FAIRY TALES FROM BRESCIA

Myths, legends, fables and folklore from the local tradition

Translated from Italian by
Chiara Lucchetti


Bombel’s nanny goat

Once upon a time a little girl behaved badly towards her mum. In the evening, she went upstairs to her room and started knitting socks sitting down on her bed.
She had a long face and was very angry.
Suddenly, she dropped the ball of thread which fell down and stopped under her bed. She was lifting the blanket up when she heard a very hoarse voice saying:
“I’m the Bombel’s nanny goat,
with no bones and no skin,
with such a very sharp horns,
that I thrust at your throat!”
The little girl got frightened and screamed out calling her mum.
Her mum came with the broom.
The mum was sticking the broom under the bed, when both the mum and the little girl heard that terrible voice:
“I’m the Bombel’s nanny goat,
with no bones and no skin,
with such a very sharp horns,
that I thrust at your throat!”
The mum extremely frightened called the dad who came with the stick.
The dad was pushing the stick under the bed when everybody heard again those horrible voice and words.
Mum and dad rushed down the stairs and called the grandma who was having a rest.
The grandma went up the stairs, making no noise, and entered the little girl’s room. She went near the window and whistled briefly.
Immediately a little bird with colourful feathers arrived.
The bird stared at the little girl firmly and said:
“If you cook for me a plate of gnocchettini[1], I will send the nanny goat which is under your bed away.”
“All right”, said the little girl and went immediately downstairs to prepare gnocchettini.
In the meantime, the little bird went near her bed.
The little bird lifted the blankets with his beak and then said:
“I am the little bird with the crooked beak,
if you do not give me the ball of thread back,
I will peck you and you will die!”
Hearing those words, the nanny goat run away in a flash and got so afraid that never dared to come back again to that house!
The little girl promised to her grandma she would be obedient and the little bird with the crooked beak flew on to a branch of the pear tree, that was standing in the courtyard, and ate gnocchettini.

Hen blackbird’ days

The hen blackbird’s days, i.e. the last three days of January, are in Brescia as well as in the rest of Italy and Europe, the coldest days of the year. The legend narrates that in the past blackbirds “were all white”.
A hen blackbird, together with her family, used to be mistreated by Sir January. Sir January was a cold and touchy month which had no other occupation than waiting for the hen blackbird pushing her beak out of her nest to send cold and chill to the earth. One day, the hen blackbird decided to provide herself with an abundant supply of food which would last for a whole month. Then, the hen blackbird shut herself up in a tree staying warm all the month of January long. In that period of time, January had only 28 days. The last day of the month the hen blackbird was completely sure she had cheated January. Honestly, January that year had been particularly clement. So, the hen blackbird decided to come out from her hiding place and started making fun of January. She would had never done this. January asked February to lend him three days and vented his anger by sending snow, chill, wind, rain, and any kind of worst things he could invent to the earth. The hen blackbirds, that had always had white feathers until that day, found a shelter into a chimney, where she hid for three days. Finally safe, when she came out from her hiding place, she noticed that her feathers where black because of the soot.

The legend of Sarneghera[2]

In the castle of Montisola[3], lived a beautiful young lady who used to go every morning to the lake shore to look herself into the clear waters of Sensole[4] which mirrored her enchanting beauty.
One day, she went too near the lake’s shore and she fell into the water. Immediately, from a near bush came out a brave hearted young men who threw himself into the lake, reached her, gripped her into his arms and brought her back on the lake shore.
He was a fishermen who every morning came from Sarnico[5] to Sensole’s cove to throw the fishing nets, and above all to see the beautiful young lady.
The two young fell in love, but the beautiful chatelaine was the promised bride of a country gentlemen from Franciacorta[6]. Therefore, she was shut into the tower of the castle by her father and the miserable young man was chained into a cave in Sarnico.
The young lady refused any food and wasted away in such a pitiful way that her cruel father moved to compassion and allowed her to go to the lake shore for the last time before moving to Franciacorta. At the same time, the father ordered to kill the fisherman. While the beautiful chatelaine was mirroring herself into the water, the waves got high and foamy, the sky became black as the night and a violent wind brought to her hearing a long, heartrending, dreadful shout in which she recognized the voice of her beloved.
She wanted to die with him throwing herself into the lake.
Still nowadays when the “Sarnéghera” comes to terribly shake the countries of Franciacorta, people tell that, while from the bottom of the lake the beautiful chatelaine and the fisherman are calling each other, the sky sends from Sarnico his revenge on the lands of Franciacorta turning into hail the two lover’s tears.


When they tried to steal the moon

Once upon a time there was a village inhabited only by fishermen. Every night they went up to their boats, sailing towards the centre of the lake of Garda[7] and here disclosed their nets under the feeble light of their little lamps.
One fine day, they got tired to fish always in the dark. Therefore, they decided to steal the moon in order to make her illuminate their nights.
The fishermen went straight away to a near village where lived a man who gave himself out to be a magician and asked him how they can catch the moon.
He answered: “Provide yourself with a big net, the hugest ever seen, then when it gets dark go in the middle of the lake. Then when the moon comes down near the water you will catch her!”
Happy with this precious advice, the poor fishermen paid a great amount of money to the magician and went back home.
When they arrived at home, they carried out their plan. As none of them had such a big net, they started to join all their nets together by sewing them.
Once they had finished their sewing, they waited patiently for the night to come and then loaded the huge net into the largest boat they had and sailed towards the centre of the lake.
When they saw that the moon was coming down near the waters, they started to row as fast as they could, like fools. As soon as they reached the place where the light of the moon appeared to dip into the water, they threw their nets.
Their first attempt to catch the moon failed. So, they tried again to steal the moon for the second time. But also this time they were not successful. They tried again and again all the night long. They tried until the moon disappeared at the first light of the morning.
Tired and embittered, the poor men came sadly back to the harbour where their wives and children were waiting for them excited to finally see the moon nearby.
The fishermen were very disappointed. However, feeling that their pride had been hurt, they promised to themselves that they would have tried again the next night, and the day after tomorrow, and all the following nights, until they could catch the moon.
So, since that day every body had been trying to catch the moon and fishing had been abandoned.


Ciribicì

In a country which I do not know exactly where it is, but certainly it is not so far away from us, neither that near, lived a poor little family of four people who lived on the country work.
You might very well expect that they were dad, mum, a little boy and a little girl.
Not at all! Stepmother, because the mother of the children died.
The little family lived in an isolated little country cottage, lonely, on the path that led towards the wood, which was at the back of the country.
The little boy was nine years old while the little girl was ten.
Dad tenderly loved his children. However, he did not know what to do to show his deep love to them. He had just a few time to stay with them. He had to sweat over hoe and rake, to bend his back down towards the ground and to work hard to obtain from the earth the amount his family need just to survive.
So, the two little children were always left at home alone with their stepmother, a wicked woman who shouted at them as a possessed all the day long, slapped them and hit their heads with her fists. She was mean and never satisfied and she had a cruel heart. When her husband came back at nights, she complained that the children had broken this and that, had stolen from home, and they must be punished. Nontheless his love for the children, the man, after having heard continuous complaints from his wife, punished them with no mercy.
“Children must be punished with the cane now, if we do not want troubles in the future!”
But the children’s misbehaviour and tricks were only lies invented by the cruel stepmother.
The children defended themselves against her but their father did not believe in their words.
The truth was that they passed all the time splitting wood, bringing home heavy buckets of water, grazing goats in the meadow nearby their house, and they could not even take a step without having permission from their stepmother. She was so evil and cunning that she would have be able to deceive the Devil and make you believe that black is white.
One night, however, the husband, having talked to his neighbours, realized that his wife was lying to him and that his children’s misbehaviour was all an invention. When he came back, he got very angry with his wife and bitterly reproached her.
The stepmother could not bear that attack and wanted to take her revenge on them all. Like a viper, she gave her husband a withering glance, silently finished to bake the bread for the following day, and stayed up all the night sitting down near the fireplace, staring at embers without sleeping.
At dawn, the husband got up and went to the wood to work, without saying a word to his wife who seem to be still in anger.
Now, she was free to carry out her revenge.
She called her stepchildren and said:
“Go to the wood and pick up a bundle of wood each. In the mean time I will cook the bread. The one of you that will come back with the biggest bundle of wood, will get the biggest matòt[8].
The two children left immediately to go to the wood, in a place where there was a great amount of dry pinewood.
The little boy said to his sister: “Help me to put together my wood in a bundle. Then, I will do the same with you!”.
So the little girl helped his brother. But, as soon as he had finished to put together his bundle of wood, the little rogue run back home and left his little sister in tears.
As he arrived home, the little boy proudly threw his bundle of wood at his stepmother’s feet and asked her his matòt.
“Go for it in the wood case downstairs in the cellar.”
The little boy went downstairs, lifted the lid of the wood case, rummaged in it, but he could not find any bread. “There isn’t anything in the wood case”, he said. “Oh, it must be in the iron case!”, replied the stepmother. The little boy tried to lift the lid of the iron case, but it was too heavy for him. He tried again with all the strengths he had in the body, but it was still impossible to lift it.
“I can’t open it!”
And she replied: “You are such a bad boy! I always tell you that you are not able to do anything! I’ll do that!”.
The cruel woman went downstairs to the cellar, lifted the heavy lid and showed the bread that was at the bottom of the case to the little boy. The poor kid happily stooped down to pick up the bread. He was coming out from the case with his head, when she left the lid fall down to him. His head fell down into the case, while his body collapsed in a lake of blood.
She got her revenge.
She felt a shiver of fear.
However, she went on. It is awfully dreadful to say, but she cut the little body into pieces, put them into a huge pan, and cooked them into the fireplace.
She also made disappear the bundle of wood of the first winner.
Just a few time later, also the little girl arrived at home mortified.
Her stepmother was calmly sweeping the kitchen. As the little girl did not see his brother’s wood, asked: “Where’s Bertolino?”.
“I haven’t seem him yet. He must be still in the wood looking for nest. Don’t worry, he’ll be back soon. In the mean time, take the biggest matòt and peacefully eat it. I’m stuffing a goose on the fireplace. As soon as it’s ready you’ll bring it to daddy who is in the wood. He must be hungry, and he’ll be very happy.”
The little girl sat down near the fireplace eating her bread, and a little bit surprised by the unusual kindness of her stepmother.
As soon as the boiled or the roasted or whatever meat was ready, the woman made a little pail of it and the little girl went to the wood. As soon as the dad saw her, he left down the hatchet and waved his hands at her as to greet her.
The little girl, hopping like a nanny goat, threw herself into his daddy’s arms who was really hungry like a wolf. He voraciously ate that good plate that unexpected came from his wife who really had a kind attention, and basically she was not that bad.
He had nearly fished his dish when noticed something that looked like a little finger on the bottom of the pail. He tried to pick up the last piece of meat left, but as soon as he grabbed it the little finger flew away in the air saying: “Ciribicì! My stepmother killed me! Ciribicì! My sister brought me! Ciribicì! I am in heaven. Ciribicì! A grey horse will bring my stepmother to Hell.”

Traditional legend from Corteno’s Valle, from Edolo to Aprica

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[1] A kind of dumplings. Italian gnocchi are round lumps of flour and smashed potatoes mixed with water, cooked in boiling water and generally served with tomato of sauce.
[2] Sarneghera is the frightening name of a wind that in April, July and September usually moves terrible storms from the south-west side of the Lake of Iseo towards Valcamonica.
[3] Montisola or Monte Isola is the name of an island situated in the middle of the Lake of Iseo. This is the biggest lake island in Europe.
[4] Sensole is the name of a village of Monteisola.
[5] Sarnico is the name of a village situated on the west side of the Lake of Iseo in the province of Bergamo.
[6] Franciacorta is the name of an area situated between Brescia and the south side of the Lake of Iseo. This is very famous for the production of sparkling-wine.
[7] my italics
[8] The matòt is the name in the local dialect of Brescia given to a puppet made of bread.