The Sorcerer's Apprentice: An Anthology of Magical Tales

by Jack D. Zipes (Editor), Natalie Frank (Illustrator)

A diverse new anthology that traces the meaning and magic of the sorcerer's apprentice tale throughout history

"The Sorcerer's Apprentice" might conjure up images of Mickey Mouse from the Disney film Fantasia, or of Harry Potter. As this anthology reveals, however, "sorcerer's apprentice" tales--in which a young person rebels against, or complies with, an authority who holds the keys to magical powers--have been told through the centuries, in many languages and cultures, from classical times to today. This unique and beautifully illustrated book brings together more than fifty sorcerer's apprentice stories by a plethora of writers, including Ovid, Sir Walter Scott, and the Brothers Grimm. From Goethe's "The Pupil in Magic" to A. K. Ramanujan's "The Guru and His Disciple," this expansive collection presents variations of a classic passed down through countries and eras.

Readers enter worlds where household objects are brought to life and shape-shifting occurs from human to animal and back again. We meet two types of "The Humiliated Apprentice," a foolish bumbler who wields magic ineffectively and promotes obedience to authority; and "The Rebellious Apprentice" who, through ambition and transformative skills, promotes empowerment and self-awareness. In an extensive introduction, esteemed fairy-tale scholar Jack Zipes discusses the significance and meaning of the apprentice stories, the contradictions in popular retellings, and the importance of magic as a tool of resistance against figures who abuse their authority. Twenty specially commissioned black-and-white illustrations by noted artist Natalie Frank bring the stories to visual life.

The Sorcerer's Apprentice enlightens and entertains readers with enduring, spellbinding tales of sorcery that have been with us through the ages.



Preface (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) • (2017) • essay by Jack Zipes
Notes and Acknowledgments (The Sorcerer's Apprentice) • (2017) • essay by Jack Zipes
The Sorcerer's Apprentice, Harry Potter, and Why Magic Matters • (2017) • essay by Jack Zipes
Eucrates and Pancrates • (1921) • short story by Lucian of Samosata
The Story of the Brahmin Padmanaba and the Young Hassan • (2017) • short story by François Pétis de la Croix (trans. of Histoire du brachmane Padmanaba et du jeune Fyquaï 1707)
The Pupil in Magic • (1853) • poem by Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (trans. of Der Zauberlehrling 1798)
Cornelius Agrippa's Bloody Book • (1801) • poem by Robert Southey
The Last Exorciser • (1838) • short story by Sir Walter Scott
The Book of Magic • (2017) • short story by Е. А. Чудинский? (trans. of Чернокнижник? 1864) [as by John Naaké (in error)?]
The Master and His Pupil; or, The Magic Book • (1884) • short story by Alfred Cooper Fryer
The Lady's Fifth Story • (1886) • short story by Sheykh-Zada
The Blacksmith and the Devil • (1890) • short story by Edith Hodgetts
The Rash Magician • (1916) • short story by Henry Thomas Francis
The Sorcerer's Apprentice • (1941) • short story by Richard Rostron
The Mojo • (1956) • short story by Richard M. Dorson
The Do-All Ax • (1957) • short story by Harold Courlander
Erysichthon and Mestra • (1922) • poem by Ovid
The Saga of the Well-and-Wise-Walking Khan • (1873) • short story by R. H. Busk [as by Rachel Harriette Busk]
Bhavašarman and the Two Witches • (1880) • short story by Somadeva Bhatta [as by Somadeva]
The Magician's Apprentice • (2003) • short story by Farid al-Din 'Attar
Maestro Lattantio and His Apprentice Dionigi • (2001) • short story by Giovanni Francesco Straparola (trans. of Maestro Lattantio 1551) [as by Giovan Francesco Straparola]
The Deceiver Shall Be Deceived • (1886) • short story by Pandit S. M. Natesa Sastri [as by Sanghendi Mahalingam Natesa Sastri]
The Nimble Thief and His Master • [KHM (Kinder- und Hausmärchen)? • 68] • (2017) • short story by Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm (trans. of De Gaudeif un sien Meester 1819)
The Sorcerer and His Apprentice • (2017) • short story by Kazimierz Wladyslaw Woycicki (trans. of Czarownik i uczeń? 1837)
The Devil and His Pupil • (2017) • short story by Albert Schott and Arthur Schott (trans. of Der Teufel und sein Schüler 1845)
The Magic Combat • (2017) • short story by Ludwig Bechstein (trans. of Der Zauber-Wettkampf 1857)
The Teacher and His Pupil • (2017) • short story by J. G. von Hahn (trans. of Der Lehrer und sein Schüler 1864) [as by Johann Georg von Hahn]
The Tuft of Wild Beet • (2009) • short story by Giuseppe Pitrè? (trans. of La troffa di la razza 1875)
Oh, Relief! • (2017) • short story by Domenico Comparetti (trans. of Bene mio 1875)
The Magician and His Servant • (2017) • short story by François-Marie Luzel (trans. of Le magicien et son valet 1885)
Farmer Weathersky • [Norske Folkeeventyr • 57] • (1854) • short story by Peter Asbjørnsen? and Jørgen Moe? (trans. of Bonde Værskegg 1844) [as by George Webbe Dasent]
The Fisherman's Son an...

Genres: Nonfiction, Short Stories, Anthologies, Fairy Tales

432 pages, Hardcover

First published January 1, 2017

About the author

Jack David Zipes is a retired Professor of German at the University of Minnesota. He has published and lectured extensively on the subject of fairy tales, their linguistic roots, and argued that they have a "socialization function". According to Zipes, fairy tales "serve a meaningful social function, not just for compensation but for revelation: the worlds projected by the best of our fairy tales reveal the gaps between truth and falsehood in our immediate society." His arguments are avowedly based on the neo-Marxist critical theory of the Frankfurt School.

Zipes enjoys using droll titles for his works like Don't Bet on the Prince and The Trials and Tribulations of Little Red Ridinghood.

He completed a PhD in comparative literature at Columbia University. Zipes taught at various institutions before heading German language studies at the University of Minnesota. He has retranslation of the complete fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm.

Reviews

[Nick · Rating 3 out of 5]

It is with some irony to confess that the reason I picked this up was in part because I immediatly thought off Disney's Fantasia 1940 with the segment on Micky mouse being the sorcerer's apprentice and nearly killing himself because of messing with magical powers he does not control. That is ironic because the author of this anthology and analysis of magical tales hates that version of the story. He hates it because it is, like so much that Disney has laid his hands on, overshadowing all other versions. Which is fair, I get that, but he also hates it because it is a version of the story and the narrative set up/trope that according to him is a childish version of the tale, a reinforcement of master slave dynamic, a justification of inequality.

Jack D zipes talks about in essence three types of magical stories involving a sorcery's apprentice. the Humiliated apprentice story (like the Micky mouse one), the rebellious apprentice (where the often evil sorcer is outwitted and killed by his young student) and finally Krabat stories (Krabat a folk hero icon of region in eastern Germany that has him being both the rebellious student and later in life the master of a humiliated student while adding in cultural references to the late 17th century political context). These stories are used to explore various themes, ethnic regional identities, master slave dialectics, meme theory on narrative structure and plot elements and a few more.

That is the first third of the book, the two other thirds; we get the stories themselves. divided by both theme (the three mentioned) and time period. These stories range from classical greek to 20th century reinterpretations as well as Indic stories as Afro american folk tales, Sicilian rural stories to Russian ghost tales, a thousand arabian nights and brothers grimm. It is quite a bundle of tales from wide array of sources and in particular the rebellious student tales are astoundingly similar in both plot, structure and specific elements, in literally all of them the student at one point turns into a horse.

From a reading for entertainment point of view; I liked the humiliated apprentice stories better. there were more stories that stood out from the "meme" mold then was the case with the rebellious student stories where at some point I skim read pages when I saw we were in the meme segment of the story. those that do stand out from that segment, such as the forest dwellers do really stand out. the context of these tales are to me the most interesting. Sometimes the sorcerer is but a tailor in disguise, sometimes he is an ogre, a devil or but a normal man that went astray due to the dark arts and all have their own agenda. it is kinda frustrating then to see them all go back to the same structure from that point on, which among others the student transforming into a horse.

Emotionally, I also tend to side with the humiliated apprentices stories. to jack D Zipes these stories are about enforcing inequality and power over students and I do see that. But then I also think about scientific discoveries that led to horror, the atom bomb surely is one of these we should not have trod upon this and there is a definitive real threat that fully autonomous AI can turn against us or just go off on its own path outside our control. there is a cultural value in these tales as tales of caution.
Likewise, yes I see that the sorcerer in the rebellious student stories are far from benevolent but they did not abduct the students nor did they cheat when it came to their contracts, on the contrary the student cheats. You could rightly point out that a slave has no loyalty to his master even if that inequality came to be voluntarily, but what does the newly freed student do with his new magical powers? He uses it to turn into a horse so he can fool people to buy him to turn back and keep their money. Hardly a noble act now is it or even ambitious? The sorcerer is far from fully in the right but neither can I really sympathize with the student in most of these tales albeit with some exceptions.

In overall I think it is an interesting effort and if your into narrative study and folk tales analysis, you should pick up a copy. From a I like stories point of view, do be warned that a lot of the rebellious student stories are quite similar (which is the point with the whole meme theory analyzed in part one) so like me you might end up skimreading quite a bit of these.

[Calli · Rating 4 out of 5]

This one served the purpose of comparing similar stories and archetypes throughout the recorded history dating back to very early centuries. Thinking of it as comparative literature and literature history, it is well written, translated, and concisely explained. The introduction was lengthy but illuminating.

More detail: As a piece of nonfiction comparative literature and literature history, this book likely deserves 4 or 5 stars because Zipes is efficient and selective in what stories he chose and how he assembled them.

However, from a fiction reader’s point of view, this book gets 3 stars only because it is redundant. Because the comparison is so astute, many of the stories are echoes of each other with only some minor differences of setting, sequence, or small circumstances. Zipes cannot really be blamed for this. He’s just the messenger. I get why one calls the book an anthology, but in that regard it falls short because I personally feel an anthology should include related but still significantly different stories. These were too similar to meet my standards of a truly entertaining anthology.

There were a few pros I greatly appreciated from the historical and comparative literature perspective:
-The set up of the parts. Three larger parts, the first two were broken down into three sub parts based on when the stories were written. The third larger part was not broken down, but did not really need to be.
-The illustrations by Natalie Frank- fascinating and a mixture of beauty, wonder, and an entrancing grotesqueness
-For most of the stories assembled here, Zipes gave a byline to the original creator, this he follows up with a short biography. All the authors’ biographies are collected together toward the end of the book, organized alphabetically by last name. I appreciated this a lot because it allowed the stories more context.

[Elle Hartford · Rating 4 out of 5]

It's a bit dense and overwhelming right at the beginning, but overall very well-researched and thought out. Plus, it has a great variety of examples of this type of tale! I think though that the true strength of this book is a clear understanding of how tales of magic reflect real-world beliefs, injustices, and mechanisms of power.

Check out the full review on my blog~
https://ellehartford.com/book-review-...

[Skjam! · Rating 3 out of 5]

Review to follow.

[Bonnie · Rating 3 out of 5]

An anthology of the same story template with a variety of variations does lose its novelty at some point. 3.5 stars.

[Mills College Library]

398.2 S7132 2017