Sunday, March 31, 2024

A to Z Challenge: Prelude


The 2024 A to Z Challenge required me to do more research than I usual - so much that I won't be able to use everything I found! But it felt like such a shame to let it all fade into obscurity. So, to celebrate the eve of the event, allow me to share the bonus content:

Legends of the Fire Spirits: Jinn and Genies from Arabia to Zanzibar by Robert Lebling.

Lao Folktales by Wajuppa Tossa, Kongdeuane Nattavong, & Margaret Read .MacDonald.

Dab neeg hmoob/Myths, Legends and Folk Takes from the Hmong of Laos by Charles Johnson & Se Yang.

Folk Stories of the Hmong: Peoples of Laos, Thailand, and Vietnam by Dia Cha & Norma J. Livo.

Tales, Fables and Narratives of Rwanda by Eugène Hurel, Matthias Brack, Leo Sibomana, and John Doldo IV

Wakaima and the Clay Man, and other African Folktales by E. Balintuma Kalibala and Mary Gould Davis.

World Folktales by Atelia Clarkson and Gilbert B. Cross.

Saturday, March 23, 2024

Variants of "Jack and the Beanstalk" (ATU 328A)

Jack Seized the Hen by Warwick Goble (1923)

Ah, the tale of a plucky boy who climbs a plant that reaches the clouds! Storytellers have turned it into an SF novel, a TV miniseries, and a mural, among other things. If you want to adapt this tale then check out the classics:

Jack and the Beanstalk in English Fairy and Folk Tales by E. S. Hartland

Jack and the Beanstalk in English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Jack and the Beanstalk in What They Say in New England by Clifton Johnson

Jack and the Bean-pole in Tales from Maryland and Pennsylvania by Elsie Clews Parsons

Jack and the Beanstalk in English Fairy Tales by Flora Annie Steel

Jack and the Bean-stalk in Jamaica Anansi Stories by Martha Warren Beckwith

Jack and the Beanstalk in Mountain White Folk-Lore: Tales from the Southern Blue Ridge by Isabel Gordon Carter


Bonus: scholarly writings.

“Jack and the Beanstalk” by Humphrey Humphreys in The Study of Folklore.

“Jack and the Beanstalk” by William Desmonde in The Study of Folklore.

“Jack and the Beanstalk: An American Version” by Martha Wolfenstein in The Study of Folklore.

Jack In Two Worlds: Contemporary North American Tales and Their Tellers by William Bernard McCarthy.


For more information on the ATU acronym mentioned in the title, read this post.

Tuesday, March 12, 2024

Variants of "The Dragon Slayer" (ATU 300)


St. George and the Dragon by Donato Giancola (2010)

Ever heard the tale of a brave soul who vanquished a beast and saved its intended victim? It's one of our most popular folk narratives. Writers looking to tell their own version should start by reading these:

Perseus and Andromeda in The Library of Greek Mythology by Pseudo-Apollodorus and Robin Hard.

Li Chi Slays the Serpent in In Search of the Supernatural by Gan Bao, Kenneth J. DeWoskin & J.I. Crump.

The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin in Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland by Jeremiah Curtin.

The Blind Man and the Hunchback in Some Folk-Lore Stories and Songs in Chinyanja by R. Sutherland Rattray.

Schippeitaro in The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang.

Nikita the Tanner in Russian Folk-Tales by Leonard A. Magnus.

For more information on the ATU acronym mentioned in the title, read this post.

For an obscure, fragmentary example of this tale type, read this article.

Sunday, March 10, 2024

A to Z Blogging Challenge: 2024

 


I've seen other bloggers participate in this event and thought it seemed like a pretty good rite of passage for a newbie.

My inaugural theme is International Folktales.

I'm going to go through the countries of the world and share their folktales. However, I'm limiting myself to stories available in English.

Saturday, March 9, 2024

Parent Protagonists

The folklorist Alan Dundes once said "In fairy tales, the protagonists are almost always sons or daughters, not parents." Sadly, he did not mention any exceptions. I've decided to rectify that by offering readers a list of tales with dads and moms as the leads.

1. “Rau-Whato” in Treasury of Maori Folklore by A.W. Reed.
A father sacrifices himself to save his son while the mother swims their child to safety. 

2. “The Stolen Bairn and the Sidh” in Thistle and Thyme, Tales and Legends from Scotland by Sorche Nic Leodhas.
A widow goes on a long journey to retrieve her son from the fair folk.

3. “Two Girls Kidnapped by a Kayéri” in Folk Literature of the Cuiva Indians by Johannes Wilbert & Karin Simoneau.
A man slays a monster to save his daughters.

4. "The Twelve Months" in Folktales of Greece by Geōrgios A. Megas.
Two women do everything possible to feed their children.

5. "The North Wind's Gift" in Italian Folktales by Italo Calvino & George Martin.
A father confronts a nature spirit to provide for his wife and kids.

6. "Glara Saves His Sons" in Trickster Tales: Forty Folk Stories from Around the World by Josepha Sherman.
A father saves his sons from the lion that wants to eat them.

7. “How Wungala Defeated a Wulgaru” in Tales from the Aborigines by W.E. Harney.   
A woman outwits a monster and protects her son in the Outback.

8. “The Ogres and the Infant” in From Our Mothers' Hearths: Bukusu Folktales and Proverbs by Namulundah Florence.
A mother retrieves her child from a group of cannibalistic creatures.

9. “The Vampire Skeleton” in Iroquois Stories: Heroes and Heroines, Monsters and Magic by Joseph Bruchac.
A woman carries her child to safety as a monster chases them.

10. "The Robber and His Sons" in The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm by Jack Zipes.
A man tells a queen stories to free his children from incarceration.

Friday, March 8, 2024

Women's Tales


For International Women's Day, I wanted to share some of my favorite stories with female protagonist.

1. "Li Chi Slays the Great Serpent" in In Search of the Supernatural by Gan Bao, Kenneth J. DeWoskin & J.I. Crump.
An impoverished girl decides to kill the serpent that eats a maiden annually.

2. "The Good Stepmother" in All the World’s Reward: Folktales Told by Five Scandinavian Storytellers by Reimund Kvideland & Henning K. Sehmsdorf.
A king's fiancée helps her would-be stepdaughter minimize the effects a curse.

3. "The Wolf Queen" in Favorite African Folktales by Nelson Mandela.
A lady magically transforms herself into a wolf so she can avoid an undesirable suitor.

4. "The Seven Crows" in Folk Stories from the Hills of Puerto Rico Rafael Ocasio.
A young girl undergoes a quest to find her lost older brothers.

5. "A Calabash of Poi" in In the Path of the Trade Winds by Cora Wells Thorpe.
A goddess visits mortal households and judges the residents based on their hospitality.

6. "The Story of King Shahriyar and His Vizier's Daughter, Shahrazad" in The Annotated Arabian Nights: Tales from the 1001 Nights by Paulo Lemos Horta & Yasmine Seale.
Two sisters use bibliotherapy to heal a sultan's rape trauma and save his kingdom's women.

7. "Whuppity Stoorie" in The Well at the World’s End, Folk Tales of Scotland by Norah & William Montgomerie.
A farmwoman must learn a fairy's name or lose her son.

8. "The Promises of the Three Sisters" in Folktales of Egypt by Hasan M. El-Shamy.
A brother and sister have epic journeys and reunite with their mother and father.

9. "Judas's Ear" in Latin American Folktales: Stories from Hispanic and Indian Traditions by John Bierhorst.
A widow disguises herself as a man and rescues three princesses.

10. "The Search for Luck" in Modern Greek Folktales by R.M. Dawkins.
An elderly woman travels far from home so she can speak to the sun.

Wednesday, March 6, 2024

Folktale Research: An Introduction

In my inaugural post, I mentioned wanting to help researchers and storytellers by compiling folktale variants. To find variants, I use the Aarne-Thompson-Uther index.

The ATU index is a tool folklorists use to catalogue folktales with similar plots. It was created by Antti Aarne in 1910, translated and expanded by Stith Thompson in 1928 and 1961 (previously known as AT or AaTh ), then revised by Hans-Jörg Uther in 2004.

All three volumes are online:

Volume 1: Animal Tales, Tales of Magic, Religious Tales, and Realistic Tales

Volume 2: Tales of the Stupid Ogre, Anecdotes and Jokes, and Formula Tales

Volume 3: Appendices

You can even read stories organized by tale type:

Multilingual Folk Tale Database

Linked ATU Tales

D. L. Ashliman also has a website that sometimes lists tales by their type:

Beauty and the Beast (425C)

Cinderella (510A)

The Fox and the Cat (105)

Various countries have their own national indices that use the ATU system as a foundation:

Types of Japanese Folktales by Keigo Seki

Index of Spanish Folktales, Classified According to Antti Aarne's "Types of the Folktale" by Ralph Steele Boggs

Type and Motif-Index of the Folktales of England and North America by Ernest Warren Baughman

The Types of the Folktale in Cuba, Puerto Rico, the Dominican Republic, and Spanish South America by T. L. Hansen

Some resources, usually related to tale type indices, are available in non-English languages:

Enzyklopädie des Märchens

Ruthenia's Russian Folktale Index

The above is just a sampling of what's out there. Copyright laws, language barriers, and sheer quantity of material make it impossible to be comprehensive. But this should be a good start.

Arthurian Folklore: An Introduction.

"He hardly more than touched the sword" - illustrated by Walter J. Enright
King Arthur and His Knights (1903) by Maude L. Radford

King Arthur, like any legendary figure, has so much content written about him that it's hard to know where to begin. These are some resources that can help:

The Camelot Project 
A database for all kinds of information regarding Arthurian canon. Includes archived interviews, artwork, and English translations of some texts.


An Index of Themes and Motifs in Twelfth-Century French Arthurian Poetry (1992) by E. H. Ruck.

A comprehensive listing and description of the small narrative elements in Arthurian poems.


Index des motifs narratifs dans les romans arthuriens français en vers: XIIe-XIIIe siècles (1992) by Anita Guerreau-Jalabert

Same as the above but for Arthurian prose.


Lancelot–Grail: The Old French Arthurian Vulgate and Post-Vulgate in Translation (1992 - 1996) by Norris J. Lacy.
A multivolume translation of one of the most important Arthurian narrative cycle.


From Scythia to Camelot by C. Scott Littleton and Linda A. Malcor (2000)

A book which argues against the supposed Celtic origins of the Arthurian mythos. It claims that the Holy Grail legends derive from the Iranians.


King Arthur in Antiquity (2004) by Graham Anderson.
Same as the above except it proposes an ancient Greco-Roman origin.


The Romance of Arthur: An Anthology of Medieval Texts in Translation, 3rd Edition (2013) by Norris Jay Lacy & James J. Wilhelm.
A collection of Arthurian narratives from Welsh, French, Norse, German and Latin traditions.


The Portuguese Book of Joseph of Arimathaea (2017) by Henry Hare Carter.

A study of an intermediate text that links the death of Jesus Christ with later adventures of Arthur's knights. The actual story can be read in English here.

Tuesday, March 5, 2024

Welcome Traveler

There is a wealth of folklore content available (stories, essays, etc.) and I'd like to share it with you. I'm especially interested in curating variants of folktales for sake of 1) furthering comparative studies and 2) giving storytellers material for their own retellings.


Note: This blog gets its name from the opening narration of Merlin (2008).

Spooky Tales

  Halloween is coming! For many, it's the best holiday of the year, and there are countless traditions that go along with it. A common o...