The Queen Who Sought a Drink from a Certain Well
There was before now, a queen who was sick, and she had three daughters. Said she to
the one who was eldest, "Go to the well of true water, and bring to me a drink to
heal me."
The daughter went, and she reached the well. A losgann (frog or toad) came up to ask
her if she would wed him, if she should get a drink for her mother.
"I will not wed thee, hideous creature! on any account," said she.
"Well then," said he, "thou shalt not get the water."
She went away home, and her mother sent away her sister that was nearest to her, to
seek a drink of the water. She reached the well, and the toad came up and asked her if she
would marry him if she should get the water.
"I won't marry thee, hideous creature!" said she.
"Thou shalt not get the water then," said he.
She went home, and her sister that was youngest went to seek the water. When she
reached the well the toad came up as he used, and asked her if she would marry him if she
should get the water.
"If I have no other way to get healing for my mother, I will marry thee,"
said she; and she got the water, and she healed her mother.
They had betaken themselves to rest in the night when the toad came to the door saying:
Gentle one, gentle one,
Rememberest thou
The little pledge
Thou gavest me
Beside the well?
My love, my love!
When he was ceaselessly saying this, the girl rose and took him in, and put him behind
the door, and she went to bed; but she was not long laid down, when he began again saying,
everlastingly:
Gentle one, gentle one,
Rememberest thou
The little pledge
Thou gavest me
Beside the well?
My love, my love!
Then she got up and she put him under a noggin [small wooden pail]. That kept him quiet
a while. But she was not long laid down when he began again, saying:
Gentle one, gentle one,
Rememberest thou
The little pledge
Thou gavest me
Beside the well?
My love, my love!
She rose again, and she made him a little bed at the fireside.
But he was not pleased, and he began saying, "A chaoimheag, a chaoimheag, an
cuimhneach leat an gealladh beag a thug thu aig an tobar dhomh, a ghaoil, a ghaoil."
Then she got up and made him a bed beside her own bed.
But he was without ceasing, saying, "A chaoimheag, a chaoimheag, an cuimhneach
leat an gealladh beag a thug thu aig an tobar dhomh, a ghaoil, a ghaoil."
But she took no notice of his complaining, till he said to her, "There is an old
rusted glave [sword] behind thy bed, with which thou hadst better take off my head than be
holding me longer in torture."
She took the glave and cut the head off him. When the steel touched him, he grew a
handsome youth; and he gave many thanks to the young wife, who had been the means of
putting off him the spells under which he had endured for a long time.
Then he got his kingdom, for he was a king; and he married the princess, and they were
long alive and merry together.
J. F. Campbell: Popular Tales of the West Highlands. London 1890, vol. 2, no.
33. (AT 440, Schottland)
Originalanmerkung:
Source: Mrs. MacTavish, Port Ellen, Islay.
The lady who has been so kind as to write down this, and other stories,
is one of my oldest friends. She has brought up a large family, and her excellent memory
now enables her to remember tales, which she had gathered during a long life passed in the
West Highlands, where her husband was a respected minister. The story is evidently a
Celtic version of the "Wearie Well at the Warldis End," of which Chambers has
published one Scotch version, to which Grimm refers in notes "Der Froschkönig,"
in his third volume. There are many versions still current in Scotland, told in broad
Scots; and it can be traced back to 1548. According to Grimm it belongs to the oldest in
Germany. This version clearly belongs to the Gaelic language, for the speech of the frog
is an imitation of the gurgling and quarking of spring frogs in a pond, which I have
vainly endeavored to convey to an English reader by English letters; but which is absurdly
like, when repeated in Gaelic with this intention. The persevering, obstinate repetition
of the same sounds is also exceedingly like the habit of frogs, when disturbed, but not
much frightened. Let anyone try the experiment of throwing a stone into the midst of a
frog concert, and he will hear the songsters, after a moment of stillness, begin again.
First a half-smothered guark guark; then another begins, half under water, with a gurgle,
and then more and more join in till the pond is in full chorus once again. Guark, guark,
gooill, gooark, gooill.
Holy healing wells are common all over the Highlands; and people still leave offerings
of pins and nails, and bits of rag, though few would confess it. There is a well in Islay
where I myself have, after drinking, deposited copper caps amongst a board of pins and
buttons, and similar gear, placed in chinks in the rocks and trees at the edge of the
"Witches' Well." There is another well with similar offerings, freshly place
beside it in an island in Loch Maree in Ross-shire; and similar wells are to be found in
many other places in Scotland. For example, I learn from Sutherland, that "a well in
the black Isle of Cromarty near Rosehaugh has miraculous healing powers. A country woman
tells me that about forty years ago she remembers it being surrounded by a crowd of people
every first Tuesday in June who bathed or drank of it before sunrise. Each patient tied a
string or rag to one of the trees that overhung it before leaving. It was sovereign for
headaches. Mr. [ ] remembers to have seen a well here called Mary's Well, hung round with
votive rags."
