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Author
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Comment
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sapeloe
Unregistered User
(10/25/04 1:45 pm)
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Looking for Drowning Child Folk Tale
I spent several hours this weekend scouring my large university library for a folk tale that I think is from India. Even Stith Thompson's Motif Index of Folk Literature turned up nothing. I would like to know more about the following tale or any similar tales:
A goddess agrees to marry a commoner with the condition that she must be allowed freedom to do her work. The husband agrees. When their first child is born, for three days she loves it, holds it, and kisses it...then takes it to the river and drowns it. The same thing with child #2. The third time, the husband forbids her to take the new baby to the river. "So be it," the goddess/wife replies. "You have just condemned this reincarnated soul to a long life and many years of suffering when all he had left to do was three days worth of work." She then vanishes forever.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(10/25/04 3:33 pm)
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Re: Looking for Drowning Child Folk Tale
It sounds not unrelated to Thetis, who either burns almost all the mortality/humanity out of baby Achilles until she is stopped by her husband, leaving the heel vulnerable, or, in other versions, dips baby Achilles in the River Styx to make him invulnerable but keeps hold of his heel so that's the vulnerable spot. When Persephone is kidnapped, Demeter spends sometime as a nurse to a queen and tries to burn all the mortality/humanity out of the baby boy she's looking after (Demophoon) but the queen finds out and stops her.
But that's all I've got.
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Heather KT
Registered User
(10/26/04 7:46 am)
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Re: Looking for Drowning Child Folk Tale
It could be related to the story of Ganga, the river who also appears as a goddess.
In "Shower of Gold, Women & Girls in Stories of India" by Uma Krishnaswami, there's a story called the Eight Sons of Ganga. The husband promises never to question his wife or ask where she's from. But when she's about to drown their eighth son (!), he reproaches her. It turns out the eight souls had committed a sin in a previous life (stealing a holy man's cow & calf), and Ganga is easing their punishment of rebirth. The eighth one (who grabbed the cow's rope) now can't be reborn in a better body until he has lived a human lifetime, since the husband "saved" him. After explaining all this, the wife goes into the river and disappears.
I think the source said the original story is in the Mahabharata.
Hope that's helpful!
Heather
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the
pin cushion queen
Registered User
(10/27/04 5:40 pm)
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Re: Looking for Drowning Child Folk Tale
I would advice you to look Japanese ghost folk tales also if you
are interested in films you can watch Ringu and Dark Water
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sapeloe
Unregistered User
(10/27/04 9:49 pm)
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Thanks!
Wow! Ya'll are great! Just what I needed.
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