A legend about another owl-woman is alluded to by Shakespeare in Hamlet, Act IV, Sc. V, in Ophelia's speech, "They say the owl was a baker's daughter." The common version of this story comes from Gloucestershire, and is told as follows: "Our Saviour went into a baker's shop where they were baking and asked for some bread to eat. The mistress of the shop immediately put a piece of dough into the oven to bake for him, but was reprimanded by her daughter who, insisting that the piece of dough was too large, reduced it considerably in size. The dough, however, immediately afterwards began to swell, and presently became an enormous size. Whereupon the baker's daughter cried out, 'Wheugh! wheugh! wheugh!' which owl-like noise, it is said, probably induced our Saviour, for her wickedness, to transform her into that bird."
An old ode gives a more aristocratic descent to the owl than the family of a tradesman.
"Once I was a monarch's daughter,
And sat on a lady's knee:
But am now a mighty rover,
Banished to the ivy tree.
"Crying hoo hoo, hoo hoo, hoo hoo,
Hoo! hoo! hoo! my feet are cold!
Pity me, for here you see me,
Persecuted, poor and old!"
In the north country the owl was also said to be of royal descent, perhaps of birth even as high as the child of a Pharaoh.
"I was once a king's daughter and sat upon my father's knee,
But now I am a poor hoolet, and hide in a hollow tree."
Another common tradition represents the owl as an old weaver spinning with silver threads, and the barn owl is said to be a transformation of one of the servants of the ten kings of the infernal regions.[132]
A similar story about the Saviour and the dough is told of the woodpecker. When Christ and St. Peter were wandering about the earth, they came to a house where an old wife sat baking. Her name was Gertrude and she wore a red mutch on her head. The Saviour, being hungry, pleaded that she should give Him a bannock, and to this she agreed. She took a very small piece of dough and rolled it out, but as she was rolling it it grew bigger and finally covered the whole griddle.
Then she said it was too large and she could not give away that bannock, and she took up a still smaller piece of dough and began again. But this piece grew as large as the other, and she refused to let her visitors have it. The same thing occurred a third time, and then Gertrude said, "I can't give you anything. You will have to go without, for all these bannocks are too large."
Then Christ was angry and said, "Since you grudge me a morsel of food you shall turn into a bird and seek your livelihood between bark and hole, and only drink when it rains."