#WingedWordsWindsday: 2023/01/11 -- The Enchanted World of Classic Tales

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 2, No. 11: January 11, 2023

 

 

Fireside Faery Tales for Long Winter Nights

 

 

“The Faery Book”

By Abbie Farwell Brown (1871-1927)

 

When Mother takes the Faery Book

And we curl up to hear,

'Tis "All aboard for Faeryland!"

Which seems to be so near.

 

For soon we reach the pleasant place

Of Once Upon a Time,

Where birdies sing the hour of day,

And flowers talk in rhyme;

 

Where Bobby is a velvet Prince,

And where I am a Queen;

Where one can talk with animals,

And walk about unseen;

 

Where Little People live in nuts,

And ride on butterflies,

And wonders kindly come to pass

Before your very eyes;

 

Where candy grows on every bush,

And playthings on the trees,

And visitors pick basketfuls

As often as they please.

 

It is the nicest time of day –

Though Bedtime is so near, --

When Mother takes the Faery Book

And we curl up to hear.

 

 

“Enter the Enchanted World of Classic Stories”

By Rob Chappell, M.A., Assistant to the Honors Dean

Adapted & Expanded from Cursus Honorum VII: 6 (January 2007)

                Long before the advent of television, radio, movies, and the Internet, storytelling provided our agrarian forebears with endless hours of edutainment. The myths, legends, and folktales transmitted by storytellers and collected by scholars demonstrate how our ancestors viewed their relationship with the natural world and with the invisible powers that were believed to dwell within and beyond it.

                Our pre-industrial ancestors’ worldview was built upon the foundation of shared stories that defined the nature of their common life together. Classic tales were handed down from one generation to the next because they conveyed important life lessons in engaging and memorable ways. Adults who spent their earliest years listening to spellbinding tales being recited from memory or read aloud from a storybook passed on their favorite stories to their children – along with the values and lessons that the stories contained.

                The following anthologies of classic tales, available in several printed editions and on the Internet, can provide us with the keys to an enchanted realm where the magic of the storyteller’s art can enthrall us for hours on end in the theater of the mind!

 

·     The Fables of Aesop (ca. 620-564 BCE) are world-renowned for the wise and witty ways in which their anthropomorphic animal characters portray timeless lessons about the human condition and how to live out those lessons in everyday life. Aesop himself had been born into enslavement in ancient Greece but won his freedom and went on to become the most famous storyteller of Classical antiquity. Over 300 fables are attributed to him, and his tales are still read and enjoyed by audiences of all ages around the world.

·         The Panchatantra, compiled by the Indian sage Vishnu Sharma (fl. ca. 200 BCE), is a vast collection of traditional animal tales from ancient India. It was designed to educate young royals on the principles of ethical leadership, and over the past two millennia, it has become the most translated literary work from the Indian subcontinent. The perennially popular tales of the Panchatantra have had an enduring impact on literary traditions throughout the world!

·         The Arabian Nights, collected over a timespan of several centuries, beginning at the royal court of the learned Caliph Harun Al-Rashid (763-809) in Baghdad, include such rollicking adventures as Aladdin, Sindbad the Sailor, Ali Baba, and many others. Although these 1001 tales were compiled in the Arabic language, they have a truly international flavor, having originated in such diverse places as China, India, Persia, the Arabian Peninsula, and Egypt.

·         The Shahnameh, an epic poem composed by the master poet Ferdowsi (940-1025 CE), is a versified chronicle of the Persian kings from prehistory to the 7^th century CE. Mixing elements of history and legend, it is THE national epic of the Persian people and a masterpiece of world literature. Filled with heroic kings, fantastic beasts, and amazing adventures, the book is available in both condensed and unabridged formats, and it remains an enduring monument to the great civilization of ancient Persia that its author cherished and preserved within its pages.

·         The Grimms’ Fairy Tales, collected by the scholarly German brothers Jakob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) Grimm, showcase the traditional household tales of the German-speaking peoples of Central Europe. Many of our most familiar children’s stories (e.g., The Frog Prince, Rapunzel, etc.) first found their way into print through the Grimms’ anthology. However, the original tales are far more colorful than the versions adapted for today’s children!

·         Bulfinch’s Mythology, compiled by Thomas Bulfinch, a Bostonian classicist (1796-1867), is a comprehensive anthology of timeless tales from ancient and medieval Europe. His monumental compendium is sometimes divided into three separate volumes: The Age of Fable (Volume I: ancient Greek, Roman, and Germanic myths and legends); The Age of Chivalry (Volume II: Arthurian legends and medieval Celtic tales); and Legends of Charlemagne (Volume III: Renaissance narratives of medieval French romances). Each of Bulfinch’s lively retellings is drawn from authentic original source material.

·         Hans Christian Andersen’s Fairy Tales is the Editor’s favorite collection of classic stories. Andersen (1805-1875) created marvelous tales from his own imagination that conveyed his profound insights into the human condition. All of Andersen’s stories are worthwhile reading, both those that are well known (e.g., The Ugly Duckling) and those that are more obscure (e.g., The Snow Queen).

 

In this illustration from a Persian manuscript of the 17^th or 18^th century CE, a simurgh (Persian phoenix bird) hovers over a princess. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)

 

 

“Elfin”

Madison Julius Cawein (1865-1914)

 

I. When wildflower blue and wildflower white

The wildflowers lay their heads together,

And the moon-moth glimmers along the night,

And the wandering firefly flares its light,

And the full Moon rises broad and bright,

Then, then it is elfin weather.

 

II. And fern and flower on top of the hill

Are a faery wood where the faeries camp;

And there, to the pipe of the cricket shrill,

And the owl's bassoon or the whippoorwill,

They whirl their wildest and trip their fill

By the light of the glowworm's lamp.

 

III. And the green tree-toad and the katydid

Are the henchmen set to guard their dance;

At whose cry they creep 'neath the dewy lid

Of a violet's eye, or close lie hid

In a bluebell's ear, if a mortal 'mid

The moonlit woods should chance.

 

IV. And the forest-fly with its gossamer wings,

And filmy body of rainbow dye,

Is the ouphen steed each elfin brings,

Whereon by the light of the stars he swings,

When the dance is done and the barn-cock sings,

And the dim dawn streaks the sky.