In his critical edition of “Perrault’s Popular Tales,” Andrew Lang has
said that “all the incidents of popular tales, like the bits of glass
in a kaleidoscope, may be shaken into a practically limitless number of
combinations.” All that can be done in a book of this size is to choose
the best of these combinations. The notes below indicate parallels
where the resemblance between tales is close and where a version
originally foreign has practically superseded the early English
rendering.
Page 1. Rumpelstiltskin. Source: “Kinder- und Hausmärchen,” by Jacob
Grimm (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859). These German brothers
made a large and valuable collection of fairy tales, gathering them
from oral tradition and retelling them. English Parallel: “Tom Tit
Tot.” This is the best of a group of stories involving the task of
guessing a name, with which is here combined the demand by a
supernatural being for a human child.
Page 9. Doll-in-the-Grass. Source: “Popular Tales from the Norse,” by
George W. Dasent (Edinburgh, 1859), who translated it from the Norse
collection of Peter Christen Asbjörnsen and Jörgen Moe. Parallels:
Grimm’s “The Three Feathers,” and Madame D’Aulnoy’s “The White Cat”
(Fairy Tales, Vol. II). In each of these stories sons are sent out to
seek their fortune and return at last with wives.
Page 14. How to tell a Real Princess. Source: “Stories and Tales,” by
Hans Christian Andersen (1805–1875), a collection of tales by one of
the greatest story-tellers in the world. He originated many plots, and
retold even familiar tales in a style that made them distinctly his
own.
Page 17. The Frog Prince. Source: Grimm. English Parallel: “The Well at
the World’s End.” One of the oldest stories in Germany. Sometimes
called “Iron Henry.”
Page 26. Cinderella. Source: “Contes de Ma Mère l’Oye,” by Charles
Perrault (1628–1703), published in France in 1697. The best English
translation was printed in 1795 under the title, “Tales of Passed
Times, by Mother Goose.... Written in French by M. Perrault, and
Englished by R. S. Gent.” Our versions follow as closely as is
consistent with modern English the quaint language of this book.
Appearing as they did at a time when French society was reacting
against its own extravagances, these simple, fresh stories became
instantly popular. They were published under the name of Perrault’s
little boy, and many critics think that “the naïveté and popular
traditional manner of telling” are due to him, while they recognize the
polish of style and skill of selection of his literary father.
Parallels: Many; but, as Mr. Lang says, “here we can distinctly see how
the taste and judgment of Perrault altered an old and barbarous
detail,” by substituting the fairy godmother for the friendly beast of
earlier tales, and also by beautifying the stepmother incident.
Page 42. Hans in Luck. Source: Grimm.
Page 56. Diamonds and Toads. Source: Perrault, under the title of “Les
Fées.” Parallel: A universal tale with many variants, both in the motif
of politeness rewarded, and in the incident of the adventures of the
good and bad sisters or brothers.
Page 62. Puss in Boots. Source: Perrault. Mr. Lang sums up the plot as
that of “a young man brought from poverty to the throne by the aid of a
matchmaking and ingenious beast,” and remarks that “Puss is a perfectly
unscrupulous adventurer for no reason but the fun of the thing.”
Page 75. Rapunzel. Source: Grimm.
Page 86. Beauty and the Beast. Source: The original tale, as told by
Madame Villeneuve (died in 1755), occupies two hundred pages of the
“Cabinet des Fées,” Vol. 26 (1787). The framework and much of the text
of our abridged version are taken from a chapbook, published in Glasgow
by Francis Orr & Sons, which is in the Harvard Library.
Page 108. The Steadfast Tin Soldier. Source: Hans Andersen’s “Wonder
Stories Told for Children.”
Page 118. Hop-o’-my-Thumb. Source: Perrault. “A tale which has signs of
great antiquity.”
Page 139. “Ainsel.” Source: T. Keightley’s “Fairy Mythology.”
Parallels: A tale widely current in England with many slight
variations. Cf. the outwitting of Polyphemus by Ulysses in the Odyssey.
Page 141. Peronella. Source: “A Fairy-Book,” Harper & Brothers, 1836.
Parallels: Many tales of wishes fulfilled. A traditional tale of long
standing in England.
Page 149. Fair Goldilocks. Source: Madame D’Aulnoy, a Frenchwoman who
wrote many fairy tales. French text in “Cabinet des Fées,” Vol. 2
(1787); English translation consulted under the title “The Fair One
with Golden Locks” in “Queen Mab ... written by the Countess D’Aulnoy,
London, 1770.”