The editors write in their preface to this book that “the book was conceived with two goals in mind: to serve as an introduction for those who may not be familiar with Stith Thompson’s great Motif-Index of Folk Literature, and to present in-depth essays on a few of the many thousands of motifs his work classifies.” (p. xiii) After a brief introduction on the history and role of archetypes and motifs in folklore research, the volume proceeds with essays on the various motifs and archetypes that the editors have selected as especially important in world literature and folklore. The order of the essays is by motif number in Thompson’s index. They are, in general, a useful collection of essays, and the editors have chosen the motifs for inclusion well. Literary scholars tend not to be familiar at all with Thompson’s index, a situation that seems also to be increasingly common with folklorists, and this book will serve well its intended purpose of introducing such users to Thompson’s work. But, that said, there are also some problems with the book as a handbook.
Occasional misunderstandings of stories show up, as in the essay on “Tabu: Looking”, where Jane Garry suggests that in the Grimm’s story of the shoemaker and his wife the violation was that the shoemaker and his wife spied on the elves who helped them. But, as Garry’s summary of the tale makes clear, the elves left only after being given clothing, which is a common motif in stories about fairy helpers. The sense here, as Will-Erich Peuckert has suggested, is that the elves are paid off for their work, and thus must leave (see, for instance, Sagen: Geburt und Antwort der mythischen Welt [Berlin, 1965], pp. 71-75 and 139-55). Rather than motif F361.3.1, “Fairies leave work unfinished when overseen,” the motif involved here is F 381.3(a),
"Tabu: fairy working for mortal must not be given clothes."
Another case of such a misunderstanding concerns King Zahhak from Ferdowsi’s Shahnameh. In the essay on “Mythical Animals: Dragon”, Zahhak is referred to as a ”serpent king,” who is “kissed by Satan, who takes him into his web of evil. Two serpent heads grow out of the king’s shoulders, and this creature has to be fed human brains.” This is somewhat misleading. Zahhak is not a serpent king as such, as the authors of the essay point out; rather, it is only after Ahriman, the evil deity in Zoroastrian cosmology, has kissed the king on his shoulders that the serpents grow there, and further, this is the final act of a long effort by Ahriman to seduce Zahhak away from proper Zoroastrian behavior. Finally, although the figure of Ahriman almost certainly influenced later Jewish, Christian, and Muslim ideas about Satan, the Zoroastrian deity Ahriman should not be so easily equated with Satan.
Bibliographical references too are sometimes problematic. Given that there are good recent translations of de Voragine’s The Golden Legend, the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen and Deutsche Sagen, Valmiki’s Ramayana, and Gottfried von Stassburg’s Tristan, it seems odd that D. L. Ashliman, for example, references in his essay “Magic: Invisibility” only some very out-of-date translations or German originals for these works.
Although there are some flaws in Archetypes and Motifs in Folklore and Literature: A Handbook, it should serve well as an introduction to Thompson’s work, and as a reference work in its own right.
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[Review length: 565 words • Review posted on March 9, 2006]