Folk Tales
Back to Folk Tales HomepageLittle Yellow Cheese Fetches Yeast for his Mother
Gwilym Roberts
Little Yellow Cheese goes on a long journey to fetch yeast for [his] mother, and he came across a man cutting [hay]. [Then across a man cutting a hedge.]
'Where are you going, Little Yellow Cheese?' said the man who was cutting the hedge.
'To fetch yeast for mother,' he said.
And then this old man tried to hit Little Yellow Cheese with a sickle.
'Well, I've come past a man cutting hay, and I'll pass you too, if I can,' said Little Yellow Cheese. And jump, off he went on his way. And he went on for a while after that and came across a man cutting peat. And this man asked:
'Where are you going, Little Yellow Cheese?'
'To fetch yeast for mother,' he said. 'I've come past a man cutting hay, past a man cutting a hedge, and I'll pass you too, if I can,' he said, like that. And this old man tried to hit Little Yellow Cheese with an iron peat-cutter.
And on he went again, and it was starting to get dark by then. And Little Yellow Cheese came to some big old trees, and on he went, and this big old lion came to meet him in those trees. And the old lion asked Little Yellow Cheese:
'Where are you going, Little Yellow Cheese?'
'To fetch yeast for mother,' he said, like that.
'Get on my back,' said this old lion to Little Yellow Cheese.
'No, no indeed,' said Little Yellow Cheese. 'I'm too scared of you,' he said, like that.
'Well, get on the nape of my neck, then,' said this old lion to Little Yellow Cheese.
'No, no indeed,' said Little Yellow Cheese. 'I'm too scared of you,' he said, like that.
'Well, get on my head then,' he said to Little Yellow Cheese.
'No, no indeed, I'm scared of you,' he said, like that.
'Well, get on my nose then,' said this lion to Little Yellow Cheese. By now Little Yellow Cheese was trembling like a leaf, and terribly scared, and it was starting to get dark. 'Get on my nose,' said the lion.
'No, no indeed,' said Little Yellow Cheese. 'I'm too scared of you,' he said, like that.
And the old lion jumped at him, and 'SNAP!' he said, like that, and he swallowed Little Yellow Cheese. [Laughs.]
Recording
Little Yellow Cheese Fetches Yeast for his Mother
More information
Tape
MWL 7496. Recorded 31.viii.1989.Notes
Gwilym Roberts heard this story many times at home in Cae-gwyn, a farm in Dolwyddelan. His father, Richard Owen Roberts, who was born in Llanrhychwyn, near Trefriw, Caernarfonshire, used to tell this story, and he in turn may have heard it from his father, a native of the same area. 'I was the oldest of five, you see, and then Dad used to tell it to Gwen, my sister, and Jean [and me].' Sometimes on Sunday night but, most often, on Saturday night: 'We had to go to Sunday School, you see, on Sunday, and then you had to wash, in a zinc tub, there was no bath in those days. We'd all get into the zinc tub in our turn. And then we'd sit in a row on the sofa, you see, before having our gruel, with a lump of butter in it. We were ready to go to bed now. Dad would tell us the story of the Little Yellow Cheese. He was...[He would] sit on the chair facing us...And then he used to sing: 'Mae Iesu Grist o'n hochor ni,/Fe gollodd Ef ei waed yn lli...' ['Jesus Christ is on our side,/He spilt his blood most copiously...'] before we went to our beds.'
Gwilym Roberts tells the story three times on the tape, with only minor variations. This is the text of the third version. Only in this version is it mentioned that the Little Yellow Cheese went on 'quite a long journey' to fetch yeast. Although Gwilym Roberts told the story three times on the tape, he admitted that he no longer perfectly remembered the exact progression of the tale, especially the opening. In the section which tells of the two men cutting grass and cutting a hedge we see, then (in comparing the written and oral versions) that some words have been added and the order of one sentence changed.
Types
| AT 2030 | The old woman and her pig. |
Motifs