What is the history of folktales?

Jacob Grimm was first to ask this question. His answer was that ancient people told these stories as sacred myths about gods who created the world. When people were converted to Christianity, thought Grimm, just like churches built on the sites of old pagan shrines, the new religion's sacred stories also displaced the old myths. People continued to tell the old plots as non-sacred but believable stories (legends), and later, when the folk beliefs faded away, as entertaining fantasy stories (folktales).

Folklorists today do not think folktales come from ancient myths; (the issues are similar to what we saw in Module 2, in the weak hypothesis that counting-out rhymes and mumming must be survivals of ancient magical rituals). But it was Grimm's ideas that started the global enterprise of folklore studies: For more than two centuries now, we've been collecting, comparing and analyzing variants of these stories along with other informal traditional culture!

Reading

Please read Jacob Grimm's history of how the Christian religion replaced earlier European religious beliefs, in his classic book, Teutonic Mythology (1835). Consider how he thought this history played out in folklore: Grimm argued that the legend, "King Olaf and the Master Builder," displaced a Viking myth with a similar plot, "Loki and the Giant." And then, Grimm thought, the same plot was retold as the folktale, "Rumpelstiltskin."

Estimated time to read: ~30 minutes

Jacob Grimm, (1880). Teutonic Mythology [1835, English translation].

PDF File : Grimm_Teutonic_Mythology.pdf

Brothers Grimm, “The Girl Who Could Spin Gold”, translated and/or edited by D. L. Ashliman.

Optional expansion, more variants : Name of the helper

Research Tool: Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) Types of the Folktale. (Find Type 500)

Rationale: Consider Jacob Grimm's hypothesis about ancient mythology as the origin of folktales. Although his historical arguments are today considered weak, his METHODS are as solid as ever: Collect lots of variants, compare them, and try to explain similarities & differences!

ATU Type numbers are mentioned here for future reference. This research tool will be introduced in lecture 24.3.

Lecture

In this lecture keep the following ideas in mind:

What was Jacob Grimm's argument regarding the history of folk narratives?
Why would folklorists worldwide be inspired by Jacob Grimm's ideas about collecting folktales and studying ancient mythology?

Bonus

For a cutting-edge history of ancient Viking mythology (expressed in oral poetry not folktales), read John Lindow (2021). Old Norse Mythology. Oxford University Press. [Link to e-book in the UW Library]

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