A widow wanted her son to learn a trade. He insisted that he wanted to be a thief. She predicted he would end up hanging from a bridge. One day he did not go to church, and told her that the first trade she heard when she came out would be his. He came to the path and shouted "Thievery" in a disguised voice. She again predicted he would hang from the bridge but gave him to the Black Gallows Bird to learn the trade. The man taught him, and then said they must rob a man who had sold his cattle. On Halloween, they hid in the loft. The shifty lad went down and stirred up the cattle, sending people out; while they were gone, he stole nuts and sewed a leather hide to the thief. He cracked nuts, though the thief warned him he would be heard. He was heard, and the people came, and the thief ran off with the hide still attached. The people said he was stealing the hide and chased him. The Shifty Lad stole the gold and silver while they were gone, and brought them to the thief; they split them.
Soon, a tenant sent a man to get a wether to give as a wedding gift. The Shifty Lad bet his master that he could steal it from the man's back. When he was coming, the lad put a dirty shoe in his path; the man said that if he had the other one, he would clean this one and have a pair. The Shifty Lad ran ahead of his, and put the shoe in the way again. The man went back to get the other, and the lad took the wether and the shoes and won his bet. The tenant sent the same man after a kid. The lad bleated like the wether, and when the man searched for it, thinking to come back with both, the lad stole the kid. The third time, the tenant directed him to never let the wether go, and so he brought it home.
The shifty lad had his master hang him, and let him down when he kicked his legs. He praised it, and his master let him hang him, but the lad killed him. His wife was angry, and the lad fled. He took service with a wright who lived next to the king's storehouse, and broke into it to steal. The gifts persuaded the wright and his wife to let him. At the advice of the Seanagal, the king set a hogshead of pitch to catch the thief, and it caught the wright. The lad cut off his head to prevent their learning who he was.
The king displayed the body to discover who grieved at the sight, but when the wright's wife cried out, he cut his foot and pretended she cried over that. Then the body was hung from a tree for the same reason. The lad took a horse with casks of whiskey by them, as if he were hiding from the soldiers. They chased him, and he fled, leaving the horse. They took it back, found the whiskey, and became drunk. The lad took the body. The king sent a black pig about to dig up the body. When it rooted about the wright's house, the lad sent the soldiers inside to eat and drink while it searched. He killed the pig and buried it while they ate. The king sent men to discover where people had pig's flesh they could not account for; the lad killed the soldiers sent to his house, and then started a rumor that the soldiers meant to massacre them, so all the people killed the soldiers.
The Seanagal advised to give a ball, since the man would be the boldest and dance with the princess; when the lad did so, the Seanagal marked him with a black dot, but the lad saw it and marked the Seanagal himself with two and twenty other men with one. The king decided that he was beaten, and that he wanted so clever a man for his son-in-law. He had all the men with the black dots put in a room, and had a child give one an apple. The lad drew him with a shaving and a drone, and the child gave him the apple. They took the shaving and drone, but the child remembered them and still gave him the apple, so the shifty lad married the princess.
One day, while they walked on the bridge, the lad told the princess that his mother said he would hang from that bridge. She said that if he wished to go over the wall, she would hold him by her handkerchief. He did, and hanged there, but a cry went up about a fire, startling the princess. She let go. The lad fell and died.
Analysis
Folklorist Joseph Jacobs, in his commentaries to the tale Jack, the Cunning Thief,[4] mentions as parallel tale the story of The Shifty Lad.[5]
Irish folklorist Patrick Kennedy also listed Jack, The Cunning Thief as another variant of the Shifty Lad and, by extension, of The Master Thief cycle of stories.[6]
The Langs' Fairy Books are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections of fairy tales also known as Andrew Lang's "Coloured" Fairy Books or Andrew Lang's Fairy Books of Many Colors. In all, the volumes feature 798 stories, besides the 153 poems in The Blue Poetry Book.
"The Master Thief" is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Chr. Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe. The Brothers Grimm included a shorter variant as tale 192 in their fairy tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book. George Webbe Dasent included a translation of the tale in Popular Tales From the Norse. It is Aarne–Thompson type 1525A, Tasks for a Thief.
Farmer Weathersky is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Chr. Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in Norske Folkeeventyr.
Popular Tales of the West Highlands is a four-volume collection of fairy tales, collected and published by John Francis Campbell, and often translated from Gaelic. Alexander Carmichael was one of the main contributors. The collection in four volumes was first published in 1860–62 in Edinburgh. A new edition appeared under the auspices of the Islay Association in 1890–93. Campbell dedicated the work in 1860 to the son of my Chief, the Marquess of Lorne.
How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon is a Scottish fairy tale, collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands. He recorded it from a quarryman in Knockderry, Roseneath, named Angus Campbell.
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.
The Bird 'Grip' is a Swedish fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson type 550, the quest for the golden bird/firebird; other tales of this type include The Golden Bird, The Greek Princess and the Young Gardener, How Ian Direach got the Blue Falcon, The Nunda, Eater of People, and Tsarevitch Ivan, the Fire Bird and the Gray Wolf.
Molly Whuppie is an English fairy tale set in Scotland and collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. A Highland version, Maol a Chliobain, was collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Jacobs noted the relationship between the two tales, and an Irish variant, "Smallhead," and concluded that the tale was Celtic in origin.
"The Water of Life" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 97.
Conall Cra Bhuidhe or Conall Yellowclaw is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands.
The Sea-Maiden is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as John Mackenzie, fisherman, near Inverary. Joseph Jacobs included it in Celtic Fairy Tales.
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 Brown Bear of the Green Glen" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as John MacDonald, a "Traveling Tinker". He also noted the parallels with The Water of Life.
The Young King Of Easaidh Ruadh is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as James Wilson, a blind fiddler, in Islay. Andrew Lang included a variant in The Lilac Fairy Book, as "The King of the Waterfalls", listing his source West Highland Tales.
"The King of Lochlin's Three Daughters" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in his Popular Tales of the West Highlands, listing his informant as Neill Gillies, a fisherman near Inverary.
The King of England and his Three Sons is a Romani fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales. He listed as his source Francis Hindes Groome's In Gypsy Tents, where the informant was John Roberts, a Welsh Roma. Groome published the tale as An Old King and his three Sons in England.
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 Co. Kerry.
The Magic Book is a Danish fairy tale collected by Ewald Tang Kristensen in Eventyr fra Jylland. Andrew Lang included it in The Orange Fairy Book, listing it as translated by Mrs. Skavgaard-Pedersen.
"The Rider Of Grianaig, And Iain The Soldier's Son" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860–62), listing his informant as Donald MacNiven, a lame carrier, in Bowmore, Islay; the story was written down by Hector MacLean on 5 July 1859. Andrew Lang included it in The Orange Fairy Book (1906) as "Ian, the Soldier's Son".
Adventures of Gilla Na Chreck An Gour is an Irish fairy tale collected by folklorist Patrick Kennedy and published in Legendary Fictions of the Irish Celts (1866). The tale was also published by Irish poet Alfred Perceval Graves in his Irish Fairy Book (1909). Joseph Jacobs published the tale as The Lad with the Goat-Skin in his Celtic Fairy Tales.
References
↑ Campbell, John Francis. Popular tales of the west Highlands. Paisley A. Gardner. 1890-1893. pp. 330-349.
↑ Douglas, George Brisbane, Sir, bart. Scottish Fairy And Folk Tales. London: W. Scott, 1901. pp. 275-293.
↑ Campbell, John Francis. Popular tales of the west Highlands. Paisley A. Gardner. 1890-1893. p. 330.
↑ Jacobs, Joseph. More Celtic Fairy Tales. New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1895. pp. 11-25.
↑ Jacobs, Joseph. More Celtic Fairy Tales. New York. G. P. Putnam's Sons. 1895. p. 224.
↑ Kennedy, Patrick. The fireside stories of Ireland. Dublin: M'Glashan and Gill: P. Kennedy. 1870. pp. 38-46 and 165.
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