>> This program is dedicated to Andrew Lang, a Scottish writer remembered most for his anthologies of fairy tales.

Each year from 1889 until 1910, he edited tales in a series of books named for different colors in the Green Fairy Book.

Lang wrote, these fairy tales are the oldest stories in the world, and as they were first made by men who were childlike for their own amusement, so they amuse children still and also grown up people who have not forgotten, had they once were children.

♪ Oh I can believe ♪ ♪ in everything I read.

♪ ♪ Little boy blue.

♪ ♪ A lady ♪ with a shoe ♪ ♪ and a dish ran off ♪ with a spoon.

♪ ♪ Well, hickory dickory dock.

♪ ♪ A scholar he's ♪ late to school.

♪ ♪ And I like a cow.

♪ ♪ I jump over the moon.

♪ ♪ Rick Sebak> At the end of the 17th century, in the court of Louis the 14th at the Palace of Versailles, it was very fashionable to effect the simpleness of a peasant.

Louis and his nobles and ladies sometimes dressed up as shepherds and shepherdesses, and they enjoyed hearing the simple tales that common people told each other, folk tales.

A retired lawyer named Charles Perot took advantage of the fashion and produced a small book of stories, which he titled "Histoire ou Contes du temps Passé".

The collection included eight simple, traditional stories, and it's now considered the first important volume of folklore in the 19th century.

The British scholar Andrew Lang acknowledged Perot's contribution to literature, saying every generation listens in its turn to this old family friend of all the world.

The men and women who've written and preserved and translated tales have indeed become old family friends to people in many distant lands.

Every culture has its own folk tales, some of which are remarkably similar to others found in faraway places.

The noted folklorist Stith Thompson, in his book "The Folk Tale", points out that even more tangible evidence of the ubiquity and antiquity of the folk tale is the great similarity in the content of stories of the most varied people.

The same tale types and narrative motifs are found scattered over the world in most puzzling fashion.

One of the most universal of all folk tales is the story of the girl we call Cinderella in a book called "The Classic Fairy Tales", the British scholars Iona and Peter Opie state that the story of Cinderella is undoubtedly the best known fairy story in the world, and it is a tale whose strangeness has apparently been a wonder to man for a thousand years.

The earliest known written version of the Cinderella story comes from China, where it was recorded in the ninth century A.D.

the most familiar version for English speaking people is a translation of the tale as written by Perot in 1697.

He called the poor girl Sunderland, which was originally translated into English as Cinderella.

Folklorists have identified over 700 different versions of Cinderella around the world.

Marsha Brown won the Caldecott Medal in 1955 for her translation and illustration of the tale, as written by Perot.

She uses pastel colors on pen and ink drawings to illuminate the story of the good and sweet girl with the two evil stepsisters.

Paul Galdone used the same French version of the tale, when he illustrated Cinderella in 1978.

He pictures the fairy godmother as a humble peasant woman with a wand.

There are several differences in the tale when told by the Brothers Grimm, who call the girl, Aschenputtel.

Anne Rogers translated their version for this 1978 book, illustrated by the Danish artist Svend Otto S. Cinderella, in this telling is aided by a white bird and a flock of doves who help her with her chores.

When her stepsisters go to the Royal Ball, Cinderella visits her mother's grave, where the white bird lives in a tree.

The bird magically supplies the fancy clothes needed for the occasion.

In 1981, Nonny Hogrogian also illustrated the Grimms' version of the tale, which becomes quite bloody at the end when the prince searches for the foot that fits the slipper.

The two stepsisters cut off parts of their feet so that the slipper will fit.

When Cinderella is finally found to be the rightful owner of the Golden Shoe, she rides away to marry the prince.

And the sisters are blinded as punishment for their wickedness.

Among the 700 other ways this story has been told, there's this old English tale called "Tattercoats", retold here by Flora Annie Steele, with pictures by Diane Goode.

"Tattercoats" is befriended by a crippled gooseherd who plays magic tunes on a pipe.

With his help, She attracts the attention of a prince who is looking for a wife.

"Vasilisa the Beautiful" is a Russian version of the same basic Cinderella story.

In this 1970 edition, it was translated by Thomas P. Whitney and illustrated again by Nonny Hogrogian.

In this version, before she dies, the girl's real mother gives Vasilisa a magic doll.

The two wicked stepsisters are jealous of Vasilisa's beauty, and they plot to get her killed by a witch named Baba Yaga.

Instead, Vasilisa goes to work for the witch, who fires her when Vasilisa admits that she was blessed by her dying mother.

Vasilisa eventually spins some extraordinary fabric which attracts the king's attention, and of course, he ends up marrying her.

The Cinderella story is also recognizable in this Vietnamese folk tale called "In the Land of Small Dragon".

In this 1979 book, it was told by Dang Manh Kha to Ann Nolan Clark and illustrated by Tony Chen.

In this Asian version, the unfortunate girl is named Tam, and it's her half sister who is filled with hatred.

Tam is beautiful and diligent, but not quite so clever as her half sister.

Fortunately, a lovely cloud dressed fairy named Nang Tam comes to the aid of the deserving girl.

Then, unexpectedly, a bird carries one of Tam's bejeweled shoes to the Emperor's garden, where it's discovered by a prince.

He, of course, decides to find its owner, and he ends up marrying the beautiful Tam.

All these international versions of the Cinderella story are called variants.

In the study of folklore, a variant will have basically the same plot as the prototype, but the setting may change, the characters may be different and different detail, and motifs may appear.

There are many variants of the folk tale about the little man who spins wool at phenomenal speeds, or who spins straw into gold.

Generally for payment, he wants either to abduct a woman who has benefited from his services, or he wants to take away her first born child.

There's always an escape clause in the agreement.

If, after a certain length of time, the woman can guess her magic helper's name, she'll get the spinning free of charge.

The most familiar version of the tale is undoubtedly that of the Brothers Grimm, who called the little man, Rumpelstiltskin.

Edith Tarkov retold the story of Rumpelstiltskin in 1973, in a book with illustrations by Edward Gorey.

In England, there's an old variant of the Rumpelstiltskin story called "Tom Tit Tot".

This edition by Evaline Ness has a text based on the tale, as recorded by Joseph Jacobs in the 19th century.

In one part of England, in Cornwall, there's an old folk tale known as "Duffy and the Devil".

This picture book by Harve and Margot Zemach, won the Caldecott Medal in 1974.

This Cornish variant ends with a special twist.

When the devil hears that Duffy knows his name, which is Tarraway.

Not only does he disappear in a puff of smoke, but all the knitting he's done in the previous three years turns to ash.

Certain folktales are often associated with specific countries or regions.

There are too many tales and too many places to talk about in a short time, so we'll just touch on several countries and a few indigenous tales which have been featured in recent picture books.

It's perhaps best to start with France, where written folktales were first printed.

The first little book by Perot contained eight tales, including "Cinderella","Sleeping Beauty", "Puss in Boots", and "Little Red Riding Hood".

Perot's success inspired other French writers, among them Madame la France de Beaumont, who wrote down the text of an old French story in 1756.

In translation, The story was titled "Beauty and the Beast".

In 1978, Diane Goode retranslated the original text of Madame de Beaumont and illustrated it with a set of colorful drawings.

Her version of the beast is hairy but not too frightening.

In the great tradition of folk tales, the beast is never described in detail in the text, and artists have imagined him in various forms.

This well-dressed feline monster is the star of a recent retelling of the tale by Mariana Mayor, with pictures by Mercer Mayer.

These illustrations are highly detailed and richly colored, and can easily capture the imagination of all readers.

In his book titled "Fairy Tales and After", Roger Sale proposes that the correct way to read folklore is slowly and carefully with as few prearranged ideas as possible.

He says that a full reading of tales from One country, followed by a sampling from a number of others, is a good way to begin.

Once you've looked at tales from France, you might want to consider some from Germany, where the Brothers Grimm did their work.

In the early 1800s, they obviously had no tape recorders, yet they tried to capture the exact oral delivery of the hundreds of tales they heard.

In the 1930s, Wanda Gag translated and illustrated many of the Grimm stories, and in her introduction to a collection called "Tales from Grimm", she notes that "Hansel and Gretel" is probably the most characteristic and best beloved of all the stories.

While there are variants of it, the one given preference by the Grimms is the most familiar.

Here are Hansel and Gretel, abandoned in the woods as seen by Wanda Gag.

As always, the two children are delighted when they discover the little cottage made of gingerbread cookies and cakes.

After the witch is pushed into the oven in the original Grimm version of the story, Hansel and Gretel ride on the back of an aquatic bird, sometimes a duck, sometimes a swan, in order to get across a body of water.

In 1962, Joan Walsh Anglund retold and illustrated the tale, giving it a new title.

"Nibble, Nibble, Mousekin".

In 1971, Arnold Lobel drew a set of illustrations for the German story and pictured Gretel as a plump little fraulein.

In the translation used in this book, the witch's house is made of bread, and it looks quite a bit smaller than some of the other artists' interpretations.

In 1975, Adrienne Addams illustrated the tale as translated by Charles Scribner Jr.

She shows Hansel and Gretel as two tiny children lost in a terrifying tangle of trees.

The witch's cottage is again made of bread, and isn't quite the confectioner's masterpiece that it is in many of the other versions.

The witch is a grotesquely exaggerated hag, and it seems unlikely that she would ever appear friendly as she's supposed to when the two children arrive.

At the end of this version, they again are transported across the water.

Here, it's a river.

In 1979, Elisabeth D. Crawford translated the tale once again for this picture book, illustrated by Lisbeth Zwerger.

The two children seem a bit older in these striking drawings, done with ink and washes.

The witch's house again is made of bread, and the two kids munch at it casually until the red eyed witch arrives.

Gretel has to push hard to get the witch into the oven, but all works out in the end.

The stepmother has died, and although there's no picture of it, the pair of children do ride a duckling across a huge lake.

Here's one more version of "Hansel and Gretel", published in 1980, with illustrations by Susan Jeffers.

Her Hansel and Gretel are colorful kids who get lost in a gray forest filled with bats.

In the Jeffers version, the witch's house is made of cake, and it's covered with candies.

As in most translations, the windows of the house are made of transparent sugar.

The witch isn't obviously an evil woman, which seems to match the text a bit more closely.

But when her true nature is revealed, Gretel shoves her once again into the oven.

The huge number of tales which were collected by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm, accounts for the fact that there are so many German tales to choose from.

In 1972, Nancy Ekholm Burkert illustrated a picture book containing the story of Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs.

Another one of the Grimms tales, her drawings are careful compositions full of many details.

In the Grimms tale, Snow White is only seven years old when she is left in the woods and finds the house of the Seven Dwarfs.

She is often pictured as a much older girl.

The dwarfs, as drawn by Miss Burkert, seem to be a placid group of very clean little men.

In 1974, Trina Schart Hyman illustrated a version of Snow White, freely translated from "The German" by Paul Heins.

In this picture book, Snow White appears to be a bit younger, and the dwarfs are dark, tough looking men who seem oddly modern in their plaid shirts and caps.

As usual, Trina Schart Hyman's drawings are intricate, fascinating pictures that deserve careful study.

When Snow White awakens from her deathly deep sleep, she looks like the young Elizabeth Taylor, and she goes off to marry the Prince.

Of course, Walt Disney's version of Snow White, in which the dwarfs all have names, has had an immense effect on this folk tale in the 20th century.

The Disney characters are featured in the Little Golden Book series.

The Opie's in the classic fairy tales comment on Disney's movie of Snow White.

They say that at first it seemed to be a work of compelling power and humor, but which seen again in later years has not lived up to the first impression.

They go on to say that the film has, in fact, had an unfortunate effect on fairy tale illustration.

They don't elaborate.

If we look at England for a moment, a country with events that are often described as fairy tales come true.

We find that much of the written folk literature there has been borrowed from other cultures.

Andrew Lang commented once on England's debt to the Frenchman Perot.

No nation owes him so much as we of England, who, south of the Scottish and east of the Welsh marches, have scarce any popular tales of our own, save Jack the Giant Killer.

One Englishman, Joseph Jacobs, found enough traditional tales in England, however, to put together two volumes of English fairy tales.

He rewrote most of the tales, eliminating much of the violence because he hoped to write as a good old nurse will speak when she tells fairy tales.

His versions of many tales are their most familiar forms.

In 1980, when Lorinda Bryan Cauley illustrated the story of the Three Little Pigs, she used Joseph Jacobs' text.

And it's not a completely nonviolent version.

The first two pigs get eaten by the wolf, and then the third pig boils the wolf and eats him for supper.

In 1976, D William Johnson adapted and illustrated the English tale of Jack and the Beanstalk.

Although Jack seems foolish at the beginning, swapping his cow for some beautiful beans, his foolishness pays off.

He's able to recapture his father's fortune, which was stolen by the giant, and then he kills the giant by chopping down the beanstalk.

In 1977, Anthony Maitland illustrated this picture book titled "Idle Jack", based on another of Joseph Jacobs' English tales.

Idle Jack is a simple noodle head tale about another boy named Jack, who was as stupid as he was large and as large as he was lazy, which was very lazy indeed.

Not all the folk tales in the world are as familiar as some of these European standards.

Many groups of people are only now writing down the tales which their ancestors have told for centuries.

Isaac Bashevis Singer, winner of the Nobel Prize for literature in 1978, has collected, rewritten and published many Jewish folk tales from Eastern Europe and Russia.

These pictures by Margot Zemach are from Singer's collection titled, "When Schlemiel Went to Warsaw and Other Stories".

Like "Idle Jack", Schlemiel is a full character and appears in several of the traditional stories.

It seems that no group of people is too small or too obscure to produce great folklore.

For example, this book "The Flying Shoes", written by Cynthia Jameson and illustrated by Lawrence di Fiori, is based on a spirited story which the author explains comes from the rich folklore of the Udmurts, a Finno-Ugrian people who inhabit the western foothills of the Ural Mountains in recent years, several authors and illustrators have turned to the uncommon folklore of Africa, where in some places the oral tradition still preserves many tribal tales.

In 1968, Eleanor B Heady collected a number of East African folk tales in a book called, "When the Stones Were Soft".

This collection, with illustrations by Tom Feelings, includes a variety of both simple and complex tales.

In the early 1970s, Gerald Mcdermott produced an award winning animated film based on the West African legend of Anansi the Spider.

He then put together this vivid and colorful book based on the designs used in the film.

Anansi is a folk hero of the Ashanti people who appreciate his clever tricks.

Leo and Diane Dillon, who've illustrated several striking books about Africa, created these dreamlike pictures for children of the Sun by Jan Carew.

This is a complex story about a time when the sun was young.

He impregnates a young woman, beautiful as the mystery of sleep, and then ignores her.

She gives birth to twin boys, eventually, they set out on a perilous journey to find their father, whom they discover in a glowing house in the sky.

Scholars have been fascinated for years by unexpected similarities and tales told by widely separated peoples.

In this book called "The Girl Who Married a Ghost "and Other Tales from the North American Indians," there's a story called "How the World Was Saved".

It's the story of a beautiful woman named White Shell Woman, who is impregnated by the sun and who gives birth to twin boys.

They travel far eastward and cross the wide, wide waters to find their father, who lives in a beautiful house of turquoise and white shell.

The origin of folk literature, whether it be in our genetic heritage or in the mountains of Asia, will probably remain a puzzle forever.

All the tales in this book were collected in the early 20th century by Edward S Curtis, who documented many of the Native American cultures with photographs and films.

The photographs in this volume were selected by John Bierhorst, who edited the tales.

Several outstanding picture books featured tales based on Native American stories.

"The Legend of Scarface" by Robert San Souci, with illustrations by his brother Daniel, recounts a tale told by the Blackfeet Indians.

It's a romantic tale about Scarface, who falls in love with the chief's daughter.

Before he can marry her, he must travel on a long journey to the lodge of the sun.

Paul Gobel won the 1979 Caldecott Award for his picture book titled "The Girl Who Loved Wild Horses".

Gobel uses a somewhat primitive style to illustrate a tale about a girl who chooses to live among a herd of horses instead of in a village of people.

Gobel has been criticized for creating an unrealistic mixture of tribal traits in his illustrations.

In 1981, the San Souci brothers, Robert and Daniel created another book based on a Native American tale, "Song of Sedna" is an adaptation of an ancient Eskimo legend.

When colonists, settlers, slaves, and immigrants arrived in the New World, they brought their folktales with them.

Gradually, the tales adapted to the new terrain.

In the 1940s, Richard Chase compiled a collection of tales from southern Appalachia in a book called the "Jack Tales".

Some of the tales, like "Jack and the Bean Tree", are American variants of popular English tales that cross the Atlantic.

The illustrations in this edition are by Berkley Williams, Jr, who also illustrated another collection of American folk tales by Richard Chase called "Grandfather Tales", first published in 1948.

In this book, Chase records many American variants of old favorites from Europe.

Africans who were brought to America as slaves created a whole new world of folk tales, featuring a lively set of talking animals in a book called "The Days When the Animals Talked".

William J. Faulkner assembled a collection of Black American folk tales, which he remembered hearing as a boy in South Carolina.

Some of the tales are realistic tales about slaves and life on the plantations.

Others are about talking beasts named Brer Rabbit, Brer Fox, Brer Raccoon, and Brer Bear.

Brer Rabbit is also the main character in this picture book written by Ennis Rees, with drawings by Edward Gorey.

Julius Lester also put together a collection of slave stories in a book called "The Knee High Man and Other Tales", illustrated by Ralph Pinto.

Lester's characters are called Mister.

Mr.

Rabbit, Mr.

Bear, Mr.

Dog, and Mister Cat.

Lester points out these stories came from slavery times, and many of them were actually about the relations between the slave and his owner.

Other stories were simply didactic, passing on to children in the guise of animal stories, the values of the community and other stories were simply fun.

In 1981, this book was published "Bo Rabbit Smart for True: Folktales from the Gullah" Retold by Priscilla Jaquith, with drawings by Ed Young.

The four stories again are about talking animals, clever as well as foolish, characters, which provided hours and hours of entertainment for the Gullah slaves who lived on the Sea Islands in Georgia and South Carolina.

Not all American folk tales were imported, however.

This is a relatively young country, but already there are legendary heroes who are part of our national heritage.

"John Henry", for instance, Ezra Jack Keats has told his story in a striking picture book about the steel driving man who could work as hard and as fast as any machine.

The tall tale tradition in American folklore is also evident in books like "Pecos Bill and The Mustang" by Harold W. Felton, illustrated by Leonard Shortall.

Pecos Bill spent his childhood with a pack of coyotes, and then went on to become the first cowboy.

Exaggeration and hyperbole are essential ingredients of American folk tales.

Probably the biggest hero of all time is Paul Bunyan, the giant woodsman whose exploits are celebrated in books like "The Story of Paul Bunyan", written and illustrated by Barbara and Ed Emberley.

There are few limits to the world of folk tales, and new tales are constantly being invented.

Hans Christian Andersen was one of the first important writers to create original tales in the folk tale tradition.

He invented some timeless tales, including one which he called "Tom Elise", a name which H.W.

Dalton translated in the 1860s as Thumbelina.

The story of the tiny girl who sleeps in a walnut shell has been illustrated by many outstanding artists.

These pictures were created in 1961 by Adrian Adams.

In 1979, Susan Jeffers drew a new set of illustrations for this book, which features a retelling of the story by Amy Ehrlich.

In 1980, Richard and Clara Winston retranslated the tale for this edition, with pictures by Lisbeth Zwerger Her illustrations recall some of the classic drawings of Arthur Rackham.

The wee lady is named Thumbeline in this version, but she still ends up happily with the tiny prince who rules over all the tiny people.

Stories like "Thumbelina", which have many of the characteristics of folk tales and yet are not part of any oral tradition, are often called literary tales.

There are several outstanding examples of recent literary tales.

William Steig won the Caldecott Award in 1970 for his funny and frustrating tale called "Sylvester and the Magic Pebble", it uses the magical transformation motif.

Jay Williams has written several outstanding literary tales, including "Petronella", a fanciful folk tale featuring a brave and clever, somewhat feminist heroine.

These brilliant illustrations are by Friso Henstra.

Mr.

Williams also wrote this literary tale, set in the Far East, entitled "Everyone Knows What a Dragon Looks Like".

Mercer Mayer created the extraordinary illustrations.

Maurice Sendak has also created a literary tale in his book "Outside Over There".

His heroine, Ida, doesn't notice when the goblins steal her baby sister, and so she has to make a magic journey to the goblins cave, where it's revealed that they all look like babies too.

Literary or ancient.

It ultimately makes little difference where or when a tale originates, for it makes no difference if you're a member of the French royal court or a German peasant farmer, or a field slave in Georgia.

If you're human, you can know the magic power of a folk tale.

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