Même motif structurel dans « The Tale of the Queen Who Sought a Drink From a Certain Well », conte écossais recueilli de la bouche d´une informatrice locale par le folkloriste John Francis Campbell dans Popular Tales of the West Highlands (1860), et dont les traces les plus lointaines remonteraient à la Complaynt of Scotland de 1548.
"They had betaken themselves to rest in the night when the toad came to the door saying:--
"A CHAOMHAG, A CHAOMHAG,
AN CUIMHNEACH LEAT
AN GEALLADH BEAG
A THUG THU AIG
AN TOBAR DHOMH,
A GHAOIL, A GHAOIL."
"Gentle one, gentle one,
Rememberest thou
The little pledge
Thou gavest me
Beside the well,
My love, my love."
When he was ceaselessly saying this, the girl rose and took him in, and put him behind the door, and she went to bed; but she was not long laid down, when he began again saying, everlastingly:--
"A hàovaig, a hàovaig,
An cuineach leat
An geallug beag
A hoog oo aig
An tobar gaw,
A géule, a géule."
Then she got up and she put him under a noggin; that kept him quiet a while; but she was not long laid down when he began again, saying --
"A hàovaig, a hàovaig,
An cuineach leat
An geallug beag
A hoog oo aig
An tobar gaw,
A géule, a géule."
She rose again, and she made him a little bed at the fireside; but he was not pleased, and he began again saying, "A chaoimheag, a chaoimheag, an cuimhneach leat an gealladh beag a thug thu aig an tobar dhomb, a ghaoil, a ghaoil." Then she got up and made him a bed beside her own bed; but he was without ceasing, saying, "A chaoimheag, a chaoimheag, an cuimhneach leat an gealladh beag a thug a thug thu aig an tobar dhomb, a ghaoil, a ghaoil." But she took no notice of his complaining, till he said to her, "There is an old rusted glave behind thy bed, with which thou hadst better take off my head, than be holding me longer in torture."
She took the glave and cut the head off him. When the steel touched him, he grew a handsome youth; and he gave many thanks to the young wife, who had been the means of putting off him the spells, under which he had endured for a long time. Then he got his kingdom, for he was a king; and he married the princess, and they were long alive and merry together".
Popular Tales of the West Highlands: Orally Collected, vol. 2 (Edinburgh: Edmonston and Douglas, 1860), no. 33, pp. 130-32.
Enfin, même décapitation du batracien dans la version anglo-écossaisse The Well of the World's End, recueillie par Joseph Jacobs, l´éditeur du journal fondateur Folklore, dans ses célèbres English Fairy Tales (1890, n. 41)
And when the frog had finished, it said:
"Go with me to bed, my hinny, my heart,
Go with me to bed, my own darling;
Mind you the words you spake to me,
Down by the cold well, so weary."
But that the girl wouldn't do, till her stepmother said: "Do what you promised, girl; girls must keep their promises. Do what you're bid, or out you go, you and your froggie."
So the girl took the frog with her to bed, and kept it as far away from her as she could. Well, just as the day was beginning to break what should the frog say but:
"Chop off my head, my hinny, my heart,
Chop off my head, my own darling;
Remember the promise you made to me,
Down by the cold well so weary."
At first the girl wouldn't, for she thought of what the frog had done for her at the Well of the World's End. But when the frog said the words over again she went and took an axe and chopped off its head and lo! and behold, there stood before her a handsome young prince, who told her that he had been enchanted by a wicked magician, and he could never be unspelled till some girl would do his bidding for a whole night, and chop off his head at the end of it.”
Enfin d´autres versions soumettent le batracien à un traitement encore plus cruel, la princesse l´ébouillantant vivant tel que l´évoque Maria Leach dans Funk & Wagnalls standard dictionary of folklore, mythology, and legend. New York: Funk & Wagnalls (1972).
Aucun commentaire:
Enregistrer un commentaire