ii. 489-506.



XXIII. RED ETTIN.

_Source_.--"The Red Etin" in Chambers's _Pop. Rhymes of
Scotland_, p. 89. I have reduced the adventurers from three to two,
and cut down the herds and their answers. I have substituted riddles
from the first English collection of riddles, _The Demandes
Joyous_ of Wynkyn de Worde, for the poor ones of the original,
which are besides not solved. "Ettin" is the English spelling of the
word, as it is thus spelt in a passage of Beaumont and Fletcher
(_Knight of Burning Pestle_, i. 1), which may refer to this very
story, which, as we shall see, is quite as old as their time.

_Parallels_.--"The Red Etin" is referred to in _The Complaynt
of Scotland_, about 1548. It has some resemblance to "Childe
Rowland," which see. The "death index," as we may call tokens that
tell the state of health of a parted partner, is a usual incident in
the theme of the Two Brothers, and has been studied by the Grimms, i.
421, 453; ii. 403; by Koehler on Campbell, _Occ. u. Or._, ii. 119-
20; on Gonzenbach, ii. 230; on Blade, 248; by Cosquin, _l.c._, i.
70-2, 193; by Crane, _Ital. Pop. Tales_, 326; and by Jones and
Kropf, _Magyar Tales_, 329. Riddles generally come in the form of
the "riddle-bride-wager" (_cf._ Child, _Ballads_, i. 415-9;
ii. 519), when the hero or heroine wins a spouse by guessing a riddle
or riddles. Here it is the simpler Sphinx form of the "riddle task,"
on which see Koehler in _Jahrb. rom. Phil._, vii. 273, and on
Gonzenbach, 215.