(Abrahams, p. 299.)
6. Two Sisters and the Boa
A careless joke with a non-human creature results in a scary mistake (see ‘The Midwife and the Frog’, p. 322). The tale is otherwise of the Beauty and the Beast type. The point that the wicked sister always seems to miss is that the reward lies not in emulating her sister’s actions, but in her generosity of spirit. (Source unknown.)
7. Spreading the Fingers
A moral tale from Suriname, reminiscent of an oral Islamic tale in which a pauper shares out the food quota allocated him for his entire life and ensures that he never goes hungry. But his game is with God, who is a willing player in it.
(Heskovits and Heskovits, p. 355.)
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR PARTS 1 – 7
Permission to reproduce these fairy tales is gratefully acknowledged to the following: Capra Press, Santa Barbara, CA, USA, for ‘Sermessuaq’, ‘Kakuarshuk’, ‘Blubber Boy’, ‘The Woman Who Married Her Son’s Wife’, ‘Tuglik and Her Granddaughter’, ‘Old Age’ and ‘The Two Women Who Found Freedom’ from A Kayak Full of Ghosts: Innuit Tales ‘Gathered and Retold’ by Lawrence Millman, copyright © 1987; Angela Carter, translator of The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault, for ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, copyright © 1977, published by Victor Gollancz Ltd.; Columbia University Press for ‘Mr Fox’, ‘Aunt Kate’s Goomer-Dust’ and ‘The Good Girl and the Ornery Girl’ from The Devil’s Pretty Daughter and Other Ozark Folk Tales, collected by Vance Randolph, copyright © 1955; Constable Publishers for ‘Mrs Number Three’ from Chinese Ghouls and Goblins by G. Willoughby-Meade, copyright © 1924; Harvard University Press, Cambridge, MA, for ‘Young Man in the Morning’, ‘The Boy Who Had Never Seen Women’ and ‘The Cat-Witch’ from Negro Folktales in Michigan, collected and edited by Richard M. Dorson, copyright © 1956 by the President and Fellows of Harvard College, 1980 by Richard M. Dorson; Indiana University Press for ‘The Furburger’ from Jokelore: Humorous Folktales from Indiana, edited by Ronald L. Baker, copyright © 1986; the International African Institute for ‘Keep Your Secrets’ and ‘The Wicked Stepmother’ from Tales Told in Togoland, edited by A. W. Cardinall, copyright © 1931, published by Oxford University Press for the International African Institute; Jan Knappert, translator and collector of Myths and Legends of the Swahili, for ‘The Hare’, ‘The Pupil’ and ‘Tongue Meat’, copyright © 1970, published by William Heinemann Ltd.; The Mercier Press for ‘Feet Water’ from Folktales from the Irish Countryside by Kevin Danaher, copyright © 1967; Oxford University Press for: ‘The Search for Luck’ and ‘The Three Measures of Salt’ from Modern Greek Folktales, chosen and translated by R. M. Dawkins, copyright © 1953, ‘The Promise’ from Burmese Law Tales by Maung Htin Aung, copyright © 1962, and ‘The Fisher-Girl and the Crab’ and ‘The Resourceful Wife’ from Folk-Tales of Mahakoshal by Verrier Elwin, copyright © 1944; Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., and Penguin Books Ltd. for ‘The Little Red Fish and the Clog of Gold’ and ‘The Woodcutter’s Wealthy Sister’ from Arab Folktales, edited and translated by Inea Bushnaq, copyright © 1986, and Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc., for ‘Escaping Slowly’ from Afro-American Folktales: Stories from Black Traditions in the New World, edited by Roger D. Abrahams, copyright © 1985, and ‘The Wise Little Girl’, ‘Vasilisa the Priest’s Daughter’, ‘The Armless Maiden’, and ‘How a Husband Weaned His Wife from Fairy Tales’ from Russian Fairy Tales, edited and translated by Norbert Guterman, copyright © 1945 by Pantheon Books, Inc., and renewed 1973 by Random House, Inc.; Routledge Ltd. for ‘Beauty and Pock Face’ from Chinese Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, collected and translated by Wolfram Eberhard, copyright © 1937; A. P. Watt for ‘The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle’ from A Sampler of British Folktales by Katharine M. Briggs, copyright © Katherine Law 1977; Wayne State University Press for ‘Nature’s Ways’ and ‘Nourie Hadig’ from 100 Armenian Tales, collected and edited by Susie Hoogasian-Villa, copyright © 1966; Jack Zipes, translator and introducer of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, for ‘Clever Gretel’ and ‘The Juniper Tree’, copyright © 1987, published by Bantam Books Inc., and for an extensive quote from his French version of ‘Little Red Riding Hood’, used in the editor’s notes, from The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Riding Hood: Versions of the Tale in Socio-Cultural Context, copyright © 1983, published by Bergin and Garvey Publishers Inc., USA, and William Heinemann Ltd., Great Britain.
Every effort has been made to trace copyright holders in all copyright material in this book. The editor regrets if there has been any oversight and suggests the publisher be contacted in any such event.
ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS FOR PARTS 8 – 13
Permission to reproduce these fairy tales is gratefully acknowledged to the following: Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc. for ‘The Old Woman Against the Stream’ from Norwegian Folktales by Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe and ‘A Fable of a Bird and Her Chicks’ from Yiddish Folktales by Beatrice Silverman Weinreich; Constable Publishers for ‘The Werefox’ and ‘The Mirror’ from Chinese Ghouls and Goblins by G. Willoughby-Mead, copyright © 1924; The American Folklore Society for ‘Old Foster’, from Journal of American Folklore XXXVIII (1925) and ‘The Untrue Wife’s Song’ from Journal of American Folklore XLVII (1934); The University Press of Kentucky for ‘The Telltale Lilac Bush’ from The Telltale Lilac Bush and Other West Virginian Ghost Tales by Ruth Ann Musick, copyright © 1965; University of Chicago Press for ‘Pretty Maid Ibronka’, ‘The Witches’ Piper’, ‘The Midwife and the Frog’ and ‘A Stroke of Luck’ from Folktales of Hungary by Linda Degh © 1965 by University of Chicago; ‘The Greenish Bird’ from Folktales of Mexico by Americo Paredes © 1970 by University of Chicago; ‘Reason to Beat your Wife’ from Folktales of Egypt by Hasan M. El-Shamy © 1980 by University of Chicago; ‘The Witchball’, ‘Father and Mother Both “Fast”’ and ‘The Beans in the Quart Jar’ from Buying the Wind: Regional Folklore in the United States by Richard M. Dorson © 1964 by University of Chicago; Jonathan Cape and Basic Books for ‘The Height of Purple Passion’ from The Rationale of Dirty Jokes; Stanford University Press for ‘The Three Lovers’; Columbia University Press, New York, for ‘The Sleeping Prince’, ‘The Letter Trick’ and ‘Spreading the Fingers’ from Suriname Folklore, by Melville J. Herskovits and Frances S. Herskovits, © 1936 and C. W. Daniel Company for ‘Vasilissa the Fair’, ‘Enchanter and Enchantress’, ‘The Little Old Woman with Five Cows’, ‘Story of a Bird Woman’, ‘The Crafty Woman’, ‘The Dog’s Snout People’ from Siberian and Other Folktales: Primitive Literature of the Empire of the Tsars, collected and translated by C. Fillingham-Coxwell © 1925; University of California Press for ‘Šāhīn’, ‘Tunjur, Tunjur’, ‘The Woman Who Married Her Son’ and ‘The Seven Leavenings’ from Speak Bird, Speak Again: Palestinian Arab Folktales, collected and edited by Ibrahim Muhawi and Sharif Kanaana, copyright © 1988 The Regents of the University of California; Oxford University Press for ‘The Frog Maiden’ from Burmese Folktales by Maung Htin Aung, Calcutta, 1948; Holmes and Meier publishers for ‘Diirawic and Her Incestuous Brother’, ‘Achol and Her Wild Mother’, ‘Achol and Her Adoptive Lioness-Mother’, ‘Duang and His Wild Wife’ from Dinka Folktales: African Stories from the Sudan by Francis Mading Deng (New York, Africana Publishing Company, a division of Holmes & Meier, 1974), copyright © 1974 by Francis Mading Deng; Pantheon Books, a division of Random House, Inc. for ‘Salt, Sauce and Spice, Onion Leaves, Pepper and Drippings’ and ‘Tale of an Old Woman’, from African Folktales by Roger D. Abrahams, copyright © 1983 Roger D. Abrahams; Popular Publications for ‘The Orphan’ from Tales of Old Malawi, edited by E. Singano & A.A. Roscoe, 1977, 1986.
Every effort has been made to trace the copyright holders in all copyright material in this book. The publisher regrets if there has been any oversight and suggests that Virago be contacted in any such event.
Table of Contents
Title
Copyright
Publisher’s Not
e
Contents
Introduction
Sermerssuaq
1. Brave, Bold and Wilful
The Search for Luck
Mr Fox
Kakuarshuk
The Promise
Kate Crackernuts
The Fisher-Girl and the Crab
2. Clever Women, Resourceful Girls and Desperate Stratagems
Maol a Chliobain
The Wise Little Girl
Blubber Boy
The Girl Who Stayed in the Fork of a Tree
The Princess in the Suit of Leather
The Hare
Mossycoat
Vasilisa the Priest’s Daughter
The Pupil
Keep Your Secrets
The Three Measures of Salt
The Resourceful Wife
Aunt Kate’s Goomer-Dust
The Battle of the Birds
Parsley-girl
Clever Gretel
The Furburger
3. Sillies
A Pottle o’ Brains
Young Man in the Morning
Now I Should Laugh, If I Were Not Dead
The Three Sillies
The Boy Who Had Never Seen Women
The Old Woman Who Lived in a Vinegar Bottle
Tom Tit Tot
The Husband Who Was to Mind the House
4. Good Girls and Where it Gets them
East o’ the Sun and West o’ the Moon
The Good Girl and the Ornery Girl
The Armless Maiden
5. Witches
The Chinese Princess
The Cat-Witch
The Baba Yaga
Mrs Number Three
6. Unhappy Families
The Girl Who Banished Seven Youths
The Market of the Dead
The Woman Who Married Her Son’s Wife
The Little Red Fish and the Clog of Gold
The Wicked Stepmother
Tuglik and Her Granddaughter
The Juniper Tree
Nourie Hadig
Beauty and Pock Face
Old Age
7. Moral Tales
Little Red Riding Hood
Feet Water
Wives Cure Boastfulness
Tongue Meat
The Woodcutter’s Wealthy Sister
Escaping Slowly
Nature’s Ways
The Two Women Who Found Freedom
How a Husband Weaned His Wife from Fairy Tales
8. Strong Minds and Low Cunning
The Twelve Wild Ducks
Old Foster
Šāhīn
The Dog’s Snout People
The Old Woman Against the Stream
The Letter Trick
Rolando and Brunilde
The Greenish Bird
The Crafty Woman
9. Up to Something – Black Arts and Dirty Tricks
Pretty Maid Ibronka
Enchanter and Enchantress
The Telltale Lilac Bush
Tatterhood
The Witchball
The Werefox
The Witches’ Piper
Vasilissa the Fair
The Midwife and the Frog
10. Beautiful People
Fair, Brown and Trembling
Diirawic and Her Incestuous Brother
The Mirror
The Frog Maiden
The Orphan
11. Mothers and Daughters
Achol and Her Wild Mother
Tunjur, Tunjur
The Little Old Woman with Five Cows
Achol and Her Adoptive Lioness-Mother
12. Married Women
Story of a Bird Woman
Father and Mother Both ‘Fast’
Reason to Beat Your Wife
The Three Lovers
The Seven Leavenings
The Untrue Wife’s Song
The Woman Who Married Her Son
Duang and His Wild Wife
A Stroke of Luck
The Beans in the Quart Jar
13. Useful Stories
A Fable of a Bird and Her Chicks
The Three Aunts
Tale of an Old Woman
The Height of Purple Passion
Salt, Sauce and Spice, Onion Leaves, Pepper and Drippings
Two Sisters and the Boa
Spreading the Fingers
Afterword by Marina Warner
Notes on Parts 1–7 by Angela Carter
Notes on Parts 8–13 by Angela Carter and Shahrukh Husain
Acknowledgements For Parts 1–7
Acknowledgements For Parts 8–13