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AND ONE NIGHTS (q.v.) are full of popular tales, and popular marchen are the detritus of the See also:saga,—was for a See also:long See also:time tales are the See also:staple of the See also:medieval Gesta Romanorum, and of the collections of Straparola and other See also:Italian conteurs . In all these and similar gatherings the See also:story, long circulated from mouth to mouth among the See also:people, is handled with conscious See also:art, and little but the See also:general outline of See also:plot and See also:character of incident can be regarded as See also:original . In the Histories ou Contes du Temps Passe of See also:Perrault (See also:Elzevir, See also:Amsterdam, 1697; the Parisian edition is of the same date) we have one of the earliest gatherings of tales which were taken down in their nursery shape as they were told by nurses to See also:children . This at least seems probable, though M . See also:Alfred See also:Maury thinks Perrault See also:drew from See also:literary See also:sources . Perrault attributed the See also:composition to his son, P . Darmancour, at that time a See also:child, and this pretext enabled him to give his stories in a See also:simple and almost popular See also:guise . It seems that popular tales in many cases probably owe their origin to the See also:desire of enforcing a moral or See also:practical See also:lesson . It appears that their irrational and " infantile " c Faracter—" depourvues de raison "—is derived from their origin, if not actually among children, at least among childlike peoples, who have not arrived at " raison," that is, at the scientific and See also:modern conception of the See also:world and of the nature of See also:man . The success of Perrault's popular tales brought the genre into literary See also:fashion, and the Comtesse d'See also:Aulnoy invented, or in some cases adapted, " contes," which still retain a See also:great ; See also:German and Scottish marchen, is it See also:extinct, See also:cannibalism and popularity . But the precise and scientific collection of tales cruel See also:torture being favourite incidents . from the lips of the people is not much earlier than our See also:century . (3) The same plots and incidents as they exist in the heroic The See also:chief impulse to the study was given by the See also:brothers See also:Grimm . The first edition of their Kinder- and Haus-Marchen was published in 1812 . The See also:English reader will find a very considerable bibliography of popular tales, as known to the Grimms, in Mrs Alfred' See also:Hunt's See also:translation, Grimm's See also:Household Tales, with Notes (See also:London, 1884) . " How unique was our collection when it first appeared," they exclaim, and now merely to enumerate the books of such traditions would occupy much space . In addition to the marchen of Indo-See also:European peoples, the Grimms became acquainted with some See also:Malay stories, some narratives of Bechuanas, Negroes, See also:American See also:Indians, and Finnish, Esthonian, and Magyar stories . Thus the Grimms' knowledge of non-European marchen was extremely slight . It enabled them, however, to observe the increase of refinement " in proportion as gentler and more humane See also:manners develop themselves," the monstrosities of Finnish and Red-See also:Indian See also:fancy gradually fading in the narratives of Germans and Italians . The Grimms See also:notice that the See also:evolution of popular narrative resembles the evolution of the art of See also:sculpture, from the See also:South-See also:Sea idol to the See also:frieze of the See also:Parthenon, "from the strongly marked, thin, even ugly, but highly expressive forms of its earliest stages to those which possess See also:external beauty of See also:mould." Since the Grimms' time our knowledge of the popular tales of non-European races has been greatly enriched . We possess See also:numbers of See also:North-American, Brazilian, Zulu, See also:Swahili, See also:Eskimo, Samoan, See also:Maori, Kaffir, Malagasy, Bushman, North See also:African, Fiort, New Caledonian, and even Australian marchen, and can study them in comparison with the stories of See also:Hesse, of the See also:West See also:Highlands of See also:Scotland, of Scandinavia . While the popular romances of races of all See also:colours must be examined together, another See also:element in this subject is not less important . It had probably been often observed before, as by See also:Lord Fountainhall (167o), but the fact was brought out most vividly by J . G. von See also:Hahn (Griechische and albanesische Marchen, See also:Leipzig, 1864), that the popular tales of European races turn on the same incidents, and display the same See also:succession of situations, the same characters, and the same plots, as are See also:familiar in the See also:ancient epic literature of See also:Greece, See also:India, See also:Germany and Scandinavia . The epics are either fully-See also:developed marchen evolved by the literary See also:genius of poets and saga-men, or the marchen are degenerate and broken-down memories of the epics and sagas, or perhaps there may be examples of both processes . The second view,—namely, that the popular tales are, so to speak, the scattered grains of See also:gold of which the epic is the original " See also:pocket " or " placer,"—the belief that the prevalent . But a variety of arguments enforce the opposite conclusion, namely, that the marchen are essentially earlier in character than the epic, the final See also:form to which they have been wrought by the genius of See also:Homer or of some other remote yet cultivated poet . If this view be accepted, the evolution of ,marchen and of certain myths has passed through the following stages: (1) The popular See also:tale, as current among the uncultivated peoples, such as See also:Iroquois, Zulus, See also:Bushmen, Samoans, Eskimo, and See also:Samoyedes . This tale will reflect the See also:mental See also:condition of See also:rude peoples, and will be full of monstrous and miraculous events, with an See also:absence of See also:reason proper, as Perrault says, " a ceux qui n'en ont pas encore." At the same time the tale will very probably enforce some moral or practical lesson, often the See also:sanction of a See also:taboo, and may even appear to have been invented with this very purpose, for man is everywhere impressed with the importance of conduct . (2) The same tale—or rather a See also:series of incidents and a plot essentially the same—as it is discovered surviving in the oral traditions of the illiterate peasantry of European races . Among them the monstrous element, the ferocity of manners observed in the first See also:stage, will be somewhat modified, but will be found most notable among the See also:Slavonic tribes . Nowhere, even in epics and See also:poetry of the cultivated races, such as the Homeric epics, the See also:Greek tragedies, the Cyclic poets, the See also:Kalewala of the Finns, certain See also:hymns of the Rigveda, certain legends of the Brahmanas, the story of the Volsungs,—in these a See also:local and almost See also:historical character is given by the introduction of names of known places, and the adventures are attributed to See also:national heroes, See also:Odysseus, See also:Oedipus, See also:Sigurd, Wainamoinen, See also:Jason, Pururavas, and others . The whole See also:tone and manners are nobler and more refined in proportion as the literary workman-See also:ship is more elaborate . This theory of the origin of popular tales in the fancy of peoples in the See also:savage condition (see See also:MYTHOLOGY), of their survival as marchen among the peasantry of Indo-European and other civilized races, and of their transfiguration into epics, could only be worked out after the See also:discovery that savage and civilized popular tales are full of See also:close resemblances . These resemblances, when only known to exist among Indo-European peoples, were explained as See also:part of a See also:common See also:Aryan See also:inheritance, and as the result of a malady of See also:language . This See also:system, when applied to myths in general, has already been examined (see MYTHOLOGY) . According to another view, marchen every-where resemble each other because they all arose in India, and have thence been borrowed and transmitted . For this theory consult See also:Benfey's Panchatantra and M . Cosquin's Contes de See also:Lorraine (See also:Paris, 1886) In opposition to the Aryan theory, and the theory of borrowing from India, the sytem which is here advocated regards popular tales as kaleidoscopic arrangements of comparatively few situations and incidents, which again are naturally devised by the See also:early fancy . Among these incidents may be mentioned, first, kinship and intermarriage between man and the See also:lower animals and even inorganic phenomena . Thus a girl is wooed by a See also:frog, See also:pumpkin, See also:goat, See also:bear, or See also:elephant, in Zulu, Scotch, Walachian, Eskimo, See also:Ojibway, and German marchen . This incident is based on the lack of a sense of difference between man and the things in the world which is prevalent among savages (see' MYTHOLOGY) . Other incidents familiar in our nursery tales (such as " See also:Cinderella " and " Puss in Boots") turn on the early belief in See also:metamorphosis, in magic, in friendly or protecting animals (totems or beast manitous) . Others depend on the early prevalence of cannibalism (compare Grimm, 47, " The See also:Juniper See also:Tree ") . This recurs in the mad See also:song of Gretchen in See also:Faust, concerning which a distinguished student writes, " This See also:ghost of a ballad or See also:rhyme is my earliest remembrance, as crooned by an old See also:East-See also:Lothian See also:nurse." (Compare See also:Chambers's Popular Rhymes of Scotland, r87o, p . 49.) The same See also:legend occurs among the Bechuanas, and is published by Casalis . Yet another incident springs from the taboo on certain actions between See also:husband and wife, producing the story of See also:Cupid and See also:Psyche (see See also:Lang's See also:Custom and Myth, 1884, p . 64) . Once more, the custom which makes the youngest child the See also:heir is illustrated in the marchen of the success, despite the See also:jealousy of the elders, of Cinderella, of the Zulu See also:prince (Calla-way's Tales from the Amazulu, pp . 64, 65), and in countless other marchen . In other cases, as in the world-wide marchen corresponding to the Jason epic, we seem in presence of an early -amantic invention, how diffused it is difficult to imagine . Moral lessons, again, are inculcated by the numerous tales which turn on the See also:duty of kindness, or on the impossibility of evading See also:fate as announced in prophecy . In opposition to the philological explanation of the story of Oedipus as a nature-myth, this theory of a collection of incidents illustrative of moral lessons is admirably set forth in Prof . See also:Comparetti's Edipo e la Mitologia Comparata (See also:Pisa, 1867) . On a general view, then, the stuff of popular tales is a certain number of incidents and a certain set of combinations of these incidents . Their See also:strange and irrational character is due to their remote origin in the fancy of men in the savage condition; and their wide See also:distribution is caused, partly perhaps by oral trans-See also:mission from people to people, but more by the tendency of the early See also:imagination to run everywhere in the same grooves . The narratives, in the ages of heroic poetry, are elevated into epic song, and in the See also:middle ages they were even embodied in legends of the See also:saints . This view is maintained at greater length, and with numerous illustrations, in the introduction to Mrs Hunt's translation of Grimm's Kinder- and Haus-Marchen, and in Custom and Myth, already referred to . For savage popular tales see Theal's Kaffir Folk See also:Lore (2nd ed., London, 1886) ; Callaway's Nursery Tales of the Amazulu (London, 1868); See also:Schoolcraft's Algic Researches; Gill's Myths and Tales of the South Pacific; See also:Petitot's Traditions Indiennes (1886) ; Shortland's Maori See also:Religion and Mythology (London, 1882) ; the South African Folk Lore See also:Record; the Folk Lore Record (London, 1879--85, Malagasy stories); Rink's Tales and Traditions of the Eskimo; See also:Bleek's Hottentot Tales and Fables (London, 1864) ; See also:Castren's Samoyedische Marchen; See also:Maspero's Conies Egyptiens (from ancient See also:Egyptian See also:MSS.) ; and See also:Leland's See also:Algonquin Legends (London, 1884) . For European tales, the bibliography in the translation of Grimm already referred to may be used, and the Maisonneuve collection, See also:Les Litieratures populaires, may be recommended .
The names of Liebrecht, Kohler, See also:Dasent, Ralston, See also:Nigra, Pitre, Cosquin, Afanasief, Gaidoz, Sebillot, may serve as clues through the enchanted See also:forest of the nursery tales of See also:Europe
.
See also:Miss See also:Coxe's Cinderella (Folk-Lore Society) is an excellent See also:work on the subject, as is See also:Sidney Hartland's Legend of See also:Perseus, mainly concerned with myths of miraculous births
.
For See also:Australia
see Mrs Langloh See also:Parker's Australian Legendary Tales (2 vols.) and polit¢na
.
See also:Talfourd died in See also:court during the performance of his Howitt's Native Tribes of South-East Australia
.
M
.
Sebillot has
edited See also:French tales, and Mr Dennett has given Folk-Lore of the Fiort. judicial duties, at See also:Stafford, on the 13th of See also: |
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