THE ADVENTURES OF MR. TAM-KIK
The Rounfl
Source
Tam-Kik felt a stirring in his pocket and heard a little voice saying:
"Open quickly, open the cage quickly..."
Brrr, here comes the blue fly on its way. First, she goes straight to Ragear who was looking for the right point to skewer Jalm, and sticks her dart in both his eyes. Ragear, mad with pain and anger, drops the spit and utters terrible howls; Bittern arrives at this commotion, and the fly meets him and subjects him to the same treatment as his companion. There remained the Rounfl, whose fury knew no bounds.
"Here, here, you bunch of bandits, let me beat you to pieces with my stick... To think that they are keeping me waiting for my supper and that they are fighting instead of doing their work. Ah! The monsters, how I'm going to bully them! And that scoundrel of a cook; bankrupt Englishman, it's me who will demolish you; yes, I will swallow you whole, to teach you how to disturb my household."
It was comical to see Rounfl struggling so big, so heavy that he couldn't get out of his chair.
"Rounflec’h, wicked ogre, wait a little, my darling, you will be served later; We'll heat some new broth for you. Big glutton! howl as much as you want, call your mastiffs, wasted effort, old man; your rabid mastiffs have already gone so far into the forest that we can no longer hear their howls from here. Your turn, awful devil baron!"
Then, the blue fly makes its vron vron sound in the room and goes to tease the ogre, by biting him on his disgusting nose. He looked like a windmill with his large arms which he waved furiously to knock down the fly, but the fly flew faster than his arms; and when she had thoroughly tormented this son of the devil, she put out his eyes in an instant. Rounfl, exhausted of strength and breathing, began to blow like thunder; he got up stumbling from his chair, turned around two or three times, and finally fell head first onto the rocks, where he remained like a stunned ox.
Tam-Kik freed Thurio from his sad position. Thurio, it is true, was a little singed; but Tam rubbed his face and head - for all his hair was toast - with a piece of tallow or bacon, and he was no worse off.
“It smells like a dead ogre out there,” said Tam-Kik to his companion, "It’s time to get out of here. What do you think?"
“Well, I don’t think anything of it,” replied Thurio, who had his own idea, and did not even think of thanking his savior.
"As you wish, friend, good evening, good evening."
Poor Tam! he was going to forget his blue fly, he was so busy; but the fly did not forget him, for it immediately came and buzzed in his ears, and returned of its own accord to the little cage.
Tam-Kik regained possession of his treasure and left Rounfl's house without further discussion.
As soon as he left, Thurio set out in search of another treasure, because he knew from reading the stories of that time, that ogres always have two or three tons filled with gold in their cellar. Finally, and to his misfortune, we must believe that he made a good supply, or that he had bulging pockets and a heavy gait when leaving the manor. Was it gold or gwin-ar-dan (fire wine)? Both maybe.
Source: Les Aventures de Monsieur Tam-Kik from the French book Contes et légendes de Basse-Bretagne published in 1891.
Hello, my name is Vincent Celier.
I am writing translations of folk tales that I found in public domain French books, so that people who do not understand French may enjoy them too.
The caged blue fly got rid of the two mastiffs and the ogre.
Tam-Kik could then deliver Jalm, who did not even thank his savior.
Also, Jalm waited until Tam left the ogre's lair before looking for the ogre's treasure and leaving with part of it.
In the story, we see the two Breton words bara, which means bread, and gwin, which means wine.
During World War I, many Breton soldiers that had just been recruited were not speaking French, but only the Breton language. As they were often hungry, whenever they would see a cafe or a restaurant, they would go and ask for bread and wine: bara gwin.
As French people were not understanding what they meant, they thought they were speaking gibberish. This leads to the creation of the French verb baragouiner, which means to speak gibberish.
Two days ago, my second daughter Betty, her boyfriend Chris, her son Nathaneil and her good friend Diane arrived here in Harrison Hot Springs.
Betty was coughing a lot and feeling feverish, so I did not see her until this morning.
In the picture below, you can see Nathaneil, Chris, and Diane during our dinner yesterday night.
My eldest daughter Roseline arrives this evening with her daughter Faith (20 years old) and her son Cyrus (14 years old).
So, for the next few days, all my descendants living in British Columbia will be here.
-- Vincent Celier