GENERAL SERIES Nos. 100 and 101 LANGUAGE SERIES, VOL. II. No. 34. Pp. 319-471 No. 34 EUROPEAN TALES AMONG THE NORTH A STUDY IN THE MIGRATION OF FOLK-TALES. By STITH THOMPSON, PH. D. Professor of English in Colorado College. COLORADO SPRINGS, COLORADO APRIL-MAY, 1919 Published by Authority of the Board of Trustees of Colorado College every six weeks during the Academic Year. Entered as second-class matter, September 23, 1905, at the Post Office in Colorado Springs, Colorado, under Act of Congress of July, 1904. Nos. 1-29 Science Series, 1-4 Social Science Series and 1-14 Language Series, have appeared in Colorado College Publication, Vols. 1-10 inclusive. Nos. 1-17 Science Series, 1-3 Social Science Series and 1-9 Language Series, are out of print. No. 1. 2. 3. + The Myxomycetes of Colorado.-W. C. Sturgis. On the Transformation of Algebraic Equations, by Erland A Comparison of Temperatures (1906) Between Colorado 5. Meteorological Statistics for 1907.-F. H. Loud. 6. 7. The Distribution of Woody Plants in the Pikes Peak Region. A History of the Arithmetical Methods of Approximation 8. The Succession of Plant Life on the Gravel Slides in the Vicinity of Pikes Peak.-Edward C. Schneider. 9. 10. 11. The History of Colorado Mammalogy.-Edward R. Warren. A Guide to the Botanical Literature of the Myxomycetes The Myxomycetes of Colorado, II.-W. C. Sturgis. 13. The Birds of El Paso County, Colorado, I and II.-Charles E. H. Aiken and Edward R. Warren. 14. Soil Fertility.-Guy Wendell Clark. SOCIAL SCIENCE SERIES-VOL. II. No. 11. The Present Status and Probable Future of the College in the West.-William F. Slocum. 12. 13. The Relation of Scholarship to Partial Self-Support in Col- The Growth of Colorado College.-Edited by Jessie B. 14. Report on College and University Administration. Part I. LIST OF ABBREVIATIONS USED IN THIS VOLUME * BAAS-British Association for the Advancement of Science, Re ports. BBAE-Bulletin of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Bolte und Polívka-Bolte und Polívka, Anmerkungen zu den Kinder- und Hausmärchen der Brüder Grimm. CI-Publications of the Carnegie Institution. Cosquin E. Cosquin, Contes Popularies de Lorraine. FM-Field Museum of Natural History, Anthropological Series. GSCan-Geological Survey of Canada, Anthropological Series. JAFL Journal of American Folk-Lore. JAI-Journal of the Anthropological Institute of Great Britain and Ireland. JE-Publications of the Jesup North Pacific Expedition. PaAM-Anthropological Papers of the American Museum of Natural History. PAES-Publications of the American Ethnological Society. Rand-S. T. Rand, Legends of the Micmacs. RBAE-Report of the Bureau of American Ethnology. Russell-Frank Russell, Explorations in the Far North (University of Iowa, 1898). UCal-University of California Publications in American Archaeology and Ethnology. UPenn-University of Pennsylvania, The University Museum Anthropological Publications. VKAWA-Verhandelingen der Koninklijke Akademie van Wetenschappen te Amsterdam. * These abbreviations conform to those adopted by the Journal of American Folk-Lore. See vol. xxx, p. v. INTRODUCTION Three centuries of uninterrupted contact with the European settlers of North America have brought to the native Indian inhabitants a notable modification in their entire civilization. Socially and economically they are approaching yearly to the white man's standard. It is in the life of the imagination-in art and literature that peoples are most conservative. Yet even in their folktales the Indians have gradually taken over a large admixture of European material. It is the purpose of this paper to study a portion of these European motives current in North America Indian legend. Only such stories have been treated here as are fairly complete examples of well-known folk-tales of the Old World. No cases where there was reasonable doubt of direct borrowing have been admitted. Hundreds of interesting parallels existing in tales belonging otherwise to native cycles have been left out of consideration, because this whole class of analogues demands separate study. Besides these, discussion of several special incidents, such as the Obstacle Flight and the Swan Maiden*, which offered peculiar difficulties, has been postponed, except where they have been found in obvious borrowings§. In every case the tales admitted have gone back to definite European cycles. These familiar stories have come to the Indian at various times and from several sources. The two or three centuries' contact with the French in Canada has been the most powerful influence; it has introduced the largest number of different tales to the natives. The Spanish conquerors at the South and Southwest have * See Boas, "Mythology and Folk-Tales of the North American Indians", JAFL xxvii, 386. § See pp. 348 ff. and 366 ff. below. |