Molly Whuppie
| Molly Whuppie | |
|---|---|
| Folk tale | |
| Name | Molly Whuppie |
| Also known as | Maol a Chliobain |
| Data | |
| Aarne-Thompson grouping | 327B (The Small Boy defeats Ogre) |
| Country | Scotland |
| Published in | English Fairy Tales |
Molly Whuppie is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs in English Fairy Tales. A Highland version, Maol a Chliobain, was collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands. Jacobs noted the relationship between the two tales, and an Irish variant, "Smallhead," and concluded that the tale was Celtic in origin.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 327B, the small boy defeats the ogre – although, unusually, it is a girl who defeats the ogre. Others of this type include Esben and the Witch and Hop o' My Thumb. Other tales using these motifs include Jack and the Beanstalk and Boots and the Troll.
In the Molly variant, a couple had too many children, so they took the three youngest into the forest and left them.
In the Maol variant, three daughters left their mother to seek their fortune. She baked three bannocks and offered each of them the choice between the larger portion and her curse, and the small portion and her blessing. Only Maol took the blessing. Her older sisters did not want her, and tried to keep her away three times tying her to a rock, a peat stack, and tree, but her mother's blessing let her follow them, so they went on together.
They came to a house and begged to be let in; the woman warned them that her husband was a giant and would eat them. They promised to leave before he came, but no sooner had she given them something to eat than he arrived. She told him that they were three little lassies and he was not to hurt them. He ordered them to stay the night, and share his three daughters' beds. He put gold chains about his daughters' necks, and straw chains about the lassies'; or chunks of amber about his daughters' necks and horsehair about the lassies'. So Molly, the youngest switched them. In the middle of the night, the giant beat his daughters to death, or sent a servant to bring him the blood of the strange girls to drink because there was no water, and the servant killed them. Molly woke her sisters, and they ran away. In the Maol variant, they had to cross a river to escape the giant.
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