New-York tribune., 1910-04-27
THE ORIGIN or STORIES
Andrew Lang on the Ancient
Sources of Romance.
4 The London Morning Post


: 1t is not true. and it was not true and
heaven forbid that IL ever should he
true" says the girl to the rOhber IN the
4 fairy tale When we think of the stories
4 that are not true there we may discard
political stories as a theme too painfuD
I we marvel why there are 80 many Of
4 them. and why they naturally fall into
certain marked classes. which are found
/ almost everywhere all over the world
NJ Van Gennep has recently devoted
book 10 this subject. La Formation des
/ Legendes" tFlamnnarion). but neither he
nor any man has solved the mystery,
while do not pretend 10 be the Edipus
, OF this riddle of the Sphinx. How DO
I stories C~ow. ard how are they diffused,
/ and how r. Jney modified? | have been
! told. in f; smoking room. very terrible
/ tale about a respected family in Blank
shire: a tale which the narrator thor
1 oughly believed in AS a contemporary
/ anecdote of private life. I said. That
. is the plot Of Horace WalpOle's play, The
/ Mysterious Mother: and Waipole got il
/ from Howelrs Letters written in the
/ tine of Charles J. and Howell got IL
/ from but here the other man.
drea ding the lecture to which he was
/ obviously doomed ifor / was getting
into Conlparetti's essay on Gdipusl,
4 said. 4 don't care: these things keep on
! happening in families. History repeats
itself" But he begged the question;
myth. not history. repeats itself
! In another case the story was about A
contemporary Young lady. and 7 was
again 50 pedautic as 10 observe that the
anecdote was told by Ciraumont about
IA belle Stuart. who was 50 cruel 10
Charles II II NAV or may not have been
true about a lady A s remarkable for her
simplicity as for her beauty, but in the
new case the warn was certainly false.
IN early boyhOod I was told very comic
story about leading drunkard in A
for word. in the French of Beroal6e De
Nerville. who was fsCetious in the six
teenth century Indeed I know but one
tale Of this kind which is dated. IL could
not have been told before the Apocryphs
! Wa cut ont Of the Bible by the Puritane
and was due 10 a Cavalier wit
There are learned legends. too. be-
lieved in by the wise. such as the story
| that. in remote times. kings were regu-
/ larly put to death ~ 2 given period. an
! nually, triennially. OF with a run Of nine
/ Years ard 50 on We are actually told
4, that the King Of Cnossos in Crete. when
the town was as civilized as RrixtOn. was
/ hutchered in 2 cave every nina wears
/ The cave has been dug out and the soil
/ has been sifted. but neither roval nor any
4 human bones have been found. only
! bones of oxen. goats and deer. That does
not prove much either way. but there is
/ absolutely no reason for the belief. which
rests on statement If Homer. 10 the
J effect that the mythical King Mimos
! reigred-and then follows an adjective
4 which nobody can translate. hut which Is
taken. by friends Of the legend. 70 mean
! by periods Of nine years" or for vine
! years. About the cave not a word IS
said. Another example Of implicit belief
was the remark made by a scientific
/ character that the King Of Tyre in
/ Ezelieis time. was burned annually. For
proof he cited Ezekiel. xviii. u. Thou
hast walked up and down in the midst
cf the stones Of fire" This hardly proNp,i
the case. as the king seems 10 have been
none the worse. But the stones Of fire.
are merely the precious stones in Fdan
I the garden Of Cod" sard. tonaz he'll
diamond. there are ten of them. mon
! TONED In tne previous verse. and in verse
/ i the king. for his rnisdeeds. is 10 IL.
elected from his earthly paradise Of pros
Penl3- IN fact. as evidence for JhIs
/ learned legend. I know hut one case in
/ which a harhsriC king had 10 iu1u7ol9-e
4 himself at the end Of twelve wears. and
~ he was subject king with q suzerain
over him $50 the old Portuguese traveller
saws Who tells the tsleb. one may sus-
/ pect mat reasons Of state caused this
/ violent form Of supcrannua No in
/ dependent prince would have stood II
n. Van GCnnep thinks that ali or most
] cf oNf romantic stories. such as Fagst
! ReynarG the FOX, the fables from .z-sop
! downward. the Iataka or fables of the
tliff'-lll iLlf Nlids fflih menus ne one
/ eyed. are unconscious theffS from the
/ folktaI les ~ the world in general Tho
. process was this. he Supposes- the -sl.s
say. Cinderella. were 0ripir7ally- current
stories by no one IN particular. told from
. mouth 20 mouth. Then they We're tsllen
/ Up bF literary narrat0rs and ruhlishpd
J Then they descended on the people again
and We're 50 scattered that there are
! moro than four hundred versions Of Gin
derelia found among races 50 illiterste as
/ tho Santale in India and in scores Of
+ ether remote tribes Tho versions have
. been collected and published by Miss
/ Here 7 must differ from NJ. Van Cen
T rop. The literary tale Of Cinderella
4 fairy Sodmother. dance at court. glass
slipper and an. WAS published hy charles
. rewault a. the very end OF the seven-
te"nth century. The popular versions
in France. IN the Gaelic speaking High
! lands in the Toulands. and among
! scores ~ Wild, rcmot" people were n,vr~
taken from Perraulf's literary version
They are fun ~ the old savage element.
] there ls no fairy Erdmother b,lt I. friend
lN beast. sometimes the reincgrna-ion of
+ a. dead mother lu the same WAY "poal-
4 ~ and the Beast" "Drphors and I-gryd-
/ ice. Jason and M"dus" and alI tho rest
4 "i th'fr are literary oNpurEat,d versions
ui Oh tales, found I'm pvcrv quarter Of
The world. they did not reach the Sa-
. moaus tfc Zulus. the Maoris. Tho Rcd
Indians. The HUarochiri Df Central
. America iu the sixteenth century
through published literary versions OF
. European fairy tales or through Epro-
pecan poets treating subjects from Greek
. E.hplogy. Tho natives Of New Gutnoa
3 have "a tale i'm which heroic boy NAL
, tToats thr other boys who say. "you
( .pull D. better employed I'm aycncing
T iho murders ~ your father and two
/ uucl,s. "a thing OF which hc has never
J beard. That incident is common fn
Eurppo"l folk tales but :he people of
New Guinea did not borrow ID from our
d printed ballads. amy more Than all poo
pies have borrowed their innumera bic
tales of the Origin Of Death from mis-
. sionaries. ] have never seen any mis-
sionary influence in the tales of Austria
liam black fellows collected and trans
lated bv missionaries such Is Ar. Siebert
and NJ. StrChloW. Du the other hand
there are cases ia which medi@Val min
strels wrote knightly romances on sub
4 iects found m folk tales. while minstrels
/ 81 lower grade turned the romauces into
. ballads like those Il King Arthur. But
4 these ballads did not reach all the red
/ black and yellow men. far as we are
4 aU are. The negro version Of Drpheus
] and E-fIrs-1fce fr The United Ctzfr- &c