The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)
General
The English and Scottish popular ballads, volume 1 (of 5)
Ballads, English -- England -- Texts; Ballads, Scots -- Scotland -- Texts
[14] Grundtvig has noticed the resemblance of G.R. 64 and the
ballad.--Much of what follows is derived from the admirable Benfey's
papers, 'Die kluge Dirne, Die indischen Märchen von den klugen
Räthsellösern, und ihre Verbreitung über Asien und Europa,' Ausland,
1859, p. 457, 486, 511, 567, 589, in Nos 20, 21, 22, 24, 25.
[15] Ragnar Loðbrók (Saga, c. 4, Rafn, Fornaldar Sögur, I, 245), as
pointed out by the Grimms, notes to No 94, requires Kraka (Aslaug) to
come to him clothed and not clothed, fasting and not fasting, alone and
not without a companion. She puts on a fishing net, bites a leek, and
takes her dog with her. References for the very frequent occurrence of
this feature may be found in Oesterley's note to Gesta Romanorum, No
124, at p. 732.
[16] Benfey, Das Ausland, 1859, p. 459. The versions referred to are:
Shukasaptati (Seventy Tales of a Parrot), 47th and 48th night; the
Buddhist Kanjur, Vinaya, III, fol. 71-83, and Dsanglun, oder der Weise
u. der Thor, also from the Kanjur, translated by I.J. Schmidt, c. 23;
the Mongol translation of Dsanglun [see Popow, Mongolische
Chrestomathie, p. 19, Schiefner's preface to Radloff, I, xi, xii]; an
imperfect Singhalese version in Spence Hardy's Manual of Buddhism, p.
220, 'The History of Wisákhá;' 'Geschichte des weisen Heykar,' 1001
Nacht, Habicht, v. d. Hagen u. Schall, XIII, 71, ed. 1840; 'Histoire de
Sinkarib et de ses deux Visirs,' Cabinet des Fées, XXXIX, 266 (Persian);
two old Russian translations of Greek tales derived from Arabic, Pypin,
'in the Papers of the Second Division of the Imperial Acad. of Sciences,
St Petersburg, 1858, IV, 63-85;' Planudes, Life of Æsop; A. and A.
Schott, Walachische Mæhrchen, p. 125, No 9, 'Vom weissen und vom rothen
Kaiser;' Erdélyi, Népdalok és Mondák, III, 262, No 8, 'The Little Boy
with the Secret and his Little Sword.' To these is to be added,
'L'Histoire de Moradbak,' Caylus, Nouveaux Contes Orientaux, Œuvres
Badines, VII, 289 ff, Cabinet des Fées, XXV, 9-406 (from the Turkish?).
In the opinion of Benfey, it is in the highest degree likely, though not
demonstrable, that the Indian tale antedates our era by several
centuries. Ausland, p. 511; see also pp. 487, 459.
[17] Ingenuity is one of the six transcendental virtues of
Mahāyāna Buddhism. Schlagintweit, Buddhism in Tíbet, p. 36.
[18] The resemblance to the Siberian tale is here especially striking.
[19] The Shukasaptati, in the form in which we have them, are supposed
to date from about the 6th century, and are regarded as abridgments of
longer tales. The Vinaya probably took a permanent shape as early as the
beginning of the Christian era. As already remarked, there is scarcely a
doubt that the Indian story is some centuries older still.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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