#WingedWordsWindsday: 05/25/2022 -- The Enchanted World of Classic Stories

 

WINGED WORDS WINDSDAY

Compiled by Rob Chappell (@RHCLambengolmo)

Vol. 1, No. 30: May 25, 2022

 

“The Enchanted World of Classic Stories”

By Rob Chappell, M.A.

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 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, these stories 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 Grimms’ Fairy Tales: Collected by the scholarly German brothers Jakob (1785-1863) and Wilhelm (1786-1859) Grimm, this anthology showcases 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 children!

·         Bulfinch’s Mythology: Compiled by Thomas Bulfinch, a Bostonian classicist (1796-1867), this is the ultimate anthology of timeless tales from ancient and medieval times. His monumental compendium is sometimes divided into three separate volumes: (I) The Age of Fable, (II) The Age of Chivalry, and (III) Legends of Charlemagne. Each of Bulfinch’s lively retellings is drawn from authentic original source material.

·         Hans Christian 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 the well-known (e.g., The Ugly Duckling) and ones that are sometimes overlooked (e.g., The Snow Queen).

·         George MacDonald (1824-1905) is the Editor’s favorite author of literary fairy tales. His masterpieces include Phantastes (1858), At the Back of the North Wind (1871), and Lilith (1895). All of his fairy tales, written both for the young and the young at heart, invite readers to appreciate the hidden wonders all around us that we encounter on life’s journey.

·         The Fairy Books of Many Colors are anthologies of classic tales from around the world and across the centuries. They were compiled, edited, and published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang (1844-1912) and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne Lang (1851-1933). These multicultural stories, drawn from myths, legends, folktales, histories, and biographies, are a collective treasure-trove of storytelling that can be enjoyed by readers of all ages.

 

This illustration comes from a Persian manuscript of the Panchatantra dated to 1429. (Image Credit: Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons)