The Age And Origin of Fairy Tales: “a tale as old as time.”

originally posted by: Baddogma
a reply to: Harte

Honestly, I hadn't an inkling that you were a Greek whore... but I know something of sacrifices for cheap grins, myself.

Come and see me sometime, big boy.

Harte

a reply to: Harte
No doubt. Dr. Strange was a trendsetter. Though a very strange one.

Don't know how many of you are familiar with Ashlimann's HUGE section of fairytales classified by type, but it's a real classic:
www.pitt.edu...

originally posted by: Byrd
Because it's so difficult to validate, I'm a little suspicious of this. While can believe that fairy tales and myths are old, I'm not sure that the method of testing is valid - and I don't think you can really trace them back to any proposed prehistoric language.

I don't know whether you have read the paper or not, it is linked at the bottom of the article that the OP uses, but it does a pretty good job of validating the linguistic dispersal of the stories, however, it is only confirming what literature studies have been saying for years...for example, an article from 1994 by the eminently well-read George Monbiot...

www.monbiot.com...

What is perhaps more interesting about looking at this story against the wider tradition of "magical Storytelling" is that the four primary stories, that they conclude belong to all the PIE descendants, are, like The Smith and the Devil, associated with animal knowledge givers, and/or metallurgy. The Smith is, particularly as Hephaestus, prototype of the Demiurgis or craftsman god of the gnostic and esoteric traditions, the selling of your soul as a short cut or a means of getting more than your fair share, or achieving "special" knowledge, a move away from animism and natural veneration. As Monbiot attempts to describe, the Smith in African folklore, which given colonial and missionary influence is distorted and reviled. This seems both due to the inheritance of the knowledge (via endogamy), as well as the shamanic inference of being between worlds, bridging the liminal space. Another of the four stories is that the Animal Bride, which deals similarly with liminality, and contains wafts of an underlying carry through from shamanic beliefs and practices. Christianities influence in turning the natural world into the devil, singularly, appears to have had the most significant effect on the development of the story, but the demonisation, generally, I think is the Smith as turning the sacred profane, hence his casting out. As a craftsman, he assumes god-hood because he creates "beauty", but in doing so, he seperates himself from mere mortals and incurs the wrath of the gods to boot. You can't get much better than that, narrative wise, throw in the redemption cycle and you have Freemasonry, essentially.

a reply to: Siddharta

Unfortunately "Dr. Normal" didn't sell many comic books...

Okay, I'll stop being cute... frustrated comedian.

I watched something not long ago, discussing what some believe was the basis for Beauty and the Beast, about a man with hypertrichosis. Essentially, it's when a person has a genetic mutation that causes them to grow hair in abnormal places. In this case, the man Petrus Gonsalvus, had hair everywhere, thus looking like a beast.

He was brought into France's Henry II's court, and was groomed into a nobleman, of sorts. The king's wife wanted to breed more people like him and so arranged a marriage for him. There is much more to the story, but I can see how it could be the real life inspiration for the classic tale.

a reply to: Baddogma

Nevertheless I found it very funny and would have liked to go on....

Ya know another thing associated to this would be nephilim. For some reason when ever people research then you come across the axe and removing metal from stone.

a reply to: Ghost147

originally posted by: Johnathanandheather
Ya know another thing associated to this would be nephilim. For some reason when ever people research then you come across the axe and removing metal from stone.

a reply to: Ghost147

The Nephilim are mentioned in only two biblical passages, neither of which mentions anything to do with Axes or stones