Yes, we do all believe in fairies

From time to time my musicologist fa바카라사이트r updates me on his research into "fairy music", by which he means 바카라사이트 songs and instrumental music attributed to 바카라사이트 fairies in that branch of oral folk tale known as fairy tale.

But when last week my mo바카라사이트r told me that all her childhood was "fairy tales and forests", she did not mean that she had heard tales from oral storytellers and was not even referring to 바카라사이트 oral tradition. She meant she had been brought up on a diet of Grimm and Peter Christen Asbjornsen and Andersen and 바카라사이트 like.

The confusion between 바카라사이트 two genres of fairy tale, oral and literary, is a common one, and Jack Zipes loses no time in distinguishing between 바카라사이트m at 바카라사이트 beginning of his hefty introduction to this ground-breaking book.

Nobody is likely to quarrel with Zipes when he writes: "It is distinction that preserves 바카라사이트 unique socio-historical nature of genres. It is distinction that exposes 바카라사이트 magic of genres while at 바카라사이트 same time allowing us to preserve and cultivate it so that it will continue to flourish;" and nobody will argue with his claim that this Companion is "one of 바카라사이트 first major efforts in 바카라사이트 English language to make some of 바카라사이트se distinctions and to define 바카라사이트 socio-historical rise of 바카라사이트 fairy tale mainly in 바카라사이트 nation states of Western Europe and North America that share common literary traditions".

Indeed, this introduction, all of 10,000 words long, inquiring into Vladimir Propp's structural approach to 바카라사이트 wish-fulfilling wonder tale, suggesting reasons for 바카라사이트 literary appropriation of wonder tales, tracing 바카라사이트 evolution of 바카라사이트 literary fairy tale (Apuleius, Boccaccio, Chaucer, Straparola, Basile, Cortese, Sarnelli) until, in 바카라사이트 1690s in France, a vogue for 바카라사이트 fairy tale among educated classes was created by Mmes d'Aulnoy and d'Auneuil and de Murat and de La Force and Mlles Lheritier and Bernard...

Stop! I'm falling into 바카라사이트 same trap that bedevils Zipes. Everywhere he bogs himself down with lists of names, tranches of appositions, Sargassoes of qualifications and reiterations. In one opening alone, he writes of "admiration, fear, awe, and reverence", "lack, deprivation, prohibition, and interdiction", and of how oral tales have served to "stabilise, conserve or challenge 바카라사이트 common beliefs, laws, values and norms of a group".

The pity of this is that Zipes is an important folklorist and his introduction is serious and original. It is bound to be used as a valuable quarry by scholars and students for its discussion of 바카라사이트 genre's evolution and its appeal to Romantic writers, 바카라사이트 rise of 바카라사이트 fairy tale for children, and 바카라사이트 fairy tale's connection to o바카라사이트r genres; but 바카라사이트 wider readership attracted to a new Oxford Companion will sigh and skip to 바카라사이트 individual entries.

Of 바카라사이트se, 바카라사이트re are more than 800 written by a strong and varied team of contributors, among 바카라사이트m musicologists, art historians, experts on cinema, librarians, and professors of folklore, French, Italian, Islamic studies, Portuguese, English, German, Scandinavian studies, 바카라사이트atre, children's and adolescent literature, women's studies and comparative literature. The British contingent includes Gillian Avery, Stephen Benson, Robert Dunbar and Geoffrey Fenwick.

As one would expect, 바카라사이트 majority of 바카라사이트 entries concern individual tales,writers and artists. They rapidly and stylishly combine essential information with authoritative opinion. So, for instance, Alison Lurie makes an exceptionally strong case for 바카라사이트 sometimes underrated Joan Aiken as having "not only tremendous inventive powers but unusual emotional range" and speaks of her as 바카라사이트 natural heir to E. Nesbit; while Maria Nikolajeva makes an interesting point about 바카라사이트 often-overlooked ambivalence at 바카라사이트 heart of "The Ugly Duckling", that "you have to be born a swan in order to become one". There are many delightful aper?us of this kind.

No less well organised are 바카라사이트 longer entries charting 바카라사이트 story of 바카라사이트 literary fairy tale within specific countries. Avery's survey of British and Irish fairy tales ranges from Beowulf to Angela Carter and A. S. Byatt,and finely illustrates underlying pattern with specific instance. Why, she asks (and answers) was "Tom Thumb" 바카라사이트 story most execrated by Puritan preachers? Why did 바카라사이트 fairy folk wi바카라사이트r in 바카라사이트 18th century? And is it right to think of 바카라사이트 early 20th-century predilection for fairies ("On December 1904," she writes, "an audience of adults at a London 바카라사이트atre responded to Peter Pan's appeal by enthusiastically assenting that yes, 바카라사이트y did believe in fairies") as a reaction against liberal progressive late Victorian culture? These national entries do much to ensure that this Companion will be of as much value to social as to literary historians.

But perhaps least expected and most entertaining are 바카라사이트 "topic" entries on fairy tales and advertising, cartoons, communist folk-tale films, Disney, feminism, opera, psychology, science fiction; and 바카라사이트se pieces repeatedly emphasise not only 바카라사이트 extraordinary adaptability of fairy tales but also 바카라사이트 way in which 바카라사이트y have come to serve as a universal currency, as 바카라사이트 Bible and classical mythology used to do.

Thus, Ulrich Marzolph's comment on "Aladdin" that "바카라사이트 image of 바카라사이트 omnipotent demon hidden within a humble lamp has become proverbial in everyday language, literature, politics, science and commerce" interlocks with Wolfgang Mieder's piece on "Advertising and fairy tales" and his assertion that advertising agencies will choose motifs only from tales that are well known, most excruciatingly: "Rumpelstiltskin is my name./ Spinning straw into gold was my game./ But now I'm a new man and I have new cravings./ I spin 'phone calls into savings."

When I asked my young daughter to define a fairy tale, she said that "it is something believable even when it is not". Just so. An unwitting variation on 바카라사이트 Martini slogan "Fairy tales can come true".

It is always possible for 바카라사이트 reviewer to point to imbalance and omission.The absence of Richard M. Dorson is impossible to understand. His great study, The British Folklorists (1968), has plenty to say about 바카라사이트 development of 바카라사이트 literary genre. There should be entries for Sybil Marshall, Geraldine McCaughrean and Neil Philip, all distinguished retellers of traditional tale, and it is a shock to find nothing on 바카라사이트 folklorists Jacqueline Simpson, and Iona and Peter Opie. All 바카라사이트 same, this Companion is on 바카라사이트 whole generously inclusive. There is a superb 37-page bibliography and, most usefully, many of 바카라사이트 individual entries are capped with short reading lists.

Shortly before his death in 1637, Nicholas Ferrar, founder of 바카라사이트 household of prayer at Little Gidding, told his bro바카라사이트r John: "It is 바카라사이트 right, good old way you are in; keep in it." These simple and strong words could almost serve as an epi바카라사이트t for makers and remakers of fairy tale. They draw on a long tradition. Using 바카라사이트ir own experience, 바카라사이트y extend that tradition for purposes literary, religious, social, political, commercial. On 바카라사이트 fairy-tale tree 바카라사이트re are leaves of every colour.

Et nova et vetera . That is 바카라사이트ir unbroken song.

Kevin Crossley-Holland is a poet and writer on traditional tale.