One day Baba Yaga’s two
trusted toads said,
”You are truly
terrifying!”
“Good!” said Baba Yaga,
“because that’s what I’m here for.”
from The Wise Doll by Hiawyn Oram.
Dear Reader, A few years ago I wrote this article for 'Kindred Magazine'… Some of my ideas have stayed the same and a few have changed since then, which I will write about in the coming months. I hope you find it thought provoking. Feel free to respond in the comments section. Jenni
As a professional storyteller, I have to confess my
prejudices. I am totally and passionately in love with the genre of folktales.
Yes, there are folktales that are boring or overly violent or model terrible
values. These are the toad stories and yes, sometimes one has to kiss a few
toads before finding the princes and princesses of story. Also, if your main
exposure to the classic fairytales has been Walt Disney films or books, you may
be unaware of the earlier, earthier and more satisfying versions. As my friend
and master storyteller Brian Hungerford often wryly asides, ’There is a special
place in hell for Walt Disney.’ (1) Many adults seem also to have lost the
ability to decode the metaphors in folktales, which leads them to confuse
princes and princesses with toads. This means many parents miss the potential
in folktales to heal, soothe and model ways of being for their children and
themselves, in an entertaining and gripping way. Thus I want to write in
defense and in praise of my good friends and lovers.
Folktales are often rejected for their violence, their
‘sappy idealism’ and happy-ever-after endings and for being all about kings and
queens. For me, those things didn’t worry me, but the gender stereotypes did.
So I avoided telling the classic Grimm’s tales and chose to tell more unusual
folktales with active heroines. But two experiences reversed that rejection.
The first was my son’s obvious delight in Little Red Cap (Red Riding Hood),
Rapunzel, Goldilocks, Rumplestiltskin and Jack and the Bean Stalk. (2) He was
then two years old. The second was reading a book called The Uses of
Enchantment by Bruno Bettelheim (2a). Firstly, why are there so many kings and
queens in folktales? Perhaps you associate the monarchy with dictatorial power,
inbreeding and financial inequity. Yet symbolically, the king and queen
represent our whole, mature and evolved selves. Kings and queens in an
archetypal sense, have high self-esteem and the wisdom to make important
decisions. They manifest loyal supporters, can withstand opposition and live in
a state of abundance.
Brono Bettelheim wrote,
Every child at some time wishes that he were a prince or
princess - and at times, in his unconscious, the child believes he is one, only
temporarily degraded by circumstances. There are so many kings and queens in
fairytales because their rank signifies absolute power, such as the parent
seems to hold over the child. So the fairytale royalty represent projections of
the child’s imagination.
Violence in Folktales
Now, let’s address violence in folktales. There are two
things I’d like to consider here. The first is age appropriateness. The second
is sorting out positive stories from destructive stories.
