Transcript

Bhí fear fadó agus bhí sé i nGaillimh. Bhí leasainm air, An Fear Beag Riabhach Rua. Bhí sé póstaí. Fuair a bhean bás. Pósadh an darna huair é le baintreach mná a rabh aon mhac amháin aici. Bhí fuath millteanach ag an fear beag riabhach rua ar an gasúr seo. Aon lá amháin nuair a fuair sé a bhean ag siúl 'un Aifrinn leag sé ceann an (ph)áistí ar an mbloc agus baineadh... sé[1] an ceann de le buille thuaigh. Chuir sé poll sa mballa as cionn an[2] fuinneog agus chuir sé corp an (ph)áistí isteach ann. Nuair a tháinig an (...).

Translation

There was a man long ago and he was in Galway. He had a nickname, The Small Red-haired Grizzled Man. He was married. His wife died. He got married a second time to a widowed woman who had one son. The Small Red-haired Grizzled Man hated this boy greatly. One day when he found that his wife had gone to mass he placed the child's head on the block and he cut off his head with the swing of an axe. He put a hole in the wall above the window and he put the child's body into it. When the (...) came (...).

Footnotes

Commentary

Parts one and two of this story combine to form a narrative that appears to employ an international folklore motif, E231 Return from dead to reveal murder. This is a common motif throughout Europe, and forms a part of several supernatural legends. It may also employ another motif, E443.2.4 Ghost laid by priest. See Stith Thompson, Motif-index of folk literature (rev. and enlarged ed., 6 vols, Bloomington, Ind., 1955-8). The narrative may be loosely related to a series of international folktales ATU 780-799 The truth comes to light, which often involve a secret murder, and some extraordinary event eventually revealing the truth. See Hans Jorg Uther, The types of international folktales: a classification and bibliography (3 vols, Helsinki, 2004). The episode at the end of the story where a swallow lays an egg on the punished man is somewhat enigmatic, but it may be derived from another motif, Q541.5 Penance: staying for ten months rooted to one spot, with eyes closed, while birds build nests in one’s hair.

A version of this story appears in Heinrich Wagner, Linguistic atlas and survey of Irish dialects (4 vols, Dublin, 1958-69), vol. 3, 348. See also vol. 1, xviii.