We all have things we wish we could go back and ask people who are no longer with us. My mother would visit me in the spring and shout "THE OLD MAN SPILLED HIS BAG OF GOLD!" upon seeing our fields covered in dandelions.
After she was gone and once again we were painted with dandelions, I found myself wondering who this Old Man was and why he spilled his Bag of Gold? I felt sure it was something she read as a child, possibly in school, so that other people from her generation would also know it. I've asked about the Old Man and that Bag of Gold for years. I always mentioned dandelions. Nobody spoke up.
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| https://x.com/VenetiaJane |
Venetia Jane, THANK YOU! I never would have found it as the original was not about dandelions, but buttercups! She wrote on her X account for VenetiaJane's Garden back on May 10 2023:A tale tells of a greedy man who found the pot of gold hidden at the end of the rainbow. Hastily he carried the gold away but it fell through a hole in his bag, scattering amongst the grass where it was transformed into fields of golden buttercups by the fairies #FolkloreThursday Her glorious photography would have been loved by my mother.
Did you ever hear of the pot of gold hidden at the end of the rainbow? Some people think it is there now, but they are mistaken, for a long time ago somebody found it. How he happened to find it, nobody knows, for a great many people have searched in vain, and have never even been able to discover that the rainbow has any ends at all. The man who found it was very selfish and did not want anybody to know, for fear they might want some of his money. So one night he put it in a bag, which he slung over his shoulder, and walked across the fields toward a thick wood where he meant to hide it.
In the bag was something beside the gold—something so small that the greedy man in his hurry had not noticed it. It was a hole, and, as he walked on, one by one the gold coins fell out into the grass. When he reached the wood and found all of his money gone, he hurried back to search for it, but something strange had happened. It was a midsummer night, and the fairies were having a dance out in the meadows. They were good, loving little people, and despised selfishness above everything. One little fairy spied the glittering gold among the grasses. She had seen the greedy man passing by, and knew he would soon be back to hunt for his treasure. “It will do him no good,” she said, “if he hides it away, and neither will it help anybody else. I will change it into something that will give joy to rich and poor.”
When the greedy man reached the meadow he could see no gold money, but in its place were bright, yellow flowers—buttercup gold for the children.
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Lit2Go is a free online collection of stories and poems in Mp3 (audiobook) format. An abstract, citation, playing time, and word count are given for each of the passages. Many of the passages also have a related reading strategy identified. Each reading passage can also be downloaded as a PDF and printed for use as a read-along or as supplemental reading material for your classroom.
For those wanting the actual book it has been reprinted if you want to buy it. The reprint book gives this offiffiffic'al information:
The book "Buttercup Gold, and Other Stories " has been considered important throughout the human history, and so that this work is never forgotten we have made efforts in its preservation by republishing this book in a modern format for present and future generations. This whole book has been reformatted, retyped and designed. These books are not made of scanned copies and hence the text is clear and readable.
This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain." The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated. I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century. My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them. I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.
At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience. Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week. This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here. (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.) Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection. I have long recommended it and continue to do so. He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories. There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.
Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
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