Review: Fairy Tale Mothers

 

Fairy Tale Mothers (1990) examines mothers, stepmothers, and mothers-in-law in Germanic and Scandinavian tales. The book has nine segments: preface, introduction, Grimm tales, the kind and unkind girls, stepmothers with stepsons, tales of spinning, mother-son bonds, birthing episodes, and a conclusion. Its author, Torborg Lundell, was a Professor of Swedish at the University of California, Santa Barbara. Having published articles about folkloristics and motherhood, Lundell revisits those topics here, but her contribution to fairy tale studies is picayune.

The primary flaw is her psychoanalytical framework. Inger Lövkrona mentioned this in her review, stating "I miss in her study a discussion of Jung's theories and their relevance to preindustrial peasant society and a thorough methodological demonstration of how to carry out the analysis. The ahistoric premise in psychological theory is problematic when it is applied to cultural and social phenomena that are historically determined and changeable" (179). 

Lundell's inadequate contextualization of the stories led to unsubstantiated conclusions. For instance, she claimed that the changes the Brothers Grimm made to "Hansel and Gretel" were "a mechanism to impose guilt on all normal mothers who, even if they have enough food, sometimes while raising their children may often wish they would get lost for a while" (34 - 35). But Yseult de Blécourt argued that the tale "can be seen as a collaboration between the Hassenpflug sisters and Dortchen Wild, orchestrated, as it turns out, by Marie Hassenpflug" (41). Thus, the nefarious subtext Lundell identified was unproven and misattributed.

Her imputation of malicious intent where none exists is a reoccurring issue. She used the term "male fantasy" to describe three tales with possible or actual incestuous themes: "Snow White" (36), "Strong Hans" (45), and "Thousandsfurs" (54). Lundell's equating of male heterosexuality and even fatherhood with perversion and abuse was so blatant and unjustified that R. J. Alexander noted it in a review: "many readers will be offended by the snide, quasi-chauvinistic remarks that mar the text from time to time" (103).

The book even suffered from basic grammar and typographical errors. "Femininity" was misspelled as "feminity" (19), "fountain" was needlessly split as "foun tain" (84), and a "material confront" wrongly substituted for "material comfort" (172). In fairness, her editors deserve blame for missing these gaffes before the book's release.

Despite the above, Lundell's work has some value. It examined a representative sampling of European texts - "close to 2,000 tales" (1) - it included translations of German (53) and Swedish (57 - 59) texts, and it made interesting observations. Among them were how stepmothers inadvertently helped their stepdaughters (44), spinning tales didn't depict women sharing stories as they would've historically (117), and lazy daughters receiving harsher treatment than lazy sons (167). But none of that earns it a recommendation.