Twenty-nine Breton tales,as told over a series of long winter nights,featuring an ingenious miller,a Jerusalem-bound ant,a mad dash at midnight,and moreIn the late nineteenth century,the folklorist Franois-Marie Luzel spent countless winter evenings listening to stories told by his neighbors,local Breton farmers and villagers. At these social gatherings,known as veillées,Luzel recorded the tales in unusual detail,capturing a storytelling tradition that is now almost forgotten. The Midnight Washerwoman and Other Tales of Lower Brittany collects twenty-nine stories gathered by Luzel,many translated into English for the first time. The tales are presented in a series of five imaginary veillées,giving readers a unique opportunity to listen in on a long-ago winter's night of storytelling.Some of the stories mix the apparently supernatural with the everyday-as in the title tale,when a mysteriously nocturnal washerwoman causes three handsome lads to flee so quickly they lose their clogs in the process. Others invite listeners to root for the underdog,as when a simple miller outwits a powerful seigneur. Another tale must have been greeted with raucous laughter as it recounts an ascending ladder of obstacles-from a mouse to a cat to a man to God (or the Devil) himself-confronted by a traveling ant. Michael Wilson,the volume's editor and translator,provides a substantive introduction that discusses Luzel's work and the significance of Breton storytelling.
Publisher: Princeton University PressISBN: 9780691252698Number of pages: 264Dimensions: 197 x 140 mm
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