DOCUMENT RES UME ED 070 045 CS 000 230 AUTHOR Carlson, Ruth Kearney, Comp. TITLE Folklore and Folktales Around the world. Perspectives in Reading No. 15. INSTITUTION International Reading Association, Newark, Del., PUB DATE 72 NOTE 179p.; Papers presented at the International Reading Association'sAnnual Convention (15th, Anaheim, Calif., 1970) AVAILABLE FROMInternationalReading Association, Six Tyre Avenue, Newark, Del.19711 ($4.50 non-member, $3.50 member) EDRS PRICE MF-$0.65 HC-$6.58 DESCRIPTORS *Booklists; Fables; *Folklore Books; Legends; Literature Appreciation; Mythology; Reading Materials; *Reading Material Selection; *world Literature IDENTIFIERS *Folktales ABSTRACT This volume, the third in the International Reading Association's Perspectives Series on literature for school age children, concerns the role of folklore and the types of folktales in several areas of the world. These papers were originally presented at IRA's Fifteenth Annual Convention held in Anaheim, California, in 1970. Several articles are devoted to folktales of the western hemisphere and those of Europe. One essay concerns the world folktale, and another the folktales of the Pacific area. An extensive bibliography of folklore and folktales completes the book. (Author/TO) U.S. DEPARTMENT OF HEALTH. EDUCATION & WELFARE OFFICE OF EDUCATION THIS DOCUMENT HAS BEEN REPRO. DUCED EXACTLY AS RECEIVED FROM THE PERSON OR ORGANIZATION ORIG. INATING IT POINTS OF VIEW OR OPIN IONS ST ATFD DO NOT NECESSARILY REPRESENT OFFICIAL OFFICE OF EDU CATION POSITION OR POLICY Perspectives in Reading No. 15 FOLKLORE AND FOLKTALES AROUND THE WORLD Compiled and Edited by Ruth Kearney Carlson California State College at Hayward Prepared by theIRALibrary and Literature Committee Ira INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION Newark, Delaware 19711 9 b INTERNATIONAL READING ASSOCIATION OFFICERS 1971-1972 President THEODORE L. HARRIS, University of Puget Sound, Tacoma, Washington President-elect WILLIAM K. DURR, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan PastPresident DONALD L. CLELAND, University of Pittsburgh, Pittsburgh, Pennsylivania DIRECTORS Term expiring Spring1972 Thomas C. Barrett, University of Wisconsin, Madison, Wisconsin Constance M. McCullough, San Francisco State College, San Francisco, California Eileen E. Sargent, Nicolet Union High School, Milwaukee,Wisconsin Term expiring Spring 1973 Marjorie S. Johnson, Temple University, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania Robert Karlin, Queens College, City University of New York, Flushing, New York Olive S. Niles, State Department of Education, Hartford, Connecticut Term expiring Spring 1974 William Eller, State University of New York, Buffalo, New York William J. Iverson, Stanford University, Stanford, California Eunice Shaed Newton, Howard University, Washington, D.C. Executive Secretary-Treasurer RALPH C. STAIGER, University of Delaware, Newark, Delaware Assistant Executive Secretary RONALD W. MITCHELL, International Reading Association, Newark, Delaware Publications Coordinator FAYE R. BRANCA, International Reading Association, Newark, Delaware Copyright 1972 by the PERMISSION TO REPRODUCE THIS COPY Int.rnational Reading Association, Inc. RIGHTED MATERIAL HAS BEEN GRANTED Library of f'..ngress Catalog Card Number 79-174556 BYInternational 11 Reading Association TO ERIC AND ORGANIZATIONS OPERATING UNDER AGREEMENTS WITH THE US OFFICE OF EDUCATION FURTHER REPRODUCTION OUTSIDE THE ERIC SYSTEM REOUIRES PER MISSION OF THE COPYRIGHT OWNER" (id Contents Foreword v Introduction ix THE WORLD FOLKTALE World Understanding through the Folktale 3 Ruth Kearney Carlson FOLKTALES OF THE WESTERN HEMISPHERE Latin American Folklore and the Folktale 25 Genevieve Barlow Anglo-Celtic Lore in America 40 Richard Chase Reflections and Distortions: Canadian Folklore 47 as Portrayed in Children's Literature Sheila A. Egofl The American Hero in American Children's Literature 62 Rosemary Weber POLKTALES OF EUROPE Russian Folklore and the Skazka 75 Miriam Morton The Scandinavian Folktale 87 Norine Od land Finnish Folklore and the Finnish Folktale102 Taimi M. Ranta Some Folktales and Legends from Northern England 118 John D. A. Widdowson FOLKTALES OF THE PACIFIC AREA Tales and Legends from Micronesia138 Hector H. Lee A Bibliography of Folklore and Folktales161 iii 3 IRA LIBRARY AND LITERATURE COMMITTEE Ruth K. Carlson, Chairman 1718 LeRoy Avenue Berkeley, California 94709 Olive S. Niles 108 Byers Street Springfield, Massachusetts 01105 Marion Anderson 15 Channing Road Newton Center, Massachusetts 02159 Gunnar Axberger Lokev, 11 Djoisholm, Sweden 00424 Sane H. Catterson University of British Columbia Vancouver, British Columbia Sara I. Fenwick University of Chicago Graduate Library 5550 Dorchester Chicago, Illinois 60637 Evelyn Llewellyn 1421 E. 108 Street Kansas City, Missouri 64131 Anne Pellowski Information Center on Children's Culture United Nations New York, New N ork 10017 Rachel Potter "Herongatc," Derwent Lane Hathersage, Sheffield, England 00337 Ernest Roc University of Papua Papua, New Guinea 00391 Priscilla Tyler University of Missouri Kansas City, Missouri 64110 iv Foreword THIS VOLUME, the third in the IRA Perspectives Series on literature for school age children, concerns the role of folklore and the types of folk- tales in several areas of the world. Edited by Ruth Kearney Carlson, the publication is preceded by Children, Books, and Reading, Mildred Daw- son, Editor; and Evaluating Books for Children and Young People, Helen Huus, Editor. All volumes contain papers originally presented at perspec- tives conferences sponsored by the Association, the papers included here being from IRA'S Fifteenth Annual Convention held in Anaheim, California, in 1970. The contributors are uniquely qualified, for many of them know the tales in their original languages. Even though John Widdowson could not attend the Anaheim Conference, Rachel Potter arranged for a taped pre- sentation of his paper. Folktales have an enduring place in the literature of a people. They possess the qualities of good short stories everywhere: they each have an introduction, a body, and a conclusion. The introduction is usually terse and informative; it often tells the time, the place, the characters, and the problemall in the first paragraph. The body, which may contain events in a series of three, develops the plot which rises to a climax, finds the solution of the problem, and follows with an anticlimax and conclusion. The story then ends in a completely satisfying manner with z, phrase such as, "... andthey lived happily ever after" or, ". and the last person who told this story is still alive." The themes of tolktales include wish-fulfillments of the common folk: a miller's daughter can spin straw into gold and wed the king; Cinderella can fit her foot into the glass slipper and wed the prince; anti ale under- dogthe youngest or the simpletoncan lord it over his superiors. Corn- 17; mon themes run through the folktales of different countries and deal with the plight of the youngest, the wicked stepmother, the husband whowould do woman's work, three marriage tasks to be fulfilled, and riddlesto guess. The virtues of honesty, curiosity, and kindnessto men and animals are re- warded; and carelessness, pride, dishonesty, and greedare punishedor at least not rewarded. The language of the folktale is often the vernacular,a opposed to that of the court or the "book language" of the literature; anddialect is some- times used. The vocabulary is simple, direct, and vivid; thestyle contains repetition, alliteration, simile, and other figurative language.The tales were meant to be told, and any good storyteller knows that he loses his audi- ence if he prolongs the descriptions at the expense of moving the action forward. The descriptions, hence,are necessarily terse, but the listener creates his own mental images with just enough suggestion in the telling. Certain character stereotypes do result, suchas the beautiful princess, the handsome prince, the wicked witch, and the fairy godmother. Magical creatures in different countries have specificinterpretations, of- ten as dependent upon the artist's illustrations as on the reader's imagina- tion. Norwegian trolls, for example, are large, bumbly, uglycreatures of various types. Some are good, andsome arc not so good. They may have large noses, from which trees have been knownto sprout. Sometimes they have three heads with perhaps onlyone eye for the heads to share. The "original" illustrator of trolls, Th. Kittelsen, is saidto have scoffed at an- other's illustrations by remarking, "How could he possiblyknow how to draw a troll?He'snever seen one!" At the other end of the scale are the tiny creatures. Though it isvery difficult to find an accurate description of elves, theAmericana Encyclo- pediasays they are as long as a little girl's thumb, which is approximately two inches. Even this authoritative source, however, seems to havesome reservations about the accuracy of this statement. But children whohear about the little elf who hid undsr a toadstool to keep from gettingwet know he was large enough, but not too large, to fit underneath. Folktales entertain; they inspire; they preserve the language for scholars to analyze and compare; and they form a kind of internationalcommon denominator as children in Spain or Peru realize that children inTurkey or Greece or the United States are reading the same stories (or a related version) in their own languages. So it will not, in the future, beso sur- prising to a girl from Bolivia to find thatsome