_Source_.--Campbell (_Pop. Tales, W. Highlands_, No. ii.), with touches
from the seventh variant and others, including the casket and key
finish, from Curtin's "Son of the King of Erin" (_Myths, &c., 32
seq._). I have also added a specimen of the humorous end pieces added
by Gaelic story-tellers; on these tags see an interesting note in
MacDougall's _Tales_, note on p. 112. I have found some difficulty in
dealing with Campbell's excessive use of the second person singular,
"If thou thouest him some two or three times, 'tis well," but beyond
that it is wearisome. Practically, I have reserved _thou_ for the
speech of giants, who may be supposed to be somewhat old-fashioned. I
fear, however, I have not been quite consistent, though the _you's_
addressed to the apple-pips are grammatically correct as applied to the
pair of lovers.
_Parallels_.--Besides the eight versions given or abstracted by
Campbell and Mr. Curtin's, there is Carleton's "Three Tasks," Dr.
Hyde's "Son of Branduf" (MS.); there is the First Tale of MacInnes
(where see Mr. Nutt's elaborate notes, 431-43), two in the _Celtic
Magazine_, vol. xii., "Grey Norris from Warland" (_Folk-Lore Journ._ i.
316), and Mr. Lang's Morayshire Tale, "Nicht Nought Nothing" (see _Eng.
Fairy Tales_, No. vii.), no less than sixteen variants found among the
Celts. It must have occurred early among them. Mr. Nutt found the
feather-thatch incident in the _Agallamh na Senoraib_ ("Discourse of
Elders"), which is at least as old as the fifteenth century. Yet the
story is to be found throughout the Indo-European world, as is shown by
Prof. Köhler's elaborate list of parallels attached to Mr. Lang's
variant in _Revue Celtique_, iii. 374; and Mr. Lang, in his _Custom and
Myth_ ("A far travelled Tale"), has given a number of parallels from
savage sources. And strangest of all, the story is practically the same
as the classical myth of Jason and Medea.
_Remarks_.--Mr. Nutt, in his discussion of the tale (MacInnes, _Tales_
441), makes the interesting suggestion that the obstacles to pursuit,
the forest, the mountain, and the river, exactly represent the boundary
of the old Teutonic Hades, so that the story was originally one of the
Descent to Hell. Altogether it seems likely that it is one of the
oldest folk-tales in existence, and belonged to the story-store of the
original Aryans, whoever they were, was passed by them with their
language on to the Hellenes and perhaps to the Indians, was developed
in its modern form in Scandinavia (where its best representative "The
Master Maid" of Asbjörnsen is still found), was passed by them to the
Celts and possibly was transmitted by these latter to other parts of
Europe, perhaps by early Irish monks (see notes on "Sea-Maiden"). The
spread in the Buddhistic world, and thence to the South Seas and
Madagascar, would be secondary from India. I hope to have another
occasion for dealing with this most interesting of all folk-tales in
the detail it deserves.