A Little Catching Up, Twelve Dancing Princesses and NOT Reading Ladinian

Hello everyone!  I can't believe it has been a week since I last posted.  There has been little fairy tale related news this week--almost none--so I'm not really behind either.  The biggest news is that Once Upon a Blog is active again.  Welcome back, Gypsy!

Between the heat wave and other obligations, I've just been overwhelmed and needed a break.  Don't think that means I've been away from fairy tales, however.  On the contrary, I've been rather immersed for I have been working hard on the next book title from SurLaLune: The Twelve Dancing Princesses!  You asked and I was interested myself, so it will be the next title.  Beauty and the Beast and Godfather Death will be close behind--I've been doing work on those over the last year, too.  Well, I've been working on several titles for twelve years now, if we want to get technical about it.

I've been researching until my brains are mush, gathering materials to translate and trying to insure that the book will have materials that are not readily available online.  The irony is that there are perhaps more Twelve Dancing variants than Sleeping Beauty (there aren't really that many ATU 410 Sleeping Beauties) but they are mostly in languages I have no hopes of translating myself.  I can manage romance languages and German pretty well but most of those eastern European countries are beyond my ability.

For example, does anyone read Ladinian?  Not really.  I have the text for a variant written in Ladinian (See Ladinian: the third official language of South Tyrol)  I didn't even know this language existed and kept trying to identify it with translator tools that suggested Esperanto, Tagalong and Catalan to name a few.  It is definitely related to Italian, but the vocabulary and structures are too different to parse easily and Ladinian/English dictionaries are not common or very useful.

Here's the entire text:

Inaga er' ei in retg, che haveva mo ina feglia. El lai scriver ora, che quel che sappi far qinllas treis caufsas, ch' el garegi, eurvegui sia feglia de maridar. Quoi vegn è ad ureglia ad in pauper giuven. Quel peglia curascha, et tratga ira tier il retg, e dar ina empruada. El pren eia valischa cun maglia, semelta pia sin via, e vegn en in gron naul. Cheu and' el a berglunt et urlont enzatgei snueivel. El entscheiva a tumer; tutteninaga vesa el entuorn el apir thiers ealvadie. Tumentans fiera el vi a quels la maglia en eia valischa, ils thiers maglian quei; mo silsuenter tuorna la maglia anavos tutta, e eefultscha puspei en la valischa. Ufsa vegu iu liun neu tier el, e gi tutt migieivlamein : „Trai ord da uiei treie palegns; pren quels, e salva si els, sin cura che ti eis en hasegns lura fruscha quels enta meun; e ti eis gidaue!" Senza tenta trai il giuven ora quels treis palegne, metta quels en sac, e va vinavon. Bein gleiti arriv'el en iu auter uaul. Cheu ami'el a cantout e schulont entuorn el; e tutt auetgamein er' el circamdaue da spir utschals. El fiera puspei vi a quels seu da magliar, e quels maguen taffer. Silsuenter tuorna la maglia puspei en la valischa, sco la gada avinu. Ufsa vegn in utschi tier el e gi: „Trai ora ami treie piemas e salva si quelles ein cura ti vegne en hasegns; lura fruscha quellas enta meun; e ti eis gidaueIa II giuven trai ora las píenla*, metta ellas en sac, e va vinavon. Ufsa vegn el en il tierz uaul, tier ina hetta. En quelle scadanav' ei, e petgava sin il pli ault grad. Plein marveglias arv' el la hetta, e va en. Cheu vezz' el maridare, che petgaven giu tocca gind in grep; mo devontier mava quella ensi. El fiera vi seu da magliar a quels; mo quellaga tuorna quel bucea pli anavos en la valischa. Ufsa vegn in maridur, cun ina bialla cruna sin tgau, «entier il giuven, dat aquel in ani, e gi: „Pren quel, e salva ei el, ein cura che ti eis en hasegns; lura metta quel en dett, e ti eis gidaue!" II giuven pren igl ani, e va lochen tier il retg. Leu damond' el quel, tgei el stoppi far per survegoir eia feglia sco danna. II retg munl'sa ad el in gron lag, e gi. che sin daineun stoppi quel esser schigiaus si dar tutt. „Bien!", tratga il giuven, .quei ei zitgei nnupueseivel per mei!u El va a stndigiont suonter, cо far Chen lai el vegnir endamen, «es treie palegns dil linn en sac; pren ora quels, e fruscha ele enta mean. Sinquei ein tutte ils thiers salvadis vegni leu, en hau bueu ora tutt l'aua dil lag; il retg era pia bein cuntenz cun il giuven. Ufsa muofsa il retg ad el in enueivel mautun grenn de tuttas sorte, e cam onda, ch'el stoppi zavrar quei greun ein l'autra datuenn mintga sort da persei l'antra. Quei era puepei enzatgei, che fageva etndegiar il giuven. Denton lai el vegnir andamen sias treie pieman, pren ora quellas e fruscha cun ellas enta pngn. Sinquei ein tutts ils utschals egolai neuticr e han zavrao il greun en norden, tochen gl'anter gi. Quei ha plischeu al retg. Ufsa cam un ila il retg al giuven, ch'el etoppi haghiar ni en tal e tal leng in casti aschia et aschia, e zvar schon ein glanter gi. Quei deva pusjiei de etudigiar ad el. Per cletg vegn ei endamen ad el, ch'el hagi er.nc in ani de duvrar en haeegns. El pren ora quel e metta el en dett; sinqnei ein tutts ¡le miradura, et è quel cun la cruna etai leu. Quels han entschiet a haghiar il casti, ch'il retg haveva comondau ; e l'autra dameun er'el fineus. retg leva e mira ord da finiastra e vezza cheu il casti bia pli biais e gronds, ch'il eeu. Spert lai cl'vegnir il giuven tier el, e dat ad el eia feglia, cun la quala el ha fatg etupentas nozzas. (See original here because there are a lot of typos I haven't fixed from the OCR.)

Not very long and I wish I could translate it!  It's the shortest variant I've found but it's completely useless in its current state.  It's even more frustrating because it feels like I should be able to read it but nope, not happening.

So that's my recent life...