Kathleen Ragan’s anthology seems like a triumph of folktale scholarship. She compiled 100 individual tales (rescuing some from obscurity), adhered to folkloristic standards by faithfully reproducing the content and wording of the texts, and provided cultural context in the endnotes. However, the anthology displays a multitude of editorial oversights that hinder its full potential.
Ragan herself lamented the "dearth of South American Indian stories," citing the limited availability of English language materials as the cause. However, the sole SAI tale she included - "The Magic Eagle" - came from Genevieve Barlow's Latin American Tales, which featured another female-centered story: "The Search for the Magic Lake." Moreover, Johannes Wilbert and Karin Simoneau published a twenty-four volume series called Folk Literature of South American Indians, which was completed six years before Ragan's debut anthology.
Another shortcoming is the inconsistent information given in the commentaries. Sometimes they summarize the plots while highlighting aspirational traits the protagonists have. Others give short biographies of historical figures. Occasionally, they contain personal anecdotes or describe Ragan's feelings about a story. This could've been remedied by focusing on folkloristics. For instance, "Whuppity Stoorie" provided an opportunity to discuss the AT Index (later ATU) and other variants of tale type 500 like "Rumpelstiltskin" and "Tom Tit Tot." Similarly, "The Pigeon's Bride" could've mentioned Motif D350, "Transformation: bird to person." Information about the tradition-bearers (name, age, gender, context, etc.) could also have been added whenever such data was available.
The inconsistencies extend to the content of the tales which infrequently contradict Ragan's stated motive for creating the anthology: "In the scarcity and poor quality of heroines my daughter was constantly told 'you don’t exist, you’re not important.' I love my girl too much to let her listen to that." Thus, she sought folktales in which “The main characters are female and they are worthy of emulation.” If so, then why include abusive protagonists? “The Three Sisters and Their Husbands, Three Brothers,” depict women manipulating and publicly humiliating their spouses; "The Fortune-Teller," cons men into paying for a fraudulent prediction; “The Innkeeper’s Wise Daughter,” violates her prenuptial agreement and abducts her unconscious husband; “Molly Cotton-Tail Steals Mr. Fox’s Butter,” centers a thief, who encourages violence against her patsy, and causes a years-long family feud; “The Close Alliance: A Tale of Woe,” the protagonist accuses her husband of laziness, insults his intelligence, and dismisses his fear of the tiger; "A Calabash of Poi" has a goddess ruin a household's crops because the residents offended her; and in “Moremi and the Egunguns,” the protagonist escalates nonviolent raids into a war and commits human sacrifice. While these characters are outnumbered by heroic ones, Ragan never acknowledges how they are incompatible with her standards.
Despite these shortcomings, the book is among the best folktale anthologies ever published. It's representative sample of international folktales is rivaled by few other books and this alone make the book required reading for general readers and folklorists.
