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Grandfather Tales: American-English Folk Tales
A collection of folk tales from North Carolina and Virginia for a slightly older audience than that for Chase's Jack Tales.
222 pages, Hardcover
First published January 1, 1948
About the author
Richard Thomas Chase
33 books7 followersRichard Thomas Chase [February 15, 1904 – February 2 1988) was an American folklorist and an authority on English-American folklore.
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Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews
May 14, 2026
4.25⭐️. This brought back many memories of my childhood and my Mamaw Slone. This book was read to my third grade class from Mrs. Johnson. I wish I had not forgotten so much of my culture. Some of the short stories or tall tales were better than others.
July 4, 2014
A collection of tales from North Carolina and Virginia, retold, wrapped in a frame story of an evening telling tales, with a few other chapters of folkloric elements. Chase himself took to tell such stories many times before he decided which version to present. With notes about where he collected them, what tale types, and other things. Like why he wrestled with putting in "Like Meat Loves Salt".
King Lear, of course, uses the trope "Love Like Salt" with some tweaks. What "Like Meat Loves Salt" does is apparently reimport the play back into the folk tale. The heroine, like "Cap O'Rushes", uses salt rather than nothing, but then she is stuck in a tower and rescued within a paragraph instead of the the usual job and three balls. The tale follows her father instead, rejected by the other two and gone mad. His daughter finally brings him back by serving him a meal without salt, which makes him remember.
There are two Cinderella tales. I was first alerted to this book by a discussion of them. and it said that "Catskins" was of a rather unpleasant Cinderella, which I find overstated; then, my standard is "Cenerentola", in which the "heroine" has two stepmothers, the second one having lured her into murdering the first on the claims she would be better. Catskins only tricks a man who exploited her into giving her fancy dresses. (It's one of the "run-away-and-work-in-a-kitchen" variants.) "Ashpet" is closer to the Cinderella form, though she's a hired girl, not a stepdaughter; she gets her help by being polite to a witch; and she deliberately works off her shoe so as to distract the young man, escaping while he's looking. Also a very funny scene where the witch does the washing Ashpet was left to do.
There are also variants on a lot of other tales. "Gallymanders! Gallymanders!" on the kind and unkind girls, "Mutsmag" on the boy tricks the ogre, though, like "Mollie Whuppie", it's actually a girl; "Whitebear Whittington" on "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". Also some tales of sillies, some tall tales, and one impressive transplantation of Robin Hood to the United States.
"Sody Sallyraytus" has to be the oddest title -- it's just a dialetical term for baking soda.
King Lear, of course, uses the trope "Love Like Salt" with some tweaks. What "Like Meat Loves Salt" does is apparently reimport the play back into the folk tale. The heroine, like "Cap O'Rushes", uses salt rather than nothing, but then she is stuck in a tower and rescued within a paragraph instead of the the usual job and three balls. The tale follows her father instead, rejected by the other two and gone mad. His daughter finally brings him back by serving him a meal without salt, which makes him remember.
There are two Cinderella tales. I was first alerted to this book by a discussion of them. and it said that "Catskins" was of a rather unpleasant Cinderella, which I find overstated; then, my standard is "Cenerentola", in which the "heroine" has two stepmothers, the second one having lured her into murdering the first on the claims she would be better. Catskins only tricks a man who exploited her into giving her fancy dresses. (It's one of the "run-away-and-work-in-a-kitchen" variants.) "Ashpet" is closer to the Cinderella form, though she's a hired girl, not a stepdaughter; she gets her help by being polite to a witch; and she deliberately works off her shoe so as to distract the young man, escaping while he's looking. Also a very funny scene where the witch does the washing Ashpet was left to do.
There are also variants on a lot of other tales. "Gallymanders! Gallymanders!" on the kind and unkind girls, "Mutsmag" on the boy tricks the ogre, though, like "Mollie Whuppie", it's actually a girl; "Whitebear Whittington" on "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". Also some tales of sillies, some tall tales, and one impressive transplantation of Robin Hood to the United States.
"Sody Sallyraytus" has to be the oddest title -- it's just a dialetical term for baking soda.
April 27, 2008
Richard Chases' collected Jack tales and stories from Appalachia are remarkable in their honestly. In the opening chapter of this book Chase recounts going to collect a tale from Tom Hunt out in Crockett county.
When Chase tells Tom that he intends to record his tales in a book the old fellow responds, "No, it'll not do: just to read the old tales out of a book. You got to tell 'em to make 'em go right." This uneducated tale spinner understands what it has taken the learned to comprehend after collecting decades of data!
My personal favorite is Old-One Eye -- which I usually share with children at Halloween!
When Chase tells Tom that he intends to record his tales in a book the old fellow responds, "No, it'll not do: just to read the old tales out of a book. You got to tell 'em to make 'em go right." This uneducated tale spinner understands what it has taken the learned to comprehend after collecting decades of data!
My personal favorite is Old-One Eye -- which I usually share with children at Halloween!
April 10, 2023
Phenomenal. It is not just a piece of Americana; you can pick out common themes and characters from old Irish/Scottish/Celt tales. This makes sense since the Appalachians were populated from these regions.
January 14, 2026
I appreciated the book because it reminded me of the Appalachian storytelling that my grandmother would sometimes share. I didn't recognize any of these tales, but reading the book brought back good memories
January 29, 2021
a lesser companion to the Jack Tales. Still love Berkeley Williams' illustrations though
February 4, 2021
I liked it because all of the stories were funny.
August 26, 2023
grimms fairy tales via Appalachian mountain folk; aka Hansel and Gretel are Buck and Bess
June 23, 2024
Richard Chase is my hero.
May 7, 2025
Tales & legends gathered and written in the souther Appalachian mountain vernacular.
October 17, 2019
CeDibeli pada tanggal 2 Agustus 2006 di Pameran Buku Bandung (Landmark Braga), dibaca dengan cara mencicil. Dalam buku ini termuat 25 judul cerita yang dituturkan dengan gaya berkisah sebagaimana suatu keluarga besar yang berkumpul pada malam natal, saling berbagi cerita di depan perapian hangat ditemani kopi dan cokelat panas.
Buku ini merupakan kumpulan cerita rakyat Amerika yang dikumpulkan dan diceritakan ulang oleh Richard Chase. Seperti halnya cerita rakyat, ceritanya mengandung unsur keajaiban seperti Catskins dan Ashpet yang agak mirip dengan Cinderella; juga kemustahilan yang menarik seperti dalam Wicked John and the Devil dan How Bobtail Beat the Devil, saya sebut mustahil karena mempertemukan manusia dengan setan; dan juga fabel seperti The old Sow and the Three Shoats.
Dalam kumpulan ini juga termuat cerita sehari-hari dengan penggambaran karakter yang konyol misalnya dalam Soap, Soap, Soap! dan The Two Old Women's Bet. Kisah ini mengingatkan kita pada Kabayan pada folklore Sunda atau Juha dari Arab.
Buku ini ditulis dalam bahasa slang Amerika sehingga bagi saya yang belajar formal British agak kesulitan memahami arti beberapa istilah yang tercantum. But overall, membaca buku ini seru, semacam petualangan menjelajah kosakata baru dan mengetahui legenda yang sudah kita akrabi sebelumnya, but this time in American version.
Buku ini merupakan kumpulan cerita rakyat Amerika yang dikumpulkan dan diceritakan ulang oleh Richard Chase. Seperti halnya cerita rakyat, ceritanya mengandung unsur keajaiban seperti Catskins dan Ashpet yang agak mirip dengan Cinderella; juga kemustahilan yang menarik seperti dalam Wicked John and the Devil dan How Bobtail Beat the Devil, saya sebut mustahil karena mempertemukan manusia dengan setan; dan juga fabel seperti The old Sow and the Three Shoats.
Dalam kumpulan ini juga termuat cerita sehari-hari dengan penggambaran karakter yang konyol misalnya dalam Soap, Soap, Soap! dan The Two Old Women's Bet. Kisah ini mengingatkan kita pada Kabayan pada folklore Sunda atau Juha dari Arab.
Buku ini ditulis dalam bahasa slang Amerika sehingga bagi saya yang belajar formal British agak kesulitan memahami arti beberapa istilah yang tercantum. But overall, membaca buku ini seru, semacam petualangan menjelajah kosakata baru dan mengetahui legenda yang sudah kita akrabi sebelumnya, but this time in American version.
February 6, 2016
These non-traditional, traditional folk tales are fun to read, in large part because Chase writes the book as if the reader is with him in a small, mountain cabin, crowded with people, delighting in sharing their tales with the man who cares enough to write them down. It was also fun reading different versions of the tales I grew up with (Ashpet v Cinderella for ex.) and seeing elements of others I have always loved. For example, Red Riding Hood's "What big eyes you have" here in the tale, "Chunk o' Meat."
June 7, 2015
I found this book in my attic and it has an inscription from my Gramma. I had never noticed that before, so I never bothered to read the book. Honestly, I'm not sure my Gramma read it either.
Inside are a bunch of tales told to the author by people in Virginia. It appears that somehow they heard lots of classic stories and then ran with them. Usually in ways that really made me scratch my head. Weird and bizarre.
I think the only one I kinda liked was Old Roaney and even that was really weird. He splits his horse and skins it? what?
Inside are a bunch of tales told to the author by people in Virginia. It appears that somehow they heard lots of classic stories and then ran with them. Usually in ways that really made me scratch my head. Weird and bizarre.
I think the only one I kinda liked was Old Roaney and even that was really weird. He splits his horse and skins it? what?
August 8, 2015
Delightful and revealing as to how stories are passed from generation to generation and from continent to continent. It was easy to see many of the old European fairy tales played out in the mountains of North Carolina, etc. Grandfather tales are less didactic (and I don't mean that in a bad way) and more playful and attuned to entertainment than the originals but a person can always see where the kernel of the old story resides.
July 23, 2016
Grandfather Tales is a good book for story time. It consists of eleven mini stories that are short enough to read to the class. The stories are written in understandable and fun to read. Children would love to read Grandfather Tales.
March 9, 2007
This goes hand-in-hand with Jack Tales. These are some of my favorites stories. Stories I hope to one day tell, in an overly animated way, to my children.
August 21, 2007
Not as good as the Jack Tales, but I still love these other Appalachian tales.
July 19, 2008
An excellent collection of folk tales with a robust American flavor.
July 26, 2014
First read: September 18, 2013
Displaying 1 - 20 of 20 reviews