Slavic fairy tale of Polish origin, translated by Hermann Kletke as Die Krähe, in his folktale compilation Märchensaal aller Völker. Andrew Lang included it in The Yellow Fairy Book.
In folkloristics, "The Animal as Bridegroom" refers to a group of folk and fairy tales about a human woman marrying or being betrothed to an animal. The animal is revealed to be a human prince in disguise or under a curse. Most of these tales are grouped in the international system of Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index under type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband". Some subtypes exist in the international classification as independent stories, but they sometimes don't adhere to a fixed typing.
La Fada Morgana is a Catalan fairy tale or rondalla, first collected by Majorcan priest and author Antoni Maria Alcover. 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.
The Tale of the Woodcutter and his Daughters is an Egyptian folktale related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom. It mostly follows subtype ATU 425D, "The Vanished Husband", which segues into tale type ATU 425B, "The Son of the Witch", with the heroine's tasks for the supernatural husband's mother - subtypes of the more general type ATU 425, "The Search for the Lost Husband".
The Story of Princess Zeineb and King Leopard is a French language fairy tale published in the 18th century. The tale belongs to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom as a subtype, with few variants reported across Europe. In it, the heroine is delivered to a cursed or enchanted prince, but breaks a taboo and loses him; later, she finds work elsewhere and wards off the unwanted advances of male suitors with the magical object her enchanted husband gave her.
Sigurd, the King's Son is an Icelandic fairy tale collected and published by author Jón Árnason. It is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, wherein a human princess marries a prince under an animal curse, loses him and has to search for him.
The Padlock is a literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in the Pentamerone, as the ninth story of the second day.
The White Hound of the Mountain is an Irish folktale collected in the early 20th century and published in academic journal Béaloideas. It is related to the international cycle of the Animal as Bridegroom or The Search for the Lost Husband, wherein a human maiden marries a man under an animal curse, loses him and has to search for him.
The Donkey's Head is a Jewish-Tunisian folktale collected by author Alice Fermé and published in the French journal Revue de Traditions Populaires, in late-19th century.
