The Complete Grimm's Fairy Tales (Pantheon Books) - Jacob Grimm [369]
’Tis a murderer’s house you enter here.
Peace, peace, my dear little giants,
I have had a thought of ye,
Something I have brought for ye.
Little duck, little duck, dost thou see,
Hänsel and Gretel are waiting for thee?
There’s never a plank, or bridge in sight,
Take us across on thy back so white.
In Arabian tales, and less commonly European, the prose of the text slips momentarily into rhyme: “Thereupon sat a lady bright of blee, with brow beaming brilliantly, the dream of philosophy, whose eyes were fraught with Babel’s gramarye and her eyebrows were arched as for archery”; “They all lived happy and died happy, and never drank out of a dry cappy”; “Now I had an army of a thousand thousand bridles, men of warrior mien with forearms strong and keen, armed with spears and mail-coats sheen and swords that gleam.”
In the lovely French medieval chante-fable, Aucassin et Nicolette, verse passages regularly alternate with prose. In the Bardic Lays that served to entertain the heroes in the mead-hall, in the long Epics woven in later times, and in the Ballads of the folk, narrative goes into verse entirely. The spell of rhythm and rhyme is the spell of “once upon a time.” *
“And as the cup went round merrily, quoth the Porter to the Kalandars: ‘And you, O brothers mine, have ye no story or rare adventure to amuse us withal?’ ”—The empty hour is as gladly filled with a good personal adventure as with a fragment of traditional wonder. Hence, the world of actual life as caught in Anecdote, paced and timed to fix and justify attention, has contributed to the great category of the Tale. The anecdote may range from the ostensibly truthful, or only slightly exaggerated, to the frankly unbelievable. In the latter range it mingles readily with sheer Invention: the Joke, Merry Tale, and Ghost Adventure. Again, it can unite with the mythological stuff of traditional romance, and thus acquire some of the traits of legend.
A distinct and relatively recently developed category is the Fable. The best examples are the Greek and Medieval collections attributed to “Aesop,” and the Oriental of the Brahmins, Buddhists, and Jains. The Fable is didactic. It is not, like Myth, a revelation of transcendental mysteries, but a clever illustration of a political or ethical point. Fables are witty, and not to be believed but understood.*
Under the single heading, Märchen, the Germans popularly comprehend the whole range of the Folk Tale. The Brothers Grimm, therefore, included in their collection folk stories of every available variety. Scholars since their day have analyzed the assortment and classified the tales according to type. The following listing is based on the standard index of story-types, prepared by the Finnish folklorist, Antti Aarne.†
I. Animal Tales: Wild Animals, 2. 23. 38. 73. 74. 132: Wild Animals and Domestic, 5. 27. 48. 75. Man and Wild Animals, 8.72. 157. Domestic Animals, 10. 41. (compare 18.). Birds, 58. 86. 102. 171. Fish, 172. Other Animals and Objects, 105. i. 187.
II. Ordinary Folk Tales: A. Tales of Magic: ‡ Supernatural Adversaries, 4. 5. 12. 15. 26. 42. 44. 46. 51. 56. 60. 66. 79. 81. 82. 85. 91. 99. 101. 106. 111. 113. 120. 121. 133. 181. 186. 191. 193. 197. (compare 163.). Supernatural or Enchanted Husband (Wife) or Other Relatives, 1. 9. 11. (compare 141.) 13. 25. 49. 50. 63. 69. 88. 92. 93. 106. 108. 123. 127. 135. 144. 160. 161. 169. 193. Supernatural Tasks, 24. 29. 100. Supernatural Helpers, 6. 14. 17. 19. 21. 55. 57. 62. 65. 71. 89. 97. 126. 130. 134. 136. Magic Objects, 16. 36. 54. 60. 64. 103. 107. 110. 116. 122. 165. 188. Supernatural Power or Knowledge, 16. 33. 76. 90. 118. 124. 129. 142. 149. Other Tales of the Supernatural, 3. 31. 37. 45. 47. 53. 96.
B. Religious Tales: 28. 35. 81. 87. 92. 125. 145. 147. 167. 178. 194. 195. 206. C. Novelle (Romantic Tales): 22. 40. 52. 67. 94. 112. 114. 115. 152. 179. 198. 199. D. Tales of the Stupid Ogre: 20. 183. 189. (compare 148.).
III. Jokes and Anecdotes: Numskull Stories, 70. 174. Stories about Married Couples, 34. 59. 83. 104. 128.