Chapter XLVIII: The Black Bull of Norroway

_Source._--Chambers's _Popular Rhymes of Scotland_, much Anglicised in language, but otherwise unaltered.

_Parallels._--Chambers, _l.c._, gave a variant with the title "The Red Bull o' Norroway." Kennedy, _Legendary Fictions_, p. 87, gives a variant with the title "The Brown Bear of Norway." Mr. Stewart gave a Leitrim version, in which "Norroway" becomes "Orange," in _Folk-Lore_ for June, 1893, which Miss Peacock follows up with a Lincolnshire parallel (showing the same corruption of name) in the September number. A reference to the "Black Bull o' Norroway" occurs in Sidney's _Arcadia_, as also in the _Complaynt of Scotland_, 1548. The "sale of bed" incident at the end has been bibliographised by Miss Cox in her volume of variants of _Cinderella_, p. 481. It probably existed in one of the versions of _Nix Nought Nothing_ (No. vii.).

_Remarks._--The Black Bull is clearly a Beast who ultimately wins a Beauty. But the tale as is told is clearly not sufficiently motivated. Miss Peacock's version renders it likely that a fuller account may yet be recovered in England.