Beschrijving
The Robber and his Sons (previously The Old Robber Relates Three Adventures). An old robber has to tell three of his most dangerous adventures to the queen (king) in order to free his three captured sons [R153.3.3, J1185].
The first is the legend of Odysseus and Polyphemus (cf. Type 1137), in which he represents himself as the hero (who overpowers ghost-like cats).
The second tells how he saved a child who was to be slaughtered by its mother and cooked and devoured by an ogress. To fool the ogress he had to hang himself on gallows among other corpses and allow the ogress to cut pieces of flesh from his body [K527].
The third adventure is a continuation of the second and tells how he himself was nearly devoured by the ogress. In the end he restores the child (and its mother) to its father. Because of his good deed the queen frees his three sons and rewards him [Q53].
In some variants the rescued child turns out to be the queen’s child.
The first is the legend of Odysseus and Polyphemus (cf. Type 1137), in which he represents himself as the hero (who overpowers ghost-like cats).
The second tells how he saved a child who was to be slaughtered by its mother and cooked and devoured by an ogress. To fool the ogress he had to hang himself on gallows among other corpses and allow the ogress to cut pieces of flesh from his body [K527].
The third adventure is a continuation of the second and tells how he himself was nearly devoured by the ogress. In the end he restores the child (and its mother) to its father. Because of his good deed the queen frees his three sons and rewards him [Q53].
In some variants the rescued child turns out to be the queen’s child.
Motief
R153.3.3
J1185
K527
Q53
Commentaar
Early version see Johannes de Alta Silva, Dolopathos (No. 6).
Oorspronkelijk Verhaaltype
953
Subgenre
sprookje