Folklore of Quebec

The Canadian province of Quebec has long been known for its folklore, both among the French-Canadian population and among the indigenous First Nations populations. Quebecois folklore has been studied since the late nineteenth century, when the scholarly study and classification of folklore began, and Quebec City’s Laval University hosts a Folklore Archives as well as offering a folklore studies program.

Typical sources of French-Canadian folklore include superstitions and folk tales, especially those about specific folk heroes (often lumberjacks) or that fall into specific common types. Among the First Nations of the province, folklore also includes stories about traditional religious figures and mythological heroes, like the Great Spirit (the creator god in the Cree belief system and many others) and Whiskey Jack (a Cree cultural hero).

Background

The term "folklore" was coined in the mid-nineteenth century to refer to the "lore"—knowledge, wisdom, proverbs, and other information—that is passed down through cultural artifacts, especially stories, songs and ballads, riddles, proverbs and sayings. The term "folk life" is sometimes used, either interchangeable with "folklore," or to distinguish cultural practices and activities from cultural stories, songs, and sayings. The line between folklore and religious belief can be fuzzy, and not all scholars and historians draw the line in the same place. Typically, the difference is that when information originates with religious institutions and official sources of authority, such as the Bible or church officials, it is not considered folklore. When it originates among the laity, such as stories people tell about famous religious figures, embellishments they add to stories from the Bible, or stories told about religious concepts, such as the devil or angels, then this is generally considered folklore. It is important to keep this source-based distinction in mind; many people associate folklore with, "tall tales" such as those of Paul Bunyan or John Henry, but it is misleading to say that folk tales are axiomatically false tales. In many Catholic communities in Quebec, for instance, folklore about the saints is an important part of Catholic religious life.

It is also true that not all such stories, songs, and so on are folklore. To be considered folklore, these artifacts have to be transmitted to a significant part of the culture: a family joke that has been passed down for a couple generations might be interesting, but it is not folklore. However, if it turns out that many different families in the same province tell very similar jokes about silly uncles or aunts who drink in secret, then these jokes are all considered variants of one another, and that widely repeated joke is indeed considered part of the folklore of the province, one that may shed light on typical family dynamics.

Overview

Quebec’s particularly rich heritage of folklore and the early scholarly interest in that folklore can be attributed to the development of an unusually robust oral culture in the region that is a result of several successive factors. First, like much of Canada, Quebec remained predominantly rural well into the twentieth century. While the United States became steadily urban with the dawn of the twentieth century as farmers’ children moved into factory cities, Quebec’s population remained overwhelmingly rural until after World War II. Moreover, the French government had forbidden a news media in colonial Quebec, and when Quebec became a British colony, the new government imposed its own language, religion, and schools. As the English-speaking arrivals to the province were most likely to move to cities, for a long time the French-speaking Quebecois population was predominantly rural, with a low rate of education and literacy.

Among outsiders, the best known Quebecois folk tales are the stories of lumberjack heroes like Louis Cyr, Napoleon LaRue, Big Joe Mufferaw, and Julius Neville. While these names may not be familiar to Americans not of French-Canadian extraction, many of these lumberjack adventures were retold south of the border as Paul Bunyan stories. Paul Bunyan himself likely originated as a Quebecois lumberjack somewhere in the northern timber regions of the United States where many French-Canadian families settled (Maine and Michigan have both staked a claim to Bunyan). That he is as well-known as he is, though, is not because he was the best-known figure in oral tradition but because a writer named William Laughead used him in a series of advertisements for the Red River Lumber Company beginning in 1916. It was Laughead who made Bunyan a literal giant, rather than merely "larger than life," and who named Bunyan’s blue ox "Babe." Bunyan’s fame took off, and subsequent stories borrowed heavily from the deep store of Quebecois lumberjack tales.

Other Quebecois folklore is more explicitly supernatural. One of the best-known stories, retold in several children’s books, is La Chasse-Galerie, or "The Flying Canoe," about a lumberjack (or group of lumberjacks) whose deal with the devil allows him the use of a flying canoe in exchange for his soul if he doesn't return it on time, with a host of other conditions. The devil shows up in many Quebecois folktales, making mischief or bargaining for souls, while witches and werewolves are frequent antagonists.

The First Nations population is predominantly Cree, with Algonquians, Mohawks, and Inuits in the far northern area of Nunavik. Cree folklore includes stories about hunters, regional animals, and cultural heroes like Whiskey Jack. Whiskey Jack is a trickster figure, but unlike many tricksters found in Native American folklore, he is an ally to humankind rather than its antagonist. Some stories claim he’s the son of a monster, others, that the Great Spirit created him to be humankind’s teacher (albeit with a unique style of teaching). In the Cree flood myth, just as Noah built an ark, Whiskey Jack builds a raft to save himself and many animals; however, unlike in the Biblical flood, this flood was of Whiskey Jack’s own making, as he had accidentally flooded the world when trying to trap Beaver by damming the river outside his lodge.

Bibliography

Adelson, Naomi. Being Alive Well: Health and the Politics of Cree Well-Being. Toronto: U of Toronto P, 2013. Print.

Carlson, Natalie Savage. The Talking Cat and Other Stories of French Canada. New York: Harper and Brothers, 1955. Print.

Frechette, Louis. Christmas in French Canada. Toronto: BiblioLife, 2013. Print.

Greenough, William Parker, and Walter C. Greenough. Canadian Folk-Life and Folk-Lore. Seattle: Amazon Digital Services, 2014. Kindle file.

Kimmel, Eric A. The Flying Canoe: A Christmas Story. New York: Holiday House, 2015. Print.

Luthi, Max. The European Folktale. Bloomington: Indiana UP, 1986. Print.

Morantz, Toby. The White Man’s Gonna Getcha: The Colonial Challenge to the Crees in Quebec. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s UP, 2002. Print.

Woodley, Edward C. Legends of French Canada. North Stratford: Ayer, 1938. Print.