On my return to my homeland Malta, I had the privilege of attending two lectures given by Dr Micheline Galley at the University of Malta. This was the inspiration that fired me to write my second edition of my favourite folklore character.
The first lecture was about the very popular folk hero Gahan, who is known throughout the eastern and western Mediterranean countries. She started with the usual phrase in Maltese – “Darba kien hawn tifel jismu Gahan...” (Once upon a time there was a boy called Gahan). At the time, all that I knew about Gahan was the Gahan u l-Bieb of my school days stories by E.B. Vella. Her second tale – was another typical story that was known all over the Mediterranean area, which was among a few other stories and quibs as an illustration of Gahan’s personality. The few examples of this Mediterranean character that exist in our archives are by Hans Stumme, Aldo Farini and Giuseppe Pitre. She enlarged her vision of this character to spread not only to Sicily, Albania, Corsica but to the east and west of the North African coast. This had inspired me to delve into the historical background of this trickster character par excellence, hence my book Il-Gahan ta’ Madwarna, published by the Malta Union of Teachers.
Madame Galley became a very important, regular and welcome visitor to our island. Her wide and seemingly inexhaustible knowledge of world tales was the subject of her second lecture about “Universality and Specificity of Folktales”. She delved into different versions of the types of the folktale, starting from the eminent American folklorist Stith Thompson. This, opened the doors wide for me in the field of interpretation of folktales – a wide vision indeed as Madame Galley showed with her universality and specificity of the world tale, hence my book on the interpretation of folktale published by the Edward de Bono Foundation, 2006 / 2011.
Bertha Koessler-Ilg (1881 – 1965) settled in San Martin de los Andes with her family. Before she left Malta she left her unpublished collection of Maltesische Schwunke as well as 200 Maltese quatrains which have since appeared in the first issue of the Maltese Folklore Review. (The Bibliotheca – Valletta).
Dr Micheline Galley is an anthropologist and author of Maria Calleja’s Gozo, A Life History. Joseph Cassar Pullicino was the researcher who worked hand in hand with Madame Galley here in Malta. Dr Galley has kept in contact not only with Joseph in the wide field of folklore here, but is also interested in Mro Charles Camilleri for the way he used Maltese folkloristic music and Maltese legends in his music.
She left for us her researched publication Femmes de Malta dans les chants traditionnels (a joint venture with Cassar Pullicino). The Bride of Mosta, meanwhile, is a new novel based on and interwoven with the background of the Maltese legend L-Gharusa tal-Mosta (La Mariee de Mosta) inspired by her publication Editions du Centre National de Recherche Scientifique. Paris 1981.
Doris Vella Camilleri