"Tales from Afar: Old Stories from New Residents" is a project to share traditional stories which have come from away, created by the St. John’s Local Immigration Partnership and the Heritage Foundation of Newfoundland and Labrador. This is one of the tales we’ve collected so far. You can learn more about the project at our Adapting Heritage Forum Oct 25th.
The Legend of St Nicolas
As told by Celine Schneider
They were three little children
Who were going to glean the fields
Arrived one night at a butcher’s,
Butcher, will give us shelter?
Come in, come in, little children
For sure you can have lodgings
They were three little children
Who were going to glean the fields
No sooner did they enter
They were slaughtered by the butcher
Who cut them up in small pieces,
Threw them in a salting tub, just as pork pieces.
They were three little children
Who were going to glean the fields
Seven long years had passed,
When St Nicolas visited here
Arrived at the butcher,
Butcher, will you give me supper?
They were three little children
Who were going to glean the fields
Some salt meat would be nice,
The one you prepared 7 years past.
When the butcher heard St Nicolas
By the door he flew to run afar
They were three little children
Who were going to glean the fields
By the side of the salting tub,
St Nicolas went to sit
Places three fingers above it
The three wee ones raised up
They were three little children
Who were going to glean the fields
The first said : I slept well
The second said: So did I
The third one concluded:
I thought I was in Paradise
They were three little children
Who were going to glean the fields
A story-song from Lorraine, a region in the northeast of France, as told by Celine Schneider, who learned it when she was three years old! Image: Saint Nicolas Heures d'Anne de Bretagne, Wikimedia.
How can I share a story?
Stories can be submitted in written form, or participants can sit down with a collector and record a spoken version of their story. To share a story, you can:
Stories can be submitted in written form, or participants can sit down with a collector and record a spoken version of their story. To share a story, you can:
- Email ich@heritagefoundation.ca
- Call Dale Jarvis at 1-888-739-1892 extension 2, or
- Fill in the online form here: https://goo.gl/forms/QWmJY9haiyItAeop2
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