However, despite innovative uses such as Jordan’s of the folk voice in film, Zipes’s characterization is valid in that many fairy-tale films seem to represent an appropriation as much as an exploration or celebration of folk narrative. This exemplifies the uneasy and problematical intersections between popular or folk cultures, and the mass culture of consumerism. Film narrative is dominated by Hollywood, and particularly by big-budget studio films whose economies of scale require appeal to a broad demographic; many recent fairy-tale films represent a process of identifying the kinds of narrative which are currently selling, and reproducing them as closely as possible. Disney’s huge successes with fairy tale in the late 1980s and early 1990s could be seen to have prompted later films such as Ever After and The Grimm Brothers’ Snow White, and ultimately Shrek, which has itself spawned two sequels and a host of imitators in the knowing fairy-tale parody mode, including Hoodwinked and Happily N’Ever After. At the same time, the production-by-committee effect of financial oversight on films exists in palpable tension with the impulses of particular directors or screenwriters, who may well see the artistic rather than the commercial potential in recreating a familiar folkloric text. In addition, the construction of a particular text in terms favoring commercial success does not in any way prevent countercultural readings of such a text, representing a very different notion of narrative pleasure from that intended by the producers. Audience-generated responses such as fan fiction demonstrate precisely the kind of active, potentially subversive receptions of mass-cultural texts described by critics such as John Fiske and Henry Jenkins. Even Disney films, perhaps the strongest example of deliberate mass-cultural packaging, are capable of being read on multiple levels which address child and adult audiences separately. Thus, like much of mass culture, fairy-tale film is a site of contestation, with the warping of metafictional play to commercial ends balanced by a wresting back of commercial requirements to artistic and individual purposes. The postmodern cultural environment of modern film also means that at times the two impulses are one: self-consciousness, irony, and the pleasures of recognition are highly saleable commodities.
* * *
* * *
† From Jessica Tiffin, “Magical Illusion: Fairy-Tale Film,” in Marvelous Geometry: Narrative and Metafiction in Modern Fairy Tale (Detroit, MI: Wayne State UP, 2009), pp. 179–88. Copyright © 2009 Wayne State University Press, with the permission of Wayne State University Press. All parenthetical citations have been provided as footnotes.
1. In Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales: The Western Fairy Tale Tradition from Medieval to Modern (Oxford: Oxford UP, 2000), p. 34.
2. J. R. R. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories,” in The Tolkien Reader (New York: Ballantine, 1966), p. 49.
3. André Bazin, “What Is Cinema?” trans. Hugh Gray (Berkeley: U of California P, 1967), p. 12.
4. Ibid., p. 16.
5. Jack Zipes, Happily Ever After: Fairy Tales, Children, and the Culture Industry (New York: Routledge, 1997), p. 63.
6. Ibid., p. 68.
7. Tolkien, “On Fairy Stories,” p. 80.
8. Donald P. Haase, “Is Seeing Believing? Proverbs and the Film Adaptation of a Fairy Tale,” Proverbium 7 (1990), p. 90.
9. In Marina Warner, From the Beast to the Blonde: On Fairy Tales and Their Tellers (New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux, 1994), p. 17.
10. Walter Ong, Rhetoric, Romance, and Technology: Studies in the Interaction of Expression and Culture (Ithaca: Cornell UP, 1971), p. 284.
11. Jack Zipes, Fairy Tale as Myth, Myth as Fairy Tale (Lexington: UP of Kentucky, 1994), p. 83.
12. Zipes, Happily Ever After, p. 69.
13. Ibid., p. 65.
14. Theodor Adorno and Max Horkheimer, “The Culture Industry: Enlightenment as Mass Deception,” in The Cultural Studies Reader, ed. Simon During (London: Routledge, 1993), p. 32.
15. Noël Carroll, A Philosophy of Mass Art (Oxford: Clarendon, 1998), pp. 38–39.
16. Ibid., pp. 40–41.
HANS-JÖRG UTHER
From The Types of International Folktales†
In 1910, the Finnish folklorist Antti Aarne published a work called Verzeichnis der Märchentypen in a series dedicated to monographs in the field of folklore. The work has come to be known as the tale type index, and it provides short synopses of fairy-tale plots. That work and the six-volume Motif-index of Folk-Literature published by the American folklorist Stith Thompson have been valuable aids in organizing the corpus of fairy-tale texts and identifying recurring tropes or motifs. The tale-type index has come under critical fire for limiting itself to a Eurocentric corpus that fails to include, for example, Native American or African lore. The American folklorist Alan Dundes also pointed out that Stith Thompson indulged in “absurd and excessive prudery,” censoring obscene tales and motifs when he translated and enlarged Aarne’s work in 1928, and then published a revised edition of his work in 1961. Hans-Jörg Uther’s 2004 revision offers a more capacious view of the folktale and aspires to be both international in scope and expansive in its reach. The letters and numbers in parentheses refer to motifs catalogued in Stith Thompson’s motif-index.
* * *
311
Rescue by the Sister. Two sisters, one after the other, fall into power of a demonic suitor (cannibal, dragon, magician, devil) and are taken into his (subterranean) castle [R11.1, T721.5]. There the sisters open a forbidden room full of dead bodies, in the course of which the key (a magic egg, apple) becomes bloody, or they refuse to eat human flesh [C611, C227, C913]. The demon kills them for their disobedience [C920].
Using a trick, the third (youngest) sister escapes from the same fate. She finds her sisters and resuscitates them by putting their bones together [R157.1]. She hides them beneath some gold in baskets (bags) and persuades the demon to carry the baskets home without looking into them [G561]. Cf. Type 1132.
The youngest sister pretends to marry the demon and leaves a skull (straw dummy) dressed as a bride to deceive him. Unwittingly the demon carries this sister home in the third basket. Or she smears herself with honey and feathers and escapes as a “strange bird” [K525, K521.1]. Cf. Types 1383, 1681. The demon is burned in his own house or is killed in another way [Q211]. Cf. Type 312.
* * *
311B*
The Singing Bag. A Gypsy (old man) puts the niece of an old washer-woman (only daughter of an old couple) into a bag and carries her off. The Gypsy goes begging from door to door and exhibits his “singing bag”: He gives the bag a pinch, threatens to beat it with his stick, and orders it to sing. Thereupon the girl in the bag starts singing her tale: I left my rosary on a stone by the river when I was washing. When I wanted to get it, a Gypsy put me in his bag and carried me off. (I am the only daughter of an old couple. An old man carried me off when I was gathering berries in the forest.)
One day the Gypsy arrives at the old washerwoman’s house. The woman recognizes her niece, invites the Gypsy into his house, and entertains him until he gets drunk. When he is sleeping, she rescues the girl from the bag and, in her place, puts two cats (horse-dung). When the Gypsy exhibits his singing bag the next time, the cats mew. The Gypsy opens the bag and is scratched or bitten [K526].
* * *
312
Maiden-Killer (Bluebeard) (previously The Giant-killer and his Dog). An odd-looking rich man (e.g. with a blue beard [S62.1]) takes his bride to his splendid castle. She is forbidden to open a certain room, but she disobeys and finds it full of the dead bodies of her predecessors [C611]. The husband wants to kill her for her disobedience [C920], but she is able to delay the punishment (three times) [K551]. She (her sister) calls their brother (three brothers) who kills the husband (sometimes with help from a dog or other animal) and rescues his sister(s) [G551.1, G652]. Cf. Type 311.
* * *
327
The Children and the Ogre. This type refers to a cycle of related ta
les. It combines episodes from types 327A, 327B, and 327C.
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327A
Hansel and Gretel. A (poor) father (persuaded by the stepmother) abandons his children (a boy and a girl) in the forest [S321, S143]. Twice the children find their way back home, following scattered pebbles [R135]. On the third night, birds eat the scattered peas (bread-crumbs) [R135.1].
The children come upon a gingerbread house which belongs to a witch (ogress) [G401, F771.1.10, G412.1]. She takes them into her house. The boy is fattened [G82], while the girl must do housework. The witch asks the boy to show his finger in order to test how fat he is [G82.1], but he shows her a bone (stick) [G82.1.1]. When the witch wants to cook the boy, the sister deceives her by feigning ignorance and pushes her into the oven [G526, G512.3.2]. (The witch’s son finds out that his mother has been killed and pursues the children.)
The children escape, carrying the witch’s treasure with them. Birds and beasts (angels) help them across water. They return home. Cf. Type 327.
* * *
327B
The Brothers and the Ogre (previously The Dwarf and the Giant). Seven (three, twelve, thirty) brothers come to an ogre’s house, where they are given night lodging. The ogre intends to cut off the brothers’s heads. In order to recognize his own daughters, the ogre gives them nightcaps (head-scarves). One brother (often the youngest, Thumbling) detects the plan, and all brothers put on the night-caps of the ogre’s daughters (exchange their caps for the daughters’ head-scarves, change sleeping-places with the daughters). In the night, the ogre cuts off his own daughters’ heads by mistake [K1611]. The brothers escape. Cf. Types 327, 1119.
* * *
410
Sleeping Beauty. (Dornröschen, La bella addormentata.) (Announced by a frog [B211.7.1, B493.1]) a daughter is born to a royal couple. A fairy (wise woman) who has not been invited to the celebration (baptism) utters a curse that the princess (on her 15th birthday) will die of a wound from a spindle (needle, fiber of flax) [F361.1.1, F316, G269.4, M341.2.13]. Another fairy changes the death sentence into a long (hundred-year) sleep [F316.1].
The king orders that every spindle (needle) in his empire be destroyed; but, because one of them has been overlooked, the prophecy is fulfilled [M370]: The girl meets an old woman who is spinning in a hidden chamber, pricks her finger with the spindle, and sinks, together with the whole court, into a magic sleep [D1364.17, D1960.3, F771.4.4, F771.4.7]. Around the castle grows a hedge of thorns [D1967.1] (the girl is enclosed in a tower).
At the end of the appointed time, a youth (prince) breaks through the hedge [N711.2] and awakens the princess with a kiss [D735, D1978.5] (he impregnates her; she gives birth to two children, one of whom sucks the fiber out of her finger and thus disenchants her).
In some variants the prince takes his wife and children to his family. During his absence the evil mother-in-law asks the cook to slaughter and roast the woman and the children. The cook disobeys, and the mother-in-law demands that the three be thrown into a tub full of poisonous toads and snakes. Unexpectedly the prince returns home, and the mother-in-law herself jumps into the tub.
* * *
425A
The Animal as Bridegroom. (Including the previous Type 425G.) This type combines various introductory episodes with a common main part. Cf. Types 430, 432, and 441.
Introductory episodes:
(1) The youngest daughter asks her father (the king) to bring her a (musical) rose (lark, etc.) from his journey. He finds it in the garden of a beast, but in return has to promise his daughter (the first being he meets when he arrives at home) [L221, S228, S241] to the beast. The father tries in vain to send another girl instead of his daughter [S252]. Cf. Type 425C.
(2) An animal-son (snake, crayfish, also pumpkin, etc.) is born (because of the hasty wish of his parents) [C758.1]. He demands a princess for his wife and performs difficult (impossible) tasks. The princess has to marry him [T111].
(3) A girl is intended (by fate) for an animal bridegroom or agrees to marry him [B620.1, L54.1].
(4) For other reasons a girl has an animal husband and lives together with him in his castle. He becomes a beautiful man by night [D621.1, B640.1].
Main part:
When the young wife (often on the advice of her female relatives) burns the animal-skin of her bridegroom [C757.1] (looks at him during the night or burns him with candle wax [C32.1, C916.1], reveals his secret [C421], or otherwise prevents his disenchantment), he goes away [C932].
The young wife sets out for a long and difficult quest [H1385.4] (in iron shoes [Q502.2], etc.). On her way she is given directions and reveals his secret [C421], or otherwise prevents his disenchantment he goes away [C932].
The young wife sets out for a long and difficult quest [H1385.4] (in iron shoes [Q502.2], etc.). On her way she is given directions and precious gifts by the sun, moon, wind, and stars [H1232] (helpful old people or animals [H1233.1.1, H1235]. She arrives (sometimes by climbing a glass mountain [H1114]) at her bridegroom’s far-away residence. She finds that her husband has another (supernatural) bride.
She takes service as maid [Q482.1] and trades her precious things (golden implements for spinning, jewels, magnificent clothes, etc.) for three nights by the side of her lost husband [D2006.1.1]. She wants to awaken his memory of her, but two times he is drugged by a soporific. He spills the soporific on the third night, stays awake, and recognizes her as his true bride [D2006.1.4]. (Death of the false bride.) Cf. Type 313.
* * *
425B
Son of the Witch (previously The Disenchanted Husband: the Witch’s Tasks). (Cupid and Psyche.) (Including the previous Types 425J, 425N, and 428.) This type combines various introductory episodes with a common main part. Cf. Type 425A.
Introductory episodes:
A young woman marries a supernatural bridegroom:
(1) She is given to her bridegroom because of a present that she has asked her father to bring back from a journey [S228].
(2) The bridegroom performs a set of difficult tasks.
(3) She pulls up an herb and discovers the bridegroom’s subterranean castle (a wind carries her there).
(4) She finds him in another way.
The bridegroom is the son of a witch (ogress) or he is (during the day) an animal [D621.1].
Main part:
The young woman breaks the bridegroom’s prohibition (cf. Type 425A), and he goes away [C932]. (Before he leaves, he gives her a token, e.g. ring, feather.) (In iron shoes) she sets out to find him [H1385.4, H1125].
The bride comes to the house of her bridegroom’s mother, a witch, who swears by her son’s name not to devour her. The witch imposes difficult tasks on the young woman, which she performs (with the help of her bridegroom): to sort a large quantity of grain [H1122], to fill mattresses with the feathers of all kinds of birds, to wash the black wool white and the white black [H1023.6, cf. Type 1183], to sweep a house but leave it unswept [H1066], etc. In some variants she enchants (three) suitors and makes them fight (part of previous Type 425N). Cf. Types 313, 875.
The young woman is sent on a dangerous journey to bring a casket from the sister of the witch. Having passed obstacles (with the advice from her bridegroom) and obtained the casket, she is forbidden to open it. (Cf. Types 408, 480.) When the bride acts against the prohibition, her husband helps her.
At the wedding of the bridegroom and the witch’s daughter, the young woman has to hold ten burning candles (torches). Her bridegroom saves her from being burned.
The young woman remarries her bridegroom, or both escape by a magic (transformation) flight [D671, D672].
* * *
425C
Beauty and the Beast. (Including the previous Type 425H.)
A merchant sets out on a journey and intends to bring back presents for his three daughters. The two elder ones demand jewels and clothes, the youngest a rose [L221]. The father is not able to find one.
He loses his way and stays overnight in a deserted
castle, where he breaks off a rose. An (invisible) animal (beast) demands that the man return or send a substitute [S222]. The youngest daughter meets her father’s obligation but refuses to marry the (ugly) animal, who treats her kindly.
In a magic mirror she sees her father is ill. She is allowed to visit him but (influenced by her envious sisters) overstays the allotted time [C761.2]. She returns and finds the animal near death, realizes she loves him, and caresses or kisses him. By this means she disenchants the prince from his animal shape [D735.1]. They marry.
* * *
510
Cinderella and Peau d’ne. This type number refers to a cycle of related tales. See esp. Types 510A and 510B.
* * *
510A
Cinderella. (Cenerentola, Cendrillon, Aschenputtel.) A young woman is mistreated by her stepmother and stepsisters [S31, L55] and has to live in the ashes as a servant. When the sisters and the stepmother go to a ball (church), they give Cinderella an impossible task (e.g. sorting peas from ashes), which she accomplishes with the help of birds [B450]. She obtains beautiful clothing from a supernatural being [D1050.1, N815] or a tree that grows on the grave of her deceased mother [D815.1, D842.1, E323.2] and goes unknown to the ball. A prince falls in love with her [N711.6, N711.4], but she has to leave the ball early [C761.3]. The same thing happens on the next evening, but on the third evening, she loses one of her shoes [R221, F823.2].
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