Folk Tales of Corsica — Part 1
Disclosure: this performance is narrated by AI-generated voices.
The premiere of a new shelf: three Corsican tales from J.-B. Frédéric Ortoli's "Les contes populaires de l'île de Corse" (Paris, 1883), in a fresh in-house English translation made for this series — selected tales from the Tallano district of southern Corsica, told to the collector by the people named below.
In The Three Oranges, the innocent Marie is driven from her father's palace by a stepmother's slander. Hungry in a strange garden, she opens three oranges — and learns, fountain by fountain and lake by lake, exactly how much water a fairy needs. In The Soup of Stones, poor Anne, with six children crying for food and nothing in the house, wraps three stones in paper and pretends they are meat on the boil — until a beggar knocks, asks to warm himself, and lifts the lid. And in Saint Peter's Mother, a saint searches the book of his mother's life for one single good deed, and finds a leaf of a leek.
The tales:
0:39 — The Three Oranges (told in 1882 by Rosalinda Mattei, of Zoxa-di-Tallano)
7:27 — The Soup of Stones (told in 1882 by Mademoiselle Marie Ortoli, of Olmiccia-di-Tallano)
20:22 — Saint Peter's Mother (told in 1881 by A. Joseph Ortoli, of Olmiccia)
Source: Jean-Baptiste Frédéric Ortoli (1861–1907), "Les contes populaires de l'île de Corse," Paris: Maisonneuve et Cie, 1883 — public domain; lawful copy via the Internet Archive. Fresh in-house English translation from the French; no existing translation used. These are selected tales, not the complete volume. Held for a future ruling: The Three Apples of Mariucella, The Three Brothers and the Virgin, and The Shepherd and the Month of March. Excluded by name under this channel's standing content law: The Three Toads, The Donkey of the Golden Sequins, The Priest and His Mistress, and Malia.
Narrated by Amos.
Music: the theme (Imperial Violin Masquerade) opens and closes this episode and returns briefly between the stories. No music plays under the narration.
Season 167 — Folk Tales of Corsica, Episode 1.
KacheliTV — world classics, read aloud.
