Latronis Filii
The Sons of the Bandit
After a long career of theft and robbery, a bandit chief gives up his life of crime and settles down to live like a lord on his wealth. He encourages his sons to take up respectable careers, but they want to become robbers like their father. They decide to steal the queen's horse, and hide the youngest brother instead a bundle of hay sent to the horse's stall. When the brother emerges and rides off on the horse, however, the queen's guards spot him, and all the brothers are arrested. The queen summons their father and asks if he will pay their bail; when he refuses, she asks for stories of his exploits in exchange for clemency for his sons. He begins to tell the stories Polyphemus and Striges.
Polyphemus (see the page for the inset story for notes)
The bandit chief tells of his band's attempts to rob a group of giants, who instead capture them. Together with nine companions, the bandit is held captive by a giant with an injured eye who rejects their offer of ransom, and instead eats the other robbers, one by one over the coming days. The bandit himself is, he claims, forced to eat his fellows too. On the day when he is to be eaten, he offers to heal the giant's eye in exchange for his life; when the giant agrees, he pours a vat of boiling ingredients over the giant's face, and the giant is blinded. He rolls about on the floor in pain and blindly tries to find the bandit. The bandit conceals himself amonst the giant's flock of sheep, and tries to escape out into the pasture when the flock is sent forth - but unluckily, the giants feels around for the fattest sheep to eat every day, and the bandit seems like a tasty morsel and is grabbed. He escapes, and is caught again, and escapes again; seven times this occurs, until the giant is disgusted and allows him to leave, tried of the chase. A stone's throw from the cave, bandit stopped, celebrating his escape and mocking the giant for failing to catch him so many times. Grudgingly, the giant offers him a ring as a reward - but once the bandit puts it on, he cannot take it off, and cannot stop himself from shouting out 'I'm here! I'm here!'. Finally able to locate him, the giant lunges for him, but the bandit bites off his own finger, and runs away in silence.
Striges (see the page for the inset tale for notes)
After escaping from the blinded giant, the bandit runs into the wilderness. After wandering for days, he comes to a valley where he sees the bodies of three thieves hung from a gallows. Beyond this, he sees small house, where he finds a mother and child, weeping. The mother explains that they have been held captive by horrible creatures - witches or demons - who eat humans, and have ordered her to cook her baby for them to eat. The bandit goes to the gallows, cuts down the body of one of the thieves, and helps the woman cut him up and cook him; he then takes the baby and the two hide behind the house. As the sun sets, the demons appear, and gather around the cauldron, but they are not convinced that it in fact contains the baby. The bandit overhears them instruct a few of their fellows to check the nearby gallows, and he runs ahead and dangles himself from the beam in place of the death thief. When the demons appear, they cut a chunk of flesh from each other the hanging bodies, including a piece of meat from the bandit's thigh. The bandit binds the wound, and follows them back to the hut - where unfortunately, the meat cut from his body is deemed by far the most delicious. The demons decide to eat all of that body, and they hurry back to the gallows, with the bandit rushing ahead of them. They cut him down, but just as they are about to eat him, a crack of thunder booms (or a cock crows), and the demons flee in terror. When the sun rises, the bandit leaves the valley with the woman and baby, and leads them back to civilisation.
After he has finished both of these tales, the queen agrees that he has earned clemecy for his sons, and rewards him with many gifts.
| Critical Literature |
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| Nishimura (2001), Gilleland (1981) |
| Latronis Filii appears in the following versions and secondary versions |
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| Latronis Filii is narrated in the following occurrences | ||||
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| Latronis Filii appears in the following manuscripts |
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| This inset story appears in no manuscripts of the database |