



Produced by David Deley






FAIRY TALES, THEIR ORIGIN AND MEANING

With Some Account of Dwellers in Fairyland

By John Thackray Bunce




INTRODUCTORY NOTE.

The substance of this volume was delivered as a course of Christmas
Holiday Lectures, in 1877, at the Birmingham and Midland Institute, of
which the author was then the senior Vice-president. It was found that
both the subject and the matter interested young people; and it was
therefore thought that, revised and extended, the Lectures might not
prove unacceptable in the form of a Book. The volume does not pretend to
scientific method, or to complete treatment of the subject. Its aim is
a very modest one: to furnish an inducement rather than a formal
introduction to the study of Folk Lore; a study which, when once begun,
the reader will pursue, with unflagging interest, in such works as
the various writings of Mr. Max-Muller; the "Mythology of the Aryan
Nations," by Mr. Cox; Mr. Ralston's "Russian Folk Tales;" Mr. Kelly's
"Curiosities of Indo-European Folk Lore;" the Introduction to
Mr. Campbell's "Popular Tales of the West Highlands," and other
publications, both English and German, bearing upon the same subject. In
the hope that his labour may serve this purpose, the author ventures
to ask for an indulgent rather than a critical reception of this little
volume.

BIRMINGHAM,

September, 1878.



LIST OF CONTENTS.

CHAPTER I. ORIGIN OF FAIRY TALES--THE ARYAN RACE: ITS CHARACTERISTICS,
ITS TRADITIONS, AND ITS MIGRATIONS

CHAPTER II. KINDRED TALES FROM DIVERS LANDS

CHAPTER III. DWELLERS IN FAIRYLAND: STORIES FROM THE EAST

CHAPTER IV. DWELLERS IN FAIRYLAND: TEUTONIC, SCANDINAVIAN, ETC.

CHAPTER V. DWELLERS IN FAIRYLAND: CELTIC, THE WEST HIGHLANDS

CHAPTER VI. CONCLUSION-SOME POPULAR TALES EXPLAINED.

INDEX




CHAPTER I.--ORIGIN OF FAIRY STORIES.

We are going into Fairy Land for a little while, to see what we can find
there to amuse and instruct us this Christmas time. Does anybody know
the way? There are no maps or guidebooks, and the places we meet with
in our workaday world do not seem like the homes of the Fairies. Yet we
have only to put on our Wishing Caps, and we can get into Fairy Land in
a moment. The house-walls fade away, the winter sky brightens, the sun
shines out, the weather grows warm and pleasant; flowers spring up,
great trees cast a friendly shade, streams murmur cheerfully over their
pebbly beds, jewelled fruits are to be had for the trouble of gathering
them; invisible hands set out well-covered dinner-tables, brilliant and
graceful forms flit in and out across our path, and we all at once find
ourselves in the midst of a company of dear old friends whom we have
known and loved ever since we knew anything. There is Fortunatus with
his magic purse, and the square of carpet that carries him anywhere; and
Aladdin with his wonderful lamp; and Sindbad with the diamonds he has
picked up in the Valley of Serpents; and the Invisible Prince, who uses
the fairy cat to get his dinner for him; and the Sleeping Beauty in
the Wood, just awakened by the young Prince, after her long sleep of a
hundred years; and Puss in Boots curling his whiskers after having eaten
up the ogre who foolishly changed himself into a mouse; and Beauty and
the Beast; and the Blue Bird; and Little Red Riding Hood, and Jack the
Giant Killer, and Jack and the Bean Stalk; and the Yellow Dwarf; and
Cinderella and her fairy godmother; and great numbers besides, of whom
we haven't time to say anything now.

And when we come to look about us, we see that there are other dwellers
in Fairy Land; giants and dwarfs, dragons and griffins, ogres with
great white teeth, and wearing seven-leagued boots; and enchanters and
magicians, who can change themselves into any forms they please, and
can turn other people into stone. And there are beasts and birds who can
talk, and fishes that come out on dry land, with golden rings in their
mouths; and good maidens who drop rubies and pearls when they speak, and
bad ones out of whose mouths come all kinds of ugly things. Then there
are evil-minded fairies, who always want to be doing mischief; and there
are good fairies, beautifully dressed, and with shining golden hair and
bright blue eyes and jewelled coronets, and with magic wands in their
hands, who go about watching the bad fairies, and always come just in
time to drive them away, and so prevent them from doing harm--the sort
of Fairies you see once a year at the pantomimes, only more beautiful,
and more handsomely dressed, and more graceful in shape, and not so fat,
and who do not paint their faces, which is a bad thing for any woman to
do, whether fairy or mortal.

Altogether, this Fairy Land that we can make for ourselves in a moment,
is a very pleasant and most delightful place, and one which all of us,
young and old, may well desire to get into, even if we have to come back
from it sooner than we like. It is just the country to suit everybody,
for all of us can find in it whatever pleases him best. If he likes
work, there is plenty of adventure; he can climb up mountains of steel,
or travel over seas of glass, or engage in single combat with a giant,
or dive down into the caves of the little red dwarfs and bring up their
hidden treasures, or mount a horse that goes more