KidLit Forum

Danish Folk Tales
Title: PETER HUMBUG AND THE WHITE CAT (Danish: "Per Snalter og den hvide kat")

A. Context
— country and language: Denmark, Danish
— original collector: Evald Tang Kristensen
— title of collection, year: Danish Folk Tales (Danske folkeæventyr), 1889
— position among other collectors: second after Svend Grundtvig, but before Ingvor Bondesen and I. Budde
— number of tales in that collection: 46
— English translation: translator’s name, year, publisher: Jens Christian Bay, 1899, Harper & Brothers Publishers
— Volume: XIX

B. Summary
This fairy tales tells the story of a powerful king who had three sons whom he loved dearly. The two older sons were handsome and intelligent, but they always made fun of the youngest, calling him Peter Humbug.
The king had to choose a successor to the throne, so he decided to give his sons an equal chance by sending them to get a new chain for the palace (in those days it was a custom with the kings to extend a heavy iron chain all around the palace in order to prevent the common people from running into the court-yard, and his had become worn by rust and wear). The two older brother at once departed, one of them working with the best blacksmith, and the other with a coppersmith, while Peter had no idea what to do. He lost his way when he entered a large forest until he finally reached a small hut. There, he found a big white cat seated in a chair. The cat offered him food and a bed to sleep in. The following morning, Peter told the cat what he was supposed to do, and the cat told him that he did not have to do anything but to wash and comb her three times every day. Peter did exactly what he was told. When the year had passed, the cat gave him a chest which contained the longest chain. When he reached home, he opened the chest and revealed a chain made of pure gold which held three times the right measure.
Then, his brothers convinced their father to let them go away again for the purpose of getting money. Peter lived again with the white cat for a whole year, washing and combing the cat three times a day. One of the brothers managed to return home with copper coins, the other one with silver coins, but Peter opened the chest which was full with gold coins. The king declared Peter the winner once more. The two older brothers convinced the king again to let them go and seek the prettiest wife. Peter spent the whole year with the cat, and when the day arrived, the cat told Peter that he had to cut her head off and strip off her skin. Peter was obliged to obey, and a beautiful princess stoop before him with a crown on her hair, telling Peter that she had been doomed by her step-mother to remain in the shape of a cat until a prince declared himself willing to serve her for three years.
Returned home, it was decided that Peter should inherit the throne. He married the princess and became a better king that anyone would have expected, while the two older brothers went away to other countries, and no one ever knew what became of them.

C. Morphological analysis

According to Vladimir Propp’s morphology the tale is divided into 31 functions.
In this tale, I identified the following functions:

INITIAL SITUATION: The story begins with a powerful king who had three sons whom he loved dearly
ABSENTATION: The king sends the three brothers to get a new chain for the palace, thus deciding who will inherit the throne
LACK: Peter and this brothers need the longest chain for the palace
BEGINNING COUNTERACTION: Peter finally agrees to his fathers’s wish
DEPARTURE: Peter begins his journey
TESTING: The white cat asks Peter to wash and comb her three times every day for a year
HERO’S REACTION: Peter agrees to do what the cat demands
ACQUISITION: Peter receives a chest with the longest chain made of gold
GUIDANCE: Peter returns home with the chest
STRUGGLE: The two older brothers convince their father to let them go away again for the purpose of getting money
BRANDING: Peter receives another chest full with gold coins
VICTORY: The king declares Peter the winner for the second time
DIFFICULT TASK: The two older brothers convince their father to let the go away to find the most beautiful wife
RESCUE: The white cat helps Peter for the third time by telling him to cut her head off and strip off her skin
TRANSFIGURATION: The white cat is transformed into a beautiful princess
PUNISHMENT: The two older brothers do not inherit the throne and go away to other countries
MARRIAGE: Peter marries the princess

D. Characters and functions according to Vladimir Propp.

Taking into account Vladimir Propp's classification of characters, I identified in this tale 4 dramatis personae:
1.The Hero or the Seeker: Peter
2.The Villain: the two older brothers
3.The Princess or the Prize: the white cat which was a beautiful princess
4. The magical Helper: the white cat

E. Similarities with other known tales

A closely related tale is The White Cat (La chatte blanche), translated by James Robinson Planché in Fairy Tales by the Countess d'Aulnoy, 1856.

F. Sources
Svend Grundtvig, E. T. Kristensen, Ingvor Bondesen and I. Budde, Danish Folk Tales, Translated by J. Christian Bay, 1899, by Harper & Brothers, pp. 87-97.
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Danish_F ... _White_Cat
https://en.wikisource.org/wiki/Fairy_Ta ... _White_Cat

EDIT: According to the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index, Peter Humbug and the White Cat is a Fairy Tale, belonging to the category of Supernatural or enchanted relatives 400-459, subcategory Wife 400-424, The Girl Transformed into an Animal 401

STUDENT: Dan Diana Maria