Il mondo della montagna nei racconti del Delfinato e della Lessinia

My research concentrates on the comparison between some aspects of two mountain communities (the Delfinato, an area of Southern France, and the Lessinia, an alpine territory in the Northern area of Verona) starting from the analysis of tales and legends belonging to oral tradition that represent these societies until the pre-industrial period. In my study I used different instruments of research (literary analysis, anthropology, sociology, ethnology), to put in evidence the influence of environment on the character of a community. I divided my thesis in three parts: in the first one I analyzed the scale of values of these contexts; in the second part I studied the different forms of supernatural and the reactions of people facing their fear; in the third part I concentrated my attention on the reject of “strangers”. As regards the first chapter I tried to put in evidence how the values of mountain men (family, attachment to community, labour and solidarity) are all aimed at preserving order within society. So, even if family can know different crisis it remains, as tales underline, the context where everybody is accepted and loved whatever happens. This fact removes the problem of solitude deeply touching this kind of world, isolated and narrow minded. The community and all the ritual occasions as the Sunday mass, the filò (evening meetings where people can discuss, joke, work, etc.) and the carnival constitute some of the ways through which mountain people find important points of reference in order to keep stability and, again, not to feel alone. The labour, agriculture and sheep farming above all, make the life of men very difficult owing to the hardness of this work and to the uncertainty of results (storms, hail and drought can destroy the efforts of an entire season). The texts that concentrate on solidarity try to demonstrate that in these societies this value wasn't felt as one of the most important way for poor people (the majority) to survive. So, tales insist on encouraging solidarity as a possibility to preserve the world of mountain. In the second chapter I took in consideration all the fantastic beings (devil, esprit domestique, werewolf, fairies, ogres, monsters) and all the human beings whose alliance with devil allowed them to come into possession of supernatural powers (witches, wizards and some fairies). I studied all their features, the ways they appear, the ways to protect oneself from their attacks and from fear. The result of my analysis underlines how their presence in a big quantity of texts is used to create a sense of constant danger which allows to keep people in a situation of “paralysis” where nothing can be changed. They have to respect the rules if they want to survive. In the third chapter I faced the theme of the “stranger” within these societies that completely refuse to accept that “different people” can live and work in “their” own territory. Strangers are gypsies hidden under the wilderness of French “fairies”; they can also be recognized within some groups which are named sabbat or francs-maçons. Everybody thinks that these groups meet to celebrate satanic rites where even the devil in person appear. They gather in the woods, in the fields, far away from civilization. Fear of disorder, fear of supernatural being, fear of the stranger. The life of mountain populations is marked by the obsession and the respect of order. Some Italian mountain men try to get away from poorness and cultural misery to find their own place in another world, the town for example. But the pedagogical aim of the tales prevents these journeys to be successful. So, people from Lessinia are obliged to come back home, unhappy and unhopeful. French people seem to have already learnt this lesson. In fact, the Delfinato mountain men are all resigned, they never think to escape. They just live where God put them at the beginning and try to resist to the misery of their lives. They aren't interested in freedom because they are aware that it can be dangerous. Being free means becoming responsible of our own life, of our happiness, of our success, but also of our failures and our solitude.