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Let us take an example. A fantastic story from India (where its truth
is not doubted) reaches western Europe during the Middle Ages. It
may be that its religious content is not so different from folk-belief in
Europe, and on that basis it could become a folk-legend, told with full
belief. One can easily imagine a story in which the individual motifs
were regarded as in themselves not incredible, while there was some-
thing about the story as a whole that made people draw back from an
absolute judgment on its truthfulness. The attitudes and customs re-
vealed in it might well, for instance, appear strange in the host coun-
try, and that could be a reason why it was never assimilated, not, at
least, without total reconstruction, to the native folk-story stock.
Many of the wonder-tales that exist in present-day Europe are un-
doubtedly of European origin, or come from the Middle East. The
change they have undergone in time has proved better for them than
the change in environment. The stories of Anpu and Bata and Cupid
and Psyche are narrative wholes, created and developed in countries
where people believed in the reality of their principal personages. In
consequence they have a more or less religious content. One could
well imagine a conversion of the story of Cupid and Psyche into a
Norse myth, but where polytheistic religion gives way to Christianity,
such a narrative runs the risk of turning into a wonder-tale. Some other
similar stories may have become attached to Christian saints and so
kept their credibility longer; others may have been changed into folk-
legends, and it is by no means rare for stories to move from one group
or type to another.
It is likely that many European wonder-tales originated as composi-
tions primarily for entertainment, made up of a variety of individual
motifs drawn from stories already well known, myths and legends,
heroic and otherwise. If such motifs were not simply taken over, they
could be imitated. This of course could also happen while the beliefs
on which the ancient stories depended still flourished (examples can
be found in the medieval Perceval poems).
The  original stories which I have thought of as the sources of the
wonder-tales of western Europe were respected and their veracity
56 THE FOLK-STORIES OF ICELAND
trusted. It is not at all unlikely that many of them came from the great
civilisations of the Mediterranean basin or western Asia. This theory
may be thought an empty one, for in the case of many wonder-tale
types we have no evidence to prove it, but those civilisations possess
many qualities to favour such a contention. They had a level of culture
that made them likely to be givers rather than takers in this sphere.
They had an overwhelming regard for all manner of supernatural forces
and influences which might explain much that is marvellous in our
stories, and they were of great antiquity, which may account for the
wide distribution of the wonder-tale type. On the other hand, the peo-
ples who lived to the north of those countries doubtless also had their
own store of ancient motifs (in stories founded on beliefs which were
held in honour there), though these are almost totally forgotten or now
found only as remnants commingled with what has been introduced
from elsewhere. Even so, I do not consider that there is much likeli-
hood that the pall of mystery that hangs over the origins and pre-history
of our wonder-tales will ever lift completely.
X
It has already been said that a principal source of the folk-story (what-
ever class it may belong to) lies in beliefs held by human beings. Folk-
stories arise persistently from folk-belief and as this, their source of
being, alters its character, so they alter theirs. In the following pages I
shall endeavour to expound this further (see also Part III of this book).
Motifs occasionally occur in folk-stories that point to a belief which is
now obsolete, and this is frequently the case in wonder-tales. Let me
give a few examples.
All kinds of taboos and bans figure largely in the superstition of
later centuries, and stories concerning them are common (cf. JÁ2 II
668 (bann), 703 (varú: )). The root of this is primeval man s belief
that all nature was endowed with a power which could bring both
good and ill to human beings. The whole outlook of men who had to
exercise intense caution in dealing with anything particularly endowed
with such power was characterised by deep fear. Men guarded their
own life-force with anxious care, especially from strangers or enemies.
Their whole existence was fenced about with precautions and taboos.
This is so well known that there is no need to amplify it or give refer-
ences to other writings on the subject.
SURVEY 57
I will mention one example here of an ancient precaution which is
undoubtedly the mainstay of a story, though in its present form the
original meaning has clearly begun to fade. It occurs in the story of
the church-builder at Reynir (JÁ I 58).
A man lived at Reynir in M! rdalur. He was having a church built, but he was
late in getting timber and could not find a carpenter because the haymaking
season was near. Once when he was walking about in a melancholy state he
met a man who offered to build the church for him. In return the farmer was to
tell him his name before the building was finished, or else hand over to him
his only son, then five years old. They agreed on this, and the builder set to
work. He worked with alarming speed, and the farmer began to grow uneasy,
though he could do nothing about it. One day when the building was nearly
completed, he was wandering about the meadow until he lay down near a
hillock. He then heard a voice from inside the hillock, and a mother sang to
her child:
Senn kemur hann Finnur Soon Finnur your father
fa: ir flinn frá Reyn comes home again
me: flinn litla leiksvein. with a small playmate
for you from Reyn.
The farmer was cheered by this, and went along to the church. The builder [ Pobierz całość w formacie PDF ]