French-Canadian Folklore
French-Canadian legends travelled with immigrants from France to the New World and over time, came to reflect their new surroundings. Sheila Egoff (1967) wrote that “By virtue of their having been retold and rewritten by Canadians or recast into a Canadian context, the stories that English and French settlers brought with them to Canada can be regarded as part of Canadian literature” (p. 3).
Marcus Baribeau collected thousands of French-Canadian folk tales. Michael Hornyansky retold some of them in The Golden Phoenix and other French Canadian Fairy Tales, and their book won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year in 1960. The Princess Tomboso is an outstanding story from this collection with a recognizable folktale structure. There is the repetition of three with three brothers, three gifts, and three days needed to recover from a beating. As well, the gifts -the belt, the purse, and the horn, are magical. The story also features magical apples and plums, used to deliver justice to a greedy princess. In the end, the youngest son triumphs over Princess Tomboso's trickery and succeeds in his quest to regain the magic objects. Although Frank Newfeld illustrated this story in 1960, his version is out of print and difficult to access. It would be wonderful to see a new stand-alone illustrated publication of this rich story.
This Quebec folktale has been retold in various compilations, including “Canadian Fairy Tales” by Eva Martin and “When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew” by Jan Andrews. This telling has Ti-Jean as the main character. Petit-Jean (translated as Little John, and often shortened to Ti-Jean) is a well-known character in French-Canadian lore. Similar to Jack in the English stories, he is a traditional folk hero. While both clever and resourceful, Petit-Jean could also be foolish, traits that make him something of an Everyman (Parent & Olivier, 1996). Jan Andrews’ (2011) collection of Ti-Jean stories has a distinctly Canadian flair, with descriptions of seigneuries (farms created along the river to give habitants access to water), travel through logging camps and moose sightings. I have never heard of Ti-Jean, but am excited to discover these Canadian tales to share.
A popular French-Canadian tale is the chasse-galerie, or the flying canoe. While there are variations in the telling, common elements remain. A birch bark canoe takes a group of voyageurs home from the bush to celebrate, on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. The canoe moves by the devil’s power and the voyageurs are admonished to avoid doing something – talking or looking back – otherwise they won’t get home. Again, it’s possible to see how the tale has been adapted to Canada with the magical mode of transportation being a birch bark canoe. We also see the influence of Roman-Catholicism in the threat of the devil. In the admonition to not look back, a connection can be made to Virgil’s Orpheus and Eurydice, showing how common folkloric motifs are throughout the world. I found two delightfully illustrated picture books of this story in English– "The Flying Canoe" by Roch Carrier (2004) and "The Christmas Canoe" by Eric Kimmel (2011).
Since I don’t speak or read French, I’m sure that I have missed out on a great deal of French-Canadian folklore.
Marcus Baribeau collected thousands of French-Canadian folk tales. Michael Hornyansky retold some of them in The Golden Phoenix and other French Canadian Fairy Tales, and their book won the Canadian Library Association’s Book of the Year in 1960. The Princess Tomboso is an outstanding story from this collection with a recognizable folktale structure. There is the repetition of three with three brothers, three gifts, and three days needed to recover from a beating. As well, the gifts -the belt, the purse, and the horn, are magical. The story also features magical apples and plums, used to deliver justice to a greedy princess. In the end, the youngest son triumphs over Princess Tomboso's trickery and succeeds in his quest to regain the magic objects. Although Frank Newfeld illustrated this story in 1960, his version is out of print and difficult to access. It would be wonderful to see a new stand-alone illustrated publication of this rich story.
This Quebec folktale has been retold in various compilations, including “Canadian Fairy Tales” by Eva Martin and “When Apples Grew Noses and White Horses Flew” by Jan Andrews. This telling has Ti-Jean as the main character. Petit-Jean (translated as Little John, and often shortened to Ti-Jean) is a well-known character in French-Canadian lore. Similar to Jack in the English stories, he is a traditional folk hero. While both clever and resourceful, Petit-Jean could also be foolish, traits that make him something of an Everyman (Parent & Olivier, 1996). Jan Andrews’ (2011) collection of Ti-Jean stories has a distinctly Canadian flair, with descriptions of seigneuries (farms created along the river to give habitants access to water), travel through logging camps and moose sightings. I have never heard of Ti-Jean, but am excited to discover these Canadian tales to share.
A popular French-Canadian tale is the chasse-galerie, or the flying canoe. While there are variations in the telling, common elements remain. A birch bark canoe takes a group of voyageurs home from the bush to celebrate, on Christmas Eve or New Year’s Eve. The canoe moves by the devil’s power and the voyageurs are admonished to avoid doing something – talking or looking back – otherwise they won’t get home. Again, it’s possible to see how the tale has been adapted to Canada with the magical mode of transportation being a birch bark canoe. We also see the influence of Roman-Catholicism in the threat of the devil. In the admonition to not look back, a connection can be made to Virgil’s Orpheus and Eurydice, showing how common folkloric motifs are throughout the world. I found two delightfully illustrated picture books of this story in English– "The Flying Canoe" by Roch Carrier (2004) and "The Christmas Canoe" by Eric Kimmel (2011).
Since I don’t speak or read French, I’m sure that I have missed out on a great deal of French-Canadian folklore.