As a traditional storyteller much of my work is gathering tales from the oral tradition. These are the stories that were shared from person to person prior to the written word. But although I was told stories as a child, my great love for folklore started with books. What is folklore? Folklore is the cultural and oral expression of the people. It is the sharing of beliefs, customs and stories. Children’s books are filled with folklore that include “Old Mother Goose” rhymes, songs, poems, ways to make a “cat’s cradle”; and stories based on folktales, fairy tales and myths.
Author and professor, Betsy Hearne, wrote that “folklore is the birthplace of literature,” and that certainly must be true for children’s literature. For this literature is heavily influenced by folklore, from its motifs and archetypes to its familiar tale types. But it wasn’t always this way. The folktales of old were first told to an adult audience and many were filled with violence and death. These were topics thought unsuitable for children. Further using folklore as the subject of children’s literature has been hotly debated. It has been criticism for promoting fantasy, patriarchy, elitism, colonialism, cultural misappropriation and racism.
But nonetheless these stories have survived and proliferated both orally and in print. In fact, from the earliest published work for children until today, folklore has been prominent in children’s literature. Why? Because the tales are entertaining while also sharing culture, history and values. Let’s look at one example, the story of Cinderella. It began as a folktale, then inspired a literary fairy tale. Some say there may be over 3,000 oral variants of the story. But how many publications are there of Cinderella? A quick search in the national database “WorldCat” shows that there are approximately 27,000 English language books concerning Cinderella. Consider how the story has been told and retold in picture books, chapter books, and young adult novels. Some of these are modern retellings and others are versions shared long ago. The life of this story goes on and on because it is continually expanding and growing. This story has captured our imagination, as have many other traditional tales. So, when we look at children’s literature today, we discover folklore is alive within it. It too is constantly growing and changing. While today’s story variants are more often found in print than shared orally, that doesn’t mean that oral expression is dead. These stories stay alive through Tik Tok book groups and fan fiction. They are told again and again in many ways.
In the history depicted here, we’ll see examples of folklore serving as the subject and inspiration for children’s literature. We’ll start with the early modern chapbooks, then move on to collections of folktales, literary fairy tales, picture books, chapter books and young adult fiction. We’ll also look at books from the “golden age” of children’s literature. In each category there will be a brief explanation with one or more examples.
Author Isaac Bashevis Singer writes, “Without folklore and deep roots in a specific soil, literature must decline and wither away. This is true in all literature of all times. Luckily children’s literature is even now more rooted in folklore than the literature for adults. And this alone makes children’s literature so important in our generation.”
It is my hope that the reader will remember similar titles from their own childhood or books they read to children. These are the stories filled with the wisdom and enchantment of the folk. They are tales that have been told for hundreds of years and hopefully will be shared for hundreds more.
Chapbooks
Chapbooks are small, printed booklets which were sold as inexpensive, street literature in the early modern period (15th – 18th c.) of England and Europe. Stories in these texts were often derived from folklore. Here are some examples: Chap-Books of the 18th Century: with Facsimiles, Notes and Introduction by John Ashton. (London: Chatto & Windus, 1882). Included within this text is “The Pleasant History of Jack Horner.”
The Original Mother Goose's Melody as issued by John Newberry, of London, circa 1760; later
editions by Isaiah Thomas, of Worcester, Mass., circa 1785, and Munroe & Francis, of Boston, circa 1825. This book provides the nursery rhyme “Little Jack Horner.”
For more examples see, “McGill Libraries Chapbook Collection”: https://digital.library.mcgill.ca/chapbooks/index.php
Stories from the Oral Tradition: Folktales, Fairy Tales, and Myths
In the 1800s, the first folklorists began to collect and record folklore to preserve their culture. These were the stories and beliefs passed down for generations through the oral tradition – such as folktales, fairy tales and myths. The most famous collectors include the Brothers Grimm, Andrew Lang and Joseph Jacobs. Initially, many of these collections were for adults. Their popularity led to editing the texts for a child audience.
Die Bruder Grimm [ Grimm, Jacob & Wilhelm Karl]. Kinder-und Haus-Marchen. Gesammelt durch die Bruder Grimm. Berlin: In der Realschulbuchhandlung, 1812. This is a compilation of German folktales. Volume 1 contained 86 stories. Volume 2 (which was published in 1815) included 70 more tales. By the 7th edition in 1857, there were over 200 stories now edited for a child audience.
For Grimm stories see, “The Grimm Brothers’ Children’s and Household Tales (Grimms’ Fairy Tales) compiled, translated, and classified by D.L. Ashlimann: https://sites.pitt.edu/~dash/grimmtales.html
The Langs' Fairy Books are a series of 25 collections of children’s stories published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. Andrew Lang was the editor while Leonora translated and adapted stories from French, German, Portuguese, Italian, Spanish, Catalan, and other languages.
For collections of Lang’s stories see, “The Fairy Books of Andrew Lang”: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/30580.
Joseph Jacobs was a collector and publisher of English and European folklore. His book, English Fairy Tales (New York: Grosset & Dunlap, 1895) included the story “Jack the Giant Killer.”
For other stories see, “English Fairy Tales collected by Joseph Jacobs”: https://catalog.hathitrust.org/Record/008682965
Literary Fairy Tales
While there are many definitions for fairy tales, the simplest is that these are folktales with “magic.” There are fairy tales within collections of folk tales (see the Grimm Brothers versions of “Snow White” and “Cinderella”). But the most famous version of these stories is often found in literary fairy tales. While folktales have no authors, literary fairy tales are authored works that rely heavily on the motifs, tale types and characterizations found within folklore.
Charles Perrault was a French author who lived from 1628-1703. In 1697, his book, Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé, was published. It included the stories “Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” and “Cinderella.” This work is thought to have influenced some of the later Grimm tales and is the version of Cinderella that is known best.
For more examples see, “The Fairy Tales of Charles Perrault”: https://www.gutenberg.org/ebooks/29021
Hans Christian Anderson (1805-1875) was a Danish writer who wrote over 156 popular fairy tales compiled in 9 volumes. These included “The Little Mermaid,” “Thumbelina,” and “The Ugly Duckling.” Anderson was influenced by reading The Arabian Nights in childhood. His tales often included Christian morals. His first book of fairy tales was Eventyr, Fortalte for Børn. Første Samling. Første Hefte, 1835. This book included the stories “The Tinderbox” and “The Princess and the Pea.”