Taylor. Classification of Formula Tales

Title: A Classification of Formula Tales
Author: Archer Taylor
Year: 1933
Source: Journal of American Folklore, Vol. 46, No. 179

(not available online)

These are the formula tales; then come the cumulative tales which I have linked to the TMI posts, with the exceptions below.

FORMULA TALES

20. Animals Eat One Another Up. The fox persuades them to begin with the smallest (K1024).
C. The animals flee in fear of the end of the world or of a war. A leaf has fallen into the sea or a nut has fallen on the cock's head (J1811). The big ones eat the small ones. Cf. Mt. 2033.
Esth.; Finn.; Norw.; Russ.: Afan III No. 22; Liv.4 Taylor HddM Formelmarchen 20.

65. The She-fox's Suitors. The widowed she-fox proves her faithfulness by rejecting, one after the other, suitors who do not resemble her deceased husband (T211.6).
BP I 362 (Grimm No. 38); Taylor HddM Formelmarchen 11.
65A. The wooers are various animals (wolf, lion) and a fox is accepted.
65B. The widow is a cat.

124. Blowing the House In. The goose builds a house of feathers; the hog one of stone. The wolf blows the goose's house in and eats her. He cannot blow down the hog's house. Finally he is allowed to enter or gets in through the chimney. He is burned up or boiled to death (K732).

BP I 40-41; Taylor HddM Formelmarchen 22 - Jacobs English Fairy Tales 251 No. 14 - Dan: Kristensen Danske Dyrefabler 48-49 Nos. 68-70 - Span.

1696. What Should I have said (done)? Up Reisen gohn. The mother teaches the boy (the man his wife) what he should say (do) in this or that circumstance. He uses the words in the most unsuitable situations and is always punished (J 2461). Haavio Kettenmarchenstudien I FFC LXXXVIII 94-208; BP III 145-51 (Gr. No. 143) - Esth.; Finn.; Lapp.; Dan.; Gg. No 109A; Finn.; Swed.; Flem.; Span.; Roum.; Hung.; Icel.; Rus.: Afan II no. 9 VI No.12; Gre.: Hahn No. 3; cf. Liv.; Am. Ind.: Thompson C Coll II 417FF (B). Also Wyandot: Barbeau GSCan XI 224 No. 68.
A. Mother sends son to fetch grain. (a) He repeats "God grant a small measure." Sower beats him for these words and teaches him to say "God grant a large measure." (b) Funeral company beats him and teaches him to say "May the soul be with God." (c) Wedding company: "Joy and rejoicing," etc.
B. Contains (a), (b), (c) and adds these distinguishing incidents: (e) Boy rejoices at a fire. Mother advises him to pour water. (f) Boy beaten for pouring water on a fire where people are cooking.
C. Contains (a), (b), (c), (e) and adds these distinguishing incidents: (g) Boy finds men standing by a spring and pours water on them. Boy is beaten and learns to put his head between them (h) Boy puts his head between fighting dogs and is beaten.

CUMULATIVE TALES (not in Thompson Z series)

2020. Chains involving a death: human actors. Compare Mt. 1450: A stupid girl sits by the beer barrel and weeps while the beer overflows because an ax may fall on the head of her future lover (or she cannot choose a name for her child, although she has no lover). Mother finds girl weeping, the father, and finally many join in weeping. The fools are rebuked. Indian versions: Rouse Talking Thrush p. 89; Kam Satya Indian Folklore p. 15; North Indian Notes and Queries III 104; cf. Steele and Temple Wide-Awake stories 156-168 (= Indian Antiquary XI 169); Thousand and One Nights (ed. Lady Burton) III 228; J. Jacobs English Fairy Tales 234. Compare Swynnerton Romantic Tales from the Panjan p. 469. In another story villagers bewail a calamity which has not occurred; see Parker Village Folk-Tales of Ceylon I 260.





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