Fairytale in the Ancient World

by Graham Anderson

The first modern study of the ancient fairytale, it bridges a major gap between the study of the ancient world and the wider world of oral culture, and will be of immense value and interest to students of a wide variety of disciplines.

Genres: Nonfiction, Mythology, Fairy Tales, History, Folklore

252 pages, Paperback

First published March 8, 2000

Reviews

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

I read the paperback edition of this book. Anderson makes good connections between modern well known fairy tales, such as "Cinderella" to ancient stories (myths and legends). Anderson does not just limit himself to stories of Greece and Roman, but older Jewish legends as well as Persian legends as well. He makes a good case for "Cinderella" and "Snow White" but for some of the other tales, "Godfather Death" for instance; he seems to be stretching a bit too far.

[Ryan Denson · Rating 4 out of 5]

Anderson examines how some motifs from folk- and fairytales extend into antiquity. The book is organized as a series of essays that analyzes what we can ascertain about our modern fairytales primarily in the Greco-Roman world. The introduction does a masterful job of laying out the methodological challenges of such a project. For instance, most of our well-known fairy tales, like Cinderella and Little Red Riding Hood, were originally collected orally from the 19th century onward by the Grimms and other anthropologists. Doubtlessly, there were oral tales spread throughout antiquity. However, we obviously do not have the luxury of being able to ask individuals about them as the Grimms did and must rely on our textual sources from the ancient world. This opens up all manner of concerns about to what degree these accurately reflect the oral tales. How much of these are literary flourishes or other additions to suit a writer’s motives? There is also the general bias that most ancient texts reflect mainly an upper class male perspective. Furthermore, we must also consider how to define what makes an ancient tale an analogue to “our” modern versions. Though it seems that will always be a hazy distinction to make.

The analysis of the tales is thorough and uses a vast array of sources. Anderson convincingly argues that folktales evolve and change overtime. Of course, our modern Disney versions don’t exist wholly in antiquity, but we see the “skeletons” or basic forms of these sorts of tales. For example, the Rhodopis story has striking similarities to basic structure of Cinderella, most notably in the motif of the “slipper-test” by which the woman is identified. This short story though is barely a paragraph of the geographer Strabo’s original Greek text. Later versions will be more elaborated upon and altered to suit the culture in which it is found (e.g the male lover usually becomes a prince or lord rather than the Egyptian pharaoh).

One questionable aspect of this study, however, is in the instances where ancient tales are not in one extant source. Anderson frequently attempts to patch together an ancient version of a fairytale from different texts. This becomes quite speculative in some cases and the arguement for some tales existing as a whole is dubious. For instance, when one text describes the slaying of a man named Lykus (a name related to the Greek word for “wolf”) and another text indirectly connects this to another tradition involving a girl by the name of Pyrrha (a name meaning “flame red”), can this truly be taken as evidence of the existence of the Little Red Riding Hood story in antiquity? It seems more plausible that, for some cases, different motifs persisted onward from antiquity rather than a full story; there is certainly no shortage of tales involving the killing of an evil wolf in most Western traditions.

Overall, this book proves to be an informative and entertaining read. It is well worth the time for anyone interested in how storytelling evolves over time. Anderson devotes the concluding to briefly discussing the socio-cultural and psychological aspects of such tales across time (something I wish he’d included more of in throughout the book rather than relying almost exclusively on the Aarne-Thompson system). This highlights how insightful the study of folklore in a historical context can be for learning more about other cultures.

[Margaret · Rating 2 out of 5]

With this academic study, Anderson provides a comprehensive and at times exhausting examination of fairytale antecedents in ancient (mostly Western) mythology. It's a thorough, well-researched study, with chapters focusing on specific fairy tales--like "Cinderella," "Snow White," and "Little Red Riding Hood"--as well as general categories of tales. If this sounds like something you need for research purposes, you should definitely pick it up. It lacks the engaging prose style of some other fairytale academics, like Jack D. Zipes or Marina Warner, but while I won't be reading it cover-to-cover again, I'm keeping my copy in case I need it for research. It certainly seems like it opens up a lot of research potential for other academics to explore.

[Kelsey]

I'm not going to try to give this a star-rating. It's challenging to read if you're not familiar with many of the primary sources referenced, but very good for dismantling pre-conceived notions of what qualifies a narrative as a folk/fairy tale, and what qualifies it as a precursor to any given modern tale type.

[Rachel · Rating 3 out of 5]

I would give this 3.5 stars.

Fairytale in the ancient world is a scholarly nonfiction book that looks at the the connections between modern fairy tales and ancient folk tales/mythology. Broken down, it's fascinating to see how stories like Cinderella, Snow White, and rapunzel all have ties to more ancient stories. The locations may differ but key parts of the story remain the same (Cinderella stories always center around someone who was wronged or downcast, they recieve help from a mythial creature/friend, they attend a ball of some fashion, and they get a happy ending. Sometimes they also get revenge on the people who originally wronged them.)

So why only 3.5 stars? The book is very scholarly. It's well researched, but at times was drab and hard to read. Many of the names started blending together. I often found myself saying "Who are they talking about now?" I'm not as well versed in folk tales as I thought I was. Many segments ended up going over my head. I had no point of reference. Additionally, the language is very scholarly, which makes it harder to read. Between the names and the grammar, it grew to be more of a challenge than an enjoyment.

Regardless, I found the original subject fascinating, and was surprised to see the connections between some classic fairy tales and ancient myths. It goes to show that we really don't know much about the topic at all. I'd love to see more research done on this, but written in a slightly easier to read format.

[Chris · Rating 4 out of 5]

Claimed as the first modern general study of the ancient fairytale, this naturally combines the worlds of the academic and the non-specialist reader.

The abiding impression for one of the latter group is that there is essentially nothing new under the sun when it comes to fairytale motifs and that the human condition seeks out and welcomes the same old universal tales.

A riveting read even with all the academic apparatus, this study include four equally fascinating appendices.