If we’re honest, I think most of us would admit we sometimes
find reading the forewords and introductions to nonfiction books a tremendous
bore. Yet we know that these textual additions
are intended to enhance our appreciation for the author’s efforts. So we slog our way through them, and hope
they don’t extinguish our interest in the subsequent material.
I won’t claim that the forty-plus pages of introductory
material in Folktales of Hungary held me as rapt as a Fairy Tale novel by Patricia C. Wrede or Steven Brust, but it
did impress on me the dedication of the scholars who collected and studied this
art form. Linda Degh’s purpose in
assembling this volume of simple tales was not to amuse children, but to
provide a representative sampling of the types of stories that had proven
popular with the country’s peasantry. Researchers
viewed folktale collection as important, and regarded their study as a reborn
science. With their country emerging
from a long period of Austrian and then German rule, and the peasantry finally
throwing off the shackles of “feudalistic and ecclesiastical tyrannies,” the
researchers wished not only to enhance their understanding of their past and
present culture, but to forge a beneficial link between modern scientific
theory and the practical tasks of building a more equitable society for future
generations.
As my knowledge of modern Hungary is slight (to
nonexistent), and this book was published nearly fifty years ago, I have no
idea if Linda Degh and her associates succeeded in influencing the evolution of
their society. Nor can I share with you
how their folktale tradition has flourished since then. What the introductory material impressed upon
me is how the researchers raced against time to collect these stories. Except in the more secluded regions, or among
those of exceptional storytelling talents, the ability of oral storytellers to
capture and hold an audience’s attention was dying out. Soon, they feared, there would be no more
folktales to collect.
Following World War II, modernization and Soviet rule brought sweeping changes to Hungary.
Advances in communication, better access to electricity, radio and TV,
libraries, cinemas, and even traveling theaters, were competing for common
people’s attention. Poverty became less
of a barrier to advancement as access to education increased for all age groups
and social classes. With the
introduction of modern farming methods, not only were people moving to the
larger cities in large numbers, but those farmers who remained behind organized
into collectives. Researchers thus
headed to remote villages, and the manor houses that were being converted into
homes “for the ailing and aged” to collect these stories before those who told
them passed away.
We tend to think of literacy as good thing, and of course it
is. But in the mid-sixties, it was that
very growing literacy that was killing off the oral folktale tradition. Why gather with others in a common room, when
you could relax at the end of a long, tiring day in the comfort and privacy of
your own quarters? Why listen to another
tell a story of his or her choosing, when you could read a book better suited
to your own interests and tastes? While
a reader might miss the rise and fall of the storyteller’s voice, and any
actions that accompanied his utterances, written stories tend to be better
constructed than oral ones, and are unrestricted by traditional conventions. While the reader identifies folktales with
the past, he identifies new stories and novels with the present. The latter hold an immediacy and excitement
that the former lack. So the publishing
industry flourishes, and old traditions die.
Thus, researchers hurried to
collect these priceless gems that held the keys to unlock both past and future. Then they raced back behind the fortified walls of their universities. There,
carrying guttering torches, they headed for priest holes and disguised libraries
in which to safeguard their treasure against the ravages of time, unethical
collectors, and rampaging hordes of invaders.
All right, I’ll admit that my prose is growing too flowery,
and that my summary makes the introductory material seem more exciting than it
really is. But that merely underlines
the importance of my blogging, and my superior ability to convey important information. Had Linda
Degh contacted me to write the introduction, and my services been available
back then, I surely could have done a better job of it! (Right?)
Modern folktale researchers, hire me while you can.
Dragon Dave
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