Assembled here are seventy-eight stories from six of the "ballad-singingest, tale-tellingest" residents of the eastern Kentucky mountain country. Based on stories rooted in European traditions from German fairy tales to Irish hero stories to Greek myths, the tales had been handed down through generations of telling before Marie Campbell collected them in the late 1920s and early 1930s. Readers will recognize the story of Snow White in "A Stepchild That Was Treated Mighty Bad," while "Three Shirts and a Golden Finger Ring" recalls the fairy tale of the Seven Swans. "The Fellow That Married A Dozen Times" is a lively rendition of "Bluebeard." As the narrators cautioned Marie Campbell again and again, "Tale-telling is nigh about faded out in the mountain country," but Tales from the Cloud Walking Country offers a lasting record of history, cultural heritage, language, and good old-fashioned fun.
Today's increasingly interconnected and globalized world demands that students be taught to appreciate human diversity and recognize universally held values and beliefs. Authentic, culturally based folktales can lay the foundation for this cultural understanding. Professional storytellers like editors Sherry Norfolk and Lyn Ford are deeply committed to bringing people together through story. In this book, they have identified a group of culturally diverse storytellers whose carefully researched tales authentically reflect the cultures from which they come. The book includes well-crafted, culturally authentic folktales contributed by storytellers of varying cultures and ethnicities. Commentaries from the contributors follow each tale, reflecting on the story and its significance to the culture it represents. Sets of questions for teachers and librarians also accompany each story to facilitate discussion. Teachers, librarians, and information specialists find that stories engage students' attention and empathy. The commentaries provide insights into the significance of cultural norms, customs, and beliefs represented in the story, and the discussion questions and guides help them drill down with students to achieve deeper understanding. Resource lists of additional relevant materials at the end of each section promote continued learning.
“The most satisfactory general collection of folktales to come out of England since the advent of modern collection and classification techniques.”—Journal of American Folklore Tales of unnatural beings, curses, and ghosts, tall tales, shaggy dog stories—this collection from a renowned British folklorist offers a wide historical range, as well as commentaries. If wonder tales are not as abundant in England as elsewhere, other kinds of folktales thrive: local traditions, historical legends, humorous anecdotes. Many of the favorite tales which English-speaking peoples carry with them from childhood come from a long tradition—stories as familiar to Shakespeare, Ben Jonson, Spenser, and their many contemporaries as they are to us. This volume is a “fine, homely feast” for anyone interested in the folklore of the world (Times Educational Supplement). “Should be of special concern to Americans since many of the tales are parallel to or the source of our own folk stories.”—Choice “This is entertainment, to be sure, but is also part of man’s attempts to comprehend his world.”—Quartet
An illustrated collection of eleven tales including such familiar titles as "Cinderella" and "Sleeping Beauty" and less familiar ones such as "Tufty Ricky" and "The Fairies."
Based on the author's discovery of a new folktale type, the female trickster, Jurich's book identifies and celebrates those female protagonists in folktales who use trickery to save themselves and others, to find new directions for their lives, and to declare their individual autonomies, especially in societies that diminish and oppress women. Through creative strategies depending on verbal facility, psychological acuity, and diplomatic know-how, these women tricksters—better named trickstars—uncover the absurdity, hypocrisy, and corruption in the larger patriarchal society. Through the trickstar's efforts, the system is circumvented or foiled, often enlightened, and usually improved. This multicultural, comparative study reveals universal human traits as well as gender differences between female and male tricksters and realizes the values and attitudes which shape the trickstar's character and behavior. Trickstars also appear outside of the oral folktale tradition; the author discusses their roles in contemporary feminist revisionist tales, as well as in mythology, biblical narratives, Shakespearean comedy, novels, plays, and opera. How the female trickster differs from her male counterpart is, for the first time in folklore studies, illustrated through a comparison of their functions in the narrative scheme of the tale. These functions include the diverting or amusing role, the morally ambiguous or reprehensible role, the role of the manipulator or strategist, and the role of the transformer or culture bringer who reforms and improves the nature of her society. Jurich delineates the specific types of tricksters who perform these functions, suggests how trickstar tales variously affect listeners and readers, and shows how particular types of trickstar characters contribute to the intent of the tale. Feminist views of the protagonists are analyzed as well as contemporary revisionist tales which seek to reverse negative female images and to present independent women characters who can and do make positive contributions to society. For the first time in folklore studies, both female and male tricksters are defined and differentiated, their functions are illustrated through analyzing narrative schemes, and the term trickstar, invented by the author, is used to define and describe a female trickster.
Contains a collection of over fifty Gaelic folktales from the archives of the Irish Folklore Commission including tales of kings and warriors, pagans and Christians, and stories about historical Irish characters.
Few countries can boast such a plentitude of traditional folktales as Ireland. In 1935, the creation of The Irish Folklore Commission set in motion the first organized efforts of collecting and studying a multitude of folktales, both written as well as those of the Irish oral tradition. The Commission has collected well over a million pages of manuscripts. Folktales of Ireland offers chief archivist Sean O'Sullivan's representation of this awe-inspiring collection. These tales represent the first English language collection of Gaelic folktales. "Without doubt the finest group of Irish tales that has yet been published in English."—The Guardian "O'Sullivan writes out of an intimacy with his subject and an instinctive grasp of the language of the originals. He tells us that his archives contain more than a million and a half pages of manuscript. If Mr. O'Sullivan translates them, I'll read them."—Seamus Heaney, New Statesman "The stories have an authentic folktale flavor and will satisfy both the student of folklore and the general reader."—Booklist
Burning Brightly is the first full-length book treatment of professional storytelling in North America today. For some years there has been a major storytelling revival throughout the continent, with hundreds of local groups and centres springing up, and with storytelling becoming an important part of the professional training for librarians. In the book, Stone explores storytelling through storytellers themselves, while providing enlightening commentary from her own background as a storyteller. Included in her analysis are informative discussions of organized storytelling communities, individual tellers, and tales. Issues such as the modern recontextualization of old tales and the role of women in folktales are linked to individual storytelling accounts. Texts of eight stories that exemplify the approaches of the various storytellers are also included. Burning Brightly will be compelling reading for storytellers—and for everyone who loves storytelling.
This two-volume collection of folktales represents some of the finest examples of American oral tradition. Drawn from the largest archive of American folk culture, the American Folklife Center at the Library of Congress, this set comprises magic tales, legends, jokes, tall tales and personal narratives, many of which have never been transcribed before, much less published, in a sweeping survey. Eminent folklorist and award-winning author Carl Lindahl selected and transcribed over 200 recording sessions - many from the 1920s and 1930s - that span the 20th century, including recent material drawn from the September 11 Project. Included in this varied collection are over 200 tales organized in chapters by storyteller, tale type or region, and representing diverse American cultures, from Appalachia and the Midwest to Native American and Latino traditions. Each chapter begins by discussing the storytellers and their oral traditions before presenting and introducing each tale, making this collection accessible to high school students, general readers or scholars.
