Fairy-Tales-MM-art - 8/10/10

"Folk Tales as insight into the Medieval Mind" by THL EllaAnne de Kari.

NOTE: See also the files: fairy-tales-msg, Tales-o-Teror-art, story-sources-msg, Chaucer-Engsh-art, M-Cult-th-Lit-art, Love-in-th-MA-art, Prester-John-msg, Robin-Hood-msg.

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NOTICE -

This article was submitted to me by the author for inclusion in this set of files, called Stefan's Florilegium. 

These files are available on the Internet at: http://www.florilegium.org

Copyright to the contents of this file remains with the author or translator.

While the author will likely give permission for this work to be reprinted in SCA type publications, please check with the author first or check for any permissions granted at the end of this file.

Thank you,
Mark S. Harris...AKA:..Stefan li Rous
stefan at florilegium.org
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 [1]

Folk Tales as Insight into the Medieval Mind
by THL EllaAnne de Kari

In February, Mistress Agnes and I are traveling to attend the Medieval Mindset RUSH in Calontir.  This will be a full day filled with classes all on the medieval mindset.  Here is a preview of my notes for the class I will teach on folk tales and the medieval mindset.  

The Beginning

My fascination with tales and the medieval period started long before I joined the SCA. About 20 years ago, in fact, when I experienced one of those medieval dream moments, out of the blue, on a cold December evening in England. 

I had been in England for a couple of years, living about an hour by train west of London. As with most Americans living in England at the time, I had many visitors from the states. That December was no different. It was Christmas Eve, and my visitors and I ventured out to the Royal Standard, (http://www.rsoe.co.uk/  ) a pub that had been serving beer for over 900 years. It was a cold, snowy night, and by 10 pm, we were the only guests in the old bar.

The old bar was lit by candles and a wood fire in the large fireplace. There were no electric lights. The proprietress and her husband came out with barley wine and champagne and settled in at our table. And, we started sharing stories and Christmas Carols in the same way people have done in that very spot for almost a thousand years. It opened a window for me into the medieval mind.

What do tales tell about the culture, people, and mindset of the storyteller and their audiences? This article includes some ideas about what folk and fairy tales are, a timeline of when tales were written down in the middle ages, using tales to gain insight.

What is a Folk Tale? A Fairy Tale?

Folk tales and fairy tales are at the juncture of myth, history, and local lore.  "The gods of ancient mythology were changed into the demi-gods and heroes of ancient poetry, these demi-gods again become, at a later age the principal characters of our nursery tales".  The myths evolved over time with the evolution of culture and language through migration. 

There are several definitions of Folk and Fairy Tales:  Some believe they are "a complex assemblage of certain norms, certain impulsions, a canvas of the moment’s tradition, which interpreters enliven with the embellishments of individual creation" [2] Others differentiate between folk and fairy tale.  

The following are characteristic of a Folk Tale [3]:

• Liner plot
• Tales that reflect the word and belief systems of their audiences
• Characters from "real life", such as husbands, wives, peasants, rascals, and the occasional doctor or priest.
• Most folk tales have a plot where one person takes another’s goods, money, or honor.  Most don’t have a happy ending.

For example, in contrast to Fairy Tales with the proverbial happy endings, the folk tales deal not with "the joys of getting married, but about the difficulties of being married." [4] Folk tales are easy to follow and easy to remember, in part because they deal with familiar aspects of the human condition. [5]

Types of folk tale

There are three basic types of folk tale:

1. Traditions handed down about famous people and events of national importance
2. Memories of local events that have been passed down, and often significantly changed in transmission. 
3. Tales that purport to be told of an actual occurrence [6] 

Fairy Tales, on the other hand deal with magic and enchantment through connecting with the people in fairyland. These fairy people have many names, but often were just called "the little people" to avoid invoking the power of saying their actual name.  The word "Fairy" comes from the Latin "fatum", meaning to enchant; through the French word "fey" or "feerie",  meaning illusion.  The origins of fairy tales include:  the gods and demi-gods of myths, myths of the earth and nature, and the myths from ancient India.

While we cannot study tales that were told, we can study those tales that were written down.  In the following timeline, you can see how the tales migrated through time and space.

Timeline of Tales

As we cannot trace the oral transmission of tales, we must work with the literary transmission.  Here is a brief timeline from Laura Kready’s  book, A Study of Fairy Tales.[7]

4000 BC 	Tales of Ancient Egypt, written on papyrus
600 BC		Homeric Legends
550 AD 	The Panchatantra, from India, Animal Tales
10th Century	Panchatantra – Arabic version
10th Century 	Reynard the Fox in Latin 
1000 AD	The King Book of Persia by Ferdousee
11th Century 	Panchatantra – Greek version
1148 		Ysengrimus poem about the Fox, Ghent
1180 		Reinhart – 12 tales in German
12th Century 	Panchatantra – Persian version
1200 AD	Sanskrit Tales
1230		Roman de Renard, 27 tales in French
1250		Reinaert, composed near Ghent
13th Century	The Book of Sinbad (Hebrew, Arabic, Persian versions)
13th Century 	Of the Vox and the Wolf (Reynard tales), English Poem
1326		The Gesta Romanorum – Latin tales of morality
1481 		Reynard the Fox, England
1485		Historie von Reynaert de Vos, Dutch
1548		The Thousand and One Arabian Nights
1550		Straparola’s Nights – 21 stories from the lips of 10 women

The Reynard Tale addresses the basic struggle for existence, which was characteristic of Feudal life. In the tale, cunning opposes force and triumphs over it.  The adventurous hero is appealing because of his ability to adapt himself to circumstances and to master them.

Using Tales to Gain Insight

In this way, folk tales from a particular time and place, can again be a lens for us to look back and try to understand the perspectives of this people who knew, told, and listened to these stories. 

Some Guidelines for Using Folk Tales to Interpret the Past

• Understand the type of evidence (written, oral, archaeological)
• Understand the history, cultural and religious beliefs
• Use reliable folklore.
• Understand the local contexts.

"We must, learn the details of the conditions in which their lives are led, and come to know the countryside in all its aspects, and in all its moods, winter and summer, night and day. 

We must pay careful attention even to material things, if we are to appreciate how the countryman's knowledge enables him to make good use of natural productions for making his tools, buildings, foods, and medicines" [8]

Even if we have a strong understanding of the history and culture of a place and time, the tales we have, have been filtered by every storyteller that has touched the tale.

 [9]

This is what I see as one of the most difficult issues in using folk tales to help understand the medieval mind.  Separating the myth or original story from the local interpretations of the story, which might give us clues into the medieval mind. 

It is through the storyteller’s interpretations that we might be able to see into the teller’s mind. The interpretations add a layer that consists not only of the editor’s language skills, but also of their knowledge, beliefs, culture, and historical time-period. 

For example:  We have all heard that the Victorian age romanticized much of the history of daily life in the medieval ages, part of that interpretation was done by taking out the dirty, ugly, painful, and immoral bits to meet the moral expectations of Victorian society. [10]  Does the interpretation tell us more about the original sources/culture of the tale or more about Victorian morals and society?

Two Example Tales

I will give examples of the first two types of folk tales here – tales that are traditions of famous people and events and tales that are memories of local event that change over the years.  



A traditional Tale from the Fens

The fens were a wide expanse of marshland in Eastern England.  Several centuries ago, they were drained and are now agricultural flatlands.  During the middle ages, the Fens were considered by some a scary and dangerous place.  Travelers not familiar with the marshes often become lost and stories were told of worse fates than wandering lost.  The Fen folk were considered somewhat queer, insular, and protective of their own.  Camping one year in the modern era in East Anglia, I had the opportunity to learn first hand some tales of "those" folk who were native to the area.  Famous medieval towns in this area of England include Cambridge and Bury St. Edmonds, and Ely.

 [11]
The Fens

In this tale from the Fens, a man from the Fens, "an outlaw" befriends King Canute, which aids him in exacting revenge on the local monastery for injustices to his family. 

How Littleport Began 

One day while traveling in the northeastern part of the Kingdom, the King decided he wanted some time alone to fish.  He arranged for a boat and left all his men camped on a low hill and entered the Fens marshland. He appeared to be a common man.  Appearances, however can be deceiving.  His crown was securely placed in the bottom of the boat, and his men were on watch for any signal of trouble.  

Suddenly, as often happens in the Fens, the weather shifted from bright warm sunshine to grey fog.  In addition, the tides shifted and Canute felt the boat being drawn out to sea.  He took shelter from the tides by going up a small creek and found refuge in the tiny hut of a Fenman called Legres. 

Legres, was dirt poor, but there was a warm fire, and he offered the stranger ale, food, and a dry place to sleep.  In the course of the night, the stranger heard the tale of Legres' wrongs. Legres told of his wife being carried off and raped by the monks at the Grange. He told of being flogged when he attempted to rescue her, and of having the vicious dogs set on them as they made their escape.  He told of how his wife died the next year, giving birth to a son.

That was 18 years ago, he told the stranger, and every year on the boy’s birthday Legres said he killed a monk and cut a notch on his dagger.  Legres explained that this night the boy was out tending to the animals.

When they settled down for the night, the King found the fleas were so vicious that he could not sleep.  As soon as the rain and wind quieted, the king quietly left the hut and wrapped his cloak close around himself, and settled into the bottom of his boat to fall asleep. 

The sun rose early the next morning and the bright rays warmed and woke the king.  He heard splashes and peered over the edge of his boat to see a beautiful girl who came down to the water to bathe.  After she bathed, she covered herself with mud and put on boy's clothes and went up to the hut, not knowing she had been seen.  Canute realized that she was Legres' son.  

Later that morning, Canute helps Legres exact revenge on the monks at the Grange.  He signaled to his men by flashing his crown and they attacked the Grange and killed a number of the dissolute monks. The rest were set to digging and building, and a little town was founded, with a brewery and a mill, a port and an inn, and by the Kings decree, Legres was in charge of the whole town.

The End

There are several potential perspectives into the medieval mindset in this tale.  For example, the value of simple comforts on a cold rainy night, and the desire to have an omnipotent authority on earth that will protect the common man from oppression.  Briggs claimed this mindset can be found in many tales and ballads and is characteristic of the peasants' risings in medieval times." [12]

There is also the mindset that fate may suddenly intervene and all life’s basic needs, and more, would be met.

 [13]

Memories of Local Events 

The second type of tale is one that has been told and re-told through the centuries, localized to specific time and places. By comparing these tales, we might glean some insight into the beliefs and cultural attitudes of a specific time. The example of this type of tale, here, is the Fatal Hair-Do. The first version of the Fatal Hairdo is from the Speculum Laicorum, a late thirteenth-century collection of English exempla. Exempla are anecdotes that illustrate a moral point, often used in medieval sermons.

 [14]

The Fatal Hairdo 

A lady in Oxfordshire took so long over the adornment of her hair that she never arrived at church until just before the end of Mass. Everyone noticed her entrance; she was beautiful, walking tall and proud, with her mass of golden curls. Every Sunday it was the same, until one Sunday. That day, the devil descended upon her head in the form of a spider, gripping her hair with its legs. She was beside herself with fright, but could find no way to remove the spider. Neither prayer, nor exorcism, nor holy water, worked. Finally, the local abbot displayed the holy sacrament before the spider and she is saved.

A slightly different version can be found in Robert of Brunne’s Handlyng Synne from 1308 [15]. In this version, the woman was extremely proud of her hair and headdresses. After she died, she appeared to her husband’s squire to warn them against the sin of vanity and pride.

A final medieval version has the woman coming back from the dead, tormented by toads and scorpions on her head.  Toads, scorpions, and fire were associated with the devil and hell. [16]

While these tales are about the sins of vanity and pride, the first exempla, shows the potential for redemption when the Abbot saves the woman just in the nick of time. In the next two exempla, there is the medieval notion that torture and punishment after death relate to the sin committed in life; for example, the torture for a sin of vanity of one’s head/hair would focus on the person’s head.  This is a common theme in medieval folk tales and may offer some insight into the medieval mind about sin and punishment.

There are several modern versions, most associated with massive teased hairdos.  One version was of a young girl, who spent hours teasing her hair, and applying hair spray.  She stopped needing to wash her hair because it was so lacquered. Eventually, spiders and bugs took up residence and their bites and stings caused her painful death. 

In another version, the girl becomes mysteriously ill at school and a fellow student sees blood running down the girls neck.  Despite being rushed to the hospital, she dies, purportedly from wasp stings.

In conclusion, these tales of the fatal hairdo show the shift from the medieval beliefs that God was central to all actions in life and death to modern notions of the importance of cleanliness. 

Be sure to check out Current Urban Legends (http://urbanlegends.about.com/od/horrors/a/fatal_hairdo.htm ) if you are interested in more modern versions on this topic!

Footnotes

[1] English Fairy Tales and Legends. London: The National Trust, 2008.
[2] Walter. P. Myth and Text in the Middle Ages:  Folklore as a Literary "Source." Ali Nematollahy , Translator.  In Francescaa Canade Sautman, Diana Conchado, and Guiseppe Carlo, G. (Eds.). Telling Tales:  Medieval Narratives and the Folk Tradition. New York: St Martin Press. 1998.
[3] Bottigheimer, Ruth.  Fairy Tales: A New History.  Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2009.
[4] Ibid, Bottigheimer, 2009.
[5] Ibid.
[6] Briggs, K. M. Historical Traditions in English Folk-Tales. Folklore, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Winter, 1964), p 225
[7] Kready, Laura.  A Study of Fairy Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916.
[8] Sayce, R. U., Folk-Lore, Folk-Life, Ethnology. Folklore, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Jun., 1956), page 74.
[9] Wikimedia Commons. This media file is in the public domain in the United States.
[10]  Ibid, page 352.
[11] Wikimedia Commons. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0. Title: RSPB Strumpshaw Fen Norfolk Brick Hide view.jpg, Posted by LittleHow.
[12] Briggs, K. M. Historical Traditions in English Folk-Tales. Folklore, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Winter, 1964), Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd, pgs 228-229.
[13] King Canute. This image is in the public domain. 
[14] From Wikimedia Commons. This picture is in the public domain in the United States.
[15] Reference: Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, ed. Frederick J. Furnival. EETS 1 (19) London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.,1901), pp. 113-116, from Marchalonis, Shirley. Three Medieval Tales and Their Modern American Analogues. Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1976), pp. 173-184.
[16]  Ibid, Marchalonis.
------
Copyright 2009, 2010 by Paula Brobst, PO Box 509, LaPorte, CO 80535. <ellaanne at gmail.com>. Permission is granted for republication in SCA-related publications, provided the author is credited.  Addresses change, but a reasonable attempt should be made to ensure that the author is notified of the publication and if possible receives a copy.

If this article is reprinted in a publication, I would appreciate a notice in the publication that you found this article in the Florilegium. I would also appreciate an email to myself, so that I can track which articles are being reprinted. Thanks. -Stefan.

<the end>
1 English Fairy Tales and Legends. London: The National Trust, 2008.
2 Walter. P. Myth and Text in the Middle Ages:  Folklore as a Literary "Source." Ali Nematollahy , Translator.  In Francescaa Canade Sautman, Diana Conchado, and Guiseppe Carlo, G. (Eds.). Telling Tales:  Medieval Narratives and the Folk Tradition. New York: St Martin Press. 1998
3 Bottigheimer, Ruth.  Fairy Tales: A New History.  Albany, NY: State University of New York Press, 2009.
4 Ibid, Bottigheimer, 2009..
5  Ibid.
6 Briggs, K. M. Historical Traditions in English Folk-Tales. Folklore, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Winter, 1964),, p 225
7 Kready, Laura.  A Study of Fairy Tales. Boston: Houghton Mifflin, 1916.
8 Sayce, R. U., Folk-Lore, Folk-Life, Ethnology. Folklore, Vol. 67, No. 2 (Jun., 1956), page 74
9  Wikimedia Commons. This media file is in the public domain in the United States.
10 Ibid, page 352.
11  Wikimedia Commons. Permission is granted to copy, distribute and/or modify this document under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution Sharealike 3.0. Title: RSPB Strumpshaw Fen Norfolk Brick Hide view.jpg, Posted by LittleHow.
12 Briggs, K. M. Historical Traditions in English Folk-Tales. Folklore, Vol. 75, No. 4 (Winter, 1964), Taylor & Francis, Ltd. on behalf of Folklore Enterprises, Ltd, pgs 228-229
13  King Canute. This image is in the public domain.
14  From Wikimedia Commons. This picture is in the public domain in the United States.
15 Reference: Robert of Brunne, Handlyng Synne, ed. Frederick J. Furnival. EETS 1 (19) London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trubner & Co.,1901), pp. 113-116, from Marchalonis, Shirley. Three Medieval Tales and Their Modern American Analogues. Journal of the Folklore Institute, Vol. 13, No. 2 (1976), pp. 173-184
16 Ibid, Marchalonis
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Edited by Mark S. Harris	Folk-Tales-MM-art	3 of 10