The World of the Irish Wonder Tale: An Introduction to the Study of Fairy Tales PDF
Preview The World of the Irish Wonder Tale: An Introduction to the Study of Fairy Tales
THE WORLD OF THE IRISH WONDER TALE This page intentionally left blank ELLIOTT B. GOSE, JR THE WORLD OF THE 1 rish ÉHonder »^Q|i> An Introduction to the Study of Fairy Tales UNIVERSITY OF TORONTO PRESS Toronto Buffalo London University of Toronto Press 1985 Toronto Buffalo London Printed in Canada ISBN 0-8020-5646-6 (CLOTH) 0-8020-6585-6 (PAPER) Canadian Cataloguing in Publication Data Gose, Elliott B., 1926- The world of the Irish wonder tale Includes bibliographical references and index. ISBN 0-8020-5646-6 (bound). - ISBN 0-8020-6585-6 (pbk.) 1. Tales - Ireland - History and criticism. I. Title. GR153.5.G67 1985 398'.2'09415 C84-098724-2 For material quoted in this book, the author is indebted as follows: From Bruno Bettelheim's Uses of Enchantment (1976), permission granted by Alfred A. Knopf, Inc; from Seumas MacManus's Wello' the World'sEnd (1939),permis- sion granted by Devin-Adair Co; from Jeremiah Curtin's Myths and Folk Tales of Ireland (197 5), permission granted by Dover Publications; from Jeremiah Curtin's Irish Folk-Tales, reprinted (1961)by Talbot Press. Preparation of the manuscript was aided by a grant from the UBC Grants Committee, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada. This book has been published with the help of grants from the Canadian Federation for the Humanities, using funds provided by the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada, and from the Publications Fund of University of Toronto Press. For my mother and father This page intentionally left blank Contents PREFACE xi TEXTUAL NOTE xv Prologue The Folk-Taie Tradition in Ireland and Europe xvii An example of an Irish wonder tale. Yeats, Hyde, Curtin, and the collecting of the tales. Irish tales contrasted with German. Delargy and the tellers of the tales. The 'laws' of folk-tale construction. Wonder tale and myth. Translating, record- ing, and abbreviating the tales. PART ONE Introduction 3 Approaches offered in the first six chapters: structural, mythic, and psycho- analytic. Folk tales and romances: the effects of an oral tradition. 1 Acts of Truth 8 Celtic rites and an ancient Irish legend. Retelling of 'The King of Erin and the Queen of the Lonesome Island.' The real world and the other world. The psychology of wonder tales. 2 Self-transformation and Alienation 24 'The Fisherman's Son and the Gruagach of Tricks.' Transformation, power, and manipulation. Vladimir Propp's plot formula: structure and character-function in wonder tales. viii Contents 3 Aspiration and Identity 3 9 The power of the unconscious archetype. A North American Indian tale. 'The Fisherman of Kinsale and the Hag of the Sea.' Self-transformation, false pretences, and self-reliance. 4 Testing the Hero 52 The three stages of the test. Initiation and the appropriation of supernatural power. Rite, myth, and wonder tale. "The Thirteenth Son of the King of Erin.' The Irish hero, Cu Chulainn: heroic fervour, social reinvigoration, and social stability. 5 Love and Violence 67 Cu Chulainn's aggressive relation to women and the supernatural. 'The Blue Scarf of Strength.' Bettelheim's analysis of 'Jack and the Beanstalk' and Freud's stages of infant sexuality. The Oedipal conflict and violence in the wonder tale. 6 Open Prohibitions and Hidden Needs 84 The Celtic concept of geis: from fatal taboo to paradoxical prohibition. "The Daughter of the King of Greece.' The ultimate gain of breaking the pro- hibition. Passivity and activity of the hero. Breaking free of the nuclear family. PART TWO Introduction 99 Importance of boundary-crossings in primitive ritual and the wonder tale. Mary Douglas on taboos: thresholds, transcending opposites, and at-one-ment. The riddle and defamiliarization in narrative. 7 The Animistic Mind 105 Todorov's analysis of the key elements in the fantastic: the supernatural, meta- morphosis, and 'pan-determinism.' Animism: the parallel between the infant's perception of the world and the laws of the wonder-tale world. Ego, self, and impersonality. Involuntary transformations. 'Sgiathan Dearg and the Daughter of the King of the Western World.' Magic and metamorphosis: the transition from mind to matter.
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