Whuppity Stoorie
Encyclopedia
Whuppity Stoorie is a Scottish fairy tale
collected by Robert Chambers in Popular Rhymes of Scotland. It is Aarne-Thompson type 500, The Name of the Helper. This categorizes it with Rumpelstiltskin
, although guessing the name of a helper to rescue a baby is the only common motif.
woman asked what she would give her if she helped the sow. The woman promised her anything she liked. She saved the sow and demanded the baby. Though she would not listen to any pleas, she did tell the woman that under the fairy laws, she had to wait three days, and the woman could stop her by telling her her name. The woman was distraught the first day, but the second, she went for a walk, and in the forest
, she finds a quarry where the fairy is spinning and singing that her name is Whuppity Stoorie.
When the fairy came the next day, the woman pled with her to take the sow, and then to take herself. The fairy scorned her, asking what she would want with such a woman, and the woman said she knows she is unworthy to tie the shoestrings for Whuppity Stoorie. The fairy woman went screeching away.
Fairy tale
A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...
collected by Robert Chambers in Popular Rhymes of Scotland. It is Aarne-Thompson type 500, The Name of the Helper. This categorizes it with Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin
Rumpelstiltskin is the eponymous character and protagonist of a fairy tale which originated in Germany . The tale was collected by the Brothers Grimm, who first published it in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales...
, although guessing the name of a helper to rescue a baby is the only common motif.
Synopsis
A woman's husband went to the fair and never returned; she was left alone with her baby son and owning only a big sow. The sow was about to farrow, and she hoped for a good litter, but one day she went to the pen to find the sow dying. She was distraught, and a fairyFairy
A fairy is a type of mythical being or legendary creature, a form of spirit, often described as metaphysical, supernatural or preternatural.Fairies resemble various beings of other mythologies, though even folklore that uses the term...
woman asked what she would give her if she helped the sow. The woman promised her anything she liked. She saved the sow and demanded the baby. Though she would not listen to any pleas, she did tell the woman that under the fairy laws, she had to wait three days, and the woman could stop her by telling her her name. The woman was distraught the first day, but the second, she went for a walk, and in the forest
Enchanted forest
In literature, an enchanted forest is a forest under, or containing, enchantments. Such forests are described in the oldest folklore from regions where forests are common, and occur throughout the centuries to modern works of fantasy...
, she finds a quarry where the fairy is spinning and singing that her name is Whuppity Stoorie.
When the fairy came the next day, the woman pled with her to take the sow, and then to take herself. The fairy scorned her, asking what she would want with such a woman, and the woman said she knows she is unworthy to tie the shoestrings for Whuppity Stoorie. The fairy woman went screeching away.