However, I wanted to ask for your favorite or even relatively unknown Beauty and the Beast tales, folkloric tales, not modern retellings, but tales that fit in a collection like this, such as the ones found on the Tales Similar to Beauty and the Beast page and the Tales Similar to East of the Sun and West of the Moon page on SurLaLune.
If you offer a tale that I haven't discovered yet and that I use in the collection, I will send you a copy of the book when it is released. Those of you well-read in the folklore of other countries will have a greater chance at suggesting something that has eluded me so far. The more obscure the collection, the better. Grimms and such need not apply! And, no, the tale need not be in English.
If you submit a tale and I already have it, I will add your name to a list for a drawing of a copy of the book when it is released. And, yes, you are guessing at this point because my list is much more extensive than any list on the web, including my own. I have found some unusual and rare ones! This is going to be a fun collection for all of us. I have been working on it for years. I tell my family and friends that while Cinderella is the most popular fairy tale, Beauty and the Beast is perhaps the most beloved. It always wins the "What is your favorite fairy tale?" question. It is mine, too, so despite myself there is extra love going into this one. All of my collections receive my devotion, but this one is special to me, too.
Please submit the tale, the source, and even an online link if one is available, through a comment to this post or a private email to me.
The book will be another 828 page tome like my Cinderella, Mermaid and Bluebeard collections. These tales are inherently longer--those questing searches have high word counts--but there will be well over 150 tales, way more than any other collection to date, although there aren't very many collections of this tale beyond the wonderful work of Betsy Hearne in Beauties and Beasts: (The Oryx Multicultural Folktale Series)
and Beauty and the Beast: Visions and Revisions of an Old Tale
as well as Jerry Griswold's The Meanings of "Beauty & The Beast" A Handbook
.
A friend of mine told me about several monkey-themed folktales from India that she had read while abroad. Many of them end in an animal marriage to a human girl. I found this site with the story, although I can only say that I've heard the first one before: http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/monkey.html#monkeyboy
ReplyDeleteBecause the story was so easy for me to find, it is probably more well-known than I expected. But I thought I might as well give it chance!
As a ballad, it might be outside the realm of what you're including in this book, but have you considered Tam Lin? tam-lin.org has many variations of the ballad here: http://www.tam-lin.org/tamlin1.html
ReplyDeleteOMG!! I have been waiting for this!!!! Beauty and the Beast is my absolute favorite fairytale and I cannot wait to get this book!!!
ReplyDeleteAs far as other bridegroom stories, the only ones I was able to find we're a few Native American ones here
http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/animalindian.html
They're pretty short and there are a few listed with animal brides.
Don't know if that will help in any way
Thanks!!
Shdwstrm
I always liked this tale I found years ago on the internet called Ak Chechek - White Flower.Here's the link.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.h-net.org/~nilas/seasons/whiteflower.html
I'm an expert when it comes to folktales but I fear that in this case, it is like the pupil attempting to outsmart the master.
I also know of a tale from Scotland called "The Grayhound and the Green Girl" Which I believe comes from The Lure of the Kelpie: Fairy and Folk Fales of the Highlands, by Helen Drever. Edinburgh: The Moray Press, 1937.
ReplyDeleteThe tale often winds up on the internet--without a source. Here's a link to the tale itself: http://www.scottish-gatherings.50megs.com/page126.html
I'm guessing you may already have this, but in an old Deluxe Golden Book called simply "The Fairy Tale Book," there's quite a few animal bridegroom stories (longer versions of most of them can of course be found in Zipes' Beauties, Beasts, and Enchantments, like the Royal Ram, The Green Snake, etc.).
ReplyDelete*But* that book also has an interesting East of the Sun, West of the Moon variant, credited only as "from the Russian," called Finn, the Keen Falcon. That story has elements of Cinderella and D'Aulnoy's Blue Bird, too. I've never seen it anywhere besides this book...hope this helps! :)
A reprint of the book can be found here: http://www.amazon.com/Golden-Book-Fairy-Tales-Classics/dp/030717025X/ref=sr_1_1?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1357632196&sr=1-1&keywords=golden+book+the+fairy+tale+book
As a side note, this is my first time posting, but thank you for all the research and wonderful stuff you've posted through the years. Your site was an excellent resource when I was writing my undergrad thesis...on Beauty and the Beast, of course! ;)
Oh my gosh, yay! I've been waiting for this one. =) It's my favorite fairy tale, too.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I can't think of a version that I know of that you wouldn't have heard of by now, but I'll keep my eyes peeled.
I'm so excited! Thank you so much for doing this one!!!!!!
~Lylassandra
Will you be including Madame de Villeneuve's Beauty and the Beast?
ReplyDeleteI always felt that the story of Ariadne and Theseus had some similarities to Beauty and the Beast.
ReplyDeleteI did a post about it on my blog saying how Theseus, the Minotaur and Dionysus could all be considered as beast like. However, there was no searching for a lost husband, Ariadne simply seemed to have committed suicide, moved on to another husband or died in childbirth.
http://morbidmarchhare.blogspot.co.uk/2013/01/beauty-and-bull.html
That is my post on it.