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The Russian Grandmother's Wonder Tales (Illustrated)
by Louise Seymour Houghton
Louise Seymour Houghton
The Russian Grandmother's Wonder Tales (Illustrated)
by Louise Seymour Houghton
Louise Seymour Houghton
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Overview
The stories which the Russian grandmother told will be found, with many others, in a German collection of �Tales and Legends of South Slavonia,� put forth in Vienna some twenty years ago by Dr. Friedrich Kraus, an ardent student of folk-lore. I have sketched in a slight background of peasant village life as it still exists in some parts of Southern Russia, because this is the proper setting of these stories; and I have been careful to clothe them as nearly as I might in the simple language in which they are told to-day by many a village fireside in South Slavonia.
I frankly confess to having received from Mr. Joel Chandler Harris the suggestion which I have thus carried out. It was an [viii]unerring literary instinct which impelled him to put upon the lips of Uncle Remus and in the environment of a Southern country home of half a century ago the stories which he had found among the colored people of the South. Folk-tales, of whatever character, speak the more directly home to the hearts of children, whatever their own intellectual environment, in proportion as their setting is most nearly that which naturally belongs to them. Just as the highest value of the Homeric poems is their revelation of the heart of man, showing that in all ages and under all conditions heart answers to heart as face answers to face in water, so the folk-tales of all peoples in their native form have a higher function than simply to amuse, a higher than mere literary value; they are the child�s best introduction to the study of human nature.
The children will not be the less interested in the stories which the Russian grandmother [ix]told to the little peasant boy if they discover in her wonder-tales some analogies with stories that they already know. The adventures of Master Reinecke and Mrs. Petz, of Isegrim and Lampe, will surely remind them of the Uncle Remus tales; they will find some suggestion of Kamer-es-zaman and the Princess Budoor in the story of �The Beg and the Fox,� a hint of the �City of Brass,� in that of �The Vila in Muhlenberg,� a faint reflection of the �Arabian Nights� story of the Fisherman in the tale of the �Three Eels,� and they will be especially pleased to recognize their old friend�and Sindbad the Sailor�s�the roc, in the bird Kumrikusha. The transformations which are so enchanting a feature of the �Arabian Nights� are here suggested in the story of �Steelpacha,� while the dress of feathers, most universal of folk-fancies, found among every people in the world, and most perfectly developed in the [x]Arabian �Story of Hassan of Bassora,� here appears in the tale of �The Golden Apple-tree and the Nine Pea-hens.�
That these stories originated in that fountain-head of wonder-tales, the East, is very evident. They give more than a few suggestions of biblical story: the servant sent to announce the readiness of the feast (a courtesy of which I was myself the recipient in Syria last winter), the Delilah-like importunities by which the youngest sister lures from Steelpacha the secret of his strength, are perhaps the most striking instances.
Although this preface is not written for the children, yet as there are children who occasionally dip into prefaces, let me call the attention of such to the difference, both in style and point of view, between these stories and those which they have received from the brothers Grimm, from Hans Andersen, and from a host of later writers. All of these drew their material from the same sources [xi]as those of the Russian grandmother; but their cultivated minds have worked this material into exquisite literary forms. Not so your own nurses, or even your mothers, who told you wonder-tales before you were old enough to read. Not so the village story-tellers in far-away parts of the world, who, like the Russian grandmother, still hand down to the children the stories they received from parents and grandparents. These sometimes lose the connection; they add little local touches�sweet wine from Zagorj�, going home to Varazdin, and the like�they give to certain incidents the setting with which they are themselves familiar; most artlessly they interweave such results of modern invention and discovery as are familiar to them, with such blank ignorance of physical facts as is shown by bringing in the sun, the moon, the winds, as persons. Many of you know how beautifully George Macdonald did this sort of thing in his story �At [xii]the Back of the North Wind,� and you perfectly well perceive the difference between that story and such a tale as, for instance, �So Born, So Die,� in this book. When you are older you will recognize that it is precisely the difference between literature and folk-lore.
That many of these wonder-tales passed through Mohammedan minds on their way to the Russian grandmother, or her great-grandmother, is evident. �The Beg and the Fox� is a striking case in point; it almost seems as if the story ought,
I frankly confess to having received from Mr. Joel Chandler Harris the suggestion which I have thus carried out. It was an [viii]unerring literary instinct which impelled him to put upon the lips of Uncle Remus and in the environment of a Southern country home of half a century ago the stories which he had found among the colored people of the South. Folk-tales, of whatever character, speak the more directly home to the hearts of children, whatever their own intellectual environment, in proportion as their setting is most nearly that which naturally belongs to them. Just as the highest value of the Homeric poems is their revelation of the heart of man, showing that in all ages and under all conditions heart answers to heart as face answers to face in water, so the folk-tales of all peoples in their native form have a higher function than simply to amuse, a higher than mere literary value; they are the child�s best introduction to the study of human nature.
The children will not be the less interested in the stories which the Russian grandmother [ix]told to the little peasant boy if they discover in her wonder-tales some analogies with stories that they already know. The adventures of Master Reinecke and Mrs. Petz, of Isegrim and Lampe, will surely remind them of the Uncle Remus tales; they will find some suggestion of Kamer-es-zaman and the Princess Budoor in the story of �The Beg and the Fox,� a hint of the �City of Brass,� in that of �The Vila in Muhlenberg,� a faint reflection of the �Arabian Nights� story of the Fisherman in the tale of the �Three Eels,� and they will be especially pleased to recognize their old friend�and Sindbad the Sailor�s�the roc, in the bird Kumrikusha. The transformations which are so enchanting a feature of the �Arabian Nights� are here suggested in the story of �Steelpacha,� while the dress of feathers, most universal of folk-fancies, found among every people in the world, and most perfectly developed in the [x]Arabian �Story of Hassan of Bassora,� here appears in the tale of �The Golden Apple-tree and the Nine Pea-hens.�
That these stories originated in that fountain-head of wonder-tales, the East, is very evident. They give more than a few suggestions of biblical story: the servant sent to announce the readiness of the feast (a courtesy of which I was myself the recipient in Syria last winter), the Delilah-like importunities by which the youngest sister lures from Steelpacha the secret of his strength, are perhaps the most striking instances.
Although this preface is not written for the children, yet as there are children who occasionally dip into prefaces, let me call the attention of such to the difference, both in style and point of view, between these stories and those which they have received from the brothers Grimm, from Hans Andersen, and from a host of later writers. All of these drew their material from the same sources [xi]as those of the Russian grandmother; but their cultivated minds have worked this material into exquisite literary forms. Not so your own nurses, or even your mothers, who told you wonder-tales before you were old enough to read. Not so the village story-tellers in far-away parts of the world, who, like the Russian grandmother, still hand down to the children the stories they received from parents and grandparents. These sometimes lose the connection; they add little local touches�sweet wine from Zagorj�, going home to Varazdin, and the like�they give to certain incidents the setting with which they are themselves familiar; most artlessly they interweave such results of modern invention and discovery as are familiar to them, with such blank ignorance of physical facts as is shown by bringing in the sun, the moon, the winds, as persons. Many of you know how beautifully George Macdonald did this sort of thing in his story �At [xii]the Back of the North Wind,� and you perfectly well perceive the difference between that story and such a tale as, for instance, �So Born, So Die,� in this book. When you are older you will recognize that it is precisely the difference between literature and folk-lore.
That many of these wonder-tales passed through Mohammedan minds on their way to the Russian grandmother, or her great-grandmother, is evident. �The Beg and the Fox� is a striking case in point; it almost seems as if the story ought,
Product Details
| BN ID: | 2940149223718 |
|---|---|
| Publisher: | Lost Leaf Publications |
| Publication date: | 03/27/2014 |
| Sold by: | Barnes & Noble |
| Format: | eBook |
| File size: | 1 MB |
| Age Range: | 3 - 5 Years |
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