Folktales: Grimm, Asbjørnsen and Moe, Jacobs, Afanasyev, & more

[Extollager]

More about the University of Chicago Folktales of the World series:

I have a copy (hardcover) of Folktales Told Around the World (1975). It is, in part, a sampler of the Folktales of the World volumes, but appears to include much that isn't drawn from those books.

From this book I learned that there was a Folktales of Chile (ed. Pino-Saavedra) U Chicago 1967, Folktales of France (ed. Massignon) U Chicago 1968, and a Folktales of Mexico (ed. Paredes), U Chicago 1970. This book also refers to a Folktales of Scotland, Folktales of Turkey, Folktales of Egypt, Folktales of India, Folktales of the Philippines, and Folktales of Switzerland as "forthcoming." I'm not sure that all of these did appear, and I doubt that they did. Egypt and India did appear, with different cover designs, it seems.

It might appear that the Chicago series slighted African stories. However, along with a generous selection of stories from Nigeria, Zaire, etc., the Folktales Told Around the World provides references to books in which many more tales may be found. Also Micronesia, Polynesia, etc.

 

[Extollager]

I should have listed also Folktales of Norway, one of my big favorites. According to the Amazon review belong, it was No. 5 in the series.

Apologies: I meant "Amazon review below," not "belong."

 

[SPoots]

Finally, a miscellaneous batch. Love that Icelandic book. The green book was a POD issue. Note that the title as printed on the cover is incorrect. The title of the original source was Popular Tales from the Norse.
View attachment 36071

Kwaidan is superb. Little thing you might find interesting, a friend of mine recently did a search on Amazon for that hardback copy of British Dragons and found it currently sells for over £100

 

[SPoots]

If you're at all interested in Japanese folktales, Kwaidan is essential reading and there is a very good film based on some of its stories. I would also recommend Fairy and Folktales of Ireland by W. B. Yeats as a classic. One last book I would recommend, and have recommended on nearly every thread I'm a part of here, Brewer's Dictionary of Phrase and Fable.

 

[Extollager]

For collectors and anyone else who might be curious, an update on the University of Chicago Folktales of the World series in paperback -- here the numbers for the first ten releases:

1.Germany
2.China
3.England
4.Ireland
5.Norway (Ian Myles Slater's review at Amazon says it was #5)
6.Hungary
7.Japan
8.Israel
9.Mexico
10.Greece

I own all of the above except the Mexico volume (cover of paperback edition below verifies the numbering). All of the editions I have, have their respective numbers, except for my current copy of the Norwegian volume. (I loaned my first copy of that one many years ago, and it was never returned!) I have no real doubt that Slater is correct in saying the Norway volume was #5.

There certainly were releases in the Folktales of the World series for Chile (hardcover only?), Egypt (released in paperback, but perhaps not numbered), France (possibly only in hardcover), and India (this was released in paperback, but perhaps not numbered), but as far as I know, the hardcover releases weren't numbered. The paperbacks were for a time; it seems that eventually the University of Chicago did not attempt to keep the books in print, and dropped the numbering on the paperbacks. There was also a collection (hardcover only?), Folktales Told Around the World, which refers to a few "forthcoming" books that don't seem ever to have been released (e.g. for Scotland). My guess, then, is that ultimately there were 15 Folktales of the World releases, counting the "Around the World" volume.

Incidentally, I was interested to read recently that ghost story author Russell Kirk and Richard Dorson, the FW general editor, apparently hobnobbed.

The Mind Behind "The Conservative Mind"

They might have had some interesting conversations, for sure! It seems Dorson created the term urban legend, by the way. You can read more about him here:

https://scholarworks.iu.edu/dspace/bitstream/handle/2022/1872/16(2) 119-122.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

RICHARD M. DORSON, HISTORIAN FOCUSED ON FOLKLORE OF U.S.

 

[Extollager]

A generation or so ago, folk tales as reading for children were under attack because of violence. (Bruno Bettelheim's award-winning, blemished-by-plagiarism The Uses of Enchantment [1976] provided a defense of the stories.) Now it's "gender" concerns.

Barcelona school removes 200 sexist children's books

Other schools look to follow after Tàber school takes out one-third of its collection, deeming the books ‘highly stereotypical and sexist’

www.theguardian.com

 

[svalbard]

They have a point however I wonder could the issue be handled in a better way than just shelving the books ie. changing the gender roles in the stories.

Many of these stories are old, traditional tales with sharp lessons in them for the audience.

 

[Extollager]

Now reading the stories in Seki’s Folktales of Japan, one of the University of Chicago Folktales of the World volumes.

 

[Extollager]

In Folktales Told Around the World, Richard Dorson mentioned Folktales of the West Indies as another projected volume. It seems volumes for Switzerland, Scotland, Southern Africa, Turkey, and the Philippines may have been projected but were not published. The Told Around volume thus presents quite a lot of material that ended up not being published in the series because (apparently) it was canceled after 15 volumes. One wonders why. The obvious explanation is that Dorson died in 1981; but could no one else have become general editor? Was the series not financially successful, despite the emphasis that had developed by then on multiculturalism? Was it regarded as old-fashioned, not being framed in terms of Left mores? Well, whatever the causes, it was, I would say (having 12 of the 15 volumes), a noble enterprise. (And the volumes I have are plenty to keep me busy for a long time.)

....One other possible cause of the series' demise could be competition from the more widely-marketed Pantheon Fairy Tale and Folklore Library, similar Penguin reprints, etc.

And the Chicago series gave prominence to the storytellers and when and where a given story was collected. It may well be that fewer and fewer of those tradition-bearing storytellers survive -- although, to be sure, the Chicago books also did make much use of archives of recorded stories.

 

[Extollager]

[redundant message deleted]

 

[Laura R Hepworth]

I just picked up ebook copies of Andrew Lang's Fairy Books . Looking forward to reading them as, once I finish writing my Steampunk series I'd like to do some retellings.

 

[Extollager]

Last night I started Kevin Crossley-Holland's Folk Tales of the British Isles, a book in the Pantheon series. I have a recording of a talk he gave at a Minnesota library many years ago, by the way.