On fairy tales

My Christmas present to myself came (a bit earlier than expected): Folio Society published the last two of Lang's Fairy Books (Orange and Grey), and since I had the rest of the set, and since I like occasionally being able to dip into these, I ordered them.

They came, in the typical big box swathed in the British Mail tyvek bag. Inside was one of the "new" Folio boxes (printed with the titles of books having something to do with mail, post, delight, or books). And then, my books.

I read a few stories from them last night- "Donkey-Skin" (which I KNOW I have read before, and I seem to remember having read in an illustrated book as a child - I remember the picture of the young girl wearing a hood with the donkey ears on it). And a couple of stories where the "Draken" get outwitted. (I am not sure what a draken is. In the illustrations for the book they are shown as looking something like the depictions of the devil. Perhaps they are something like the Belsnickels that follow St. Nicolas. Wikipedia claims "draken" is another term for "dragon," but these are apparently more humanoid creatures). And one called "Queen of the Flowery Isles."

I also read part of the introduction to the Grey Fairy Book (I was mainly interested in seeing some discussion of the sources Lang used). One thing Kate Bernheimer (the author who wrote the introduction to this edition) noted was that Lang eliminated things he found "inappropriate" (i.e., of a sexual or morals-related-to-sexual-behavior nature - she gave the example of his excision of Rapunzel's premarital pregnancy, which apparently exists in some forms of that story), but that he left most of the violence and "brutality" in.

And yes, the Fairy Book versions of stories are definitely not Disney versions. And I confess, I prefer the Fairy Book versions. Even though I lean more towards the pacifist than the bloodthirsty side of things, the violence in the books doesn't bother me the way violence on something like "Criminal Minds" or hearing about some deranged person who decides to start shooting other people does.

I think that's because the brutality is part of the world of the stories. And generally, people who choose to use it are punished in some way. Oh, there are cases of the heroes or heroines chopping heads off of beasts or even evil kings, but usually it is implied that self-defense (or defense of another, weaker, individual. Or defense of their homeland) is the reason.

Also, another theme that could be considered disturbing to those wishing to protect the delicate constitutions of children, is that the "good" characters often suffer quite a bit. The Queen of the Flowery Isles story involves a beautiful young girl being sent to what amounts to solitary confinement in another world - now, it's a pretty nice other world, with an orchard of fruit trees and a fountain and a cave full of sparkling gemstones for her to sleep in - but she's alone. And she's sent there, mostly, because the High Queen over all the islands is jealous that the princess is more beautiful than she. And there are characters who are enchanted and take on a different form in which no one recognizes them. Or they're captives of an ogre.

But, and here's the reason why the fairy stories tend to seem a fundamentally hopeful style of literature to me: the character is eventually released from his or her suffering, and in many cases they get their truest desire, they get their dreams fulfilled. (The girl from the Flowery Isles is returned home to her kingdom, and although her mother has died in the interim, her sister is delighted to see her. And it turns out the little dog who stuck by the girl during her captivity was actually a kind prince also under an enchantment, and he finds her, and they live happily ever after...)

One of the reasons I like fairy tales, and liked them as a kid, is that they follow certain rules. The cruel, the greedy, the evil are punished in the end. The good, kind, honest, and hardworking are rewarded. Suffering is generally not in vain. And while death happens, often the parents of the good kind protagonists are described as dying peacefully after a long, good life. In other words, it portrays a world that seems to me more just than our actual world. (Too often in this world, it seems to me, the cruel do not see the consequences of their actions, and the fact that "no good deed goes unpunished" is a saying tells me this world is less just than it could be)

Another thing about some fairy tales that I like, and that made a huge impression on me as a child, is the concept of "entertaining angels unawares" - the idea that some little kind thing you do for someone (or something, sometimes it's an animal) who doesn't seem like they can pay you back, it comes back to you in an amazing way. I've already talked about  the one I know as Diamonds and Pearls (it seems more commonly to be known as Toads and Diamonds), where the kind girl helps the old lady to get a drink of water, and the lady, a powerful fairy in disguise, rewards her by making diamonds and pearls fall from her mouth, and the nasty daughter who was rude to the "princess" (also the same fairy) winds up with toads and slugs falling out of her mouth. And of course that's obviously a figurative thing (kind people will generally say kind words, rude people will say mean things), but it struck me so much as a child. And as a result, I tried to be nice and helpful to people, especially those, as I said, that seemed unable to pay me back. (I guess, in their own way, fairy tales are sort of secular parables....they carry lessons for life under the guise of a story)

I also realize now, so many of those themes are so universal - that the good will be rewarded and cruelty punished, and that people who are honest and clever (in a lot of cases, people get themselves out of bad situations by use of their cleverness in tricking the ogre or draken or whatever) land on their feet, that true love is a possibility even though there seem to be obstacles to it - so many cultures had those themes in their stories. The overwhelming idea, the longing for a more just world, seems to be pretty universal.

I also finished Harry Potter and the Goblet of Fire, which in its own way is part of a fairy-tale cycle. (I had to put the book aside for a while. Because Cedric Diggory). The first books in the series are largely wish-fulfillment fantasies. First of all, the wish of "What if my real family was cooler/famous/royalty/nicer/whatever?" Even kids in happy families think that. (I remember as a child, fantasizing what it would be like to turn out to be some kind of royalty-in-disguise, maybe spirited away from my homeland and adopted into an ordinary family for my own protection). And then, the wish of "What if I'm really really good at something, and I just don't know it yet?" (And I confess, as an adult, I still kind of have that fantasy. I know it's totally unrealistic but I keep hoping that some day I will put my hand to something for the first time, and like Harry playing Quidditch for the first time, be a complete marvel at it.)

The later books are turning darker; they are going from more simple wish-fulfillment to the beginnings (at least in Book 4) of the realization that there's going to be a battle between good and evil, and good must win. And another adult theme that comes up: you can't always trust other people. (And I admit, that's an "adult theme" I always find unsettling to run across in books; maybe it's not so blatant as Mad-Eye Moody actually not being Mad-Eye Moody, but the idea that someone you thought you trusted not being who you thought they were - I find that one of the most upsetting lessons to learn in life.)