Fairy Tales from Before Fairy Tales: The Medieval Latin Past of Wonderful Lies

by Jan M. Ziolkowski

Overview

When did fairy tales begin? What qualifies as a fairy tale? Is a true fairy tale oral or literary? Or is a fairy tale determined not by style but by content? To answer these and other questions, Jan M. Ziolkowski not only provides a comprehensive overview of the theoretical debates about fairy tale origins but includes an extensive discussion of the relationship of the fairy tale to both the written and oral sources. Ziolkowski offers interpretations of a sampling of the tales in order to sketch the complex connections that existed in the Middle Ages between oral folktales and their written equivalents, the variety of uses to which the writers applied the stories, and the diverse relationships between the medieval texts and the expressions of the same tales in the "classic" fairy tale collections of the nineteenth century. In so doing, Ziolkowski explores stories that survive in both versions associated with, on the one hand, such standards of the nineteenth-century fairy tale as the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christian Andersen, and Carlo Collodi and, on the other, medieval Latin, demonstrating that the literary fairy tale owes a great debt to the Latin literature of the medieval period.

  Jan M. Ziolkowski is the Arthur Kingsley Porter Professor of Medieval Latin at Harvard University.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9780472025220
Publisher:	University of Michigan Press
Publication date:	02/01/2010
Format:	eBook
Pages:	512
File size:	1 MB

Table of Contents

\rrhp\ \lrrh: Contents\ \1h\ Contents \xt\ \comp: set page numbers on page proof\ List of Abbreviations Acknowledgments Introduction Chapter 1. Folktales in Medieval Latin Poetry Chapter 2. Between Sacred Legend and Folktale: A Whale of a Story about a Tenth-Century Fisherman Chapter 3. A Cautionary Tale: Little Red Riding Hood in the 1020s Chapter 4. True Lies and the Growth of Wonder: An Eleventh-Century "Little Claus and Great Claus" Chapter 5. The Wonder of The Turnip Tale (ca. 1200) Chapter 6. The Reorientation of The Donkey Tale (ca. 1200) Conclusion: Sadly Never After Appendix 1. Man Swallowed by Fish (ATU 1889G) A. The "Great Fish" in the Book of Jonah (Rheims-Douay) B. Letaldus of Micy, About a Certain Fisherman Whom a Whale Swallowed C. Rudolph Erich Raspe, Baron Munchausen: Narrative of His Marvellous Travels (1785), Chapter 8 D. Hisperica famina B, Lines 157---217, and Letaldus's Poem: Source and Influence, or Parallels? 2. Truths and Lies A. "The Wish-Goat" ("Wunschbock"; ATU 1960A) B. "Lantfrid and Cobbo" (Carmina Cantabrigiensia 6) C. "Modus Liebinc," or "The Snow-Child" (Carmina Cantabrigiensia 14; ATU 1362) D. "Modus florum," or "The Lying Contest" (Carmina Cantabrigiensia 15; ATU 852) E. "The False Prophet and Archbishop Heriger of Mainz: Otherworldly Voyages to Hell and Heaven, This-Worldly Punishment" (Carmina Cantabrigiensia 24) F. "The Priest in the Pit" (Carmina Cantabrigiensia 35) G. "Little John" (Carmina Cantabrigiensia 42) 3. One-Ox: The Rich and the Poor Peasant (ATU 1535) A. One-Ox (Unibos) B. The Story of the Peasant Campriano (Storia di Campriano contadino) C. Straparola, "Father Scarpafico" (Le piacevoli notti, Night 1, Fable 3) D. Brothers Grimm, "About the Tailor Who Became Rich Quickly" (BP 2:1---3) E. Brothers Grimm, "The Little Farmer" ("Das B¿rle" [KHM 61]) F. "Kibitz" G. Hans Christian Andersen, "Little Claus and Great Claus" H. List of Folk-Literature Motifs in One-Ox 4. The Turnip Tale: Two Presents for the King (ATU 1689A) A. The Turnip Tale [1] (Rapularius "frivola") B. The Turnip Tale [2] (Rapularius "prodiga") C. Brothers Grimm, "The Turnip" ("Die R¿be" [KHM 146]) 5. The Donkey Tale: The Donkey (ATU 430) A. The Donkey Tale (Asinarius) B. "The Story of Vikram ditya's Birth" C. Brothers Grimm, "The Donkey" ("Das Eselein" [KHM 144]) D. Straparola, "King Pig" (Le piacevoli notti, Night 2, Fable 1) E. Brothers Grimm, "Hans My Hedgehog" ("Hans Mein Igel" [KHM 108]) Notes Bibliography Indexes