In the old times when wishing was still effective...
In den alten Zeiten, als das Wünschen noch geholfen hat...
A picture by Gustave Doré of Mother Goose reading fairy tales.
A fairy tale is a type of short folkloric story that usually features European fantasy characters, such as fairies, elves, giants, witches, dwarves, gnomes, goblins, and trolls, and typically involves magic or enchantments. Found in oral and literary form, the roots of the fairy tale genre stem from different oral stories passed down in European cultures. The genre was first isolated by writers of the Renaissance such as Giovanni Francesco Straparola and Giambattista Basile, and became more stabilized through the works of later collectors such as Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm. The term "fairy tale" was coined by Madame d'Aulnoy, writing her contes des fées in the late 17th century, some 135 before the tales of the Grimm Brothers were written.
Fairy tales began as an oral tradition long before being written down. The tales were enacted dramatically and handed down from generation to generation. Because of this, the history of their evolution and development is unfortunately obscured and inconsistent. "Fairy tales" appear frequently in literate cultures throughout history (The Golden Ass - Rome 100-200 AD or Panchatantra - India 3rd century BCE), but it is unclear how well these actually reflect the folk tales of their own time. In the broader definition of the genre, the first famous Western "fairy tales" are those of Aesop's Fables (Greece - 6th century BCE).
In the mid-17th century, a vogue emerged for magical tales among the intellectual community who frequented the salons of Paris. The salons were gatherings hosted by prominent aristocratic women, who helped perpetuate the recital and development of magical tales, though this was at a time when women were barred from receiving a formal education. Not surprisingly, the stories often featured young, well-bred girls whose lives were controlled by the arbitrary whims of fathers, kings, and elderly wicked fairies, and also featured tales in which groups of wise fairies stepped in and put all to rights.
The Brothers Grimm
Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm published their Children’s and Household Tales for the first time in 1812.
From Left to Right: Wilhelm Grimm and Jacob Grimm in a painting by Elisabeth Jerichau-Baumann in 1855.
Publishing the collection of over 210 folktales was the culmination of the brothers’ mission to preserve German culture in the face of French occupation. The Brothers traveled the countryside, soliciting oral narratives told mostly to them by women, young and old suggesting a great deal of female ownership in the content of the tales not always apparent in their telling.
The Grimm’s Household Tales was a scholarly labor of patriotism completed by men who were surviving on one meal a day at the time of its publishing and initially refused illustrations in favor of footnotes!
Although not initially intended for children, many psychologists assert that the telling of fairy tales to children enables them to face some of their greatest fears in the safe environment of the imagination. The “reversal” (the triumph of the oppressed “little guy” over the seemingly all-powerful villain) which inevitably concludes most of the multi-revised Grimm tales (as well as Charles Perrault’s Mother Goose Stories from France which preceded the Grimms by 200 years), allows children - and the child in all of us - to draw clear distinctions between good and evil ; though as we all know, “nice is different than good”.
FOR MORE INFO ON THE BROTHERS GRIMM:
1. 1.O’Neil, Thomas. “Guardians of the Fairy Tale: The Brother’s Grimm” National Geographic Article http://www.nationalgeographic.com/grimm/article.html
2.Kohler, S. (2014, June 6). On the Importance of Fairy Tales. Psychology Today.
Cinderella
In Germany, she is Aschenputtel; in Egypt, Rhodopis. In China she is called Yeh-Shen, and the French tell the story of Cinderwench. Boasting at least 345 documented variants and numerous unrecorded versions, the ‘rags-to-riches’ tale is the escape fantasy for the peasants of the world -which, relatively speaking, is most of us. Around the world, she is the abused and forsaken sister who, through perseverance and faith, is rewarded in the end with good fortune. The most famous of all unpromising heroes is Cinderella, the step-daughter, an ash girl, ragged, dirty - “unpromising” because the cards are stacked against Cinderella, but “famous” because she personifies the ideal of the triumphant (and virtuous) underdog.
Cenerentola
The first written European version of her story, Cenerentola was published by Giambattista Basile in his Pentamerone (1634). This version features a wicked governess/stepmother, evil stepsisters, magical transformations, a missing slipper, and a hunt by a monarch for the owner of the slipper. It was published posthumously in 1634. You can read this version here: http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/pentamerone/6cenerentola1911.html
Cendrillon
One of the most popular written versions of Cinderella was written by Charles Perrault in 1697 under the name Cendrillon. His version added the pumpkin, the fairy-godmother, and introduced the glass slippers into the story. This version had a couple of morals to conclude the story:
Moral: Beauty in a woman is a rare treasure that will always be admired. Graciousness,
however, is priceless and of even greater value. This is what Cinderella's godmother
gave to her when she taught her to behave like a queen. Young women, in the winning
of a heart, graciousness is more important than a beautiful hairdo. It is a true gift of the
fairies. Without it nothing is possible; with it, one can do anything.
however, is priceless and of even greater value. This is what Cinderella's godmother
gave to her when she taught her to behave like a queen. Young women, in the winning
of a heart, graciousness is more important than a beautiful hairdo. It is a true gift of the
fairies. Without it nothing is possible; with it, one can do anything.
Another moral: Without doubt it is a great advantage to have intelligence, courage,
good breeding, and common sense. These, and similar talents come only from heaven,
and it is good to have them. However, even these may fail to bring you success,
without the blessing of a godfather or a godmother.
good breeding, and common sense. These, and similar talents come only from heaven,
and it is good to have them. However, even these may fail to bring you success,
without the blessing of a godfather or a godmother.
You can read this version here: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/perrault06.html
Aschenputtel
Another well known version, recorded by the Brothers Grimm in the 19th century. In this version, Cinderella's help doesn't come from a fairy-godmother, but rather by the wishing tree, planted at the site of her mother's grave. Also, in this version, Cinderella's slipper is made of gold. It's safe to say that the Grimm's version of Cinderella is the story inserted into Sondheim & Lapine's musical, Into the Woods.
Popular folklorist, Shirley Climo has collected, edited and published an impressive collection of Cinderella tales from the Persian Cinderella, Settareh, to the unexpected (or maybe not so unexpected from Ireland), Irish Cinderlad, Becan. They are beautifully illustrated & fun reads.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON CINDERELLA:
1. Kolbenschlag, Madonna. Kiss the Sleeping Beauty Good-Bye. New York: HarperCollins, 1988.
2. Standard Dictionary of Folklore, Mythology, and Legend Ed. Maria Leach. 2 vols. New York: Funk, 1949-1950. p 1151
Rapunzel
Rapunzel is a German fairy tale, most widely known from the version by the Brothers Grimm, published in 1812 The story was based on earlier versions by Friedrich Schulz (published 1790), which is based on Persinette by Charlotte-rose de Caumont de La Force (published 1698), which was influenced by an earlier version, Petrosinella (meaning parsley) by Giambattista Basile (published 1634).
Rapunzel's name is taken from the wild, bitter green known as rampion, whose latin name is campanula rapunculus. This species was once widely grown in Europe for its leaves, which were used like spinach, and a parsnip-like root, which was used like a radish. It has little purple bell-flowers when it is in bloom.
Campanula rapunculus.
In Grimm's tale, Rapunzel's mother so greatly desired this plant when she was pregnant, that her husband repeatedly sneaks into the garden of the neighboring "evil witch", to steal some for his wife. When he is caught by the witch, he begs for mercy, who strikes a deal to take the baby when it is born, and his wife can have all the rampion she wants. This also is where Sondheim and Lapine insert the Baker and his wife into the story in Into the Woods.
Although taken from her parents at birth, she was allowed to roam and play until the age of twelve, when the witch imprisoned her in a tower without doors or stairs. Often, the cloistered women of Grimm reach their confined condition upon the age of puberty. Though clearly a symbolic gesture in protecting virginity or virtue, its failure represents just as strongly the will of nature to persevere.
When a prince discovers Rapunzel and eventually asks her to marry him, she agrees and they plan to create a silk ladder as the prince visits her every night (avoiding the witch her visits her by day). Though, before the plan can come to fruition, she foolishly gives him away. in the first edition of Grimm's Fairy Tales, she asks the witch why her clothes are getting tight around the waist (indicating pregnancy), and in the second edition, she asks the witch why it is easier to draw up the prince than her. In a rage, the witch cuts off her hair and casts her out into the wilderness to fend for herself.
The witch uses Rapunzel's hair to fool the prince, who falls from the tower when he discovers he'll never see Rapunzel again, and is blinded by the thorns below. In one version, he leaps from the tower, and in another, the witch pushes him.
He wanders the wilderness for months until he hears Rapunzel singing and finds her living with the twins she's given birth to (a boy and girl). When they embrace, Rapunzel's tears restore the prince's sight. He then leads his new family to his kingdom and they live "happily ever after".
In some versions of the story, Rapunzel's hair magically grows back when the prince touches it, and in others, the witch is trapped in the tower, having dropped Rapunzel's severed hair when the prince falls (or is pushed) from the tower.
The villain of this story changes through various retellings. In Petrosinella by Giambattista Basile (the earliest known version of the story - 1634), instead of a witch, she is described as an "ogress". In 1812, she is a fairy, but by 1857 she's a sorceress, and as of the 20th century she has been everything from an "enchantress" to an "evil old witch".
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON RAPUNZEL:
1. http://www.mythicjourneys.org/newsletter_jul07_windling.html
2. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm012a.html
Jack and the Beanstalk
Written, or at least retold and published by British bookstore owner, Benjamin Tabart (1767 - 1833) in 1807 as one of several moralizing tales in what is referred to as the "Jack cycle". A later version of the Beanstalk tale, by Joseph Jacobs in 1890, is the more popular version as it is free of Tabart's moralizing.
"Jack cycles" or "Jack tales" are a series of stories featuring the archetypal Cornish or English hero, Jack. Jack appears in legends, fairy tales, and nursery rhymes. Jack can also be found in Jack and Jill, Jack Be Nimble, Jack Sprat, Stingy Jack, Jack the Giant Killer, Little Jack Horner, and for our purposes here, Jack and the Beanstalk.
Jack and his widowed mother are on the brink of being able to provide for themselves. When the cow stops giving milk, Jack's mother tells Jack to take the cow to the market to be sold. On his way, Jack meets an old man who offers him "magic beans" in exchange for the cow. Jack and the old man make the trade, and when he arrives home without any money, his mother becomes angry and throws the beans on the ground and sends Jack to bed.
Looks pretty "mysterious", wouldn't you say?
Overnight the gigantic beanstalk grows, and Jack climbs to a land high in the sky. He arrives at a house (or castle in some versions), which is the home of a giant. He asks for food and the giant's wife takes him in. When the giant returns he smells Jack and threatens him but the giant's wife continues to hide him. Jack steals a bag of gold when the giant is asleep, and on subsequent visits steals a goose (or hen in other versions) that lays golden eggs, and a harp that plays by itself. Each time he is helped by the giant's wife, though she grows increasingly suspicious of him.
When he steals the harp, the giant wakes up. Jack flees down the beanstalk and cuts it down when he reaches the ground. Jack and his mother live "happily ever after" off the riches Jack stole from the giant.
This tale has been examined as a "modernized" David and Goliath story, emphasizing the importance of cunning over size. It has often been examined as a statement of masculinity: when "Milky White" ceases to give milk, indicating a weaning from a mother as a provider of sustenance, Jack is sent out to find provision and returns with seeds - his metaphorical "maleness" - that grows to the point of reaching, literally "giant" proportions. However, the product of Jack's seeds is the ability to provide for the family, hence the fulfillment of his masculinity. His mother, having degraded his choices, she is forced to accept that Jack has "grown up", and that she is no longer the head of the household.
FOR MORE INFORMATION ON JACK AND THE BEANSTALK:
1. http://www.authorama.com/english-fairy-tales-15.html Bettelheim, Bruno. The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales, Alfred A. Knopf, New York 1976.
2. Marjorie Moon. Benjamin Tabart's Juvenile Library: A Bibliography of Books for Children Published, Written, Edited and Sold by Mr. Tabart, 1801–1820. (Winchester: St Paul's Bibliographies) 1990.
Little Red Riding Hood
The origins of Little Red Riding Hood can be traced to versions from various European countries, several of which differ considerably from the more widely known Grimms-inspired version. It was told by French peasants in the 10th century, and by Italian peasants in the 14th century, where numerous versions exist including La finta nona (The False Grandmother). These early versions don't necessarily include a wolf, but sometimes a werewolf or ogre. Sometimes the wolf leaves the grandmother's meat for the girl to eat, who then cannibalizes her own grandmother. In other versions, she gets into bed with the wolf, and sometimes she escapes by her own cunning or with the help of laundresses who help her to cross a river. Sometimes the red cape or hood are non-existent.
Le Petit Chaperon Rouge
Charles Perrault published the earliest known printed version and was included in his Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals in 1697. The redness of the hood was a detail introduced by Perrault - the hood or chaperon was a small, stylish headdress worn by the aristocracy of Perrault's time. His version ends with the girl being eaten by the wolf after climbing into bed with it - clearly an admonition against sexual promiscuity. At the end, Charles Perrault explains the moral of the story to be sure no one missed it:
From this story one learns that children, especially young lasses, pretty, courteous
and ill-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers. And it is not an unheard thing if
the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the
same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition - neither noisy, nor
hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the
streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves
are of all such creatures the most dangerous!
and ill-bred, do very wrong to listen to strangers. And it is not an unheard thing if
the Wolf is thereby provided with his dinner. I say Wolf, for all wolves are not of the
same sort; there is one kind with an amenable disposition - neither noisy, nor
hateful, nor angry, but tame, obliging and gentle, following the young maids in the
streets, even into their homes. Alas! Who does not know that these gentle wolves
are of all such creatures the most dangerous!
An illustration of a chaperon.
Rotkmärchen
The Brothers Grimm included Little Red Riding Hood in the first edition of their collection Kinder- und Hausmächen (Children's and Household tales - 1812). The earlier parts of the tale agree so closely with Perrault's version that it is undoubtedly the source of the tale, but they modified the ending. In the Grimm's version, the girl and her grandmother are saved by a huntsman who was after the wolf's skin.
In the Grimm's version, Red is made younger and so innocent that not only is it hard to believe a mother would send a child so young into the woods alone (commentary on 19th century motherhood, anyone?), but that she did not recognize evil when she came upon the wolf in the woods. The Grimms shed the finery of a satin hood for the minimal, lower-middle class head covering. So, with her little red cap of 1812, she symbolized the dangers (to body and soul) of disobedience; her willingness to disobey her mother's instructions to "stay on the path" lead her to be trapped within the "belly of the beast".
The Tale of Red Riding Hood is told on every continent, in every major language, including a diagrammed version in American Sign Language. The clear message of good versus evil appeals to our desire for bold, defined, archetypal realities: Red Riding Hood is good, the wolf is evil. Her triumph is comforting and reassuring to our binary sensibilities. Yet, over the many decades of telling the tale, it is the morphing manner of Red Riding Hood's triumph that compels Christians, philosophers, feminists, folklorists, psychoanalysts and playwrights alike to delve into the world of "Little Red Cap" - her Grimm moniker.
While some versions suffer Red to be gobbled up, others offer her redemption at the hands of a huntsman (who sometimes is a father, or her father in some renditions) who frees Red and Granny to hug and celebrate, and sometimes trick the wolf to his death. Still another has poor Red meeting a bzou, or werewolf, who asks of her route, "are you taking the path with needles or the path with pins?". He would eat her up only she begs him to let her go outside to relieve herself. When she gets outside, of course she runs home.
Twentieth Century cartoonist, Tex Avery, brought animated Red to a lusty incarnation with the famous line, "I used to be Snow White...But a drifted.". This self-composed sex goddess fended off the advances of a tongue-wagging wolf with a simple cold shoulder: literally a snowball on her shoulder.
Several literary Red Riding Hood-ophiles speculate and write upon the significance of the costume as much as the actions of the character herself! Often, it is stipulated the cap given to Red by her grandmother represents a passing of the torch of womanhood and maturity. Sometimes the scarlet color of the cap, hood, or cloak, are seen as statements of everything from the virginal hymen to the sinful harlot, to the female empowered by wisdom who in many versions kills the wolf herself! The fuller, more ornate cloak style of head covering is a product of the tale landing in England where the woolen red riding hood was a traditional garment.
Charles Dickens once mused, "I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss."
Charles Dickens once mused, "I felt that if I could have married Little Red Riding Hood, I should have known perfect bliss."
FOR MORE INFO ON LITTLE RED RIDING HOOD:
1. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0333.html
2. http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/grimm026.html
3. http://www.endicott-studio.com/articleslist/the-path-of-needles-and-pinsby-terri-windling.html
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