Fairy tales have ancient origin

Popular fairy tales and folk stories are more ancient than was previously thought, according research by biologists.

By Richard Gray, Science Correspondent
Published: 9:00PM BST 05 Sep 2009

They have been told as bedtime stories by generations of parents, but fairy tales such as Little Red Riding Hood may be even older than was previously thought.

A study by anthropologists has explored the origins of folk tales and traced the relationship between varients of the stories recounted by cultures around the world.

The researchers adopted techniques used by biologists to create the taxonomic tree of life, which shows how every species comes from a common ancestor.

Dr Jamie Tehrani, a cultural anthropologist at Durham University, studied 35 versions of Little Red Riding Hood from around the world.

Whilst the European version tells the story of a little girl who is tricked by a wolf masquerading as her grandmother, in the Chinese version a tiger replaces the wolf.

In Iran, where it would be considered odd for a young girl to roam alone, the story features a little boy.

Contrary to the view that the tale originated in France shortly before Charles Perrault produced the first written version in the 17th century, Dr Tehrani found that the varients shared a common ancestor dating back more than 2,600 years.

<snip> http://www.telegraph.co.uk/science/science-news/6142964/Fairy-tales-have-ancient-origin.html

I'd love to see more about some of the other faerie tales.

I remember hearing that "Cinderella" was traced back to a tale told by the ancient Egyptians....

:)

This should not come as a surprise to anyone who has done any studying of the past..

Joseph Campbell researched and wrote on the universality of story around the world. And he wasn't the first to figure this out.

many years ago and explores the usefulness of these stories both to children who need to learn about the world, and to parents, who need to tell them.

Bruno Bettelheim was the author I believe.

Edit to add link:
http://images.google.com/imgres?imgurl=&imgrefurl=http://comminfo.rutgers.edu/~mjoseph/bettelheim.html&usg=__LVbIYNnHLSyzAf2cPf4_2WQsQk0=&h=250&w=256&sz=30&hl=en&start=12&sig2=0K7lfSZgPSLfniufIbF30Q&tbnid=0TXZ1vX1J0zbWM:&tbnh=108&tbnw=111&prev=/images%3Fq%3DBruno%2BBettelheim%26gbv%3D2%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG&ei=jSGjSsamM5GlnQeMuez8DQ

creation stories among cultures are all very similiar... knowledge is a very good thing

My personal theory about all the 'mischievous little people' stories around the world is that they refer to agricultural societies dealing with nomadic hunter gatherers passing through.

that nature from any age.

Now, they've done the research that proves the theory holds water.

Rather then traders passing them on by stopping in different ports of call, from Europe to Egypt to Persia to India and on into China and back again.

Collective unconsciousness is such a more reasonable explanation. Why didn't they use it?!?!?!?

We write them wanting innocence to be protected and for integrity to be what is important.

We watch and read those stories wanting our lives to be part of the better part we recognize in many stories. Where people risk for what is better, and sometimes they reach what the better things are.

And sometimes people take the step to make what they can imagine, what actually happens, to realize the better stories can also be how we choose to live.

What a feeling.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FeZ5R3C5bzs

Rocky is another good example.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bwpN_kGKj_Q


The last Boyscout Trailer.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5LatLghA9Ig


For Alex the Doctor, Alex the Bartender, Alex the Nurse, Alex the Factor Worker, Alex the Cop, Alex the Fireman, Alex the Farmer, Alex the Priest, Alex the Salesman, Alex the Engineer...

would have found this fascinating.

They might find out that ancient fairy stories are pretty much in very mainstream religious stories.

One can clearly recognize elements of Snow White and Sleeping Beauty and Beauty and the Beast (and some say, Cinderella, although I don't see it) in the ancient Greek myth about the god Eros and the maiden Psyche.