"True Love and Fairy Tales" Pt II (Article)

Raiponce
by Sonia (a.k.a. petitpoids)

Part II of my article "True Love and Fairy Tales" is live at Supernatural Fairy Tales.

Part I takes a good (raised-eyebrow) look at Cinderella and Part II untangles Rapunzel (sorry, couldn't resist!).

True love in fairy tales isn't quite what most people think it is - it might actually be better. ;)

Part I is HERE and Part II is HERE.

Enjoy!

'Murderati' Discusses The Fairy Tale Structure

Last weekend, popular mystery writing site 'Murderati' (think Literati with a twist) discussed the use of 'fairy tale structure' in stories and in putting together a novel. More specifically, the article discusses the fairy tale 'rule of three', which anyone who reads fairy tales regularly will be familiar with, and how incredibly useful it is to use as a template in writing.

Here's an excerpt from the Murderati post (written by Alexandra Sokoloff):

When I respond deeply to a movie or book, no matter how realistic and modern it seems on the surface, chances are it’s going to have a fairy tale structure.

SILENCE OF THE LAMBS, RED DRAGON, THE EXORCIST, THE GODFATHER, A WRINKLE IN TIME, STAR WARS, SLUMDOG MILLIONAIRE, THE TREATMENT (Mo Hayder) – every single one of them is a fairy tale. And fairy tales have their own structural rules that just work for me.

I know JT and Cornelia have blatantly (my favorite approach) used fairy tales in at least a few of their books.

And yes - she talks about Pan's Labyrinth too.

I don't remember if I read this or heard this but I've always thought of the rule of three having specifically this effect: Once is chance, two might be coincidence whereas three is definitely not coincidence! (And therefore important.)

Click HERE to learn more about the 'rule of three' and to see multiple examples in fairy tales.

You can read the whole of this interesting article - which has something for both readers and writers of fairy tales - HERE.

New Fairy Tale Studies Blog Network

I recently found this 'blog network' for fairy tale studies students at Vanderbilt University (Nashville, TN, USA), set up by TA Jessica Riviere.

Although it isn't outlined anywhere, from what I understand, there is a 'host' blog (which is the main place I'm linking you to, so you can find everything else easily) called Fairy Tales 2010. On this blog are posted questions/discussion topics that groups of students are required to respond to as part of their classwork, by blogging on their 'group' blogs.

The group blogs have lovely names too:

The cursed castle

The distant mountains

The deep dark forest

The secret treasure cave

The wall of briars

The Fairy Tales 2010 host blog for the network is HERE.

They've had interesting discussions on a number of tales so far (Red Riding Hood, Donkeyskin, Cinderella) as well as other topics like Bettelheim's work, motifs and more. The focus of these blogs is content, not presentation, so don't expect much artwork. It's just wonderful to be able to see what's being discussed by students with regard to fairy tales.

The topic of discussion for this month (February 2010) is Beauty & the Beast and there's plenty of reading there for anyone who loves this tale.

This is quite a different blog from Diamonds & Toads, which I visit as often as time allows and comment on regularly. Kate Wolford, who runs Diamonds & Toads, encourages participation from readers other than her students and often includes lovely artwork in her posts. As a result she's providing a very rich resource for us all to both enjoy and be a part of. Fairy Tales 2010 appears to be for those Vanderbilt students involved only and is focused on discussion content with not much, if any, art, but it still makes for great reading and for seeing the ideas college students are considering. I'm thankful they've seen fit to have it public so we can all enjoy it.

Note: The images are the ones each student blog uses for their headers.

Fairy Tale News New Year's Bumper Edition: Classifieds/ads for fairy tale people

• Heidi at the SurLaLune blog is looking for Graduate Programs information for fairy tale and folklore studies. Details at the post.

• Enchanted Conversation is open for submissions for the next issue - topic is Beauty & the Beast. Deadline is February 15th, 2010. Paid market for accepted pieces - fiction, non-fiction, poetry and artwork! Submissions info at the link.

• Check out the call from Cinderella's Closet (in the Fashion section) for gently used prom dresses.

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BACK TO: CONTENTS

Wonders & Marvels Fairy Tale Week - Some Giveaways Finishing Tonight!

I should have posted on this earlier but got distracted sorry. Was just reminded by SurLaLune... (thank you Heidi!)

For those who don't already know, the awesome site Wonders & Marvels is having a fairy tale week with articles (I've just caught up on everything - fabulous stuff) and awesome giveaways. Some of those finish TONIGHT at midnight EST!

Hurry!
CLICK HERE TO GO THERE!

Read, comment, enjoy and you might win something too.This is one of the best fairy tale themed weeks I've seen with excellent articles and books for those who love and study fairy tales - especially the old ones. Curious about the image here? It's discussed in Heidi Anne Heiner's article there today "Five Great Fairy Tales You've Never Read".

Go HERE - quick!

Fairy Tale Fights - The Academic Version

The Story of the Three Bears by H.J. Ford from the Green Fairy Book

(Many thanks to Heidi from SurLaLune for finding the artist! I knew that style looked familiar... :D )

Less than a week ago Once Upon A Blog published notice of an anthropological study, said to prove the ancient origin of fairy tales. (You can read that post HERE).

It would seem Dr. Tehrani's announcement and his talk at the British Science Fair last week have stirred up an old, yet apparently still hot, debate in the academic ring of fairy tale studies.

In one corner we have the oral traditionalists; in the other: the literary-origin camp.

Heavy weights from both camps have already weighed in and traded some verbal fisticuffs.

Representing the literary-origin advocates we have the highly respected Ruth Bottigheimer:
(Quotes from The Star)

"Tehrani has bought into the newest wave of biology-based understanding of literature, taking evolutionary genetics as his model. But his views are based on slippery assumptions that can't be verified and that have no legs in the real world.

Of course, all narratives have ancient origins: Aesops's fables date back to the sixth century B.C. But "modern revisionists distinguish between different kinds of traditional tales" – folk stories differ from fairy tales – "and understand that they have histories of different lengths."

Elements of a narrative told here and there over time do not a "fairy tale" make."

! (exclamation punch, er, point added by the Fairy Tale News Hound)

Dark Fairytale - Battle by Ken Wong

Keeping his cool with a smooth 'bob-and-weave' response, we have Donald Haase (also highly respected):

"Yes, there is debate in the field over dating. Fairy tales are in the thick of the culture wars."

The editor of Marvels & Tales, a twice-yearly journal of fairy tale studies, says Tehrani is right to conclude that a form of Red Riding Hood exists in many varied cultures. What's news, however, is that the story may date back further than 2,600 years: "It's intriguing, it's plausible, but tracing the ancestry of fairy tales can be very difficult. I want to see his evidence."

Arguably the most well known and respected fairy tale authority, Jack Zipes, also firmly (and famously) in the oral-traditionalists corner, doesn't hesitate to respond, or to pull his punch:

"All our storytelling originated thousands of years ago, centuries before the print editions of fairy tales," he says. "Anyone who says they arrive only with print is just stupid. People have similar experiences around the world and always have had."

Ouch.

But this is just the warm up. They're all waiting eagerly for the paper to be published before winding up for the knock-out.

If you're interested in getting up to speed you can read the original news post HERE (which links to the original Telegraph UK article) and the one I'm quoting today HERE.

I'm planning on getting a ringside seat for the next round if I can. In the meantime, this is just begging for an editorial cartoon.

New Anthropological Study Confirms Fairy Tales Are Ancient In Origin

My thanks to Diamonds and Toads for finding this article and posting about it! You can find Kate's post HERE. I couldn't help but join in to spread the news... :)

The UK Telegraph just published an article on a study by anthropologists that's 'revealed' the 'origin' of fairy tales is far older than was previously thought. There are many who already believed fairy tales have an ancient origin but this is apparently the first time this has been systematically studied with a scientific system. Quote: "the researchers adopted techniques used by biologists to create the taxonomic tree of life, which shows how every species comes from a common ancestor...".

Essentially this now proves fairy tales existed in some form in ancient times (in as much as proving such a thing is possible) - well before Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm's grandparents were around.

Here are some other quotes from the article, showing how they used the tale of Little Red Riding Hood and the many variants to do their research:

A study by anthropologists has explored the origins of folk tales and traced the relationship between varients of the stories recounted by cultures around the world.

...Dr Jamie Tehrani, a cultural anthropologist at Durham University, studied 35 versions of Little Red Riding Hood from around the world.

Whilst the European version tells the story of a little girl who is tricked by a wolf masquerading as her grandmother, in the Chinese version a tiger replaces the wolf. In Iran, where it would be considered odd for a young girl to roam alone, the story features a little boy.

Contrary to the view that the tale originated in France shortly before Charles Perrault produced the first written version in the 17th century, Dr Tehrani found that the varients shared a common ancestor dating back more than 2,600 years.

...He said: “Over time these folk tales have been subtly changed and have evolved just like an biological organism. Because many of them were not written down until much later, they have been misremembered or reinvented through hundreds of generations. By looking at how these folk tales have spread and changed it tells us something about human psychology and what sort of things we find memorable.

You can read the rest of the fascinating article HERE.

Red Riding Hood by Sanjai Bhana

Dr Jamshid (Jamie) Tehrani of Durham University presented his findings at the British Science Festival on Tuesday in his talk "Fairy Tales and Chinese Whispers: Towards a Darwinian analysis of descent with modification in oral traditions", during the Darwin's Theory and Cultural Sciences event. (If anyone has access to the talk, - video, notes or report - I'd be very interested in looking at it!)

If this subject interests you, you may want to check out the article on "The Quest for the Earliest Fairy Tales: Searching for the Earliest Versions of European Fairy Tales with Commentary on English Translations" (by Heidi Anne Heiner) and the Fairy Tale Timeline at SurLaLune.

I also recommend the book shown below, "Fairy Tale in the Ancient World" by Graham Anderson. Here's the description from Amazon.com:

Graham Anderson examines texts from the classical period which resemble "our" Cinderellas, Snow Whites, Red Riding Hoods, Bluebeards and others, and argues that many familiar fairy tales were already well-known in antiquity in some form. Examples include a Jewish-Egyptian Cinderella, complete with ashes, whose prince is the biblical Joseph; a Snow White whose enemy is the goddess Artemis; and Pied Piper at Troy, with King Priam in the role of the little boy who got away. He breaks new ground by putting forward many previously unsuspected candidates as classical variants of the modern fairytale, and argues that the degree of cruelty and violence exhibited in many ancient examples mean such stories must have often been meant for adults.

While well researched and excellent for students of fairy tales and folklore it's a quick and enjoyable read for non-academics too. I recommended it. You can buy it HERE.

NOTE: I couldn't find the artist to credit for the European tole (?) painting in the center of the post. If anyone knows please let me know so I can correct this.

Cabinet des Fées Fairy Tale Journal Issue #8 is Live

The September 2009 issue (#8) of fairy tale journal "Cabinet des Fées" is now live online.

If you're not familiar with this journal you'll be pleasantly surprised by the variety of offerings and new fairy tale based works in these collections.

Rather than try to describe the content, I'll quote from their website:

Cabinet des Fées is an online journal begun in 2005 as a result of our love of fairy tales in all of their manifestations. We’ve seen two issues in print with a third on the way, but now are online only. Scheherezade’s Bequest is our tri-annual offering of fiction and poetry. We keep our editorials and announcements, plus other news we come across that we think our readers might appreciate in Our Grim(m)oire, where you’ll find Storytellers, live readings of the fantastic in literature. We also present essays from and interviews with respected authors, editors, scholars and other assorted personalities in the fields of fairy tales, folklore and myth.

Here's the content line-up for this issue:

Fiction and Poetry:

Rapunzel Considers the Desert by Jeannine Hall Gailey
Harp by Alex Wilson
In the Ashes by Gerri Leen
Dahut’s Curse by Jennifer Lawrence
Basic Biology by Caren Gussoff
A Wolf’s Lament by M. Lynn Johnson
The Bear and the Bicycle by Catherine Knutsson
All Underneath the Eildon Tree by Joshua Gage
Connla mac Lia and the Kingship of Eriu by Amal El-Mohtar
The Courtship of Caoilte and Yvaine by Jessica P. Wick
Anthology by Sonya Taaffe
Faithful by Brittany Warren
Stone Flowers by Mike Allen
Envy by Grace Andreacchi
Cry Wolf by Adrienne J. Odasso

... and a whole lot of book reviews.

Cabinet des Fées is also planning on having more regular online content so, while not reverting to a blog, there will be new fairy tale content being added regularly to the site from now on.

They also have two journals in print and available for purchase (a third is currently in the works). Click on the covers to be taken to more information and purchase options.

Submissions for the next issue will re-open on October 1st (guidelines are HERE).

You can find the online journal HERE.

The Fairy Tale Factory - September '09 Workshop

Amy Morgan's Fairy Tale Factory in Seattle, WA, has a workshop coming up in September for writers.

But it's not just about writing new fairy tales, although there's quite a bit of skill involved in that. Writers of all kinds should benefit from learning the principles of distilling a story down to a very tight plot then fleshing it out with the right motifs and brief descriptions to feel not only timeless, but relevant across cultures too.

Here's the blurb from the website:

Spend six weeks in the land of Fairy. Learn the basic rules of the genre, plus a variety of approaches to fairy tales as readers and as writers. Study western European tales from the late middle ages to modern times. Write a lot! Writing exercises assigned after each class. By the end of the course you will have written at least one original fairy tale of your own. All experience levels welcome.

Interested? Here are the details:

Intro to Writing Fairy Tales
September 16 - October 21
Wednesday nights (6 classes)

How can you not want to spend weeks absorbed in fairy tales from around the world?

If you're already an avid fairy tale reader (and possibly writer) there's also a "Fairy Tale Factory Writing Intensive" workshop following that (date to be announced). I really like the sound of this too!

Here's the blurb from FTF:

Use fairy tales to sharpen your skills as a writer. This six-week workshop focuses on plot and language. We’ll do writing exercises in class and for homework, each one designed to push your edge in the areas of creativity, language, and story. By the end of the course you will be getting a bigger bang for your buck out of your stories. You will also (hopefully) develop a deeper relationship with language and inspiration. You will write at least one original fairy tale. Intro to Writing Fairy Tales recommended as a prerequisite.

You can find out more about Ms. Morgan HERE and there's a brief, but fun, interview with "Reading Local Seattle" HERE. You can also (and I highly recommend this) read three of her *new* fairy tales. I say *new*, because these tales really do read like something out of a world wide fairy tale collection though they're completely new.

To whet your appetite a little, the titles are:

The Wood Wife
The Owl and the Maiden
The Yellow Bird

And for those of us unable to travel, maybe one day we can talk her into doing an online version of these courses! (hint, hint Amy!)

The Power of Stories in Childhood - New Book by Maria Tatar

There's a new book out by renowned fairy tale and folklore scholar Maria Tatar.

This one,

"Enchanted Hunters - The Power of Stories in Childhood",

explores what happens when children are read fairy tales (and other classic fantasy) as part of their growing-up experience.

From Amazon:

Highly illuminating for parents, vital for students and book lovers alike, Enchanted Hunters transforms our understanding of why children should read. Ever wondered why little children love listening to stories, why older ones get lost in certain books? In this enthralling work, Maria Tatar challenges many of our assumptions about childhood reading. Much as our culture pays lip service to the importance of literature, we rarely examine the creative and cognitive benefits of reading from infancy through adolescence. By exploring how beauty and horror operated in C.S. Lewis’s Chronicles of Narnia, Philip Pullman’s His Dark Materials, J.K. Rowling’s Harry Potter novels, and many other narratives, Tatar provides a delightful work for parents, teachers, and general readers, not just examining how and what children read but also showing through vivid examples how literature transports and transforms children with its intoxicating, captivating, and occasionally terrifying energy. In the tradition of Bruno Bettelheim’s landmark The Uses of Enchantment, Tatar’s book is not only a compelling journey into the world of childhood but a trip back for adult readers as well.

Here's a short video in which she talks about why she wrote the book and what it's about:

Enchanted Hunters by Maria Tatar

And in the link below, John J. Miller from 'Between the Covers' at National Review Online talks to Ms. Tatar about her book.

Maria Tatar on Enchanted Hunters Talking to 'Between the Covers'

There's also an excellent, in depth, review here by Michael Dirda for The Washington Post, which takes you through her approach and the contents of the chapters.

Maria Tatar recently (in the last few years) released her "The Annotated Classic Fairy Tales" (shown above) & "The Annotated Brothers Grimm" (shown below) which touch on some of the same issues, though in a very different way. Both volumes are beautifully presented with classic story texts, a gorgeous variety of fairy tale art and lots of fascinating annotations throughout. There's a lovely review of the "Annotated Classic Fairy Tales", from the Harvard University Gazette, here, which I completely agree with.

I've never regretted adding Ms. Tatar's books to my library. Although her academic prowess and respect in Harvard circles and beyond is formidable, her books are very lively, fascinating and accessible reads - not to mention a wonderful resource/reference to have handy.

I can't wait to get my hands on a copy of her latest offering and read it for myself.

NOTE: I also just discovered her blog! I'm adding it to my Fairy Tale News Sources section. No doubt she'll give us a 'heads-up' on many interesting things...