Ricochon
« Once upon a time, at the foot of Mount Beuvray, there was a small farmer who owned only a few meager plots of land. He earned so little that he struggled greatly to raise his poultry. » Through hard work, the farmer eventually managed to buy a duck, a goose, and a pig. However, after a year, he could no longer afford to feed them and reluctantly decided to kill them for food. Ricochon, the pig, overheard the farmer discussing this with his wife and fled into the woods, taking the duck and the goose with him.
The three farm animals each built a shelter for themselves in the forest. However, the wolf soon discovered their presence. He first went to the duck’s shelter, then to the goose’s, and finally to the pig’s. At each door, he demanded that the animals let him in: Let me in, little ones, or I’ll huff and puff and blow your house down! « Open your door, or I’ll scratch, I’ll pound, I’ll blow, and your house will collapse! Only the pig’s house, where the duck and goose had taken refuge, withstood the wolf’s assault. This led to several attempts by the wolf to trick the animals in order to devour them.
Moral of the story of Ricochon
After playing several tricks on the wolf to escape him, Ricochon finally managed to get rid of the forest beast with one last clever trick: « The wolf sat down next to Ricochon. But the stump he sat on was split open and held apart by wooden wedges. Ricochon, slyly, slipped the wolf’s tail into the crack, removed the wedges, and shouted, “Wolf! Wolf!” The woodcutters left their worksite and rushed over. Ricochon fled, while the wolf, trapped by his tail, was beaten with logs and sticks until he managed to escape—leaving his tail behind in the stump. »
As is often the case in fairy tales, this story symbolizes the victory of the civilized world, represented by the farm animals aided by humans, over nature. It is also interesting to note that the forest, though dangerous, serves as a refuge—a space on the margins of society where, after the wolf’s retreat, the animals find safety and freedom.« Ricochon, the duck and the goose can live peacefully in their little house. »
The Classification of Tales
Ricochon, whose story takes place in the Morvan region near Mont Beuvray, is a tale of type AT 124*, the most well-known version of which is that of the Three Little Pigs..
Ricochon was told to Paul Delarue in September 1942 by François Berthier from Glux-en-Glenne, where Berthier was born in 1864. Delarue later published the tale in his works dedicated to French folklore and traditional storytelling.Ricochon en 1953 dans son recueil Contes du Nivernais et du Morvan.
Paul Delarue notes in his collection that he documented fifty French versions of this tale. This is explained by the oral tradition of storytelling, which often results in variations or adaptations unique to each storyteller. It was only from the 18th century, and more systematically in the 19th century that efforts were made to collect and document these tales in written form.
*Tale type AT 124 (« Le loup et les trois animaux dans leurs petites maisons ») in the classification Aarne-Thompson.
Visual © D.R.
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