Iona and Peter Opie
The
Classic
Fairy Tales
"It is grown people who make the nursery,
stories; all children do, is jealously
preserve the text."
- ROBERT LOUIS STEVENSON
OXFORD UNIVERSITY PRESS
New York and Toronto
CONTENTS
Introduction 13
The History of Tom Thumb 36
The History of Tom Thumbe 41
Jack the Giant Killer 58
The History of Jack and the Giants 64
The Yellow Dwarf 83
The Yellow Dwarf 86
Sleeping Beauty 102
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood 108
Little Red Ridinghood 119
The Little Red Ridinghood 122
Diamonds and Toads 126
The Fairy 129
Bluebeard 133
The Blue Beard 137
Puss in Boots 142
The Master Cat: or Puss in Boots 147
Cinderella 152
Cinderella: The Little Glass Slipper 161
Hop o' my Thumb 167
Little Poucet 170
Beauty and the Beast 179
Beauty and the Beast 182
The Three Wishes 196
The Tale of the Three Wishes 199
The Three Heads in the Well 202
The King of Colchester's Daughters 207
Jack and the Beanstalk 211
The History of Jack and the Bean-Stalk 214
Snow Whit and the Seven Dwarfs 227
Snow-drop 230
The Frog Prince 238
The Frog-Prince 241
The Twelve Dancing Princesses 245
The Twelve Dancing Princesses 248
Rumpelstiltskin 253
Rumpel-stilts-kin 256
Goldilocks and the Three Bears 260
The Story of the Three Bears 264
The Tinder Box 270
The Tinder Box 272
The Princess on the Pea 283
The Princess and the Peas 286
Thumbelina 288
Tommelise 290
The Swineherd 300
The Swineherd 303
Hansel and Gretel 308
Hansel and Gretel 312
Chief Commentaries Consulted 320
Sources of the Illustrations 326
Index 333
[18]
A characteristic of the fairy tale, as told today, is that it is unbelievable. Although a fairy tale is seldom a tale about fairy folk, and does not necessarily even feature a fairy, it does contain an enchantment or other supernatural element that is clearly imaginary. Usually the tale is about one person, or one family, having to cope with a supernatural occurrence or, supernatural protagonist during a period of stress. The hero is almost invariably a young person, usually the youngest member of a family, and if not deformed or already an orphan, is probably in the process of being disowned or abandoned. The characters in the stories are, nevertheless, stock figures. They are either altogether good or altogether bad, and there is no evolution of character. They are referred to by generic or descriptive names, as 'Jack' (for lad), 'Beauty', 'Snow White', 'Silver Hair', 'Tom Thumb', 'Red Ridinghood', 'Cinder-girl'. Fairy tales are more concerned with situation than with character. They are the space fiction of the past. They describe events that took place when a different range of possibilities operated in the unidentified long ago; and this is part of their attraction. Children often remark that the tales they read first in a book are the ones beginning with the evocative formula 'Once upon a time'. They feel certain
[119]
these tales will be the best. 'Once upon a time there was a king and queen, as in many lands have been ...' 'Once upon a time, and be sure 'twas a long time ago..."Once upon a time, and twice upon a time, and all times together as ever I heard of. . 'Once upon a time, and a very good time it was, though it was neither in your time nor my time, nor nobody else's time..." The stories would, curiously, not be so believable if the period in which they took place was specified, or if the place where they occurred was named. In the history of Jack and the Giants' it comes as a jolt when an actual location is mentioned (a Markettown in Wales), the tale thereafter seems a foolish tale, the spell has been broken. Yet fairy tales are nothing if not realistic; and it is their cynicism that keeps them lively. Wonders may take place without remark; but a sharp eye is kept on practical details. In Diamonds and Toads' the prince shrewdly appreciates that a girl capable of producing diamonds when she speaks is marriageable without a dowry. In 'Sleeping Beauty' the point is made that the prince who has entered the enchanted castle is an eligible young man, since he is 'of another family from that of the sleeping princess'. In a Hungarian version of The Frog Prince', after the frog had spent the night with the girl and turned into a handsome youth, 'they hastened to celebrate the wedding, so that the christening might not follow it too soon'. It will be noticed that traditional stories are seldom soft, and never sentimental. A premium may be placed on beauty but not on virginity, on riches but not on learning, on worldly success but not on the means by which the success is achieved. The virtues which get rewarded are presence of mind, kindliness, willingness to take advice, and courage. The rewards sought after are wealth, comfortable living, and an ideal partner.
Indeed some details that appear to us romantic today may merely reflect social conditions when the tales were formulated. The prevalence of stepmothers is accounted for by the shortness of life in past times, by the consequent shortness of marriages, and by the practice of the surviving partner marrying again without unnecessary delay. When
[20]
lives were short, too, girls of distinction married early. The princess in "The Three Heads in the Well" who becomes a bride at fifteen, and Sleeping Beauty who welcomes her prince when "fifteen or sixteen" (if the hundred years she has been asleep are not counted), were simply conforming to the practice of their time, a practice emphasized in Madame d'Aulnoy's story of "The Yellow Dwarf," where the queen is deeply concerned her daughter will die an old maid the way she continues, at the age of fifteen, to disdain the kings who come to court her. Likewise the prominent place that wells have in some tales will be understood by anyone who has lived, as we have, in a village where all water had to be fetched in a bucket. No meeting place so central to daily routine as a communal well exists in modem urban life unless, perhaps, it is the gate where the afternoon concourse gathers to fetch small children from school. Fairy tales are thus more realistic than they may appear at first sight; while the magic in them almost heightens the realism. The magic sets us wondering how we ourselves would react in similar circumstances. It encourages speculation. It gives a child licence to wonder. And this is the merit of the tales, that by going beyond possibility they enlarge our daily horizon. For a man not given to speculation might as well walk on four legs as on two. A child who does not feel wonder is but an inlet for apple pie.