'Me A'an Sel', Ainsel or My Own Self is a Northumbria

Northumbria

Northumbria was a medieval kingdom of the Angles, in what is now Northern England and South-East Scotland, becoming subsequently an earldom in a united Anglo-Saxon kingdom of England. The name reflects the approximate southern limit to the kingdom's territory, the Humber Estuary.Northumbria was...

n fairy tale

Fairy tale

A fairy tale is a type of short story that typically features such folkloric characters, such as fairies, goblins, elves, trolls, dwarves, giants or gnomes, and usually magic or enchantments. However, only a small number of the stories refer to fairies...

 collected by Joseph Jacobs

Joseph Jacobs

Joseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...

. A version of the tale appears in Scottish Folk Tales

Scottish Folk Tales

Scottish Folk Tales is a 1976 anthology of 18 fairy tales from Scotland that have been collected and retold by Ruth Manning-Sanders. It is one in a long series of such anthologies by Manning-Sanders...

by Ruth Manning-Sanders

Ruth Manning-Sanders

Ruth Manning-Sanders was a prolific British poet and author who was perhaps best known for her series of children's books in which she collected and retold fairy tales from all over the world. All told, she published more than 90 books during her lifetime. The dust jacket for A Book of Giants...

. It is Aarne-Thompson type 1137 Self Did It, similar to the encounter between Odysseus

Odysseus

Odysseus or Ulysses was a legendary Greek king of Ithaca and the hero of Homer's epic poem the Odyssey. Odysseus also plays a key role in Homer's Iliad and other works in the Epic Cycle....

 and Polyphemus

Polyphemus

Polyphemus is the gigantic one-eyed son of Poseidon and Thoosa in Greek mythology, one of the Cyclopes. His name means "much spoken of" or "famous". Polyphemus plays a pivotal role in Homer's Odyssey.-In Homer's Odyssey:...

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Synopsis

A widow lived with her son in a cottage with many 'good folk' living about it. One day, her son would not go to bed, and she went to sleep on her own. A small girl dropped down the chimney and told him that her name was "My Own Self"; he told her that he was the same. They played together for a time. He stirred up the fire, and a spark landed on her foot, burning her. She screamed. A voice came down the chimney, demanding to know what had happened, and the girl said "my own self" had burned her foot. The voice said she shouldn't make such a fuss about it, then, and a long arm came down the chimney to pull the girl back up it.

After that, the boy went to bed when his mother told him to.

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