My mother had a whole shelf of the (color) fairy books. I remember there was a violet one, and a blue one...This one goes the furthest afield, dealing with folktales from many different peoples, and it was the one that impressed me the most. I particularly like the story of the bunyip.Those who are sensitive to such things (probably most of us, by now) will find the Preface offensive and patronizing. I very much doubt whether Aboriginal children, for example, would prefer to take their chances with 'birching and bullying' than their own educational methods. I grant that scarification is not for everybody. But it is voluntarily adopted by people who ARE familiar with 'birching and bullying', as a form of initiation and identification. One may deplore this: but are we free of our own fashionable cruelties? Furthermore, it's doubtful that Aboriginal children at the time would have considered themselves poor just because they didn't have a lot of stuff. There are other measures of wealth, after all. Still, it's important to read the Preface, if only to be warned that the stories have been bowdlerized. The authors have a very patronizing idea of what children will find offensive. So, for example, though it's likely that the original stories contained erotic passages (they were, after all, NOT meant only for children), these have been removed: and yet other, MUCH more offensive violent passages (steeped in gore, and in assumptions about the 'appropriate' forms of violence and revenge) are deliberately left in.CONTENTS:(1) What The Rose Did to The Cypress: From what I can tell, nothing. What's sauce for the goose is sauce for the gander. Why is it all right for the princely 'hero' to take four wives, but it's not (it's implied) all right for the wives to take lovers? And to defend them when they're attacked? Come to that, why SHOULD the penalty for not knowing the riddle be death? This never seems to be questioned. Why shouldn't the failed suitors just be sent home with their tails between their legs?(2) Ball-Carrier And The Bad One: A Native American tale reminiscent of Little Red Riding Hood, except that it seems likely that what happened to Ball-Carrier was some sort of initiation. But it's a bad one, if so. I hadn't remembered that Ball-Carrier was a thief and a murderer. What exactly is supposed to be the difference between the Bad One and the witch who sends Ball-Carrier to despoil and murder him?(3) How Ball-Carrier Finished His Task: Having successfully robbed and murdered The Bad One, Ball-Carrier gets lost, establishes and abandons a family, and eventually, having been raised from the dead, returns to the parents he'd abandoned in the first place without any apparent compunction.(4) The Bunyip: Much less violent. The hunters do kidnap the baby bunyip, with the intention of butchering and eating it. But the consequences are not intentional, and the hunters don't end up just getting slaughtered. Which is why I prefer it to many other stories.(5) Father Grumbler: another one of those 'quests in search of the wise hermit' stories. I don't remember this one, but I like the part at the beginning when Father Grumbler spends several hours in a pub trying to 'chase away Care': "...but when he came out...Care was still with him". I suspect that it'll end by him realizing he's not so badly off: but maybe not. Buddha realized that the sufferers were truly suffering. Maybe others do also. I've always found the premise that 'suffering is misunderstanding' dubious at best: and I don't believe in redemptive suffering, or earned happiness. So I probably won't agree with the resolution. But we'll see. Nope, turns out it's one of the 'magic gifts' sort: but the user doesn't abide by the conditions. One wonders, by the way, why the hermit keeps stuff like that, if he doesn't intend to use them himself, and won't just give them away to whoever would benefit from them.(6) The Story of The Yara: The Yara preys on men about to be married (? why?). One man's fiance comes up with a novel way to protect him.(7) The Cunning Hare: Having acquired some fish, the hare sets out to get fire to cook it. Why he goes to such lengths, when he could just conjure up fire himself, I don't know. Reminds me of an old Muppet segment in which Rowlf the Dog is dramatizing Lassie's feats: and having swum the river, is outraged to discover that there was a BRIDGE all along.(8)How Geirald The Coward Was Punished: But not a word as to WHY. Geirald didn't behave violently. His friend and comrade Rosald did. Geirald kept arguing that they should back off, and not go through ordeals set for them. So why, if anybody's 'punished', should it be him? Of course, he shouldn't have demanded 'credit' for disreputable acts in the first place. But that's another matter, and isn't really discussed.(9) Habogi: So this Habogi chap picks a wife and essentially tricks her into accepting him. And she's supposed to be reconciled to this because he's rich? This is a sort of a Cinderella story.(10) How The Little Brother Set Free His Big Brothers: or, 'why we don't kill bears'. There's a sort of clan feud among the bears. But there are several murders in this story, which remain unresolved. The rescue of the big brothers is really almost irrelevant.(11) The Sacred Milk of Koumongue: There are several gaps here. It's not clear what the milk tree is, or why the father doesn't share the milk with the children. Also, what part does the mother play in this? She's there, but doesn't intercede in any way, as far as I can tell. And why do the ogre's family accept that he will eat any female child? And who is the old woman who raises the baby? Oh, well. Anyway, I like the poetic conjurations and responses. This is closer to the rhythms and forms of such oral tales generally than many of the others in this book. Many of the stories are credited to the Bureau of American Ethnology, and often they're NOT very well rendered. This one seems to be from a French source. I should say that the pictures, credited to a man named John Ford, are excellent throughout. This whole book is a facsimile reprint of the 1904 edition.(12) The Wicked Wolverine: 'Wicked'? He's a Trickster type, and not very polite. Not a very exacting standard for wickedness.(13) The Husband of The Rat's Daughter: One of those 'Who's the strongest?' stories. But the whole matter is absurd, anyway. The Rat's daughter already has wedding plans, and nobody asks HER.(14) The Mermaid And The Boy: The mermaid doesn't seem to know what she wants. She takes the boy for no real reason, then lets him go without any real protest. I don't see any real relevance of the mermaid, except as a sort of dea ex machina, and she's not very significant, even so.(15) Pivi And Kabo: Birds become human, after playing a game of dodgeball involving sling stones. I don't see any need to assault the jealous one. Doesn't he suffer enough from his own dissatisfactions?(16) The Elf-Maiden: This seems to be a Nordic story. The Elf-Maiden is a winter resident of areas inhabited by humans in the summer, and marries into a human family because one human ends up stranded when the humans head to their wintering grounds.(17) Fortune And The Wood-Cutter: The Wood-Cutter sits at home, and waits for fortune to come to him. And it does, if by a somewhat disreputable route(18) The Elf-Maiden: This seems to be a Nordic tale. The Elf-Maiden is a winter resident of an area usually inhabited in the summertime by humans, and who marries into a human family because she gets involved with a human who was stranded overwinter when his clan went back to their winter encampments.(19) The Enchanted Head: It's odd that, with all the powers and powerful magical servants, the head can't undo the curse placed upon him. This story seems likely to be an excerpt of a larger story. There's no explanation for the cause of the curse, for why the head picked that particular, not very extraordinary woman as his foster-mother, what became of her and her daughters...(20) The Sister of The Sun: an ordinary archery contest somehow turns into a quest. The sister of the sun is easily won to the idea of marrying the poor boy who'd become foster-brother of a prince, and sacrifices her own family's interests. He repays the debt: but why was the sacrifice demanded? I like the detail that rustling a letter frees the carrier from exhaustion, but I find it odd that so many possessors of magical items are so credulous as to give the items to the boy as a mediator for disputes.(21) The Prince And The Three Fates: The hero of this story is the prince's wife, and the story might well have been titled The Woman Who Was Stronger than Fate. I don't quite understand why she felt free to kill the serpent, when she negotiated with the crocodile, and only accidentally injured the dog. But this is a story with a strong female hero. The prince is somewhat passive, perhaps as a result of his sheltered upbringing. I don't quite understand why he felt he had to conceal his identity, or the (seemingly arbitrary) introduction of the stepmother motif. Again, I suspect that the original story was longer, and the excerpting process has left visible gaps and seams. This is one case among several where it might pay to go back to the original source.(22) The Fox And The Lapp: Actually, 'Lapps', I think, because there were several involved. This is a traditional trickster tale, with elves kind of inserted with no real reason for their presence: as if it were extracted from longer 'Elfmarchen' stories. Unlike (say) the Bre'r Rabbit stories, the bear is killed, which makes the story somewhat more malicious than most.(23) Kisa The Cat: Sort of a Puss in Boots story. It's odd that so many literatures seemed to think that the only way animals could be intelligent actors is by being enchanted humans. One wonders if this is an artifact of the translations/editing.(24) the Lion And The Cat: This seems oddly incomplete. There must be more to the story. Several things are left quite unresolved.(25) Which Was The Foolishest?: This sort of competition could get quite dangerous quite quickly. And in the end, who cares? In neither case is the husband unsatisfactory as a person.(26) Asmund & Signy: The title siblings hide out most of the time, and intervene only whimsically. I don't understand quite what the motive of the ogress was. What would she gain by being married to the prince?(27) Rubezahl: This is somewhat uneasy. The Gnome king is represented as not being angry about the destruction of the forest. But he doesn't think much of the mortals who've moved in. In turn, I don't think much of HIS judgments. I don't think an immortal should be sitting in judgement of mortals...there's too much basis for misprizing the behavior of creatures who don't have time to think things through. But it's odd that the gnome king thinks that ruthless vengeance is more honorable than forgiveness.(28) Story of The King Who Would Be Stronger Than Fate: The king finds that what he does to escape the fated marriage of his daughter keeps backfiring. But it's not clear why he feels a need to try. And out of curiosity, why is it considered more wicked to kill an infant than an adult woman?(29) Story of Wali Dad The Simple-Hearted: Somehow the grass-cutter Wali-Dad finds himself caught up in an extravagant contest of gift-giving. There's really no need for the divine intervention at the end. As in books by Wodehouse, all that would have been necessary would have been to sit down and explain matters.(30) Tale of A Tortoise And of A Mischievous Monkey: More than one tale, really. Yet the implied partnership never materializes: one keeps expecting the two to meet, but they don't. These are standard Anansi tales. Those familiar with the story of the Tar Baby will recognize it almost unchanged, as only one element of the stories. The trickster tales in this volume are likely to be fatal to the victims. The humor is undercut seriously thereby, at least to me.(31) The Knights of The Fish: Who are a pair of identical twin changelings, grown from the flesh of a fish caught by a cobbler. Their foster siblings appear once at the beginning, and are never heard of again. This is likely to be a Celtic tale, because a cauldron of regeneration figures prominently.
What do You think about The Brown Fairy Book (1965)?
