Fairytale in the Ancient World

by Graham Anderson

Overview

In this, the first modern study of the ancient fairytale, Graham Anderson asks whether the familiar children's fairytale of today existed in the ancient world. He examines texts from the classical period and finds many stories which resemble those we know today, including:
* a Jewish Egyptian Cinderella
* a Snow White whose enemy is the goddess Artemis
* a Pied Piper at Troy.
He puts forward many previously unsuspected candidates as classical variants of the modern fairytale and argues that the degree of violence and cruelty in the ancient tales means they must have been meant for adults.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781134560455
Publisher:	Taylor & Francis
Publication date:	01/04/2002
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
Pages:	256
File size:	755 KB

About the Author

Graham Anderson

Table of Contents

Preface, List of abbreviations, 1 Introduction, 2 The Cinderella story in antiquity, 3 Snow White and related tales, 4 Cupid and Psyche and Beauty and the Beast, 5 The Obstacle Flight, 6 The ‘innocent slandered maid’, 7 Butchering girls: Red Riding Hood and Bluebeard, 8 Magicians and their allies, 9 Between living and dead, 10 Two Homeric tales: The Cyclops and Ares and Aphrodite, 11 Some moral parables: The Pied Piper, The Three Wishes, Rumpelstiltskin, The Singing Bone, 12 Fairytale into romance, 13 Folktales and society: some reflections on ancient evidence, 14 Conclusions, Appendix 1 Some difficult cases, Appendix 2 Two ancient hero tales, Appendix 3 Thrushbeard and The Starmaidens, Appendix 4 AT Type 552 and the Orestes story, Notes, Bibliography, Index of folktale types, General index

Editorial Reviews

Anderson (classics, U. of Kent-Canterbury) examines texts from the classical period that resemble Cinderella, Snow White, Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, and other characters in folk tales of modern times. Among other insights, he thinks the degree of cruelty and violence expressed indicates that the stories were for adults. Annotation c. Book News, Inc., Portland, OR (booknews.com)

Booknews