GER 1502 1nd Edition Exam 3 Study Guide Folklore has three parts content traditional writes of passage creation created by the same people who use it and transmission speaking showing and telling orally or through the media Its functions to maintain a common culture preserve it and educate and inculcate values They all tend to have a commonality yet adapt to each culture Functions of origins of folklore explanatory traditions social brought people together Types of Tales Fairytale relies on magic to provide fantasy solutions creative imagination functional and poetic Legend historical grounding and unspecific rewards and punishments sometimes religious Myth narrative projection of a cultural group and its sacred past Greek Gods the divine and supernatural gives an explanation to how the things came about the universe Miracles tales religious tradition to teach a moral principle ex women should have children respect God be industrious Fable protagonist is usually an animal and is not historically true yet morally true Grimms The Grimm brothers studied medieval literature and were the first to consider folk narrative as academic study They had socio political implications and gathered their work first from Italy from Stroperota and Basile then France from Perrault then from England from Percy and MacPherson and finally from Germany from Herder Creatures in folklore Fairies animism objects have souls there can be good or bad fairies Demons in between humans and Gods and can do good or bad Witches humans with magical powers companion of the devil shape shifting and group gatherings witch hunts showed women as a threat to men Golem Homunculus Rabbi Loew St George Dragonslayers slayed the dragon for the town in return for the peoples conversion to Christianity Bluebeards Historical bluebeards Gilles de Rais 1404 1440 accused of murdering young boys Cunmar or Conomor the Accursed ca 500 A D killed his wives Saint Tryphine Saint Tryphine Charles Perrault s adapted the tales to fit the times Jane Campion The Piano had a blue filter the woman was mute and only used the piano as a means to communicate her husband chopped off her fingers so she could not speak Interpretations Bluebeard tales are an inversion of Bridegroom tales The key and egg are phallic symbols are represent purity Bettleheim interpreted it as patriarchal power with violence yet woman can see through the power of men and come on top with their sight Patriarchal Insecurity Your Hen Is in the Mountain three daughters troll treated the third daughter with riches because she became his sweetheart yelled out I still see you when he was carrying the chests back She was able to bring her sisters back to life and as he went back to the house the sisters intimidated him and he never came back Fitcher s Bird similar as above but the sisters set the sourcer s house on fire How the Devil Married Three Sisters devil married sisters and gave a flower to indicate if they opened a secret door or not the third sister waters her flower so it would not burn eventually the devil carried a chest back with the three sisters and at the end all three sisters are standing on the balcony in a powerful way Blue Beard two daughters key with blood that won t wash off he was going to kill the daughter but she asked time to pray to her sister Anne her brothers came and killed him moral curiosity costs dearly Eastern Tales Sulasa and Sattuka prostitute bails out a convict and marries him after some time he plans to kill her but she ends up out smarting him and throws him off a cliff wisdom is not confined to man The Brahman Girl that Married a Tiger daughter wanted the most beautiful man so a tiger transformed into a man and he wed the daughter He told her not to speak or else he would take his original form and eventually he did A crow brought a notice to the brothers and they came to save her She tore her tiger baby in two and tricked the tiger with sizzling the blood The Tiger s Bride mother promised her daughter to a tiger because she needed help with carrying heavy grass daughter was unhappy and while the tiger was out she killed a cat and pretended to be cooking then escaped Female Heroine No sisters No secret chamber no curiosity Woman outsmarts the man can also be cruel Shrews Rulers Talkers Didactic function of female behavior women should respect the patriarchal figure and men should be able to control their wives Haaken Grizzlebeard o Shrewish woman motif and only my humility can the wife be controlled o Hero impregnates the woman male has to tame the prideful princess o She is humiliated sexually morally and socially Shrewish wives in popular culture Shakespeare The Taming of the Shrew Cole Porter Kiss me Kate 10 Things I Hate about You Wish tales Plot structure wishes are granted as the woman wastes the wishes The Two Headed Weaver Simpleton was going to cut down a tree but it gave him three wishes instead barber gave him good advice for a wish but then his wife changed his mind and made him wish for another set of arms and another head to weave more but he ended up dying The Three Wishes prayed to Allah for a bigger yard but the woman at the end lost the other two wishes The Sausage a woman came and promised three wishes the husband and wife got in a fight over what to wish for and the husband wished his wife had a sausage for a nose and they ended up losing their wishes The Fisherman and His Wife man caught a fish but was granted three wishes when he let him go wife asked for a hut then to be king then emperor and then God but in the end she was given nothing Insatiable desire Plot structure there is a desired object so the woman puts the husband to work but in the end it s a wasted effort Woman s desire sex power whim as they are a threat to men The Bullock s Balls jackal followed a bullock with two pieces of meat because the wife said they would fall down soon they still didn t fall off 15 years later The Queen s Whim sparrow said that there were twice as many woman as men because the men were under the foolish whims of their wives The Black Mare is a Better Horse a man offered a wife and husband a horse if their choice the husband chose the white one but the wife told him to get the black mare and because he followed his wife s advice they didn t get either horse Contrariness Plot structure contrary wife lessons are learned irrational desire threatens patriarchy The Baneyrwal and His Drowned Wife looked for his wife up stream after a