The citizen. (Frederick City, Md.) 1895-1923, 1910-05-27
THE ORIGIN OF STORIES
Andrew Lang on the Ancient
Sources of Romance. =, -,


never heard. That incident is COM
mon in European folk tales, but the
people of New Guinea did not borrow
1t from our printed ballads, any more
than all peoples have borrowed their
lnnumerable tales of the Origin of
Death from missionaries. l have
never seen any missionary influence
in the tales of Australian black fell
lows collected and translated by mis-
sionaries such as Mr.. Siebert and Mr..
Strehlow. On the other hand, there
are cases in which medieval Ministries
wrote kniS lilly romances on subjects
found in folk tales, while minstrels
of lower grade turned the romances
into ballads like those of King Ar
thur. But these ballads did not reach
all the red, black and yellow men, as
far as we are aware. The negro ver-
sion of Orpheus and Eurydice in the
United States in borrowed, apparent
ly, from the story in the opera of
"Orfeo;" the names are retained,
slightly altered. But the Red Indian
version, the most touching of any,
and the Maori version are native in
every detail and are no more bor-
rowed from the Greek tale than the
Greek tale is borrowed from them.
NJ. Van Gennep says that in the
opinion of most critics the non-moral
tale Che writes "amoraI') is older
than the tale with a moral. But this
idea, he says, is wrong; great intel
lectual development is necessary to
the composer of a non-moral unprac-
tical story. "Savages are of all men
the most profoundly moral" by which
he seems to mean that in all things
they drive at practice" Certainly
the fables of animals have morals, as
rule, and all the stories in which
courtesy and kindness are rewarded;
these exist in endless numbers, in
savage and civilized countries. If
dodginess is moral, it is also recon-
mended in "Brer Rabbit" and the
"Odessey," 1.-The Shifty Lad" and
"Jack the Giant Killer" and so on.
How many tales turn on the punish
ment of impertinent curiosity? Then
comes the story merely intended to
amuse, but even in this you can find
a moral, as well as Sin the bosom of
the rose" with it's lesson: Gather
We roses while We may"
M. Van Gennep, however, thinks, if
I follow him, that in current opinion
the conte-the romantic folk tale
comes first. The scene is not local
lied, the date is ''once upon time"
and the persons are not named, all
this coming first in a long pedigree.
Then names are given, places are as
signed, the story is offered as history.
This is what is called legend" we
often call it ''saga," as the Germans
do. Finally comes myth. The scene
is out of human place and time and
the actors are divine.
l do not think that many myths of
gods and goddesses are exalted contest
or popular tales. The process is rath-i
er this: First, the popular tale, as of
the young adventurer, aided by wise
person or animal, who knows great
deal. Then the youth is put by an
elephant, or a giant, or god, or a
king on some dangerous adventures.
The hostile being who insists on the
lads undertaking the adventures has
a daughter or wife, usually daugh-
ter, who helps the adventurer to sue
coed, and he runs away with her, or
wins her hand and half the kingdom.
1t would be impossible to enumerate
the wild, remote regions where that
tale is found, without names of
places or persons. In Greece it is ia
son, Medea and the Golden Fleece, or
Theseus, Minos, Ariadne and the Min
otaur. In another version the
strength of the hostile being who in
sists on the adventures lies in a stone
or other object, carefully concealed,
or in golden or purple lock of his
hair. The daughter betrays the Sc
cret of the adventurer. Thus, while
Mi1os is the hostile king. Theseus the
adventurer and Ariadne the daughter
nos is the adventurer, Nisus is the
hostile king, and the girl who loves
the adventurer is Scylla, daughter Of
Nisus, who betrays to the lover, Mi
nos, that her fathers strength lies in
his golden lock of hair, which she
cuts off, like Dalila. What has hap
pened is that in prehistoric Greece a
Sennachie, so to speak, clan min
stral, has taken popular tale and
given to it local habitation-Crete,
Megara, Iolcos, Athens - and given
heroic names to the characters. Then
comes the epic poet, Homer, who in
terweaves the heroes with the tale Of
Troy; but it is thing too little no.
ticed that he alone cuts all the popu.
lar fairy element-things magical, OBJ
jects which contain mems lives, like
the brand of Meleager, winged horses,
like Pegasus, friendly talking animals
and SO forth-out of the "sagas" as
he knows them. Homer alone does
this; the old poets of 10000 B. c.,
and the great Athenian dramatists
and Pindar stick to the fairy proper
ties in the fairy tales. M. Van GEN.
nep seems to dissent from the notion
that the story not localized and with
out names is older than the pseudo
historic saga" as of Theseus and
the Minotaur, which is localized. But
frx nrnuo bic fhaOru ryNuI6 dar,