Interested in the meaning and symbolism of folktales and fairy tales?

One work which doesn’t focus as much on the psychological/symbolic aspects of fairy tales, but does make an attempt to comment on their place in human society and their literary virtues is J.R.R. Tolkien’s ‘On Fairy Stories’. The essay can be found any number of collections of Tolkien’s shorter works (it often gets included in compilations of his fiction as well, since it is traditionally paired with the short story ‘Leaf by Niggle’).

One interesting note in comparing it to Bettelheim’s account, which apparently focuses on fairy tales as something for children, one of Tolkien’s primary arguments is that fairy tales are not inherently juvenile, and their current status as such is purely a historical accident, unrelated to any supposed literary or psychological appeal to children.

I haven’t read Bettelheim’s interpretations, though I’ll have to look into them now. Generally I find Freudian interpretations rather shoehorned into place…especially given that some of his most popular theories have been discredited for a long time now. However I do generally enjoy reading Freudian analysis, even if it is just to grumble to myself about the ridiculous parts. I was very sad when I heard of a Freudian telling of Snow White, but couldn’t find a trace of the text anywhere.

Personally I like Maria Tatar’s work. In her book The Hard Facts of the Grimms she talks about the medium of word of mouth literature and the influence it had on the nature of the stories in addition to the more traditional analysis of individual stories’ themes and motifs. Essentially she points out that word of mouth literature reflects the most conservative values of the common people. This is because, unlike the written word, which has a limited number of authors and editors, word of mouth literature is edited every time it is retold.

Each teller delivers the story as they see fit. Deleting the parts they find objectionable and embellishing what they like most. In Germany, where many of Grimm’s stories originated, evidence of sex was whittled away and the violence was amped up. If the people just weren’t impressed by a story it disappeared. Folktales are truly the literature of the people.

Tatar has also contributed to The Annotated Books series which is probably the only complete series of books I covet for my bookshelf. I am a sucker for meaty footnotes and foil embossing.

ps

The previous jelly stated that Tolkien argued that fairy tales weren’t necessarily juvenile. Tatar goes forther saying that originally, when they existed only in the spoken word, the stories were considered “General Audience”, they were for people of all ages.

When the Grimms first published their Anthology it was as an athropological collection of folktales meant for adults. After the first edition was released and was found to be wildly popular among children they shifted their focus to the young babes for the financial opportunity it represented. And from then on each new edition the Grimms released was altered to be more suitable for children. Some the things were simply cut (like the last straggling hints of sexuality) and other details were added from out of the brothers’ own imaginations.

Oddly enough the Grimms continued the German folk tradition of adding more violence. Perhaps it had not yet occurred to anyone to blame the corruption of the youth on violence in the media.