The Mudcat Café TM
Thread #9182   Message #2532316
Posted By: Q (Frank Staplin)
05-Jan-09 - 04:10 PM
Thread Name: Origins: Jesus Met Woman at the Well/Maid & Palmer
Subject: RE: Lyr Req: Jesus Met a Woman at the Well
SINSULL, that is correct, but the folk versions confuse the two.
Child said, "The story of the woman of Samaria, John iv, is in all these blended with mediaeval traditions concerning Mary Magdalen, who is assumed to be the same with the woman "which was a sinner" in Luke, vii 37, and also with Mary, sister of Lazarus."

True that Scandinavian tales identify Jesus at the well, but so do versions from France, Gascony and Provence, as do some from the Iberian area, according to Child. It is God himself in Moravian versions mentioned by Child.
The variance in European stories seems to be considerable.