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Comment
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tlchang37
Registered User
(3/13/02 3:39:36 pm)
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Fairytales and ghost stories...
A couple of days before the "horror" thread got started I was trying to think of fairy tales that had ghosts as a major (or really ANY) element, or if fairytales and ghost stories are completely different genres with little or no overlap. I waited to see if that would be covered somewhere in the horror discussion, but it hasn't been really. The only tale I could think of was Donkeyskin where the three drops of blood on the handkerchief from the mother speak (as well as the donkey head later). Neither of those are really ghosts, however.
People seem to be influenced by the memory of dead characters, but I can't remember the deceased characters actually appearing or otherwise taking active part in the stories...
Is this really true? Or am I forgetting some obvious ones?
Tara
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jess
Unregistered User
(3/13/02 4:18:53 pm)
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ghost stories
Tara,
There is also Falada, the horse in the Goose Girl. Then there are all the spirits from the underworld in mythology. What about the bird in the Juniper Tree?
Some thoughts.
Jess
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lmallozzi
Registered User
(3/13/02 7:08:01 pm)
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more ghosts
I seem to remember reading a Cinderella variant where Cinderella goes to a tree in which the spirit of her dead mother resides - her mother's spirit gives her a sparkling dress and slippers (acting as the fairy godmother).
I thought it was fascintating - but I can't remember where I read this version. Perhaps it is in the Grimm Brothers' collection? There is also the Chinese Cinderella with an Enchanted fish as the fairy godmother who is killed by the wicked stepsisters, but returns as a ghost to help the heroine.
Luciana
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SPW
Registered User
(3/13/02 7:12:35 pm)
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Re: more ghosts
Adrift in my mind is a version of Bluebeard in which the dead wives come back to warn the young lass of impending danger.
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Midori
Unregistered User
(3/14/02 4:04:57 am)
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Ghosts
There are a fair amount of ghosts in Japanese tales...also the Irish are big on ghosts. There's the one aout a man who hears the music in the woods one night, winds up at one of the fairy balls only to discover that all the people dancing are the ghosts of the dead he knows including the woman he was to marry.
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Gregor9
Registered User
(3/14/02 5:36:17 am)
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Re: Ghosts & fairy tales
I was thinking of Japanese tales, too, Midori. Lafcadio Hearn's collection of supernatural tales, "Kwaidan", contains stories that offer elements of both. And, as mentioned on another thread, numerous works of Chinese cinema blend ghosts, fairy tale elements and martial arts.
G
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(3/15/02 9:40:32 am)
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Re: Ghosts & fairy tales
Slightly off topic, but I've had reason lately to do some research into Japanese woodblock prints, and one thing I keep stumbling upon is how popular "yuurei" (ghosts) and folktales were as themes. The link below shows Hokusai's (He of Great Wave fame) interpretation of Okiku at the Well.
www.loc.gov/exhibits/ukiy.../8748s.jpg
If you go backward to the images page you can find several more. Judging from the images, their ghost stories come down very heavily on the horror side.
Edited by: Richard Parks at: 3/15/02 12:01:11 pm
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isthmus
nekoi
Registered User
(3/15/02 10:01:06 am)
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Re: Ghosts & fairy tales
I was thinking of ballet interpretations... There is one where the spirits of jilted female lovers dance in the forest - I think it's Giselle although I'm not sure if it counts as a fairy tale.
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cloudshaper
Registered User
(3/15/02 11:52:47 pm)
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Re: Ghosts & fairy tales
How about Dicken's "A Christmas Carol"?
Certainly strong fairy tale elements, if not exactly a fairy tale.
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Terri
Registered User
(3/16/02 7:31:14 am)
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Re: Ghosts & fairy tales
Luciana: If I'm recalling my Cinderella research correctly (and I'm so tired today that I may not be), the majority of pre-Perrault Cinderella tales involved the ghost of the girl's natural mother in the role that we now associate with a fairy godmother, who communicated through a fish (China), a magical plant watered by the girl's tears (Italy), through a cow (Scotland), etc. Fairy godmothers existed in tales prior to the French salon stories, but were not the staple fairy tale characters they became during that era. As I think Marina Warner pointed out (in From the Beast to the Blonde), one element of the story was a kind of rivalry between the dead and living wife of Cinderella's father, acted out through the children...a common theme that she attributed to the reality of high childbirth mortality rates, resulting in a high number of what today would be called "blended" families.
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Kerrie
Registered User
(3/17/02 5:43:06 am)
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Re: Ghosts & fairy tales
Here's another suggestion, from the D. L. Ashliman site: Singing Bones. Folktales about murder victims, whose body parts literally sing out for justice. The Singing Bone
and other tales of Aarne-Thompson type 780.
www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0780.html
Check out the rest of the site for similar tales:
www.pitt.edu/~dash/folktexts.html#f
Sugarplum dreams,
Kerrie
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