Folk Tales of Catalonia — Part 1 (The Ball of Golden Thread · The Cinder-Maid · The Little Box)
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
Part one — the premiere of a new shelf. Three folk tales of Catalonia, collected by Francesc de Sales Maspons i Labrós and published in his Lo Rondallayre (Barcelona, 1871–1875); heard here in a fresh translation from the Catalan, made for this episode. In The Ball of Golden Thread (Lo capdell d'or), a king's daughter turned out of her home will not part with the little old woman's gift — not for good money, not for jewels and riches — except in a matter of marriage. In The Cinder-Maid (La ventafochs), a girl kept at the cinder-hearth cracks an almond, a hazelnut and a walnut, and goes to Mass, to the promenade and to the king's son's ball in dresses of gold, of silver and of little bells — until a little glass slipper is left behind on the stair. And in The Little Box (La capseta), a poor man finds an old, ugly box in a ruined castle, and everything his family wishes for comes out of it — until pride hides the box away in an attic, and the sons who were turned away at the door come home from the war. The episode opens and closes with its theme, LOVE 2, heard also briefly between the stories.
Chapters
0:38 The Ball of Golden Thread
7:45 The Cinder-Maid
13:40 The Little Box
Two further tales of the collection are held for a ruling: La gavia d'or (The Golden Cage) and Barba d'or (Golden Beard). Fourteen tales are not read on this shelf, each excluded by name after a full reading: Lo claveller · La flor del penical · La fustots · La rateta · La perera · Lo beneyt · Las tres taronjas del amor · La cirereta · Altafulla · La cabreta · Los dos geperuts · La noya dels cabells d'or · La coloma blanca · Lo espabilat. Five more tales passed the screen and stand on the bench for later parts of this shelf; the collection's second volume and twenty-eight further tales of the first and third volumes await screening. No claim of completeness for the collection is made.
From Lo Rondallayre: Quentos populars catalans by Francesc de Sales Maspons i Labrós (Barcelona, 1871–1875), public domain — The Ball of Golden Thread and The Cinder-Maid from the first volume (1871), The Little Box from the third (1875), complete and in book order, in a fresh translation from the Catalan. Narrated by Bruno. Theme: LOVE 2.
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