Tales of Hans-Christian Andersen

Folk and fairy tales come in many types and varieties, often unique to the teller. Those of Hans-Christian Andersen are no different, bearing a connection to both traditional fairy tales and more modern writings.

Andersen's tales are different than most European folk and fairy tales simply by their length and design. Stories that we looked at previously tended to be rather short, with the occasional exception, but all of Andersen's stories are of a style that lends itself to longer stories. The method of laying out actions and characters has more in common with modern day novels than the likes of Little Red Riding Hood, which depended on a minimalistic writing style.

Logistical storytelling mechanisms aside, his stories also differ from traditional folk and fairy tales due to their manner of conflict. Rather than being driven by outside agents, the conflicts of Andersen's stories is primarily driven by the inherent flaws and personalities of its protagonists. In The Little Mermaid, it is the titular character's obsession with the prince that leads her into a bargain that ends in her own death. In The Red Shoes, it is the girl's pride and vanity that curse her to dance forever. In The Emperor's New Clothes, it is the emperor's arrogance and pride that lead him to be tricked. In all of these stories there are secondary characters who could be considered antagonists, but act more as plot devices than active forces of malevolence. The sea witch in The Little Mermaid makes it expressly clear that she wishes the little mermaid harm but herself makes no action against her, simply providing her to tools for her own destruction. The angel in The Red Shoes may appear threatening, but he never actually does more than deliver to the girl the news of what has befallen her, and at the end of the story he even serves as a beneficiary to her. The two swindlers in The Emperor's New Clothes are undoubtedly criminal, but while they attempted to scam the emperor it was only the emperor's pride that not only allowed them to get away with it but made him a fool before his people.

The Red Shoes also has the distinguishing feature of being overtly religious. Its mention of church, confirmation, eucharist, and other Christian rites and symbols connect it to faith in a way unseen in other folk or fairy tales. In a way this would make it a separate sort of story, save only for its lack of geographic connection. Tales like the Lambton Worm and the assorted saints are all connected to specific locations as well as religious faith, but The Red Shoes has none of that, leaving it in a nebulous limbo between the two story types.

Folklore of the First Nations

In a way, folklore is much like a living species. A story begins and spreads, changing ad adapting as its introduced to new environments, until many years later there are many different stories all derived from the same tale. Also much like living creatures, when stories arise in isolated areas they remain contained away from others and evelop in thier own unique way that is completely different from those of other areas. This is the case with the folklore of the Native American people, which arose in North America and remained entirerly self contained and separate from European stories until the 15th century. 

One major difference between the folklore of the Native American people and that of Europe is that the Native American folklore was not, strictly speaking, folklore. Going by our definitions earlier in the semester, it falls under the umbrella of myths due to its focus on creation stories and mythological entities held to be real. It may actually even be considered religion, as the populations of Native Americans on reservations still practice their cultures, which includes the performing the practices and telling the stories included in these myths.

Another particular  feature of note was the recurring use of the number four. Whether used to describe the number of beings or as a size comparison, many things come in fours or are four times as large or small as something else. This is a result  of Native American beliefs regarding four as a highly important number. Within select cultures of native Americans, there were four ages of man, four corners of the world, four winds, four seasons, and four cardinal directions, each with an associated color, bird, and sometimes even gender. This also shows up in the earth symbols of certain tribes, such as the Dakota, Lenape Algonquin, and Sioux.

One last major difference is the nature of the cultures involved. All folklore carries with it a particular timeless quality, in which details are delibaratly sparse and thus do not pin down a story in any particular region or time. Native American stories, on the other hand, are directly connected to the cutlures in which they originate. The dances and songs they mention in stories are practiced by particular tribes, making them specific to particular peoples.

I greatly enjoyed reading the Native American stories, as it provided an interesting glimpse into a culture often ignored or minimalized by most popular media. My favorite of the tales we read was How Mosquitos Came to Be. I read the story once before when I was in elementary school, though that version was different. In the one I read when I was young, the blood-drinking giant was formed from stone and immune to all weapons When the elders met to discuss how to kill him, a child tending the fire watched how one of the stones in the pit cracked from the heat and suggested a way to kill the monster. A hunter lured him to fall into a pit, where they lit a fire to break him apart, and with his dying breath he combined his body and the smoke to creat mosquitos and feed on blood forever. I do not know whether or not this story was from a different tribe's interpretation or a mangled version altered by publishers and retellings, but i findd it to be interesting nonetheless.

Blog Review: Caroline

In the Folk and Fairy Tale Class, we post a new blog entry every week. While the subject is the same for all students, the execution and decisions we make vary wildly between us. One of these blogs is made by Caroline Kurtz, who does quite well with quotations and summaries.

One of Caroline’s strong points in her blog is her use of summary. She does not make presumptions about what her audience does or does not know with each post, always making sure to summarize the stories she is discussing. These summaries are mindful of length, never more than a paragraph long in order to avoid dominating the post and leaving plenty of space for analysis. This makes her blog easily accessible and useful for people who have not heard these stories before and serves as a refresher for those who have.

Another strong point is her use of direct quotes. Taken right from the source material, discussion texts, and class speakers, these quotes lend the writings legitimacy and reinforce their merit. Quotes are effectively used and are cited to ensure the reader can locate the source. My one issue with them is that those who quote our class texts will identify the author and a page number, but nowhere in the post will it mention what book is being cited. This is not an issue to those in the class who know what books would be used for these blogs, but it creates a disjunction for outside readers.

The blog also has good images, wit at least two per post. The images are always relevant to the material being discussed in the blog post and are not there simply as filler, depicting either the story being discussed or some crucial part of the culture surrounding them.

All in all, Caroline Kurtz’s blog is an excellent analysis tool that makes effective use of quotation, summary, and images.

Child Heroes

"Know your audience" is the advice given to every storyteller from Homer to Spielberg, and it is no less applicable to fairy tales. For a story to work, it but be understood and well-received by those who hear it. So what audience could be pandered to with the use of children as main characters

The answer is a simple one: children. children hear these stories of other young characters going on adventures and accomplishing deed and they can see themselves in it. As such, children in fairy tales play two roles, that of the hero and that of the victim. Look at Hansel and Gretel for example. As victims they are abandoned by their cruel stepmother in the forest and let to starve, but as heroes they slay a witch and return to their father with the key to future prosperity. In Little Red Riding Hood, LRRH is a victim when she is led astray by the wolf and tricked into his lair, while as a hero she outwits and escapes him. The role of children is thus for the children listening to put themselves in the shoes of the character. Children understand and fear being abandoned by their parents or threatened by something in the dark, but they wish and dream that they can defeat these evils that seem to loom so large.

From a Freudian perspective they  serve much the same purpose, save that they are representative of the mental journeys of the children rather than the children themselves. In this perspective, Hansel and Gretel tells the story of children who must separate themselves from their parents, only to find themselves endangered as their puerile oral fixation leads them to fixate on one who reminds them of the safety of home. Thus, these children are only safe when they shuck off this fixation and return to their true family. In LRRH, the protagonist's journey represents an awakening sexuality and how her voyage away from the shelter of her parent's home is the only way she can begin this journey.

Thus, in all perspectives, the child heroes represent the children hearing the story, but whether they represent the children from the child or adult perspectives is dependent on the reader.