Mythology and Folklore UN-Textbook: European Units

Showing posts with label European Units. Show all posts

Myth-Folklore Unit: Dante's Inferno

Overview. This journey though "Inferno" (Italian for "Hell") is part of Dante Alighieri's medieval epic poem, the "Divine Comedy." After Dante makes his way through Hell, he then travels to "Purgatorio" (Purgatory) and "Paradiso" (Paradise), and it is this happy conclusion in paradise that led Dante to label the epic a "comedy." The Inferno, however, is as far removed from Paradise as a place can be, and it is filled with sinners suffering torments which Dante describes in excruciating detail. In this selection of episodes (from Tony Kline's prose translation, Dante's Divine Comedy), you will see Dante encounter his Italian contemporaries, such as the adulterous lovers Paolo and Francesca, and he will also meet figures from ancient history, including his guide through hell: the Roman epic poet Virgil. While Dante's vision of hell is founded on Christian theology, it is populated with many figures from ancient mythology, and Dante's creative blending of Christian and Greco-Roman culture makes the Divine Comedy one of the most original and influential storytelling experiments in the history of world literature.

Language. This is a translation of Dante's Italian poem into modern English prose. Dante's story is dense and full of details, but the language itself should not prove difficult.

Story Length. This is one continuous story as Dante moves from one circle of hell to the next until his final encounter with Satan.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Dante's Inferno. Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

Additional Resources. If you would like to see an English verse translation that imitates Dante's poetic style, then see the Allen Mandelbaum translation which is available here: World of Dante: Inferno.

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READING B:

(Dante and Virgil, by Delacroix)

Myth-Folklore Unit: The Decameron by Boccaccio

Overview. Giovanni Boccaccio's Decameron ("The Ten Days") is a lively experiment in storytelling: seven young women and three young men have fled from Florence during the time of the Black Death around the year 1350. Each person tells one story for ten days in a row, resulting in one hundred stories; you will read eight of those stories here. Boccaccio delighted in stories that satirized the lascivious behavior of outwardly pious monks, and three of the stories explore that theme. There are also four love stories, all of them very dramatic... and very tragic. There is also a wisdom tale, a story about the Sultan Saladin and a wise Jew who ponder the relative merits of Judaism, Christianity, and Islam, a topic that was of great interest in medieval Europe as it remains so even now, almost seven hundred years later. This translation, which is by J. M. Rigg, has a free audiobook version available too!

Language. This is a modern English translation of Boccaccio which stays very close to Boccaccio in the style and sentence structure. It might feel a bit old-fashioned, but it is also very lively and should not be too difficult to read.

Story Length. This unit contains stories of varying lengths, with single-page stories, along with stories that are two, three, or four pages long.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: Decameron.

Free audiobook available!

READING A:

READING B:

(The Decameron, Waterhouse)

Myth-Folklore Unit: The Heptameron of Margaret, Queen of Navarre

Overview. The author of the French story collection known as The Heptameron is Margaret, Queen of Navarre, who was the sister Francis I, the King of France. From the time that her brother assumed the throne in 1515, Margaret was one of the most powerful women in France, as well as being a great patron of literature. In 1545, she commissioned a French translation of Boccaccio's Decameron, and that book inspired her own storytelling experiment in which travelers must halt their journey because of a washed-out bridge; to amuse themselves while they wait for the bridge to be repaired, they each tell one story a day, just as in Boccaccio's Decameron. The book was unfinished when Margaret died in 1547, so it contains only 72 stories (hence the title, Heptameron = "Seven Days"), and you will read twelve of those stories here. Unlike the folktales in Boccaccio, Margaret's stories here are more like urban legends — Renaissance urban legends — because they are all supposedly true, involving the romantic scandals of persons who are known to the storytellers... or so they claim!

Language This is a modern English translation, and it should not pose difficulties in reading.

Story Length. This unit consists of single-page stories and stories that are two pages long.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: The Heptameron.

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READING B:

(Heptameron book cover)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Kalevala

Overview. This unit contains episodes from the Kalevala, an epic poem of the Finnish people which was compiled in the 19th century by Elias Lonnrot based on the oral poetry he collected from traditional epic singers in Finland and Lapland. The selections that you will read here focus on the exploits of the "first man," Väinämöinen, who is a culture hero and wizard. You will read about Väinämöinen's competition with the young man Joukahainen, his tragic love for Joukahainen's sister Aino, and also his role in the forging of the magical Sampo. The Kalevala singers used a trochaic tetrameter form, and the English translation follows the Finnish meter and style, allowing you to experience the use of "oral formulaic composition" in the songs. There is an audiobook version available, and I would strongly recommend that you listen to at least part of the story read out loud in order to get a sense of the dense and complex repetitions that this oral formulaic style of poetry relies on: the effect can be very powerful!

Language. This is translation of the Finnish epic poem into English verse that closely imitates the style of the Finnish original which is strongly oral epic verse. It's quite different from the sort of poetry you might have read in English class before, so take a look and see what you think: it is highly rhythmic and full of repetitions, as is typical of oral poetry.

Story Length. This is a continuous story, narrating Väinämöinen's adventures in a series of episodes where one episode leads to the next.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Kalevala. Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

Free audiobook available!

READING A:

READING B:

(Aino, by A. Gallen-Kallela)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman)

Overview. There are four different Grimm units to choose from, each taken a different English-language version. This selection (from Dan Ashliman's Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales) features both familiar and unfamiliar stories, although I am guessing these are mostly less familiar stories. If you want to read the Grimm versions of Little Red Riding Hood, Rumpelstiltskin, or The Elves and the Shoemaker, you will find those stories here, and you will also find some other fabulous stories: there is the mysterious murder mystery in The Singing Bone, along with lots of animal stories, including some great animal tricksters (Cat and Mouse in Partnership, The Hare and the Hedgehog), plus a classic fairy-tale story, The Seven Ravens. Finally, there is some Bible-based folklore here, with the story of Eve's Unequal Children, which is about the life of Adam and Eve after they are expelled from Paradise.

Language. This is a contemporary English prose translation of the Brothers Grimm, so it should not pose any real difficulties.

Story Length. The stories in this unit are all single-page stories.

Choosing Between Units. There are four different Grimm units: the Ashliman and LibriVox units contain shorter, less familiar stories (and the LibriVox one has audio recordings), while the Crane and Hunt units contain longer, more familiar stories.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Grimm (Ashliman). Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

Additional Resources. There is a Grimm Index page for all the fables in the four Grimm units in this course, and you can use this link to see the four different Grimm units listed on a single page.

READING A:

READING B:

(The Seven Ravens, by H. Vogel)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Brothers Grimm (Crane)

Overview. There are four different Grimm units taken from four different English-language sources. This selection (from Lucy and Walter Crane's Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm) features longer stories, like the famous tales of Cinderella (called Aschenputtel in German) and Snow-White and the Seven Dwarves. There are also two other classic fairy-tale type stories: The Six Swans, the tale of a woman who is on a quest to free her brothers who have been turned into swans, and King Thrushbeard, the story of a proud princess who thinks she is too good for all the men who are seeking her hand in marriage. In the "not safe for children" category is the horrifying tale of The Robber Bridegroom, and also for grown-up audiences is the hilarious story The Fisherman and His Wife, along with the humorous tale of The Three Spinsters.

Language. This is a contemporary English prose translation of the Brothers Grimm, so it should not pose any real difficulties.

Story Length. This unit contains longer stories that are either two, three or four pages in length.

Choosing Between Units. There are four different Grimm units: the Ashliman and LibriVox units contain shorter, less familiar stories (and the LibriVox one has audio recordings), while the Crane and Hunt units contain longer, more familiar stories.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Brothers Grimm (Crane). Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

READING A:

READING B:

Myth-Folklore Unit: Brothers Grimm (Hunt)

Overview. There are four different Grimm units taken from four different English-language sources. This selection (from Margaret Hunt's Household Tales by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm) features some longer stories, including some very famous ones, such as Hansel and Grethel and the story of the two sisters Snow-White and Rose-Red. There are also other classic fairy tales like Allerleirauh, which is about a Cinderella-like heroine, and Bearskin, the marvelous tale of a man who makes a bizarre bargain with the Devil involving a bearskin and fabulous wealth. You will also find stories here about unusual heroes, like little Thumbling who, true to his name, is no bigger than your thumb, or Hans the Hedgehog, one of my favorite Grimm characters of all time: Hans is half-hedgehog and half-boy, plays the bagpipes, and is a seriously dangerous character!

Language. This is a contemporary English prose translation of the Brothers Grimm, so it should not pose any real difficulties.

Story Length. This unit consists of longer stories that are two, three or four pages in length.

Choosing Between Units. There are four different Grimm units: the Ashliman and LibriVox units contain shorter, less familiar stories (and the LibriVox one has audio recordings), while the Crane and Hunt units contain longer, more familiar stories.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Brothers Grimm (Hunt). Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

READING A:

READING B:

(Hansel and Grethel)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Grimm (LibriVox)

Overview. There are four different Grimm units taken from four different English-language sources. This selection is the one that has free audio recordings from LibriVox (Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm) for all of the stories. You will find some familiar stories here such as The Frog Prince and Rapunzel, along with Sleeping Beauty (called "Briar Rose" in this version), plus the marvelous Musicians of Bremen. There some classic fairy tales here too, such as the story of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, plus several comical tales, like the story of The Straw, The Coal, and the Bean who set out on a journey together, or The Mouse, The Bird and The Sausage who decide to set up house together as roommates. There are also animal tales featuring the trickster fox, as well as the story of the valiant willow-wrens and their tiny insect allies who fight a war against the bear and his animal army. The fox plays a role in that story too, but he is "outfoxed" by the birds and insects this time!

Language. This is a contemporary English prose translation of the Brothers Grimm, so it should not pose any real difficulties.

Story Length. This unit consists of single-page stories.

Choosing Between Units. There are four different Grimm units: the Ashliman and LibriVox units contain shorter, less familiar stories (and the LibriVox one has audio recordings), while the Crane and Hunt units contain longer, more familiar stories.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Grimm (Librivox). Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

Free audiobook available!

READING A:

READING B:

(illustration by R. Anning Bell)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Hans Christian Andersen

Overview. Hans Christian Andersen is famous as an author of literary fairy tales, and is probably Denmark's most famous author. You will encounter some familiar fairy tales in this selection from his Fairy Tales and Stories, such as "The Princess and the Pea," and also the "The Little Mermaid," a story whose plot and whose themes are about as UN-Disney as you can imagine. It's also quite a long story, full of beautiful details and background about the little mermaid, taking up half of the unit. In the other half, you will read some other, shorter Andersen fairy tales, ranging from the hilarious ("The Emperor's New Suit") to the tragic ("The Little Matchseller"). There are profoundly spiritual themes that run through Andersen's stories, as well as heartfelt drama and unforgettable characters. If your only encounter with Andersen's imaginary world has been the Disney film, you are in for a wonderful surprise with these stories!

Language. This is an English translation of Andersen's Danish tales which are highly literary in style.

Story Length. The first half of the unit consists of short stories that are just one or two pages in length, and the second half of the unit consists of Andersen's Little Mermaid.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: Andersen Fairy Tales.

Free audiobook available!

READING A:

READING B:

(Illustration by W. Heath Robinson)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Lang's European Fairy Tales I

Overview. Andrew Lang's fairy books contain literally hundreds of stories from different European countries, and using Lang's books I have created two units for this Europe module which feature countries not represented in the other reading options. The tales in this unit come from all over Europe, including Denmark, France, Greece, Romania, and more besides! Plus, there are audio recordings available for all the Lang stories, which makes these units good options for those of you who like to listen to the stories read aloud. This unit features the famous story of "Puss in Boots," based on the French version by Perrault, along with another famous French fairy tale: "The Dirty Shepherdess," which is a Cinderella-type story. There are stories of magic and mystery here, plus tales of romance and adventure, along with supernatural creatures such as dragons, trolls, and giants.

Language. Lang tells the fairy tales in modern literary prose, so it is not difficult reading.

Story Length. This unit consists of stories that are one or two pages in length.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: Lang's European Fairy Tales I.

Free audiobook available!

READING A:

READING B:

Myth-Folklore Unit: Lang's European Fairy Tales II

Overview. Andrew Lang's fairy books contain literally hundreds of stories from different European countries, and using Lang's books I have created two units for this Europe module which feature countries not represented in the other reading options. The tales in this unit come from all over Europe, including Spain and Portugal, Iceland and Lapland, Greece and Serbia, and more besides! Plus, there are audio recordings available for all the Lang stories, which makes these units good options for those of you who like to listen to the stories read aloud. This unit features the terrifying legend of "Blue Beard," based on the French version by Perrault, along with "Toads and Diamonds," also by Perrault. There are comical tales like "Peter Bull," plus stories of supernatural adventure, like "The Seven-Headed Serpent" or "Andras Baive," along with animal fables too, like the story of the little "Half-Chick."

Language. Lang tells the fairy tales in modern literary prose, so it is not difficult reading.

Story Length. The stories in this unit are one or two pages in length.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: More European Fairy Tales from Lang.

Free audiobook available!

READING A:

READING B:

Myth-Folklore Unit: Europa's Fairy Book

Overview. You may have already encountered Joseph Jacobs in some earlier units in this class (Indian Fairy Tales, English Fairy Tales, Celtic Fairy Tales), and this unit consists of stories taken from a fascinating book he wrote called Europa's Fairy Book. Here Jacobs has chosen some of the fairy tales that he saw repeated again and again in different European traditions, and he has "mixed-and-matched" the different versions to come up with a new version that does not belong to any specific country, but instead to what you might call a combined European tradition. As a result, most of these are stories you probably know in some form already — Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast, Puss in Boots, Hansel and Grethel, The Valiant Little Tailor — but each time I am sure they will feature some twists and turns that will be new to you, especially if you only know the stories from Disney.

Language. Jacobs tells the fairy tales in modern literary prose, so it is not difficult reading.

Story Length. The stories in this unit are one or two pages in length.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: Europa's Fairy Book.

READING A:

READING B:

Myth-Folklore Unit: Fables of La Fontaine

Overview. While the fables of Aesop started out as oral folklore, over the centuries many poets have retold the fables in literary verse. And, without a doubt, the most famous "Aesopic poet" would be Jean de La Fontaine, a 17th-century French poet whose brilliant, witty verse fables are now known all over the world. In this unit, you will read some of La Fontaine's fables as rendered in English verse (from Fables in Rhyme for Little Folks by W. T. Larned and Fables of La Fontaine by Elizur Wright), and I hope you will have time to read at least some of the poems out loud to appreciate the rhymes and word play which the English translators have employed to capture the charms of La Fontaine's French. Another distinctive feature of La Fontaine's fables is that, in addition to the Greek and Roman stories, he also borrowed from the storytelling traditions of India. So, you will find stories here that go back to ancient Greece and Rome, along with tales from ancient India too!

Language. This unit consists of English verse translations of La Fontaine's poetry, closely imitating La Fontaine's wonderful rhyming style.

Story Length: Aesop's fables are quite short, so there are multiple stories on each page. Two different translators are included: Larned's poems are intended for children, so they tend to be shorter, while the Wright translation consists of longer poems.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Fables of La Fontaine. Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

Additional Resources. There is an Aesop Index page for all the fables in the various Aesop units in this course, and you can use this link to see the four different Aesop units listed on a single page. If you would like to see all 600 of the fables that are part of the Greek and Roman Aesop tradition, you can find a listing at Aesopica.net.

Free audiobook available:

Larned's Fables in Rhyme

READING A:

Foolish Animals (Larned, with audio)
More Foolish Animals (Larned, with audio)
Foxes (Larned, with audio)
Birds (Larned, with audio)
Insects (Larned, with audio)
Foolish People (Larned, with audio)
Foxes and Wolves (Wright)
Horses (Wright)
Dogs (Wright)
Cats (Wright)

READING B:

Mice (Wright)
More Mice (Wright)
The Tortoise; The Bat (Wright)
Frogs (Wright)
The Swallow; The Eagle (Wright)
Man and Beast (Wright)
The Astrologer; The Dairywoman (Wright)
The God Mercury; Hercules (Wright)
Sun and Wind; Belly and Members (Wright)

(illustration by Tilney)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Italian Popular Tales

Overview. This selection of stories from the Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Crane provides a great introduction to the fabulously rich tradition of Italian folktales and fairy tales. You will find here the distinctively Italian versions of famous European fairy tales, such as Zelinda and the Monster, which is like Beauty and the Beast; The Fair Angiola, which is like Rapunzel; and The Three Goslings, which is a story like The Three Little Pigs, but with little geese whose adventures are much more satisfying (I think) than the traditional pigs-and-wolf story, and not just because the story features macaroni. In addition, you will find some marvelous stories that will be new to you, such as the weird and enchanting fairy tale of "Catherine and her Fate" or the story of the child Crivoliu, who started out his life as an accursed child but who ended up as the Pope of Rome. There's also a story about a rooster who wanted to become the Pope, but, alas, things do not turn out so well for the rooster as they do for Crivoliu!

Language. Crane tells the fairy tales in modern literary prose, so it is not difficult reading.

Story Length. These are almost all single-page stories with just a couple of stories that are two pages long.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: Italian Popular Tales.

READING A:

READING B:

Myth-Folklore Unit: Russian Folktales

Overview. Ralston calls his book of Russian Fairy Tales "a choice collection of Muscovite folklore," and I think you will enjoy the mixture of fairy tales with other forms of folklore, especially the ghost stories, vampires, and other tales of the "undead." You will even meet the days of the week as supernatural characters in these stories, along with witches and warlocks, the forest demon called "leshy," and other distinctively Russian characters. In creating this collection, Ralston worked with some of the most famous Russian fairy tale and folktale collections of the nineteenth century, and he aimed to produce translations that were as literal as possible, thus conveying the lively, oral quality of these popular folk traditions. Here is how he explains his strategy: "An 'untouched photograph is in certain cases infinitely preferable to one which has been carefully 'worked upon.' And it is, as it were, a photograph of the Russian story-teller that I have tried to produce, and not an ideal portrait." So, instead of literary refinement, be prepared for some really Russian folklore as you explore the stories here.

Language. Ralston tells the fairy tales in modern prose, although he tries to convey a sense of the original Russian style which is highly oral, without a lot of literary refinement.

Story Length. This unit consists of short stories that are just a single page long.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on two pages total: Russian Folktales. Click "Older Posts" at the bottom of that page to see the second page.

Free audiobook available!

Audio Note. The LibriVox audio files have several stories in each audio file; I've provided a link in each story to the matching audio file, and you can use this LibriVox listing to see what stories appear in each audio file.

READING A:

READING B:

(Russian peasants)

Myth-Folklore Unit: Czech Folktales

Overview. While there are several Czech folktale collections available in English, The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis is my favorite. It contains some stories which are distinctively Czech, such as the weird and wonderful story of the water demon called "Waternik" (Czech vodyanoy), but most of the storiesare Czech variations on famous European tales. So, for example, Sleepy John is a Czech version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses — except that this time there is just one dancing queen, and she goes through twelve pairs of shoes all by herself each night that she goes dancing on the "green meadows in Hell." Or, to take another example: the story of The Three Roses here is a variation on Beauty and the Beast, but this time it is the beauty's mother, not her father, who plucks the rose from the beast's garden, and the beast takes the form of a basilisk this time. I won't tell you just what it is the beauty must do to free him from the spell of enchantment, but I can tell you that it is certainly not a kiss!

Language. Baudis tells the fairy tales in modern literary prose, so it is not difficult reading.

Story Length. The stories in this unit are all single page stories, with just one two-page story.

Navigation. You will find the table of contents below, and you can also use this link to see the story posts displayed on a single page: Czech Folktales.

Free audiobook available!

READING A:

READING B:

Pages