#C. Joisten

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Belief in Fairies in Dauphiné*.

We believed and perhaps still believe a little in Fairies in Dauphiné. These are not the beautiful Fairies [from fairy tales] but rural fairies who live in a deserted place a little far from the village inhabited by men. In the mountains, Fairies make their home in the cracks of the rocks; in the plains and on the hillsides, they choose the groves. (…) A man born in the 1930s and 40s repeated to me what his mother told him : "The fairies live there, in the little ash and acacia woods, below the big fir forest. During the day, They stay on the branches and we don't see them; but in the evening, they come out and we can see them walking in the meadows." I asked this extremely serious, hard-working man, responsible head of a family, if he believed in the existence of Fairies. [We were in] the 1970s and 80s (…) Very embarrassed, this man replied to me (…) : “I have never seen them, but my mother had seen them.” (…) “I believe what my mother told me, but today it maybe no longer exists.”

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*Dauphiné is a former French province of the Alps, including Isère, Drôme and Ardèche, adjoining the two Savoies. It has long been the place of residence of the “dolphin” of Kings. This is where I live.

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This article that I "had" to post here, is taken from an introduction by C. Joisten to the "Fairies Banquet", a work of fiction written by Laurent of Briançon, which draws more from the satire of the power in place than from the work of a folklorist. However, research on this subject has revealed many elements of folklore.

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legend.s

Like many facts of oral tradition, legendary stories present great complexity, both in terms of content and form. (…) “We do not have a fully satisfactory term to designate the vast domain of legend, the complex content of which is also difficult to define. (...) One of the fundamental elements which characterizes the legend – while distinguishing it from the tale – is that it is an object of belief : the narrator generally admits the past or present reality of events evoked in legendary stories which, even if they relate to the dimension of the supernatural, are almost always rooted in everyday life or located in a historical era - whether distant or mythical! — familiar to all. In addition to this immediate and direct relationship with its transmitting environment, the legend constantly refers to belief systems underlying elements (for example: the world of the dead, domestic spirits, local beings) which give it a broad base by putting it in relation to a whole arsenal of propitiatory or apotropaic rites. It is therefore from the triple point of view of story, belief and rite that it is appropriate to approach this narrative genre.» -

[Excerpt of "Le Monde Fantastique dans le Folklore des Alpes Françaises", The Fantasy World in the Folklore of the French Alps", p 12, C. Joisten.]

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Le jeune homme et le crâne.

"C'était le temps du mardi gras, des déguisements. Un jeune homme n'avait rien trouvé de mieux que de se déguiser avec le crâne d'un mort. Il avait même mis des lucioles dans les yeux, et ça faisait bien peur.

Quelques jours après, il se présente un squelette chez lui, qui avait la même figure que le masque qu'il avait mis. Ce squelette lui demande à souper. Le jeune homme décide de l'inviter.

L'autre se met à table en face de lui, mais le jeune homme est tellement effrayé qu'il ne peut rien manger. Alors le squelette lui dit : Puisque tu ne veux rien manger, Prions Dieu Et allons nous coucher Mais dans huit jours je t'attends A souper pareillement.

Alors, ma foi, huit jours après, le jeune homme mourut."

(In Farces à caractère fantastique..., récupéré par C. Joisten.)

"It was the time for Mardi Gras and disguises. A young man had found nothing better than to disguise himself with the skull of a dead man. He even put fireflies in his eyes, and it was really scary.

A few days later, a skeleton showed up at his house, which had the same face as the mask he had put on. This skeleton asks him for supper. The young man decides to invite him.

The other sits down at the table opposite him, but the young man is so frightened that he cannot eat anything. Then the skeleton said to him: Since you don't want to eat anything, Let's pray to God And let's go to bed But in eight days I'm waiting for you Same for dinner.

Then, my goodness, eight days later, the young man died."

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" Placer un crapaud sur un crâne humain, le faire se déplacer sur le mur du cimetière."

(Anonyme, dec 65, via C. Joisten, in "Farces à caractère fantastique dans les Alpes.")

“Place a toad on a human skull, make it move across the cemetery wall.”

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"Que le Diable t'emporte !"

"Dans un village pas loin d'ici il y avait un petit qui s'appelait Jean. Sa mère lui avait dit parce qu'il ne dormait pas : "Que le diable t'emporte !" Et le petit a disparu, on ne l'a plus revu."

(Arvieux, hameau des Hautes-Alpes, fev 54.)

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"In a village not far from here there was a little boy named Jean. His mother had said to him because he was not sleeping : “May the devil take you!” And the little one disappeared, we never saw him again."

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[Presented and transcribed by C. Joisten, in Le Monde Fantastique dans le Folklore des Alpes Françaises.]

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Présence du Cauchemar

"On a pu faire croire à la présence du cauchemar en appuyant sur la poitrine du dormeur."

(Montmaur, H-Alpes, 1988, raconté par un anonyme à C. Joisten.)

“We were able to make people believe in the presence of a nightmare by pressing on the sleeper’s chest.”

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[ The sun and the moon ]

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One day the sun, the king of the day, who aspired more than anything to found a home, went to the Eternal Father and asked him if he could marry the moon, the queen of the night.

_ Do you think about it? A woman who marauds every night, who is full every month, and who changes neighborhood every week!

The sun, all ashamed of its discovery, returned and lived alone, celibate.

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(Told in June '52 by Mrs. A, 40 years old, farmer).

ibid.

(little wink to @adri-le-chat ;) cause Helios & Selene)

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The stepmother.

A woman who has a daughter and a daughter-in-law from her husband's first marriage, promises sweets to the one who returns first from school. She kills her stepdaughter, who arrives first, by plunging her into boiling oil. While she is cooking it, she pushes her other daughter aside by sending her to fetch water, then makes her carry the "girl's meat" as a meal for the father who works in the fields.

On his way, the child meets a little bird who says to him: "_All the bones that your daddy throws, you will bring them to me, I will make a little bird for you which will sing well."

On returning home, the father is astonished at the smell of frying that reigns in the house; his wife claims she spilled oil. A little bird begins to change outside: "My mom killed me. My dad ate me." The stepmother tries in vain to chase the bird away. The father understands what happened when he found his dead daughter cut to pieces.

The old woman is then driven from the village.

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Told in October 52′ by Mme P, 64 y.old.

(In Popular Tales of the Dauphiné, Volume 1, collected by C. Joisten.)

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[The little bird.]

A mother who had a little boy and a little girl and who had nothing left to feed them, said to them: "Listen, my little ones, go to the woods and collect dead wood; the first one who comes back, I will give him lots of candy!" It was the boy who arrived first. So his mother dropped it into her pot and cooked it and made a big roast. The little girl brought dinner to her father without knowing that it was her brother and on the way, passing over the bridge, a beautiful and tall Lady said to her: "When your daddy has dined, you will keep all the bones for me and I you will make a pretty little bird out of it ". The little girl did so. On the way back, the beautiful and tall Lady appeared again: "Be careful, little girl, not to open your basket, your little bird will fly away!". Only, after a while, the curious little girl opens the basket and the bird flies to the shoemaker's roof. So he said: "Oh, the pretty little bird that I am! My mum cooked me, my daddy ate me, a great Lady made me!" The shoemaker comes out of his house and says: "Oh, what a pretty bird there is! If you repeat what you just said, I'll give you a nice pair of shoes." The bird, of course, repeats. A little later, he goes to the roof of a seamstress, repeats the same words and is given a pretty dress. The same thing happens on the roof of the miller who gives him a stone from his mill. Finally, he returns to the roof of his mother's house chanting the same words. His unsuspecting mother comes out of the house and asks him to rehearse. Then the little bird said to her: "You are a bad mother." And he throws the stone of the mill at her and kills her. He gives the dress and the shoes to his sister and takes off for good.

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(Told in February 52, by Mme D, 56 years old.)

(ibid.)

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[The flute that sings.]

The mother of two little girls kills one of them "to feed her husband", and sends the other to bring this food to her father. A tall and beautiful Lady whom the little girl meets keeps her bones and makes a flute that sings: "My mother killed me well. My father ate me well. My sister cried well. Who works, lives. Who works, lives. "

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Told in March 52 by Mrs.M.

(ibid.)

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[my mother killed me, my father ate me.]

The wife of a lumberjack sends her two children to fetch firewood, promising candy to the one who returns first. The older boy ties his sister to a tree to make sure he gets up to speed; when he arrives home, his mother knocks him out and cooks him in a pot. When the little girl arrives in her turn, she asks about her brother; her mother tells her that she does not know where he is. Lifting the lid of the pot, the little girl sees it spinning sometimes a foot, sometimes a hand; she starts to cry and answers her mother who questions her: "Oh! it's the fire that makes me cry." Then she is forced to bring dinner to her father, but she refuses to eat the pieces he hands her, carefully picks up all the bones thrown away; they begin to sing: "My mother killed me. My father ate me. And my sister cried so much for me."

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Told in April 52 by Mrs. M, 70 years old, farmer.

(ibid.)

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“The devil, who holds an important place in the beliefs of these mountain people has also taken a real reality in their daily lives.

His appearances are as numerous as the circumstances in which he manifests himself: a handsome seductive man or a beautiful tempting young girl; but in this case one can recognize his true nature, for he has a forked foot, of a goat or an ox. It also takes all kinds animal appearances: cat, lame hare, black buff, black goat. His departure is usually signed by “a flame of fire”.

He is obviously very much feared.

Without speaking of those (quite rare) who were not afraid to sign a pact with him, to obtain game in abundance when they are hunters, or any other wealth, there are, more frequently, those who have committed a dishonest act, those who simply worked or hunted on Sundays instead of going to mass, played bowls during vespers ... Who in the village has not done it at least once in their life?

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Extract from an introduction to "Fantastic beings in Dauphiné and Savoy: the collection of C. Joisten", written by Mme Joisten.

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the thirteen masks

They were twelve masked friends for the carnival that night. They only had a few kilometers to go to the next village where the ball was taking place.

Along the way, they counted each other and noticed that they were thirteen of them. Before arriving at R., they passed in front of a wooden cross and there, they were only twelve. A little further, they recounted and they found themselves thirteen. So they each decided to take off their mask, to finally find out who this thirteenth was! But once their masks were removed, they were only the starting twelve. The thirteenth, they never saw him again.

They returned home, but neither they nor their children ever masked themselves again.

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(in C. Joisten, Fantastic beings in Dauphine and Savoy, 1994.)

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[Dangerous times]

1.Night -

Are simply named: mother night; the mother of the night; the night mother; mother at night; the mother of the evening ; and probably the dark mother (departments 05, 73, 38). The mother at eight o'clock, a lantern in her hand, passed through the chimneys (73).

There are (also) a few male characters, with the men of the night; the father of the night; the black man; an indefinite being : the morâ. (05, 73, 38)

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2.The moon -

Children are also prevented from going out at night by threatening them with the man who is supposed to live on the moon : the Armandjin.

(...)  Children were told that if the Armandjin saw them outside, he would come and take them to the moon in a small basket. (...) we explain the fear that some children have from the Armandjin at the full moon by the fact that they have been badly baptized, the priest having forgotten to pronounce one or more orations during their baptism.

At Avançon (05), the devil is in the moon, holding a bundle at the end of his trident, ready to "fire".

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3.Winter -

The representations of winter intervene to encourage children to help parents save the crops before the first frosts in the last days of autumn (we are in the mountains).

• “When I was little, my father told me that I had to hurry up and pull up the last potatoes because the man in the trunk was coming. I always thought the man in the trunk was the cold. To finish the job, it was often necessary to light a fire in the field. So my father said to us: "You see that we let ourselves be taken by the man from the trunk!"" (05 Cervières).

• "My grandmother, who was from St-Martin, used to tell us at the time of the potato grubbing and the return of the crop: "Hurry up, the Maï man arrive! " She certainly meant winter.” (05; Maï would be the name of a mountain).

• “When towards the end of September we went to dig up the potatoes, my father told us to hurry because the black hound was coming.” (05).

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4.January -

“Father January, he was the one who made the snow fall. He also scared the children ”. "Grandpa January was a tall, hunchbacked man, already old, with a large hood, a long beard, with a cane as big as a sort of club. He came to strike at night to scare the children (05).

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in Bogeyman in Dauphiné and Savoy, C. Joisten.

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Dear @thepaganhomestead, I have not found a specific Christmas tale in my region, except those about the wild hunt, the king Herode, or the devil who creates landslides and hijacks young virgins, but you already cite most of the themes in your master post, so I put this little tale instead, which I found very nice. Hope you’ll like it!

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[The Little Boy from V. and the Shadow.]

It was a very small boy who was going to take dinner to his father who was cutting wheat, a little further on the plain. He had a satchel full of potato fritters. Arrived at the top of a path, he sees his shadow and thinks that it is a nasty beast that wants to eat him. _ Beast, don't eat me, I'll give you the fritters, he said, opening his wallet. He begins to walk again; the beast pursues him; he throws another fritter, and that during the whole distance which remained to be done to reach the field where his father worked. When he arrives in the field, his father says to him: _ What do you bring me? _ Fritters, but I met a beast that wanted to eat me. I gave them all to him. His father answered him: _ Hide under that cabbage leaf while I go to eat anyway. A sheep passed, ate the cabbage leaf and the little one hiding below!

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 (Told by Yvonne s., 1913)

[ in Popular Tale of Dauphiné, C. Joisten ]

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Popular Remedies from Dauphine 1/

Anemia - Drink water that has been soaked in rusty nails. (Innimont, Ain, around 1920.) Angina - Gargle with an infusion of bramble leaves then wrap your neck in “sheep's wool”. (Heyrieux, Isère, around 1925.) Burns - Cover the burn with redcurrant jam or blacken it with ink. (Dolomieu and Vasselin, Isère, circa 1900.)

- In Siccieu (Isère), an old woman treated burns using an ointment of wax and olive oil; that at the turn of the century. Blows and bruises - Almost everywhere, the brandy in which the arnica flowers had macerated for 21 days in the sun were used to massage the bruised place. (Innimont, Ain, again around 1935; Corbas, Isère; Valencin, Isère; also known in Brides-les-Bains, Savoie.) Cancer - Evil was hardly known by this name in the past. A. Duraffour indicates, however, that in Vaux-en-Bugey, Saint Agathe, the saint with burnt breasts, was invoked. Cuts - In most houses, a bottle of brandy was carefully stored in which lily leaves were macerated. One of these leaves was gently placed on the wound before wrapping it with canvas. (Innimont, Ain; Brides-les-Bains, Savoie: common practice between 1920 and 1930.) - The spider web placed on the wound was no longer used at the same date but the memory of this use was preserved there. - At Innimont, around the same time, some people made the liquid from a house-leek scale run over the cut; this was called "cut grass" or "cutting grass".

-- Remedies collected at random across Bugey and Bas-Dauphiné between 1945 and 1970 by C. Joisten.