This week’s stories are The Shoemaker and the Elves collected by the Brothers Grimm, and The Little Match Girl by Hans Christian Anderson. Between the Brothers Grimm and Hans Christian Anderson you have the foundations of the European folktale. At a future date I will go more deeply into their respective contributions to folktales and fairytales in general, but suffice it to say here that the Brothers Grimm collected their folktales from various oral traditions and that Anderson wrote his creations and in the process introduced many new elements to the classic folktale in the process of transforming them into literary fairytales.
Both stories require an introductory note for different reasons. In the Shoemaker and the Elves, the elves are described as being naked, a very uncommon event in children’s stories ( I can only think off the top of my head the Emperor’s New Clothes and Puss and Boots as other folk tales where characters are naked, and In the Night Kitchen by Maurice Sendak which has long been controversial because you can see the boy’s penis as he falls through the Night Kitchen.) Leaving aside In the Night Kitchen for the moment, children just love the implied nakedness in Puss and Boots, The Emperor’s New Clothes and The Shoemaker and the Elves because it is silly, exciting, unusual, funny and because the use of nudity in these stories points to ways that children and people in general think about social conventions and the “meaning” of clothing. In any case the topic deserves wider discussion and I would be interested in what my adult readers have to say on the topic.
More difficult in some ways is the topic of death and poverty in The Little Match Girl. Some people will say that it is not appropriate to represent, discuss or explore death with young children. And in fact some people feel uncomfortable with traditional folktales in general because they are too violent, touch on controversial sensitive topics such as fear, longing, child abuse, child abandonment, greed, poverty, class, and desire, and because some of the stories are perceived as irredeemably sexist. I am of the school of thought that “good” stories that deal with these issues are essential to help children have the resources to think creatively and critically about the world they are growing up in. It is of course always important to think about what is developmentally appropriate, and supportive contexts in which children can sort through and explore the feelings and ideas that come up when listening to the story in question. Again I would be very interested to hear my readers opinions on these matters.
I pair these two stories because I want to acknowledge some of the ethical and spiritual values behind Christmas (generosity, innocence, love), and at the same time address the societal hypocrisy that espouses loving one’s neighbor and then encourages a culture of greed and exploitation that creates an underclass and a society of haves and have nots.
Merry Christmas!!!!!!
- *List of stories in The Brothers Grimm collection of stories (this is by no means all of them): The Frog Prince, The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats, Little Brother and Little Sister, Rapunzel, Hansel and Gretel , The Fisherwoman and His Wife, The Brave Little Tailor, Cinderella, Mother Holle, Little Red Riding Hood, The Bremen Town Musicians, The Develi with the Three Golden Hairs, The Shoemaker and the Elves, Tom Thumb’s Travels, Sleeping Beauty, Snow White, Rumplestiltskin, The Three Feathers, The GOlden Goose, Jorinda and Joringel, The Goose Girl, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, The Star Coins, Snow White and Red Rose, The Hare and the Hedgehog, Puss ‘n Boots, The Golden Key
- **List of stories in this collection of stories written by Hans Christian Anderson (this is by no means all of them): The Princess and the Pea, The Tinderbox, Thumbelina, The Emperor’s New Clothes, The Little Mermaid, The Steadfast Tin Soldier, The Wild Swans, The Flying Trunk, The Ugly Duckling, The Nightingale, The Snow Queen, The Little Matchgirl, The Goblin and the Grocer