Do you have a piece of oral folklore that you would like to share? Contact us to discuss adding your piece of folklore to our collection.

……………………………………………………………………..

Story: Tentalina and the Wolves – In this story, the female protagonist is promised to a wolf before birth, and when the wolf takes her away, she is kept high up in a tree. She and her brother flee from the wolf and his pack with the help of the magical gifts given by an old woman helper and thrown behind them to transform into obstacles for the pursuing wolf pack.

Source: trove.nla.gov.au

AFTS notes: VIC narrative; Mrs Anna Vasileva interviewed by Gwenda Davey, National Library of Australia, ORAL TRC 2632 8-9; This story is a version of ATU 310 (‘Rapunzel’) + ATU 313 (‘The Magic Flight’). There are two tellings in Macedonian on the recording, and one in English. The recordings of the Vasilevas go over two tapes (which are then put onto two tracks on the CD the NLA sends out). One of the Macedonian tellings is about 9 minutes into the first track (9.00 – 18.20), and another Macedonian telling is at the very start of the second track, with a telling in English at 3 minutes and 50 seconds into the second track (3.53 – 10.47). On the NLA website the title is spelled ‘Tentalina’. I believe ‘Tentelina’ is the correct spelling (though it should be written in Cyrillic). There are a number of other folk stories on the same recording. A Macedonian version of the story has been published and translated into English in the book 101 Macedonian Folk Tales by Danica Cvetanovska and Maja Miškovska (Bigoss, Skopje, 2003). ‘Tentelina and the Wolves’ is on page 191. It is fairly similar to Rita and Anna Vasileva’s version, with a few interesting differences. (Toby Eccles)

Date of recording: 21st December 1976

Date added to collection: 31st March 2015

ATU: 310, Rapunzel, The Maiden in the Tower, 313, The Magic Flight

……………………………………………………………………..