Bigham - Tommy Tinker's Charm String - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

In her preface to Stories of Mother Goose Village, Madge Bigham tells of first hearing nursery rhymes, then getting her own Mother Goose book, which led to her reading it until she almost wore it out, and then her desire for still more.  The very predictability of nursery rhymes is why they are an important step to beginning reading, but that imaginative nonsensical playfulness is what captures our attention.  Little Madge wanted still more, but was told "the dear old lady wrote only the one."  When that made young Madge sad, however, she was wisely told, "But never mind, when you grow into a great big girl, my dear, you may write another one and tell some more about Humpty Dumpty and Jack-be-Nimble and little Miss Muffet and all the rest."

What great advice!  Parents, teachers, storytellers, encourage your listeners to continue creating adventures for these beloved characters.  There's a Biblical tradition of creating stories beyond the sacred text.  Those stories are called Midrash.  Surely the literature of Mother Goose and other classics deserve similar encouragement.

Fortunately Ms. Bigham (and earlier I posted a similar story by Frank Baum) remembered that challenge.  It is still worth encouraging.  Stories of Mother Goose Village is filled with many of the favorite nursery rhyme characters, but there could always be more.  I also love how many stories are holiday tales, like the Old Woman Who Lived in the Shoe having both the tale of her Christmas tree and her New Year's basket.  There's Little Miss Muffet's Valentine and Mother Hubbard's Easter Lily, she also gives another valentine tale and even sneaks Cinderella in, saying "Cinderella did not live in Mother Goose Village, though she often went there."  Jack and Jill get a birthday story and other stories sometimes include parties and picnics.They also give a look at earlier customs and games.

The concept of a"charm string" may need its brief explanation, but surely everyone has felt the tug of "finders keepers."  The emphasis on the positive makes for a pleasant, low-key resolution.

The next story will be "something completely different" as it is a story from the Civil War.  With all the sesquicentennial interest, surely those stories, too, deserve to be kept in the Public Domain.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Beston - The Bird-Boy - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Fairy tales are sometimes put down as being unrealistic, especially that frequent concluding sentence, "and they lived happily ever."  It takes someone like child psychologist, Bruno Bettelheim, to show The Uses of Enchantment ; The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales.  The fear some adults have of the frightening elements in fairy tales would rob the stories of their very essence, which lets listeners learn how to cope with life's darker side.  In contrast some point to "and they lived happily ever" to show the unreality of fairy tales.

Mature adults recognize life isn't always fair, but that doesn't mean we don't continue to hope for justice.  That resolution keeps the fairy tale from dwelling in the very area avoided by those who would sanitize all fearful elements.

I think the following story gets the mix just right.  It comes from Henry Beston's The Firelight Fairy Book, as mentioned in yesterday's "And Now for Something Completely Different."

 

Be sure to come back for more of the very cultural tradition that is part of the public domain.  It promises to be a creative look beyond Mother Goose.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings. 

"And now for something different..." - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

When I discovered more about the next story, I was forced to choose between including it with the posting of the story or making a separate post.  Because Public Domain is so important, I decided the issues deserve a separate article.  The story will follow tomorrow instead of its usual Wednesday and Saturday schedule.  Tomorrow's story is a longer tale, so that added to my decision.

Today I want to touch on the issue of public domain and how it is sometimes subverted; the author of tomorrow's story; and a guest comment from no less than Theodore Roosevelt.

It's dangerous to let me start commenting on public domain for I tend to get on my soapbox and begin to rant. As stated after the public domain stories posted here, "The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century."  But there's more going on to hinder this cultural preservation.  Re-publishers of such works should be required to bring something to their copyrighting their own efforts.  Tomorrow's story comes from a book available as a Kindle e-book which claims copyright.  Another blog I do, Michigan's "Fighting Fifth" Civil War Infantry posts the Detroit newspaper articles at the pace they appeared 150 years ago.  I use the microfilmed articles at the Library of Michigan, but the index to Michigan in the Civil War, an index by Helen Ellis, of Detroit Public Library's   Burton Historical Collection used a different edition for the Detroit Free Press from the one on microfilm.  A database today exists of those articles, but using them is subject to the "copyright" of the creator of that database.  How does that or the republishing of items long out of copyright match the stated intent of public domain?  Yes, these new publishers are using technology to keep the works available, but I prefer to support the work of Project Gutenberg and others freely offering the cultural preservation implicit in public domain.  (That Project Gutenberg link takes you to the entire book containing tomorrow's story, if you want more.)  I'll cut off my rant here so we can get to the other two points mentioned.

The authors of these past folklore anthologies are too often just names.  It's been fascinating to me to discover more about them.  Wikipedia has often been the source of such information.  Henry Beston certainly is way more than might be apparent from tomorrow's tale from The Firelight Fairy Book.  He wrote a great deal beyond fairy tales and is best known as a naturalist and author of the 1928 (not yet in public domain) book, The Outermost House.  It is so influential that it's called a "nature classic",  he's considered one of the fathers of the modern environmental movement, and Rachel Carson said he was the only author who ever influenced her writing.  For a more personal sidelight, this lover of children's literature was delighted to learn he married children's author, Elizabeth Coatsworth. 

But we mustn't keep the comments of Ted Roosevelt waiting.  Before you think that's too informal, you should know this is the nature-loving son of the president.  Theodore "Ted" Roosevelt III is generally known as Theodore, Jr. and he had an active and distinguished political and business career of his own in addition to winning the Congressional Medal of Honor.  That last is also true for his father.  The two T.R.s share this a father/son honor only with Arthur and Douglas MacArthur.  You can certainly hear Ted's father's influence in his comments here in the Foreword to The Firelight Fairy Book.

Well that's today's "And now for something different..." Be sure to catch tomorrow's story of "The Bird-Boy."
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Once again I state:
This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Bayliss - How Coyote Brought Fish and Fire to the Indians - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I confess it, I enjoy Coyote and other Tricksters.  Some might question holding up such rascals as folk heroes, but usually when they behave unacceptably, they get what they deserve.  That's a worthwhile lesson to come from folktales and, with tricksters, it is usually done in an enjoyable way that doesn't feel like a sermon.  But Coyote, Raven, and others sometimes even surprise us by using their very trickiness to produce something good!  Today's story is one of those.

There are many Coyote tales in my library, but Old Man Coyote by Clara K. Bayliss is safely in the years of Public Domain while others are either individual tales within collections or are collections that my research shows no renewal.  An interesting feature of Ms. Bayliss's versions is they often combine two tales into one story.  This is true for today's offering.

I also enjoy the bit of "pourquois" tale that comes in this version of the story.  I was familiar with most of those explanations of why the various creatures were the way they were, but loved the added ones about Frog.

For those wanting sources on the stories in Old Man Coyote, Ms. Bayliss cites sources like Curtin, Boas, Mathews, Teit, Bancroft, and the Journal of American Folk Lore, but she does not attempt to give specifics as to the origins of her retellings.  It's up to you if you are so caught up by Coyote that you must know more, or just enjoy a good story.  Unfortunately this volume has not yet been preserved online.  Her only work e-published so far is A Treasury of Eskimo Tales.  Northwest native trickster, Raven, makes his appearance there.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings. 

Baum - Tom, the Piper's Son - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Frank Baum didn't only write the Oz books.  His first work, in 1897, was Mother Goose in Prose, a collection of stories that imaginatively expand upon some of the well-known rhymes.  It also was the first commission for the artist, Maxfield Parrish.  Fortunately for us and for the careers of Baum and Parrish, the book was moderately successful.  In Baum's case it let him give up a door-to-door sales job.

The stories seem to vary a bit in the level of maturity needed.  I've used the story of Humpty Dumpty with preschoolers, but I wouldn't think "Tom, the Piper's Son" would work that young.  This tale of the theft of a pig seems meant for school-age children.

By the way, Baum also wrote a rather unusual look at The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus.  This creative look at familiar stories and rhymes are great starters for encouraging children to try the same.  Later this month we will see yet another author's take on such expansions when I post Madge Bigham's Stories from Mother Goose Village.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Baring-Gould - Scandinavian Werewolves - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Today's story came to me as a surprise gift from "across the pond" and British storyteller and friend, Tim Sheppard.  That generosity is evident on his Tim Sheppard's Storytelling Resources for Storytellers page.  He sent me The Book of Werewolves by Sabine Baring-Gould.  The cover of this reprint of the 1865 book  explained, "Sabine Baring-Gould (1834-1924) was a prolific novelist, historian, archaeologist, folklorist and parson with a fascination for the darker side of human nature."

The book takes a fairly businesslike look at the subject and there are many brief lycanthropic anecdotes in the book.  When I picked it up today, I saw I had marked the true story of Elizabeth Bathory of Hungary in the chapter titled "Natural Causes of Lycanthropy."  Because it is a matter of record easily found and she is also sometimes called a vampire, I will skip telling about this serial killer.  Instead I will turn to the "Folk-lore Relating to Were-wolves" chapter.  The paperback binding can't survive scanning, so retyping is the best way to give a taste of the material.  Woops!  Don't try tasting this too literally.

Here are some Scandinavian portions.

In Norway it is believed that there are persons who can assume the form of a wolf or a bear (Huse-björn), and again resume their own; this property is either imparted to them by the Trollmen, or those possessing it are themselves Trolls.

In a hamlet in the midst of a forest, there dwelt a cottager named Lasse, and his wife.  One day he went out into the forest to fell a tree, but had forgot to cross himself and say his paternoster, so that some troll or wolf-witch (varga mor) obtained power over him and transformed him into a wolf.  His wife mourned him for many years, but, one Christmas-eve, there came a beggar-woman, very poor and ragged, to the door, and the good woman of the house took her in, fed her well, and entreated her kindly.  At her departure the beggar-woman said that the wife would probably see her husband again, as he was not dead, but wandering in the forest as a wolf.  Towards night-fall the wife went to her pantry to place in it a piece of meat for the morrow, when, on turning to go out, she perceived a wolf standing before her, raising itself with it paws on the pantry steps, regarding her with sorrowful and hungry looks.  Seeing this she exclaimed, "If I was sure that thou wert my own Lasse, I would give thee a bit of meat."  At that instant the wolf-skin fell off, and her husband stood before her in the clothes he wore on the unlucky morning when she had last beheld him.

Finns, Lapps, and Russians are held in particular aversion, because the Swedes believe that they have the power to change people into wild beasts.  During the last year of the war with Russia*, when Calmar was overrun with an unusual number of wolves, it was generally said that the Russians had transformed their Swedish prisoners into wolves, and sent them home to invest the country.

In Denmark the following stories are told: --
A man, who from his childhood had been a were-wolf, when returning one night with his wife from a merry-making, observed that the hour was at hand when the evil usually came upon him; giving therefore the reins to his wife, he descended from the vehicle, saying to her, "If anything comes to thee, only strike at it with thine apron."  He then withdrew, but immediately after, the woman, as she was sitting in the vehicle, was attacked by a were-wolf.  She did as the man had enjoined her, and struck it with her apron, from which it rived a portion, and then ran away.  After some time, the man returned, holding in his mouth the rent portion of his wife's apron, on seeing which, she cried out in terror,--"Good Lord, man, why, thou art a were-wolf!"  "Thank thee, wife," said he, "now I am free."  And from that time he was no more afflicted.

*(LoiS) There were many Russo-Swedish wars yet the most likely for this 1865 volume would be the Finnish War of 1808 and 1809 as that was between Sweden and Russia, ending in the eastern third of Sweden becoming the autonomous Grand Duchy of Finland within the Russian Empire.  Another storytelling friend of mine, Neppe Petterson, is a Swedish-speaking Finn, a minority group in Finland that also includes the composer of their national anthem, Finlandia, Jean Sibelius.

Returning to Tim's present, I'll echo his handwritten dedication to me: Fangs for everything.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.

Baldwin - The Wonderful Weaver - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I was disappointed when I did a search for today's author.  Only the civil rights activist and writer of the novel, Go Tell It on the Mountain, by that name appears.  There are actually two important authors named James Baldwin deserving attention.  The very intent of Public Domain occurs with the James Baldwin who lived from 1841 to 1925.  He was a leader in 19th century education and an author and editor in the late 19th and first quarter of the 20th century, whose works were said to be half the textbooks in U.S. schools during his lifetime.  Fortunately the Baldwin Project is named for him and has similar goals for Public Domain works.  On the page stating their mission to bring "yesterday's classics to today's children", they quote William Bennett in The Book of Virtues as saying Baldwin and other authors of his time "devoted their energies to preserving some of the best of our heritage, and whose works have supplied this volume with many truly great stories."

All this sounds dreadfully serious, but I applaud this Mr. Baldwin for taking something like the Greek myths and telling them "simply as stories, nothing more."  The italics are his own emphasis and I also appreciate his going on to say "I have carefully avoided every suggestion of interpretation.  Attempts at analysis and explanation will always prove fatal to a child's appreciation and enjoyment of such stories."  The same could be said for a storytelling audience.

Here is proof that he succeeded in those efforts.

All you naturalists, of course, will point out that spiders are call arachnids and this story gives the root of the name.  At most you might want to explain the weaving terms of warp and woof, loom, spindle, and distaff.

This came from Old Greek Stories.  That book and many others by Baldwin can be found on his page.  Looking at his deceptively simple style, I am grateful for their project so that we can continue Keeping the Public in Public Domain.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings. 

Bain - The Tale of Peasant Demyan - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I confess it, I'm a Russophile, loving much of Russia's literature,  music, dance, and culture.  Russian folklorist Aleksandr Afanas'ev (also transliterated Alexander Afanasev) is the main source of much of Russian folktales.  As with my earlier posting of an Andersen tale, I strongly urge having as many versions of these tales as possible.  My favorite re-tellings are in Arthur Ransome's Old Peter's Russian Tales.  Later I plan to post my two favorite tales from his work.  Today's "The Tale of Peasant Demyan" avoids those stories. It's short, useful, but little known.   I hope you enjoy this trickster outwitting a bully at his game.

As with many older stories slight wording changes, for things like the "thy" and "thine"s, would be helpful in telling.  Possibly you might prefer to explain before telling the story what the traditional Russian blouse was and that it was a masculine shirt unlike the usual blouse which is feminine.  Personally on the final sentence I would insert "the traditional Russian proverb" before saying "The scythe has struck upon a stone!"  I would then add, "Which means 'I've met my match at last.' "


This came from R. Nisbet Bain's Russian Fairy Tales; from the Russian of Polevoi.  Russian historian, Peter Nikolaevich Polevoi, published in Russian some of Afanas'ev's tales and Bain translated stories that had been missed in an earlier book by W.R.S. Ralston.  Similarly today's tale isn't well-known, but should be.  According to what I see online, this book by Bain currently only seems to be offered in selections from it rather than the complete volume. 

Some of my Russian folktale books, including the Pantheon edition, according to copyright searches, weren't renewed, but I'm only posting from titles safely published before 1923.  I'd hate to accidentally run afoul of the "copyright police."

While selecting this, I went to the Wikipedia article on Robert Nisbet Bain and found he was fascinating, too.  I must add more of both his Russian and Turkish translations to my library!

Next time we'll have a story from one of the few books of Greek mythology that I own.  It's mythology with an emphasis on being a story.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings. 

Bailey - The Little Red Princess - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

This is the second of two tales about princesses by anthologist and author, Carolyn Sherwin Bailey.  Her anthologies tend to be a good source of seasonal and holiday stories, nature and animal tales, stories centered around the home (of the early twentieth century), traditional tales, and more.  To aid in your finding these wonderful anthologies, I've decided to add hotlinks any time I can find one to help you find additional stories.  This comes from Tell Me Another Story.  Whenever possible I will use a Project Gutenberg posting of Public Domain material.  They certainly embody the spirit of Public Domain and deserve support.

I promised this is not your usual princess, but will let you discover what I mean and why this is listed as a tale of summer.

May you keep the followers of the queen out of your life until the next story appears.

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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings. 

Bailey - The Princess Who Saw Herself - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Carolyn Sherwin Bailey is both an award-winning author and a fine anthologist.  She won the Newbery Award for her children's novel, Miss Hickory and also is the author of the classic picture book, The Little Rabbit Who Wanted Red Wings.  I always know any anthology she put together will contain gems. Because she was also a teacher (also a principal and writer for both storytellers and educators), the stories tend to have a lesson included in the tale.

This is a story I discovered while seeking material for storytelling at a birthday party.  This eight year-old tomboy is not your typical fairy tale princess, but more of a terror of a princess. 

The fun is definitely in those early stages, but, when the princess realizes what it takes to be recognized as a princess, the reward comes swiftly.  After all, she may be a tomboy, but if she knows what it takes to win a prize she goes after it and wins it.

Both the  books I named at the beginning were written in the mid-1940s and are not yet in Public Domain, but ReadBookOnline.net lets you read many of her stories.  I noticed they included "Birthday of the Infanta", which is by Oscar Wilde.  The story actually is re-told by Ms. Bailey and her books always noted original authors, while making a story more easily tellable. 

I'm going to include a second and very unusual princess story by Ms. Bailey next time.  It's a glimpse of the variety found in her anthologies.
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This is part of a series of bi-weekly posting of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories. 

Currently I'm involved in projects taking me out of my usual work of sharing stories with an audience.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  This fall I expect to return to my normal monthly posting of a research project here.  Depending on response, I will decide at that time if "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my monthly postings.