What folktales or fairy tales would you nominate for a Folktale of the Year bracket?
What's your favorite tale?
Which one do you think would make a good Folktale of the Year for 2024?
Which one would be fun to campaign for in a vote?
Which one would you enjoy reading other people's opinions about?
Give us a title, a summary, or a type (see toot below for explanation of tale types) 😄
@TarkabarkaHolgy I think there should definitely be a category for "Most revelant folk tale" for which tale most reflects wisdom for modern living in 2024. Can someone lure Elon Musk into a bottle by telling him he can't turn into a fly?
@TarkabarkaHolgy I vote for The Truth Comes to Light (780-799 in the first book on the list you shared). I love stories about people who are wrongly accused and then have their names cleared.
@TarkabarkaHolgy I'm obsessed with how many different Pleides stories there are. Seven sisters that take off their fairy clothes to bathe and one gets trapped when a man takes hers is so pervasive. Also sometimes feels related to Bluebeard or The Six Swans.
@TarkabarkaHolgy I remember one from Northern exposure. I can't find the whole thing but here's a synopsis:
Long ago, the Tlingit lived in darkness as light was guarded by a selfish chief. Through a series of events, Raven ends up disguising himself as the chief’s daughter’s infant son. The chief gave Raven the light to play with to stop him from crying. Raven took the light and flew off so he could distribute it to the rest of the people. From then on, the Tlingit no longer lived in the dark.
@TarkabarkaHolgy
Most of my search results in the Japanese (and ultimately Chinese) version(s) of the goddess princess Vega falling in love with the mortal Altair.
But any other variant is interesting. (cf Pyramus and Thysbe?)
I am especially intrigued by the symbolism of the Magpie bridge.
@KonchogTenzenSangpo My general opinion as a practicing storyteller is that it really depends on what stories we are talking about in what time frame. Because stories both travel really well, and have a tendency to spring from universal human experiences independently. So, probably a huge mix of all kinds of origins.
@TarkabarkaHolgy totally - and too little solid knowledge for actual facts.
I - even if UPG - do like the idea a lot that specific core elements, for example a bird (crane or stork) would fetch souls from a somehow watery source (well, sea) and be transporting these from the nether to the present... Likewise as psychopompos the other way. But such also has great danger of overly romanticising & finding coherence where is only coincidence
@Printdevil Oh yeah it's definitely flawed, even the updated version 😊 I have had meltdown moments when I tracked down a reference and it was nowhere near the type I expected... Same with the motif index
@TarkabarkaHolgy You're in a lucky era though, my university library wasn't even computerised till I was half way through my degree. It was cards or crowd around the microfiche. Having the indices as as searchable PDF? I'd nearly go back and finish my PhD :)
@Printdevil Lol, I was in-between thanks to the Hungarian system. I did get to use card catalogs, offline catalogs, the actual paper ATU at the reference library (and the AaTh before that), and then computers and now the PDF 😆
@TarkabarkaHolgy I remember the Jeffrey Burton Russel set (Devil, etc) being kept behind a cresset metal gate in what we called "The Spooky Book Section". Folklore books were a little more accessible, but that whole floor of the library was always empty.
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