Page 168. I have no idea who this Granya-Öi was. Her appearance in
this story is very mysterious, for I have never met any trace of her
elsewhere. The name appears to mean Granya the Virgin.
[Our story belongs to the group—the calumniated and exposed daughter
or daughter-in-law. But in a German tale, belonging to the forbidden
chamber series (Grimm’s, No. 3, Marienkind), the Virgin Mary becomes
godmother to a child, whom she takes with her into heaven, forbidding
her merely to open one particular door. The child does this, but denies
it thrice. To punish her the Virgin banishes her from heaven into a
thorny wood. Once, as she is sitting, clothed in her long hair solely,
a king passes, sees her, loves and weds her, in spite of her being
dumb. When she bears her first child, the Virgin appears, and promises
to give her back her speech if she will confess her fault; she refuses,
whereupon the Virgin carries off the child. This happens thrice, and the
queen, accused of devouring her children, is condemned to be burnt. She
repents, the flames are extinguished, and the Virgin appears with the
three children, whom she restores to the mother. Can there have been any
similar form of the forbidden chamber current in Ireland, and can there
have been substitution of Grainne, Finn’s wife, for the Virgin Mary, or,
_vice versa_, can the latter have taken the place of an older heathen
goddess?—A.N.]
Page 169. See Campbell’s “Tales of the Western Highlands,” vol. III.,
page 120, for a fable almost identical with this of the two crows.