Folklore By Katharine Briggs

Allison Gross, "the ugliest witch i the north country", allured the hero into her bower and made violent love to him, offering him various rich gifts if he would be her true love. He repulsed her advances uncompromisingly:
'Awa, awa, ye ugly witch, Haud far awa, an lat me be; I never will be your lemman sae true, An I wish I were out o your company.' At the third refusal she blew on a grass-green horn, struck him with a silver wand and spun round three times muttering ill words, so that his strength failed and he fell senseless on the ground:
'She's turnd me into an ugly worm, And gard me toddle about the tree.' His only solace was from his sister Maisry, who came ever Saturday night to wash and comb his locks. One night the Fairy Rade of the Seelie Court passed by and disenchanted him:
But as it fell out on last Hallow-even, When the seely court was ridin by, The queen lighted down on a gowany bank, Nae far frae the tree where I wont to lye.
She took me up in her milk-white han, An she's stroakd me three times oer her knee; She chang'd me again to my ain proper shape, An I nae mair maun toddle about the tree.

......................................

Traditional Tale from Germany

A miller at a windmill near Wettin was for a long time unable to get a mill hand, because the mill was haunted, and four workers had already died there, one after the other. He finally hired a high-spirited boy. At midnight the boy was shaking out the grain when a small back cat crept up to him. A somewhat larger one followed, and the two of them grinned sinisterly at him.
The one said to the other, "I wish the big gray one would come."
Soon thereafter a big gray cat arrived. As soon as it saw the boy it jumped at his throat; but with an ax the boy skillfully struck off half its paw, which immediately turned into half of a woman's arm. Then the cats ran away.
The next morning the boy waited in vain for his breakfast. He went downstairs and asked the miller why there was nothing to eat. The miller apologized, saying that his wife had turned deathly ill.
"Is she perhaps missing half an arm?" asked the boy. "If so, I can lend her one."
And in truth one of the woman's arms was only half there, and the severed piece fit onto the stump.
Then it was known that she was a witch, and she was burned to death.

............

Traditional Tale from Germany

A journeyman cooper found work with an old female master in Binsachsen. Once when he was going out for the evening, the woman asked him if he was not afraid to come home by himself. "No," he said. His way home led him across a meadow, where a large cat approached him and ran along beside him. He took no further notice of it.
The next evening he went out again, and his landlady once again asked him if he was not afraid. He told her about the cat, but said that he had no fear of such a dumb animal. This time when he came to the meadow the cat was there again, but now it ran toward him and was about to jump on him. He hit it with a pair of pincers, breaking its left front leg, and it fled screaming.
The next morning the master did not get out of bed. The journeyman pulled back her covers and saw that her left arm was broken. Thus it was disclosed that the woman was a witch.


Back to Main page