THE GIANT GOULAFFRE
The seven-league boots.
The giant, roaring with anger, then took his seven-league boots and set out in pursuit of the fugitives. They were already far from the castle, but Goulaffre soon reached them. Seeing a large leg pass over their heads, with enormous boots, they said to themselves: "Here is the giant!" and they hid themselves under a large stone which was near there, and Goulaffre passed without seeing them. When they thought he was far away, they came out of their hiding place and continued on their way. Towards sunset, they arrived on a large moor dotted with enormous blocks of granite, isolated or piled on top of each other. Among the latter, they saw two large boots, then, further away at the bottom of a dark cave, something red and shiny, which resembled those old window panes called oeil-de-boeuf.
They approached, on tiptoe, and they recognized that it was Goulaffre who, tired from his pursuit, had stopped there to rest a little. The red, shiny object they saw at the bottom of the cave was its single eye. He was sleeping soundly. They remained for a few minutes considering him, and then Allanic said:
"If we could take off his seven-league boots! then we would laugh at him."
"Yes, but what if he wakes up?" replied Fistilou.
"He sleeps too well for that; listen to how much he snores! Let's try and see."
They took off one of his boots, without him moving; but as they pulled with all their strength on the second, the giant made a movement, and they thought themselves lost. Fortunately, he didn't wake up, and they were able to take it away from him too. Allanic then put on both boots and was about to leave, when the other said to him:
"And me? Are you going to leave me here now?"
"Get on my back, quickly!"
And there they go, one carrying the other.
When Goulaffre woke up and saw that he no longer had his boots, he uttered howls that frightened the animals three leagues around. He had to return to his castle without boots; when he arrived there, his feet were all bleeding.
Source: Le Géant Goulaffre from the French book Contes et légendes de Basse-Bretagne published in 1891.
Part 1 - Part 2 - Part 3 - Part 4
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.
Like in the tale "Le Petit Poucet", the Giant Goulaffre had seven-league boots. And Allanic stole the boots.
But this is not the end of the story. We will see in the next episodes that this tale is way longer than "Le Petit Poucet".
MORE SNOW
The snow stopped falling in the evening yesterday. I think that it was a total of 30 cm.
This morning, I measured 28 cm, but some of the snow had already disappeared.
Here are some pictures that I took this morning outside of our building.
-- Vincent Celier