| Budget Amount *help |
¥1,900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,900,000)
Fiscal Year 2006: ¥900,000 (Direct Cost: ¥900,000)
Fiscal Year 2005: ¥1,000,000 (Direct Cost: ¥1,000,000)
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| Research Abstract |
In collecting stories for their work Fairy Tales for Children and Homes, the Brothers Grimm came to believe that within fairy tales that had been handed down from generation to generation, one could find traces of old mythology and beliefs dating from ancient German times before the introduction of Christianity. Through analysis of various fairy tales, the study below supports this claim and argues that such stories can thus be used to reconstruct the culture of pre-Christian Europe.
One of the key findings of this study is the fundamental similarities that exist between ancient European agricultural rites and narrative elements within the fairy tales. In Cinderella and other similar tales, heroines cover themselves in animal skin capes and plants to escape danger, just as ancient villagers ritually transformed into animals and plants to chase away winter. Analysis of these and other stories make it clear that the, old festivals from Europe's remote regions were important to society at
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Analysis of these stories also turns up references to ancient German mythological beliefs. The Brothers Grimm argued that the old woman in the tower of the story Sleeping Beauty is Goddess Holda, the ancient German Goddess of Earth who governs earthly life and death, good and bad luck, and rich and poor harvests. Consequently, it would only be natural that Sleeping Beauty goes to sleep after neglecting to invite the Earth Goddess to her birthday party. This study finds additional references to Goddess Holda in the fairy tale Mrs. Holda, a story that clearly evokes the ancient German belief that Holda (Holle) rewards hardworking persons and punishes those who are lazy.
The study concludes that Western fairy tales are found to be not the only ones carrying mythological beliefs. A comparison of the Western Princess and the Frog and the Japanese The Crane that Returned a Favor reveals a common thread between the two cultures : the ancient belief that humans and animals regularly transform into the other. In the former Grimm Brothers fairy tale, a human is transformed into a frog through a witch's curse, and in the latter Japanese tale, a crane is turned into a hard-working human wife as repayment for human kindness.
This study thus reveals the linkages between ancient mythological beliefs and rites in fairy tales from Western and Japanese cultures. Less
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