Folk Tales

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This is part of the conversation which followed after Mary Thomas (MT) had recited the story for the first time.

Well, that was the pièce de résistance of the conversation, wasn't it. Where did that come from?

Oh, I've heard that many a time.

[WT] She makes them up, my lad!

[MT] Off went the master to give the key to the mistress, off went the mistress to give the maid the bread and butter, off went the maid to give the slops to the pig, off went the pig to give the bristle to the shoemaker, off went the shoemaker to give the carpenter some shoes, off went the carpenter to give the collar to the cow, off went the cow to give some milk to the calf, off went the calf to give two hairs from his head to bind the head of the little raven who had fallen while gathering nuts. And by the time they got back, the little raven's head was stinking!

[Repeats this last paragraph faster still the second time. Then they both laugh again.]

What a tongue-twister!

[WT] My father used to say about her - do you know what my father used to say about her?

About who now?

[WT] Well, this one here!

About Mary!

[WT] Yes, about Mary. What do you think my father used to say? That he'd never heard anyone who could recite quicker than she did.

[MT] You know, when they used to come out of chapel on a Sunday night now, I'd come down from the church and [my] friends went to chapel, you see. And now as I'd be coming back, to Ffair-rhos here, I'd be in front of some of the girls, but I'd come up here, and they'd come up from Bont, and they'd say, 'Mary Lloyd is the one that's talking.' They knew my voice, you see. I spoke so loudly, you know, so clearly, they could hear me as they came up from the Baptist chapel.

Tell me now, who told you that story?...

Oh, well, I heard my mother telling me that one, you see.

Your mother.

Yes, [the one] about the little raven who falls while gathering nuts.

What did she call the story?

Well, I never heard a title to the story: the little raven - the two ravens, the big raven and the little raven go gathering nuts in the wood. The big raven and the little raven go gathering nuts in the wood, that was the title.

Oh, yes.

And they went to the top of the trees and the big raven was calling to the little raven: 'Did you gather a dishful?' No, no answer. 'Did you gather a cupful?' No answer. Asking questions, she went down to see, and the little raven had cut her head.

Tell me then, would you sometimes ask your mother to tell this story?

No, she might tell it, perhaps.

[WT] Yes, you see! Now, there was no television or wireless or anything after you'd finished your work at night, you had hours in the winter, you know...

Well, I just love that story.

[WT] Hey, get on the phone, tell the wife you're not coming home tonight!...

[Laughter]

I love that story with the big raven and the little raven. Did your mother tell that story very, very quickly?

Yes, she did. Mam could tell it just as I do now. 'Off went the master to give the key to the mistress, off...' [Repeats the last paragraph.]

When did you last tell that story?

Oh, dear, many years ago.

[WT] Many years ago.

But I remember it.

Yes, but when?

Dear God, it was years ago. To the children, when the children were small... You know, our children - they heard a lot of these stories, our children.

[WT] But that was forty years ago, you see, the children are forty years old.

Have you told that story since, then?

Oh, not often. I don't tell that one...but I remember it, you know. [Mary Thomas retells the whole story once again, this time at the interviewer's request.]

[WT] You need quite a tongue to tell it, don't you?

[Laughs] Oh, dear, dear!

[WT] You need a pretty quick tongue.

Yes, off went the master to give the key... [Repeats the last paragraph again.]

Did you ever hear anyone but your mother telling that story?

No. I think it was Mam I heard telling that one.

Yes, that's it. And she now would tell that story quicker than you do.

Oh, no, I can't say whether it was faster, you see. You'd have trouble saying that very quickly, you see. 'Off went the master to give the key to the mistress, off went to mistress to give the bread and butter to the maid...' [Repeats the last paragraph quickly with the same zest once again.]

Oh, you had to say that one quickly, fast.

Oh, yes.

Yes, there you are. Did your father not know that story?

No, he didn't, Dada didn't know that one. Dada had other stories.

How many times do you think you heard the story?

Oh occasionally, you know. Mam, if she felt like it, would sometimes tell it when I was a young girl, perhaps. She told all kinds of things.

In telling the story for the first time there was one small slip: 'Tell the maid to give - how does that go now? Tell the maid...' Then Mary Thomas remembers the correct order and goes on to tell the story without a hitch, apart from mixing up the order with the words 'so the shoemaker can make the carpenter some shoes, so the carpenter can give the cow a collar', in the paragraph which starts with the words 'Dear little maid...' There was not a single slip the second time of telling. The following are a few minor variations between the first telling and the second:

The first time the title of the story is noted as 'The Big Raven and the Little Raven Go Gathering Nuts in the Woods'. The second time the title given is: 'The Little Raven and the Big Raven Go Gathering Nuts in the Woods.'

For other versions of this accumulative tale recorded on MWL tapes, see Gwilym Major, Llangynwyd, 'The Little Sheep and the Big Sheep Went Gathering Nuts', and Cassie Davies, Tregaron, the item 'The Little Old Woman and the Lamb'.

For versions from England, see Katharine M. Briggs, A Dictionary of British Folk Tales, Part A, Folk Narrative, vol. 2 (1970), pp. 551-3.

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