Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales

by Max Lüthi, Lee Chadeayne (Translator), Paul Gottwald (Translator)

This first paperback edition of the seminal work by the Swiss scholar Max Luthi will be welcomed by folklorists for its informative survey of the various ways in which fairytales and related genres (local legends and saints' lives) may be read.

Genres: Nonfiction, Literary Criticism, Fairy Tales, Folklore, Books About Books, Theory, Literature

179 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1970

Reviews

[Kelsey Bryant · Rating 5 out of 5]

This was an awesome book! It’s a must-read for those who love fairy tales as well as in-depth literary studies because Luthi combines the two in this insightful volume. Every chapter turned on a light bulb for me, prompting lots of notes. Like many people, fairy tales have been a backdrop to my life ever since I can remember; but a mystery always hung about them: Where did they come from? Why have they endured all these years? To me, there was much to admire in them but also a few things to pooh-pooh, like their flat characters and sometimes ridiculously unrealistic situations. But I’ve grown up since then and can appreciate them for the significant contribution to life that they are. Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales informs my impressions and fully explains the fairy tale’s value.
It was not a heavy read, and even gave quite a few tales at length, many of which I’d never heard before, including variants of The Sleeping Beauty and Rapunzel. So that was a treat! Mostly Luthi discussed the meaning of fairy tales, which also covered why they are in the form they are – even the way a fairy tale is told has meaning. He went into the unconscious psychology behind them: the many lessons they teach us for living beyond the mundane and the dreams that they encourage us to pursue. For example, here is how Luthi explains one lesson of the Cinderella tale: “Man is surrounded by hostile and helping forces; but he is not entirely at their mercy: through his own attitude – perseverance, humility, and trust – he can be supported through the help of nature and the enduring, strengthening love of the deceased mother [Cinderella’s virtuous mother] and can thus be led to the light.” And here he gives another benefit of the fairy tale: “The fairy tale portrays … a harmonious world. The confidence from which it flows is transmitted to both those who tell it and those who hear it. … [W]e can readily believe the report of a north German storyteller that a soothing and healing power can emanate from fairy tales when told to sick people in hospitals.” The book is full of such interesting and potentially life-changing thoughts.
My only disappointment is that, since I’ve always wanted to know the origin of fairy tales, I was hoping Luthi would peel away at the mystery. He didn’t attempt to, but instead had this to say: “Actually, the real origins are not the important thing in the fairy tale. It is quite likely that behind many features in our fairy tales there are old customs and beliefs; but in the context of the tale, they have lost their original character. Fairy tales are experienced by their hearers and readers, not as realistic, but as symbolic poetry.” If the learned and experienced Max Luthi says the origins are undiscoverable, I suppose the mystery shall just have to go unsolved.
The chapter titles will give you a great indication of its contents:
Introduction (the only boring part of the book … it wasn’t written by Max Luthi.)
1 Sleeping Beauty: The Meaning and Form of Fairy Tales
2 The Seven Sleepers: Saint’s Legend – Local Legend – Fairy Tale
3 The Dragon Slayer: The Style of the Fairy Tale
4 The Uses of Fairy Tales: Cinderella – Hansel and Gretel – The White Snake
5 The Little Earth-Cow: Symbolism in the Fairy Tale
6 The Living Doll: Local Legend and Fairy Tale
7 Animal Stories: A Glimpse of the Tales of Primitive Peoples
8 Rapunzel: The Fairy Tale as Representation of a Maturation Process
9 The Riddle Princess: Cunning, Jest, and Sagacity
10 The Fairy-Tale Hero: The Image of Man in the Fairy Tale
11 The Miracle in Literature
Reference Notes
Index

[Katherine Sas · Rating 3 out of 5]

A pretty light but very readable survey of the fairy tale genre.

[Christine · Rating 4 out of 5]

Luthi’s study of fairy tales is concerned mostly with German fairy tales, and therefore, mostly with the Grimms. It is a tad dated, especially when he looks at the tale so of primitive people (ie Non-whites). However his comments about tales and story telling are still important.

[Valerie]

I think this may be the first book that I read on here that I will not be rating. Not because I couldn't - as I had a number of stars in mind for most of it - but because I don't think a book with the horrific racism of chapter 7 deserves it.

Looking through the other reviews here, I was rather appalled at how they only seem to vaguely refer to 'old-fashioned' views or it being 'slightly dated'. It's disgusting to see this level of blatant racism so easily dismissed.

Chapter 7 is nothing less than European Imperialistic views at their worst. It speaks of "civilized Oriental peoples" or "primitive peoples, like the African Negroes and American Indians" and says their tales are "undifferentiated and undeveloped". It's more than clear that Lüthi sees tales from outside of Europe only through his highly racist and superior lens, making hasty judgments based on those beliefs.

The only saving grace of chapter 7 is that, despite all else, it does contain some snippets of tales from outside of Europe and those, most definitely, are worth reading. And, if you can bear to wade through Lüthi's racist garbage around them, there are some summaries of other interesting stories.

So, yes, no star rating for me for this book.

As for the part of the book that focuses on actual fairy tales, that is quite interesting and informative. I learned a lot and have come to look at fairy tales quite differently from before. Now that I know why certain elements that I had found irritating before exist, they make a lot more sense to me. And they won't bother me as much as I now understand them.

Despite how well known some fairy tales are, Lüthi covered a few that I didn't know about. Whether this is pure chance or because some have just fallen from favor, I don't know, but it was quite interesting to hear of them and how they fit into the fairy tales that I was far more familiar with.

I also loved hearing more about the different versions of the tales that exist across Europe. The Rapunzel chapter in particular was a favorite of mine as Lüthi covered so many different variants of key scenes, along with the more subtle differences near the beginning. I find that fascinating, much as when he talked about how the same basic idea could crop up over and over again in different forms and countries, yet address the same underlying issue.

The description on how fairy tales differ from local legends or saint's legends was quite intriguing and informative. It's not something I'd ever given much thought to, but I can totally see what Lüthi means now that he's explained it and given examples of each type of story. The brief mention of how fairy tales compare to myths and literature in the last chapter was also nice.

But that brings me to my other gripe about this book: the foreword and last chapter. As good as everything else bar chapter 7 was, that is how bad those were. The foreword in particular seemed designed to put people to sleep and is a horrendous introduction to the book. Personally, I'd advise skipping it. The same with the last chapter. It just felt wholly unconnected to the rest of the book. Instead of fairy tales and associated stories we're suddenly talking about literature and religion. What the hell? It makes zero sense in the context of the book.

Overall: beware the racism, but an interesting deep dive into European fairy tales with some extraneous stuff that can be skipped.

[Boweavil · Rating 4 out of 5]

A really challenging and thought provoking European point of view, introduced and translated by American experts on the subject. This juxtaposition of scholarly attitudes makes for a fascinating if slightly dated read. As long as you can ignore old fashioned phrases like "primitive cultures", then the actual analysis and interpretation of the tales is worth reading and thinking about. There is a bit of the Bettelheim in this work but a lot of other influences as well.

[H. K. · Rating 4 out of 5]

Lüthi does a great job dissecting the anatomy of the fairytale, pointing out its significance, and highlighting its importance of fairytales in the lives of ancient people and even the children of today.

Here’s a quote that I like from chapter 4:

“Fairytales are unreal but they are not untrue; they reflect essential developments and conditions of man’s existence.”

[Randal · Rating 5 out of 5]

Excellent, but slightly dated. A wonderful set of essays if you are interested in this form of writing. Some good quotable sections throughout. The book is limited in its scope. I wish it was longer, and he had gone deeper with his analysis.

[grace · Rating 3 out of 5]

this was a helpful piece of literary criticism.

[Miss Jools · Rating 4 out of 5]

A couple of useless chapters, but overall a really interesting look at European fairy tales.

[Morgan Mussell · Rating 4 out of 5]

Why do fairytales continue to fascinate? Why do we think of Red Riding Hood when we find ourselves alone in the woods or even a city park? Why does Hollywood still reap profit from retelling the old stories? Why do they move us so deeply?

On the Nature of Fairy Tales by Max Luthi (1909-1991) is a wonderful place to begin to look under the surface of these deceptively simple tales. The eleven essays gathered in this book explore different features of fairytales such as structure, symbolism, and meaning. Luthi views the tales as a unique literary genre. He knew and referred to the major schools of folklore research – the sociological, the psychological, and the comparative historical approaches – but he always returned to the stories themselves. The meanings he found there were more than enough.

Fairytales have “a crispness and precision” in part, according to Luthi, because they eliminate most descriptions. We hear of a dark forest, a cottage, a witch, but any and all details come from our own imagination. In a similar way, there is no real character development. “The fairy tale is not concerned with individual destinies,” but this lends the tales a universal meaning. The prince or princess stands for all of us, “as an image of the human spirit.”

At its core, the fairytale is about our “deliverance from an unauthentic existence and [the] commencement of a true one.” Prince or princess, goose girl or goatherd, all have lost their way. Their radiance, which is our radiance, is hidden. The kitchen lad wears a hat to hide his golden hair.

Sometimes the hero or heroine sets off into the forest alone. Sometimes they sit and weep. “Crying, the sign of helplessness, summons assistance – again a feature recurring in innumerable fairy tales. Precisely as an outcast can man hope to find help.” The caveat is that one must be kind and compassionate to all living creatures in order to find the right kind of help at the right time. Even ants will repay a kindness that can save the hero’s life.

Luthi quotes Mircea Eliade who said that fairytale listeners experience an “initiation in the sphere of imagination.” In Luthi’s view, fairytales echo the truths of the great spiritual traditions – both we and the world are far more than what we seem.

[Sarah · Rating 4 out of 5]

If you have any interest in fairy tales--like, reading reinterpretations or creating them--this is an immensely helpful book. Luthi includes many excerpts, which is part of why the book reads so fast. It's actually an enjoyable, easy read. He lays out elements of fairy tale style and then shows how the entire structure of the fairy tale and the details of the fairy tale enact those elements. The chapter about the tales of "primitives" and how they are not as sophisticated as European fairy tales is clearly a giant problem in the center of this book. But it was written half a century ago by a white dude who was sure he knew everything, so I'm gonna give the book if not Luthi himself a pass on that. Read it as one smart interpretation of the style and function of fairy tales--through your own post-monoculture lens--and you'll be golden.

[Brandi · Rating 4 out of 5]

For any writer who plans to create a fairy tale of their own or re-create the style accurately, this is the book for you! Luthï breaks down and provides good insight into patterns, styles, and characteristics of fairy tales; he also differentiates between a fairy tale, a saint's legend, and a local legend.

An appropriate beginning for the book:

"Our attitude toward fairy tales is ambivalent...For centuries, educated people have looked down on popular fairy tales as stories properly belonging in the nursery and the servants' quarters; yet great writers have drawn inspiration from them. Great literature of all ages has borrowed from fairy-tale motifs and often exhibited an imaginativeness not unlike that of the fairy tale."

[Lisa Street · Rating 5 out of 5]

Luthi's book is a fascinating exploration into the psychological and sociological structures and styles of not just fairy tales, but their counterparts in Local and Saint's Legends. As a form of early Indo-European, European, Native American and other tribal cultures, the fairy tale literature embraces and exposes, the inner psyche of man and in some cultures animals and cosmos, and how man, beast, cosmos, and earth come together in story in different cultures and in the ever changing landscape of modern history. I found it a fascinating read and highly recommend it.

[Jordy · Rating 3 out of 5]

This book was published in 1970 so some of the world view's were a bit outdated in the primitive cultures chapter. The way the author broke down the structure of fairy tales, however, and the evidence and examples he used to support his line of thinking were well worth the read.

[Mariah]

Another from Savers 2-14-09

[Tifany · Rating 4 out of 5]

A good general introduction to the common motifs and structuring of Fairy Tales, from an academic perspective.

[Nora · Rating 3 out of 5]

Como trabajo de divulgación parece bien, aunque por momentos parece impresionista.