_Source_.--“The Red Etin” in Chambers's _Pop. Rhymes of Scotland_, p.
89. I have reduced the adventurers from three to two, and cut down
the herds and their answers. I have substituted riddles from the first
English collection of riddles, _The Demandes Joyous_ of Wynkyn de Worde,
for the poor ones of the original, which are besides not solved. “Ettin”
is the English spelling of the word, as it is thus spelt in a passage
of Beaumont and Fletcher (_Knight of Burning Pestle_, i. 1), which may
refer to this very story, which, as we shall see, is quite as old as
their time.
_Parallels_.--“The Red Etin” is referred to in _The Complaynt of
Scotland_, about 1548. It has some resemblance to “Childe Rowland,”
which see. The “death index,” as we may call tokens that tell the state
of health of a parted partner, is a usual incident in the theme of the
Two Brothers, and has been studied by the Grimms, i. 421, 453; ii. 403;
by Köhler on Campbell, _Occ. u. Or._, ii. 119-20; on Gonzenbach, ii.
230; on Bladé, 248; by Cosquin, _l.c._, i. 70-2, 193; by Crane, _Ital.
Pop. Tales_, 326; and by Jones and Kropf, _Magyar Tales_, 329. Riddles
generally come in the form of the “riddle-bride-wager” (_cf._ Child,
_Ballads_, i. 415-9; ii. 519), when the hero or heroine wins a spouse by
guessing a riddle or riddles. Here it is the simpler Sphinx form of the
“riddle task,” on which see Köhler in _Jahrb. rom. Phil._, vii. 273, and
on Gonzenbach, 215.