What’s the difference? I touched on this briefly in the Maiden of Brakel commentary, but , given the number of legends I’ve been posting lately, it seems prudent to address the topic in more depth—just remember that this is far from a thorough treatment of the matter!
The Oxford English Dictionary defines a legend as “a traditional story sometimes popularly regarded as historical but unauthenticated[OED, 2005]”, while Wikipedia suggests that a legend is “a meme that propagates through a culture[Anon, n.a.]”. In contrast, a fairy tale is “a children's story about magical and imaginary beings and lands[OED, 2005]” while Katharine Briggs has defined fairy tales as “narratives containing or hinging upon supernatural happenings[Briggs, 1970 ]”. Doesn’t actually tells us much, does it?
“It easy to assert,” writes Heda Jason, “that a particular text is a legend while another is not. The decision is frequently based on experience; one ‘feels’ that a tale is or is not a legend”.
How many times have we had such an experience? Reading a story—such as the Ballad of Hua Mulan—some instantly categorise it as “fairy tale” while others think, “wait, that’s not right—it’s a legend, isn’t it?”
There have many definitions of legend, though the best known is that of the Grimm Brothers: a legend is a story that is believed and that is told about a definite (real or fabulous) person, event, or place[Jason, 1971]. Simple, right? Legends are “true”, fairy tales are not. Well, not quite. Think about the first part of that definition, “a legend is a story that is believed”. This does not mean that the details of a legend are true, merely that they are believed by the narrators of the story—i.e. a legend may also have supernatural elements, just as long as the person telling it considers them real. Jason then goes on to define a fairy tale as “not believed by the narrating community, although it too deals with supernatural events[Jason, 1971]”.
So what is a fairy tale?
At the SurLaLune Fairy Tale pages, Heidi Anne Heiner says that, “fairy tales do not have to be stories about fairies. Also, fairy tales are part of folklore, but folk tales are not necessarily fairy tales. The simplest way to explain this is to think of fairy tales as a subgenre of folklore along with myths and legends [Heiner, n.a.]”.
But then, in his introduction to The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Jack Zipes writes,
…fairy tales have been defined in so many different ways that it boggles the mind to think that they can be categorised as a genre. In fact, the confusion is so great that most literray critics continually confound the oral folk tale with the literary fairy tale and vice versa. Some even argue, to the dismay of folklorists, that we might as well label any text or narrative that calls itself and is called a fairy tale as such since the average reader is not aware of the distinction between the oral and literary traditions or even cares about it…[Zipes, 2000].
In short, that which most of us consider a fairy tale is either a literary fairy tale (The White Cat, The Golden Cockerel) or an oral folktale (Kate Crackernuts), transcribed by a folklorist or other collector. In recent years, there has been much discussion amongst folklorists about such transcriptions, most saying that in the case of tale collection, the collector should take care to transcribe the exact words of the storyteller.
And in the context of this site? Well, I’m not a folklorist—just an enthusiastic amateur with too little spare time and too many books. In the introductions and commentaries I post, I do try to note the origin of tales, insofar as I can find one. And Fairy Tale Fridays? There are certainly more than enough literary fairy tales for me to post, thereby keeping to a slightly more correct definition of fairy tale. Yet coasting from story to story as I tend to do is a far more interesting and free adventure—and one that I much prefer. Perhaps I should consider changing Fairy Tale Fridays to Folk Lore or Folk Tale Fridays…
References:
Wikipedia Entry: Legend, http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legend
Briggs, Katherine. A Dictionary of British Folk-tales in the English Language, Indiana University Press, 1970.
Oxford English Dictionary, Electronic Version 1.0.2, 2005.
Jason, Heda, Concerning the ‘Historical’ and the ‘Local’ Legends and Their Relatives, The Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 84, No. 331, Toward New Perspectives in Folklore (Jan.-Mar., 1971), pp. 134-144.
Heiner, Heidi Anne, Answering What is a Fairy Tale? http://www.surlalunefairytales.com/introduction/ftdefinition.html
Zipes, Jack, et al., The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm All-New Third Edition, Bantam, 2003.
Wednesday, March 19, 2008
Fairy Tales and Legends
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3 comments:
I've always felt that at the core of a legend, myth or saga, there was/is some tiny kernel of truth. Think of King Arthur, The Iliad and The Odyssey, the stories of Robin Hood, of King Gesar, of Gilgamesh, Biblical stories, and many others. At their very heart, they very likely are based on a real person and/or event. We humans love to embellish and so over many years the original person or event takes on magical/miraculous qualities. These stories tend to be longer and more involved, having many characters and covering many years.
Legends, myths and sagas often tell a history (a spiritual history, a cultural history, a psychological history) of the people telling the story.
When I think of fairy tales and folk lore I think of single short stories that seem to teach a lesson or impart a bit of wisdom or simply to entertain. They are filled with magic and wonder, fear and terror and all manner of creatures and beings. I think they are shorter because they were meant to be told to children. When I think of fairy tales and folk lore I think of the Anansi and Br'er Rabbit stories, Aesops Fables, the Grimm stories, the Arabian Nights, and even the more modern fairy tales by Anderson and Wilde.
Of course, these are my own observations on the subject. I have no book facts or book learning to back up any of it.
Fairy Tale Friday works for me.
I also keep a version of this site on Livejournal (peta_andersen); when I posted Fairy Tales and Legends there it sparked quite the debate. It seems to me that most of us have our own, instinctive idea of what a fairy tale is, what a legend is. And when our definitions are challenged, we react.
The definitions and ideas I've posted are by no means the only ones, though I didn't expect the plethora of responses that soon flowed in. Interestingly, most people agree with you--they define legends as stories with a kernel of truth to them, as histories of a people, a time, a place.
Fairy tales have excited less debate--I think most people are aware of just how difficult it is to define a fairy tale.
I don't think fairy tales were "meant to be told to children". When the Grimms published their first anthology, it was largely ignored because people wrote the stories off as "for children". But, as linguists and folklorists, the Grimms had intended the collection to be a scholarly work; many of the tales contained therein had been collected from adults, and were still being told by adults, to adults. Now, since I've brought it up, I think I should also mention that though common perception is that the Grimms collected tales from a sort of everyman-peasant--and they did, to some extent--they actually learned most of their stories from upper-class women.
I can't say I have "book-learning" to back up any of my opinions, either--I have read about the subject, but I've never studied it in a formal manner. I can only present my interpretation of a given set of ideas and/or facts.
I'm glad Fairy Tale Fridays works for you =c). I quite like the sound of it.
Interesting about Grimms' stories and who was telling them and who was listening. As they were originally oral stories, wouldn't they have been told to the family or a group? This is what I mean about being told to children.
In my imagination I picture winter evenings (when there would have traditionally been more time available for this sort of entertainment,) with children and adults gathered about the hearth and an adult telling stories. (Way better than TV! No commercial interruptions:O )
Thank you again (I'm sure more will come) for posting these stories and your comments. I have always enjoyed learning something new!
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