It also would be nice to know where the Grimms (or other fairy tale analysts) think that the stories originated because I wonder how prevalent the concept of a transformation into a bird really was at the time of the origination of the tales. Although I am by no means a religious studies major, I know that flying is often a theme in religious tales as well. As professor Figal said, the ability to fly gives one a truly unique characteristic that no other human can (literally) come close to. Because of their ability, birds can be thought of as "higher" than humans in multiple ways. Actually, even just in general, I wonder if many of these stories have religious connections or origins. Religion (even unorganized spirituality) pertains very closely to stories. One could easily argue that without the concept of stories or tales, religion would not exist at all. The Bible in itself is just a collection of stories. I realize that I've gotten on quite a tangent; I just think it's an amusing topic, even for someone who is seriously lacking in knowledge about any religion or its history. Hopefully we'll touch on it more later.
Wednesday, February 3, 2010
The Flying Brothers
Today's discussion in class about the brothers being turned into birds was very interesting to me. Comparing the stories of "The Twelve Brothers," "The Seven Ravens," and "The Six Swans," it is quite astonishing how many similar aspects there are to the stories. In fact, considering how much the Grimms often "revise" (or in my opinion, drastically change) the stories, I'm a bit surprised that they kept these three as distinct stories. Although concepts like the evil stepmother and other such motifs are of course common throughout all of the fairy tales, the sheer number of motifs that these two stories share would be shocking I think. I'm quite curious to know just how many motifs (as categorized as discussed today) would be shared among the three stories.
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You made the point that you are surprised that they kept these flying brothers stories as three different stories. I have been thinking about this same point throughout the reading of all of the similar fairy tales this semester. If they do revise so much, why can't they make these stories into one. It makes me wonder what distinct features each of these tales has that made the Grimm brothers want to keep them in this form.
ReplyDeleteI also have been curious as to why these tales were kept in their separate forms. I agree that the number of motifs shared is almost uncanny. In fact, when i read "The seven Ravens" i had already read "The Twelve Brothers" and i had to make sure i hadn't mixed them up. The only explanation i can really think of is that these stories could have all come from different regions of Europe and perhaps based on their cultural origins they were kept separate.
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