Three Times

[stoutfellow]

"What I say three times is true."

I've always associated that line with Lewis Carroll's The Hunting of the Snark. (Actually, I've always associated it with my one-time teacher Saunders MacLane, who used it as a mnemonic for one of the peculiar features of Heyting logic; but I'm pretty sure he got it from Carroll.) But I'm reading Jim Butcher's Summer Knight, which at one point suggests that it originates in a piece of fairy-lore, to the effect that if one of the fae says the same thing three times, it must either be telling the truth or do whatever it can to make it the truth. Does anyone know whether Butcher is making this up or quoting some actual legendry?

Comments

[nishatalitha.livejournal.com]

I can't quote anything in particular, but three is a common number in fairytales, and I've definitely come across the say three times and its true aspect before.

Elizabeth Kerner uses it in Song in the Silence which is not a fairy tale. Only actual example I can think of.

[stoutfellow.livejournal.com]

Thanks; I'll take a look.