Category Archives: Tales /märchen

Stories which are not regarded as possibly true.

Fireball Ghosts

Nationality: American
Age: 61
Occupation: Homemaker
Residence: Southern California
Performance Date: March 24, 2018
Primary Language: English

After college, my mom lived in Japan 7 years. She taught English to get by and apprenticed as a potter to gain experience. Growing up, she told me tons and tons of stories from her time there. I was always particularly interested in their spiritual beliefs. Specifically, those regarding ghosts.

Driving home from lunch one sunny afternoon, I ask her and my dad if they have any stories about the inexplicable that I could use for my folklore project. My mom starts:

“In Japan in graveyards – because it’s… because everybody’s cremated it’s very common during typhoon season to see fireballs and whatnot. And that’s really because of the seepage of the rainwater into burial urns combining with the phosphorous of the bones and creating fireballs. But some people believe that they’re spirits and that the graveyards are haunted. So, yeah I guess. Some people believe it’s the spirits and other people believe it’s the phosphorous in the bones with the rainwater. It’s also very easy to imagine … you sort of feel different presences in Japan. Especially in subways in Tokyo. Because they’re very old, you can feel lots of spirits.”

This anecdote is particularly interesting, as it includes scientific explanation for a supernatural occurrence. Imagine walking home late one rainy night when you see fireball after fireball erupt out of a graveyard. That would be absolutely terrifying. Thankfully, my mother never told me this story as a kid, as it would have almost undoubtedly caused innumerable nightmares and late nights for her. Though she explains the fireballs, she still admits to feeling a very strong spiritual presence across the country as a whole. A presence no one can account for outright. Though some ghosts are easily explained, others are not.

The Story of Little Suck-A-Thumb

Nationality: American/German
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: N/A
Performance Date: 4/15/18
Primary Language: German
Language: English

Informant: There once lived a boy named Conrad, who loved to suck his thumbs. He sucked his thumbs day in and day out, and when his mother told him not to, he did anyway. Finally, his mother gives up, and tells him that if he keeps sucking his thumbs, the tall tailor will find him and cut his thumbs off.

But, as soon as Conrad’s mother had left the room, he immediately began to suck his thumb again. But, his mother had not been joking. The door burst open and a tall man with a pair of huge shears ran into the room and chased Conrad down, cutting off both of his thumbs.

Now Conrad has no thumbs.

Context: This informant is a nineteen year old college student, attending school in the US. However, he lives abroad in a small town in Germany, where he has access to a wide range of German folklore. He also speaks German fluently, which offers him greater understanding of German culture as well.

Background: My informant heard this story from his parents when he was younger, although he clarified that it was in a joking light, rather than a serious one. He seemed to think the tale was useful for keeping rowdy or otherwise disobedient children from retaining bad habits or bad behaviors.

Analysis: This story struck me from the moment I heard it as quite brutal. Cutting off a child’s thumbs is an uncharacteristically serious punishment for as small a transgression as thumb-sucking. However, it did strike me how the seriousness of the tale reflected the culture of Germany itself. Germany, especially in the 19th and 20th centuries, has developed a culture of strict order, one that especially stresses the importance of a superior’s orders. This tale is reflective of this cultural attitude – the child, after displaying disobedience, is given a brutal punishment as recompense. I especially enjoy this tale for its short and to the point attitude. This is a story to listen to and heed the warning of. It isn’t told to entertain children. It is told to caution them.

Annotation: Consult this source for another version of this tale

Hoffman, Heinrich. “Struwwelpeter.” The Story of Little Suck-a-Thumb, Virginia Commonwealth University, germanstories.vcu.edu/struwwel/daumen_e.html.

Annotation Comment: This is an alternative source for this tale found in the Virginia Commonwealth University database. It doesn’t seem to diverge significantly in terms of narrative, but interestingly, this version seems to be prose. Since the story is translated to English, and the words are in English, I’m inclined to believe this is a modification further down the line. Furthermore, the story has an author attached, an impossibility for folklore, which makes me think that this prose-form of the tale was a modification by Mr. Hoffman to the original.

 

The Story of the Inked Boys

Nationality: German/American
Age: 19
Occupation: Student
Residence: N/A
Performance Date: 4/15/18
Primary Language: German
Language: English

Interviewer: Got any other German fairytales?

Informant: I do, actually. This one is one of my favorites – it’s interesting because it shows a tolerance that Germans seemed to have forgotten at some later points in our history.

Three boys are laughing and playing in a field outside of their village, near a road. As they play, a Moor, a black man, comes down the hill, carrying a green umbrella. The Moor is quiet and polite as he makes his way down the road, but when the boys notice him, they grab all of their things and rush over and start insulting the Moor. The boys sing songs and make fun of the Moor’s dark skin and how its so black it’s as black as ink.

St. Nicholas, who lived nearby, heard the boys and what they were doing, and he shouted at them to stop. But, the boys didn’t listen. They kept laughing and shouting at the Moor, continuing to make fun of his skin color.

St. Nicholas is pissed at this point, so he takes his huge ink pot that he used for his quill and grabs the three boys. Then, he goes and takes each one of them… and dunks each one into the black ink until all of them are just as dark as the Moor. Then, he takes them out and puts them next to the Moor, who is laughing super hard at this point. St. Nicholas taught them a lesson about harassing people who look different from themselves.

Context: This informant is a nineteen year old college student, attending school in the US. However, he lives abroad in a small town in Germany, where he has access to a wide range of German folklore. He also speaks German fluently, which offers him greater understanding of German culture as well.

Background: My informant heard this story from one of his neighbors from his village in Germany. He has a personal love for this tale, as it was one of the first to be told to him in his childhood, but also because of the general message it sends – one of punishment against not only intolerance, but xenophobia. The children make fun of the Moor due to his difference. My informant points out that St.Nicholas places the children into the Moor’s shoes not only to punish them, but also to make them experience life from the point of view of their victim.

Analysis: I believe my informants tale outlines a curious societal quirk inherent in whatever communities it originated from. It appears to be poised against intolerance towards foreigners, especially of African descent, at a time when such intolerance was widely acceptable. It makes a point to not only punish rude children, but also to make them experience life from the point of view of those they wronged. From a more objective lens, one might also point out the motif of threes at play here as well. Three boys are present in the tale, rather than a single one.

Little Red Riding Hood

Nationality: Cuban/Mexican
Age: 19
Performance Date: 4-12-18
Primary Language: English

Context: This piece is was an interview that I directly copied every word said. The participants name is Jonathan. I had asked the participate in advance over phone if he had any folklore and he asked what I meant by that. After giving a few example he said he actually did have something to share. So we met in his apartment a few hour later. We entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Main Piece: Ok so this was a long long time ago before technology. So there was this little girl named Red Riding Hood. She was called that cuz she wore a red sweater that had a hoody and she like had the hood on all the time. So the story goes that she.. she took care of her grandmother who was really old already. Like she couldn’t really leave the house. She kinda just stayed in bed the whole day and Red Riding would go into the forest… ooh yea she live in a cabin in the middle of a large forest. So she went to the forest to scavenge for food… she would carry like a basket and fill it with apples. ( coughed to clear throat). One day she went home and went to her grandma’s bedside. She told her grandma (raised the pitch of voice) “what big hands you have”…(with the same high pitch voice) “What big feet you have”. What was the other one? Uuhh… I can’t remember but then a man jumped out of the bed and tried to kill little red riding hood. He used an axe. So red riding screamed and a wolf came to rescue her. The wolf killed the mad and ate him. The wolf then used his nose to find little red riding hood’s mother. I think they found her in the closet locked in. They then lived happily ever after.  Background: Jonathan is a 19-year-old college student whose ethnicity is half Cuban and Half Mexican. He is a sophomore attending UCLA. He learned this version from a roommate he had in college. The roommate was Brazilian. Analysis:  This collection is a different variation of the famous tale of Little Red Riding hood. It is interesting to hear of a tale that has a famous motif inverted. The wolf is a famous motif representing a villain or an antagonist. It is seen in tales such as Little Red Riding Hood, the three little pigs, and the boy who cried wolf. However, in this Tale the wolf is the hero. If you want to read a variation of this tale in which the wolf does serve as a motif for a villain you can check out the book Little Red Riding Hood by Trina Schart Hyman.

Cinderella

Nationality: Cuban/Mexican
Age: 19
Performance Date: 4-12-18
Primary Language: English

Context: This piece is was an interview that I directly copied every word said. The participants name is Jonathan. I had asked the participate in advance over phone if he had any folklore and he asked what I meant by that. After giving a few example he said he actually did have something to share. So we met in his apartment a few hour later. We entered the kitchen and sat down at the table. Background: Jonathan is a 19-year-old college student whose ethnicity is half Cuban and Half Mexican. He is a sophomore attending UCLA.  Main Piece: 

So Cinderella is a girl that has to live with her step mom and her step sisters because her dad died. She is treated really bad and is pretty much the maid of the house. She has like little animal friends that um help her clean and talk to her. It is announced that there is going to be a ball and Cinderella really wants to go to meet Prince Charming and get out of the house. Her evil step sisters and her step mom don’t want her to go so they rip her dress and lock her up. But then a fairy godmother comes and transforms a pumpkin into a like really nice carriage and gives her a new dress. But then she gives her some conditions which is that everything would go back to normal at midnight. So Cinderella goes to the ball and Prince Charming and her fall in love. But then she runs out because it’s almost midnight but when she does she leaves a slipper behind. Prince Charming is going crazy looking for her and goes around with the slipper for girls to try them on. The step mom locks Cinderella up when the prince is coming but with help of her animal friends she gets out and tries the slipper and since it was her it fits so they live happily ever after.

 Analysis: This Cinderella tale is one of the most widespread and famous tales. Alan Dundes said there must be multiplicity and variation. This story embodies multiplicity and variation. The Cinderella tale has a centralized theme that anyone could be a “princes”. It serves the purpose of demonstrating that you can become anything you want to.  I am actually shocked by how many variations there are for this tale. If you would like to read popular variations of the tale you can rea Cinderella: The Ultimate Collection by Charles Perrault.