V ilmos Voigt, Budapest

Reduction in Folk-Tale Research

0. In folk tale research1, äs in other fields of folklore, r e d u c t i o n isa

procedure, whereby empirical facts and certain types of phenomena are used
to determine retrospectively the rules governing these phenomena.
0.1. In other words by analyzing the tales, which have been collected more
or less recently our attempt is made to r e c o n s t r u c t the history of the
folk-tale äs a genre and also that of narrative tradition.
0.2. This is very important, indeed, it will probably prove to be the most
important research aim on the folk-tale, although other methods, parallel and
divergent with historical-reductional ones, exist.
0.3. This paper will concentrate on presenting a first but somehow
s y s t e m a t i c regrouping of research possibilities and results derived from
using this method.
1. The main a i m s of reduction in this sense are:
1.0.1. the d e v e l o p m e n t of the tale äs an independent epic literary
form, and
1.0.2. the h i s t o r y of the tales äs an independent literary form, re-
constructed from universal data.
1.1. The tale, äs the subject of such a reduction, i s n o t identical with the
total sum of texts, variants, motifs, types and repertoires.
1.1.1. In its form and history, the tale is inseparable from n a r r a t i v e
t r a d i t i o n äs a whole, i.e. from the communities preserving the tale äs a
tradition, the history of these communities, and societies familiär with the
tale.
2.0. Scholars using d i f f e r e n t research methods have promised a com-
prehensive review of the formation of the folk narrative text tradition itself.

1
Since my paper's aim is to present a somewhat new perspective of comparative
folk-tale researdi I do not feel to be obliged to give here an exhaustive biblio-
graphy. On history and aesthetics of folk-tale and on folk-tale researdi methods
see the well-known books by Max Lüthi: Märdien (Sammlung Metzler, E.: Poetik
16). Stuttgart 61976; id.: Das europäisdie Volksmärdien. Form und Wesen flJni-
Tasdienbüdier 312). München 41974; id.: Das Volksmärdien als Diditung. Ästhetik
und Anthropologie (Studien zur Volkserzählung 1). Düsseldorf/Köln 1975. On
various problems mentioned in my paper see the appropriate entries in the volumes
of the Enzyklopädie des Märdiens l sqq. Berlin/New York 1977 sqq. In the follow-
ing therefore I am referring only to works whidi are n o t m e n t i o n e d in the
works cited above. The works written in Russian are transcribed according to the
international usage.

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250 Vilmos Voigt

2.0.1. Currently the following approadies are of major importance: tradi-

tional Indo-Germanic, nationalist, analysis of content, mythological, evolu-
tionist, psydiological, and the so-called Finnish sdiool, etc.
2.0.2. Other approaches include the recent neo-ethnic approach of von
Sydow and his school, the authors of the Bloomington style monographs, neo-
mythological trends relying upon history of religion, general research into
epic poetry, and so on. These have not yet reached their final form and are
still the subject of some discussion.
2.0.3. Research into form and structure is in number inadequate and the
results of the best studies by individuals (e.g. Propp, LeVi-Strauss, Jacobs,
Dundes, Meletinskij) have not always been correctly used in synopses and
summaries or handbooks (äs those of Utley, Dorson, Köngäs and Maranda
etc.)2.
2.1. Investigations into the origin of tales of different peoples have not
provided comprehensive descriptions of their development. All they have done
is establish a certain similarity — sometimes not even that — between different
traditions. Series of folk tale texts edited in this way fail to achieve their
purpose in this way (äs those of the series edited by von der Leyen and Schier
and Karlinger, of the Röth-Verlag, by Steinitz, Krzyzanowski and Ortutay,
by Dorson, by Delarue, series aimed at the German language area, series
issued by the Oriental section of the Soviet publishers "Nauka", and so on).
2.2. Researches into the development of German, Celtic, and Russian tales
have been the most significant in the field of e t h n i c g r o u p s narrative
(e.g. de Vries, Christiansen, Rooth, Propp, Pomeranceva), especially in regard
to the relationships between tale and myth3.
2.3. For want of a large-scale u n i v e r s a l history of the genesis of
tales, we must confine ourselves to the genetic regularities of the tales of the
three ethnic groups mentioned above (Scandinavian, insular Celtic, Eastern
Slavic) and thus construct a general description of their development.
2.4. It is important to note that Soviet authors, using extensive material,
have analyzed the d i f f e r e n t i a t i n g in epic forms (Zhirmunsky, Mele-
tinskij etc.)4.

2
Jacobs, M.: The Content and Style of an Oral Literature. Chicago 1959; id.: The
People Are Corning Soon. Analyses of Clackamath Chinook Myths and Tales.
Seattle 1960; id.: Oral Literature. In: Pattern in Cultural Anthropology. Home-
wood, 111. 1964, 319—345; Dorson, R. M. (ed.): Folklore and Folklife. An Intro-
duction. Chicago 1972. Especially the chapter "Folk Narrative" by L. D gh
(53-84); Köngäs Maranda, E./Maranda, P.: Structural Models in Folklore and
5
Transformational Essays. The Hague/Paris 1971.
Pomeranceva, E. V.: Sudby russkoj skazki. Moskva 1965; Novikov, N. V.: Obrazy
4
vosto2noslavjanskoj volSebnoj skazki. Leningrad 1974.
Meletinskij, E. M.: Geroi volSebnoj skazki. Proishoidenie obraza. Moskva 1958;
Meletinskij, E. M.: Proisnozdenie geroiceskogo eposa. Rannie formy i arhaiSeskie
pamjatniki. Moskva 1963; 2irmunskij, V. M.: Tjurkskij geroiieskij epos. Leningrad
1974 (a collection of his earlier works).

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 Redtiction in Folk-Tale Restart}} 251

2.4.1. However, they have confined their work to the primordial or earliest
tales of primitive peoples and the considerably later tales of certain Central
Asian peoples; various other problems of folk-tales research are ignored by
them.
3.0. Recently the first attempts have been made to compile the h i s t o r i c
d e s c r i p t i o n o f t h e d e v e l o p m e n t o f n a r r a t i v e äs such.
3.1.1. The sociological school of p e r s o n a l i t y r e s e a r c h in folklore
has investigated the practices of numerous European communities where nar-
ratives are retold (fishermen, peasants, artisans, soldiers, etc.).
3.1.2. The practice of telling narratives and myths among numerous prim-
itive peoples has been analyzed by the functionalist school in England, the
ethnological school in the United States and in the course of ethnological
research in the Soviet Union.
3.1.3. Sometimes it happens that a wealth of data is available, indicating
that much earlier narratives existed, and this enables us to reconstruct the
narrative p a s t of a given society. In this respect among others Czech,
Russian and Hungarian data are of outstanding interest.
3.2. Preliminary investigations have been made into the s o c i o - h i s t o r -
i c a l e x a m i n a t i o n of n a r r a t i o n (for example the nearly for-
gotten works of Zelenin, examination of Frobenius and his followers, which
should be used with great care, studies made by Ortutay and his school, which
are limited to one nation, and a study of Viidalepp, and, more recently con-
textual folklore studies, which are broader in scope)5.
4. We can now attempt to summarize the p o s s i b i l i t i e s of reduction
research, even though there are many gaps, and only the most common cate-
gories are here considered.
5. The r e d u c t i o n of the d e v e l o p m e n t of f i c t i t i o u s l i t e r -
ary f o r m s consists of the following strata: a completely undifferentiated
narrative, which does not belong to any particular literary genre — differen-
tiation in content and form between various narratives, giving rise to various
epic literary forms, including the tale — reciprocal influence of the various
epic literary forms and the tale — differentiation between literary forms of
the tale, minor fictitious genres — cessation of the tale äs a literary form.
5.1. Practically not too much has been written on this subject to date.
5.1.1. The following ideas have been mapped out fairly completely; they

5
In general see: Degh, L.: Biologie des Erzählguts. In: Enzyklopädie des Märdiens
2. B. 1978, 386—406. Furthermore see: Zelenin, D. K.: Religiozno-magi&iskaja
funkcija fol'klornyh skazok. In: S. F. Ol'denburgu. K pjatidesjatiletiju nau&io-
obscfestvennoj dejatel'nosti. Leningrad 1934, 215—240; Viidalepp, R.: Das Erzählen
der Volksmärdien als arbeitsfördernder magisdier Ritus. In: Vlle Congres inter-
national des sciences anthropologiques et ethnologiques (Moscou 3—10 aoöt 1964),
vol. 6. Moskva 1969, 259—265; Ortutay, Gy.: Hungarian Folklore. Essays. Buda-
pest 1972, 225—322; Ben-Amos, D./Goldstein, K. S. (edd.): Folklore. Performance
and Communication. The Hague/Paris 1975, passim.

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252 Vilmos Voigt

regard the period between the undifferentiated narrative and the tale äs a
literary form (e.g. Erlebnissage, Memorat and Märlein);
5.1.2. heroic epic influenced developed fictitious literary forms, and gave
rise to an independent epic genre — the so-called h e r o i c s a g a — which
is later than the heroic epic and the tale. It is secondary;
5.1.3. in the course of its cessation, the tale becomes l i t e r a t u r e (this
process actually started a very long time ago), and is replaced in the proper
folklore mostly by anecdotes, funny or true stories and jokes.
5.1.3.1. These literary forms, which have subsequently become the most
significant, also existed during the heyday of the folk-tale, but did not be-
come predominant until the narrative communities ceased to exist among the
peasants.
5.1.3.2. In narrative technique and motifs, literary forms have borrowed a
great deal often directly from the folk-tale.
5.2. The work of the Grimm brothers, Thompson, Anderson, Zhirmunsky,
Astahova, Ranke, Bausinger and others suggests that those p e r i o d s co-
incide with the turning-points that represent the changing ways of life of
narrative communities.
5.3. In each period (and also in the different fictitious literary forms), the
influence of w r i t t e n l i t e r a t u r e on tale tradition is different; it is
strongest in the area of fables, animal tales, exempla and, since the 19th Cen-
tury, of nursery tales, where literary forms on the borderline between literature
and folklore become populär (B0dker, Röhrich, Holbek, Landmann, etc.)8.
6. A r e d u c t i o n i m a g e of n a r r a t i o n would be: the origin of
narration (it is often created by culture-heroes) — the initial syncretic function
(narration to supernatural beings) — initial differentiation of narration
(hunting and fishing stories, mostly related to a pre-agricultural way of life) —
the combination of narration with production (narration to domestic animals,
or occuring during natural breaks in agricultural work) — the tale conserving
earlier traditions of other communities (occasional traces of the ritual and
personal style of the heroic saga) — displacement of the tale into secondary
communities outside the village — the tale more äs entertainment of adults
(narration in rcturn for money, narration was told to the landlord, or in
caf£s, etc.) — the tales in the nursery and in schools.
6.1. Comparative t e r r i t o r i a l analysis of narration has not yet com-
menced.
6.1.1. Nevertheless East European, East Slav, Near Eastern, Far Eastern
(Japanese, Chinese, perhaps Korean), Indian and perhaps a common Western
European narration tradition can be distinguished.

Bpdker, L.: Talt og skrevet (1940—1974). K0benhavn 1975; Röhrich, L.: Der Witz.
Figuren, Formen, Funktionen. Stuttgart 1977; Holbek, B.: ^Esops levned og fabier,
l—2. K0benhavn 1962; Landmann, S.: Der jüdische Witz. Soziologie, Sammlung,
Glossar. Ölten 51962; Marfurt, B.: Textsorte Witz. Möglichkeiten einer spradi-
wissensdiaftlidien Textsorten-Bestimmung. Tübingen 1977.

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 Reduction in Folk-Tale Research 253

6.1.1.1. In its actual form, the East European tradition dates from the late
feudal period, the Russian from early resp. late feudal periods, while South
Slavic epic tradition is diaracteristic of the transition period between clan
Organisation and feudalism (see the summarizing works of De*gh, Pomeranceva,
Lord, Boskovic-Stulli and so on)7.
6.1.1.2. Social analogies to medieval Central and West European narration
can be found mostly among Turkish peoples of Central Asia and Asia Minor
in 19th-20th centuries (Zhirmunsky, Eberhard and so on).
7. Different l i t e r a r y f o r m s of the f o l k - t a l e can be charac-
terized by the following r e d u c t i o n i m a g e :
7.0. The categories established for catalogues of tale-types of motifs are
unsuitable for such examination; groups of literary forms and the actual
literary forms differ within the tale.
7.0.0. However, in certain instances we must use them for lack of anything
eise.
7.1. Within the group of m a g i c t a l e s : allegorical nature myths,
struggles of heroes against forces threatening the clan (the forces of nature
frequently personified), the struggles of the hero are transformed into adven-
tures and are set into an everyday environment, interesting adventures of strong
heroes (e.g. AaTh 300, 301 and their similar tales, the later versions of
AaTh 326).
7.1.1. Heroic saga itself was adapted to this chain of development.
7.2. Within the literary genre of the m y t h o l o g i c a l t a l e, we find
myths of the deeds of culture heroes and the origin of the world, tales relying
on the development of religions (AaTh 471 indicates pre-Christian conceptions,
AaTh 768 concerns the Christian tradition, and so on), often influenced by
populär religious literature (e.g. AaTh 785 and 933, and so on).
7.3. The group of a d v e n t u r e t a l e s includes tales of miraculous trans-
formations mythically interpreted, with supernatural figures (e.g. AaTh 400 and
its numerous versions), tales bearing on the literary tradition of late antiquity,
the early Middle Ages and the Renaissance (AaTh 566), narration of bio-
graphical epics of our time (äs for example stories of soldiers, seamen, travels,
wars, imprisonment, and, more frequently and more recently, the Contents of
a book, which has been read, of a movie or play, which has been seen, etc.).
7.3.1. Narratives of travels, unusual events, biographies and adventures are
also subject to historical change and belong only partially to the literary form

7
De*gh, L. (ed.): East European Folk Narrative Studies. Austin, Texas 1977; Lord,
A. B.: The Singer of Tales (Harvard Studies in Comparative Literature 24). Cam-
bridge, Mass. 1960; cf. also Lord, A. B.: Perspectives on Recent Work on Oral
Literature. In: Oral Literature, ed. J. J. Duggan. Edinburgh/London 1975, l—24.
See also the books mentioned in footnote 3. More recent literature is quoted by
Anikin, V. P.: Russkaja narodnaja skazka. Moskva 1959; Astahova, A. M.: Narod-
nye skazki o bogatyrjah russkogo eposa. Moskva/Leningrad 1962; Vedernikova,
N. M.: Russkaja narodnaja skazka. Moskva 1975.

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254 Vilmos Voigt

of the tales (this is when " t r u e " s t o r i e s absorb the literary properties
of the tale).
7.3.1.1. This developmental process shows particularly well, what social
changes (in the present example, in the traditions of different communities)
are likely to call n e w l i t e r a r y f o r m s into existence.
7.4. The group of n o v e l l a t a l e s contains mostly love stories; they
include conflicts between clan and family, often with supernatural figures
(AaTh 315 and its related parallels), fictitious versions of these stories (AaTh
425, and similar ones), stories about faithful, wise and virtuous or quidk-
witted, cunning and false medieval women, and, finally, sentimental, often
broadside stories about innocently accused wives.
7.5. A n i m a l t a l e s contain a large number of elements, and these
virtually constitute separate groups: they include animal myths, early philoso-
phical animal stories (where the picture of human society is not only allegoric-
al, but evidently primitive), medieval animal tales with specific social signifi-
cance ad didactic fables fashionable in school.
7.5.1. These differences and the so-called a n i m a l i s m — the transfor-
mation of non-animal stories into animal stories cannot be explained in
geographical terms — äs Kolmacevskij, Krohn and others attempted to do;
rather they must be considered äs stages in historical development8.
7.6. A similar kind of generic development could be assumed for o t h e r
k i n d s a n d g e n r e s o f t a l e s too, b u t
7.6.1. the e x a c t p e r i o d s in question would be different from those
mentioned above.
7.6.1.1. H u m o r o u s s t o r i e s (äs jests, anecdotes, jokes, "Witze" etc.)
might be grouped according to changes in the objects of devision (e.g. alter-
nation, the golden age and the decline in jokes about women, anticlerical jokes,
Gotham or other numskull stories, political jokes, puns and Cartoons, and
many similar other forms).
7.6.1.2. In the case of many forms of the tale largely ignored to date (e.g.
formula tales, tales of lying, cumulative tales, and so on) in studies about the
history of folk-tale äs a whole, historical changes will need to be determined
by changes in f o r m of the given tales.
8. F o r m a l and a e s t h e t i c analysis of the tale presents a similar
pattern of historic evolution.
8.0.1. Very little comprehensive, coherent research has been attempted in
this field to date again.

8
Kolmaievskij, L. Z.: 2ivotnyj epos na Zapade i u slavjan. Kazan' 1882; Krohn, K.:
Bär (Wolf) und Fudis. Eine nordisdie Tiermärdienkette. Vergleichende Studie.
(Journal de la Sockte* finno-ougrienne 6). Helsingfors 1889.

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 Reduction in Folk-Tale Research 255

8.1. The category of the so-called e p i c r e g u l a r i t i e s ("Epische

Gesetze'') is too broad and was initially not confined only to the tale (see the
famous papers of Moe, Aarne, Olrik, Krohn, Anderson, and so on).
8.2. Epical and historic analysis of certain b a s i c f o r m s ("Grund-
formen") has been too theoretical; instead of the international stock of tales,
they are founded on preliminary chamber-scholar hypotheses.
8.3. Observation of certain l i t e r a r y and s t y l i s t i c r e g u l a r i -
t i e s in tales has to date been confined to particular material (in the Grimm
tales, which are rather special in origin and not folklore forms in every
respect).
8.3.1. Nevertheless, they enable us to make many valuable assumptions
when examining genuine folk-tales.
8.4. In certain t y p o l o g i c a l investigations (for example the categories
of Wesselski, von Sydow and others) it is not the entire System but only some
of its elements which contain proper stylistic features.
8.5. Certain e t h n o g r a p h i c (or better to say "Volkskunde'Mike)
e x a m i n a t i o n s of epic forms (Röhrich, L. Schmidt) describe the formal
properties of different groups of tales, limited to the period preceding the
development of fictitious reflection of reality.
8.6. Much of the relevant researches seems to be merely a vast preliminary
to studies of major works hopefully written by the eminent scholars of folk-
lore sometime soon in the future.
8.6.1. Similar summaries of related researches are also expected, describing
and analyzing the literary studies, philosophy and mythology by K. Burke,
Cassirer, Jaspers, Wundt and others.
9. Hence (cf. 5.—8.) the history of the tale is indeed international, and
should be studied according to this international reduction framework, out-
lined above.
10. The project is feasable and the actual work could be started on it, but
it cannot be completed by one person, one Institute, or even by the folklore
scholars of one country. It needs folklore research co-operation on an inter-
national scale.
11. And last but not least a world wide study of the development of folk-
tale needs works o f c o m p r e h e n s i v e v a l u e o f I n f o r m a t i o n ,
wide look on various phenomena of folk-tale research. We are lucky to have
such works: the summarizing books9 of Professor Max Lüthi are not only
an unevitable vademecum for folk-tale researchers properly, they are among
the most important books ever written on any questions of folk-literature.

9
See note 1.

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