Twenty-nine Breton tales, as told over a series of long winter nights, featuring an ingenious miller, a Jerusalem-bound ant, a mad dash at midnight, and more
In the late nineteenth century, the folklorist François-Marie Luzel spent countless winter evenings listening to stories told by his neighbors, local Breton farmers and villagers. At these social gatherings, known as
veillées
, Luzel recorded the tales in unusual detail, capturing a storytelling tradition that is now almost forgotten.
The Midnight Washerwoman and Other Tales of Lower Brittany
collects twenty-nine stories gathered by Luzel, many translated into English for the first time. The tales are presented in a series of five imaginary
, giving readers a unique opportunity to listen in on a long-ago winter’s night of storytelling.
Some of the stories mix the apparently supernatural with the everyday—as in the title tale, when a mysteriously nocturnal washerwoman causes three handsome lads to flee so quickly they lose their clogs in the process. Others invite listeners to root for the underdog, as when a simple miller outwits a powerful seigneur. Another tale must have been greeted with raucous laughter as it recounts an ascending ladder of obstacles—from a mouse to a cat to a man to God (or the Devil) himself—confronted by a traveling ant. Michael Wilson, the volume’s editor and translator, provides a substantive introduction that discusses Luzel’s work and the significance of Breton storytelling.