Paper short abstract:

The variants of the “Coal Porrage” (Ee 327H*) and “Up the Beanstalk into Heaven” (Ee 328C*) have been recorded among the orthodox Seto minority in Estonia. Both tale types involve dwellings belonging to supernatural characters, while the heroes visit these places and return home from them.

Paper long abstract:

The presentation focuses on two Estonian fairy tale types where the dwellings emerge in a significant role. The variants of "Coal Porridge" (Ee 327H*) and "Up the Beanstalk into Heaven" (Ee 328C*) has been recorded among the orthodox Seto minority in the South-Eastern corner of Estonia. Both tale types involve dwellings belonging to supernatural characters, while the heroes visit these places and return home from them. The presentation attempts to provide a comparative interpretation of the stories.

In the tale type "Coal Porridge" a brother and a sister who have been left home on their own make coal porridge. The sister becomes smeared with coal and the boy takes her outside to soak in water from whence the devil lures the girl into his dwelling that lies further off, often in the woods. The boy looks them up and sees the sister engaged in housework together with the devil. Finally they overcome the devil.

In the tale type "Up the Beanstalk into Heaven" the boy climbs up a beanstalk into heaven and discovers a wonderful heavenly house that has walls made of white bread, an oven made of cottage cheese. The boy eats to his heart's content and hides behind the oven. The inhabitants of the house (many-eyed goats) keep watch one after the other, yet the boy lulls them to sleep with a song. In the end the boy gets caught and is cast out of heaven.