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Certain voices in society and history fade away with the passage of time because they lack the freedom of expression. These are typically the voices of the oppressed or subjugated section of the society. Their voices, however, can be heard in literature as they subsequently turn to it to articulate their thoughts, and folk literature or folklore is no exception in this regard. Drawing inspiration from the subaltern perspective, this paper argues that folktales of Kashmir gave voice to the subaltern of the Kashmiri society. For this purpose, it examines three Kashmiri folktales titled The Tale of the Farmer's Wife and the Honey-Bee, The Story of A Weaver, and The Clever Jackal following a subaltern approach to demonstrate how themes, narratives, and characters represent the subdued voices. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Multilingual Folk Tale Database or the ECHO Collection of Folk Tales are further examples as it is the Yashpeh International Folktale Collection and meta collection like Folktale Collections, to mention a few out of many. 15 Meder, Theo: From a Dutch Folktale Database towards an International Folktale Database. in: Fabula 51 (2010) 6-22. 16 Meder, Theo: The Folktale Database as a Digital Heritage Archive and as a Research Instrument. Computational folktale studies. Yoel Perez presents new databases for the Sephardic tradition of folktales and discusses the expanded functionalities of today's databases for folklorists from around the world. [Extracted from the article]

Als Erbin des achtzehnten und neunzehnten Jahrhunderts, als ‚Volkspoesie' der höheren Literatur zur Seite gestellt wurde, liegt das Augenmerk der Erzählforschung bis heute eher auf längeren Gattungen. Weniger Aufmerksamkeit dagegen kam und kommt den Klein- und Kleinstgattungen zu. Der Aufsatz plädiert für eine stärkere Beachtung dieser kleinen und weithin vernachlässigten Formen – einem vergnüglichen Biotop, dem hier durch zahlreiche Beispiele Reverenz erwiesen wird und dem viele wichtige Funktionen zu eigen sind. Since the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, when folk literature was set alongside 'high literature' as an equal, the interest of folklore studies has tended to be directed at relatively long genres. The small and smallest genres, by contrast, have received, and still receive, less attention. This article calls for these small and largely neglected forms to be considered more closely – they represent a pleasing panorama of material that is given the attention it deserves here through numerous examples and that has many important functions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Der Aufsatz untersucht die Praxis gegenwärtigen Wiedererzählens von ghanaischen (Kasem) Volkserzählungen, die sich kritisch mit sozialen Rollen- und kulturellen Wertvorstellungen in den traditionellen Versionen auseinandersetzen. In den überlieferten Versionen werden übersinnliche Mächte angerufen, um Frauen zu bestrafen, die zu selbstständig handeln; damit wird weibliche Identität streng reguliert und begrenzt. In den neuen Versionen wenden die weiblichen Protagonistinnen das Prinzip des nantandia an, ein lokaler Kasem-Begriff, der Intelligenz, Initiative und Mut beinhaltet, und damit gleichzeitig den Einfluss der übersinnlichen Mächte beschneidet und die weibliche Individualität und Handlungsfähigkeit bestärkt. Summary: This paper examines contemporary retellings of Ghanaian (Kasem) folktales that engage critically with the social roles and cultural values in the traditional corpus. While in traditional folktales supernatural forces are unleashed to punish females who pursue their own strivings, thus regulating gender identity, in the retold tales female protagonists deploy nantandia, a local Kasem term which encompasses intelligence, initiative and courage, to thwart the power of the supernatural and assert their own subjecthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Research on African oral literature is traditionally orientated towards genre-bound collections of proverbs, folk songs, riddles, epics, myths, legends and orally transmitted fairy tales. Within the realm of oral literature, the Fon, an ethnic group in Benin, are especially well-regarded for their rich tradition of fairy tales. Such tales were orally transmitted over many generations and central performative events took the form of storytelling evenings held at the village square. These were centered upon professional storytellers, the performance of whose tales were regarded as intangible cultural heritage. The central aim of this article is to discuss how the term fairy tales causes confusion among the Fon; from an African perspective, the genre boundaries in oral traditions are much more permeable and fluid than in the European context. The article also discusses the huge transformation in performativities of orally transmitted fairy tales and gives examples of the ways in which public story telling has changed in village life. Finally it discusses the future of storytelling, and especially fairy tales. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folk narrative scholarship valorizes the selfhood of us, the observers, at the expense of the narrating communities. We scholars celebrate our own subjectivity, in spite of the fact that the traditional narrators whose art we study elevate the concerns of their communities over their personal concerns. Because all attempts to deny the observer's subjectivity will fail, the only way we can bring the study of folk narrative into closer harmony with the values of the narrating communities is to outnumber our subjectivity. Holbek's Interpretation of Fairy Tales, Uther's Types of International Folktales, and the recently completed Enzyklopädie des Märchens outnumber our subjectivity by addressing the measurable facts of traditional narrative. They have created the foundation for our current challenge - to outnumber our subjectivity in our fieldwork, while listening to and interacting with Märchen narrators to understand how the everyday world and the Märchen world constantly reshape each other. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Based on field research, this article discusses various discourses that the inhabitants of the Eastern Slovenian region could use when discussing witchcraft. Further on it focuses on various possible uses of the witchcraft discourse: as long as witchcraft discourse had enough open support in the region, it constituted the context in which witchcraft narratives were 'shared with licence', which enabled people to draw upon and mobilize them for various purposes and with various intentions. This paper gives examples of how bewitchment narratives served as a strategy that individuals could appropriate and use to their benefit in everyday life. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information on several papers discussed at the 32nd Conference of the International Society for Contemporary Legend Research held in Prague, Czech Republic on June 3-8, 2014 is presented. Topics include the contemporary legends and rumours in Lithuania, the development of legends and rumours in Indonesia, and a historian's hypothesis on the folktale of "Snow White." Radvilė Racėnaitė, Nikita Petrov, and Shannon K. Larson were among those who presented these papers.

This study proposes to fill a gap in Grimm and folklore studies by staking out the landscape of the reception of the Brothers Grimm in nineteenthcentury France. While E. T. A. Hoffmann's tales received high literary acclaim, those by the Grimms seemed to make little impact on French literature of the period. However, among the French scholarly community, the Grimms were celebrated for their erudition, their integrity, and served as models for many scholars, from the historian Jules Michelet, who corresponded with Jacob Grimm in 1829, to the folklorist Emmanuel Cosquin, whose Contes populaires lorrains (1876) were inspired by the Grimms' Kinder- und Hausmärchen. Through an analysis of prefaces to French tale collections and to translations of Grimm tales, this essay looks at the impact the reception of the Grimms had on French conceptions of regionalist folklore and on the classical French fairy-tale tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The taxonomy of the paranormal has been firmly grounded in Enlightenment philosophy with folkloric elements categorised somewhat like objects of nature had previously been classified by natural scientists. Modern and contemporary folklorists and medievalists have continued to study the medieval paranormal through a lens inherited from their Enlightenment predecessors who did not always pay sufficient attention to how such phenomena are explained in the medieval texts. The present author takes a closer look at some medieval Icelandic concepts of paranormal phenomena, arguing that the occult is by necessity vaguely determined and inherently unknowable. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents a report on a conference on myth and mythologies in folk literature, held in Rauischholzhausen, Germany, from September 4-7, 2012. Topics of discussion included theories of myth developed by such authors as Roland Barthes, Wilhelm Mannhardt, and Wilhelm Gottlieb Beyer, the relationship between mythology and nationalism, and myths in popular culture and mass media.

The front matter of this issue of the journal is presented.

I propose that certain legends may be understood as 'metatradition', that is, as traditional lore that takes tradition as its theme, and examine how ML 6045: Drinking Cup Stolen from the Fairies in particular models tactics for approaching the past and what it has to offer in transitional times. I compare the representations of tradition in this legend to those put forth in the scholarship surrounding the legend, and in folk-narrative scholarship more generally, and conclude by suggesting that the 'critique of tradition' is itself traditional, and that we should look to legend as we think critically about tradition. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Relying on findings that emerged from the examination of seventy versions of oral wonder tales recorded in the Israeli Folktale Archive, the article suggests that in many cases, identifying the idiomatic expressions hidden behind concrete acts provides us with a way to interpret some of the marvellous elements of the genre. Furthermore, examining this phenomenon helps us to better understand the unique manner in which different levels of thought processes are involved in the wonder tale genre. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Among numerous traditional stories collected from the highlands tribes of Papua New Guinea during my long-term field research in the early seventies, i.e. within just one generation after primary European contact, there were many that distinctly resemble narratives sharing a common distribution between Europe and Southeast Asia. This applies inter alia to several versions of the ATU 480 type: The Kind and the Unkind Girls. These versions were not only most familiar among the tribes of Enga Province but also among the Kyaka Enga and the Ndemboka of the adjacent Western Highlands Province. Additionally some congenial narrative features are part of the mythical lore of other neighbouring highland tribes such as the Kewa of the Southern Highlands Province, resulting in significant combinations of tale types. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-inspired folktales or folk geotales abound in the world's folklore and in Persian folklore in particular, due to thought-provoking natural settings and man's age-old affinity with nature. A folk geotale as a living element of folklore exceeds its role as a mere product of the interplay between nature and culture, reinvigorating the naturality of culture and the culturality of nature. This article provides a case study of an oral geotale, Khal Pirzene, while unfolding the thematic and archetypal layers inherent in the tale and looking at it from the points of view of folklore and geomyth. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article presents information from the conference "Singers and Tales in the 21st Century: The Legacies of Milman Parry and Albert Lord," which was held at Harvard University in Cambridge, Massachusetts from December 3-5, 2010. Topics of the conference include adapting intertextuality to oral epics, the clustering effect of formulas in Homeric epics, and the borderland identity expressed in Bosnian traditions.

The article presents the summary of a conference that focused on the cultural importance of personal narratives and story telling in Europe. It was held September 1-4, 2010 in Obergurgl, Austria. Topics under discussion at the conference included a lecture on the historical importance of the writings of the German philosopher Friedrich Nietzsche, a talk on how cultural heritage is tied to a region's landscape, and a discussion of the construction and structure of culturally significant stories.

The ancient Greek historian Herodotos relates how, on three successive occasions, King Kroisos of Lydia questioned the god Apollon at his oracle at Delphi. Apollon's responses were slyly indirect in that the first described a phenomenon in terms of olfactory perception, the second was ambiguous, and the third depended upon the apprehension of a metaphor. The international folktale known as The King and the Farmer's Son (ATU 921) similarly features a king who asks a series of straightforward questions, and a youth who responds with slyness and often metaphoric indirection. I compare the classical narrative and the folktale, discussing the apparent assimilation of the international tale to ancient Greek traditions about the kingdom of Lydia and the Delphic oracle. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The Present State of Russia (1671) contains important records of traditional narratives relating to Tsar Ivan IV (the Terrible) collected by Samuel Collins, an Englishman who served as Tsar Alekse's surgeon in the 1660s. While the status of such narratives as instances of international folktales has been broadly accepted, it is helpful to consider them as representing two different traditions -- one of popular Russian discourse, in which the Tsar is a good figure, punishing wicked nobles and officials and rewarding his honest humble subjects, and the other of expatriate discourse, stories current among resident foreigners in Moscow, in which the Tsar is depicted as arbitrary in his cruelty. Some of the narratives from the first tradition are found in later Russian popular tradition, while many of the stories from the other one appear particularly in earlier or contemporaneous writings about Russia by learned western and central Europeans. Placing the two sets of stories within these respective corpora allows us to better perceive their meaning. It is also worth attending to Collins's English relation of these ''Russian'' stories, which possesses its own characteristic narrative style. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Information from the 15th congress of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR) which met in Athens, Greece June 21 through 26, 2009 is presented. The 50th anniversary of the organization and the development of folk narrative research are discussed. Papers presented examined topics including variation in folk literature, the context of folk narrative research, and the impact of globalization on folk narrative.

The orphan plays a very prominent role in many African folktales, despite the fact that he is usually the underdog in society. However, it would appear that there is a dearth of scholarly studies on this controversial character in folktales. The tale The Orphan and the Prince has two levels of meaning: the chronological surface level and the deeper structural level where images and symbols signify meaning. This article provides a thematic analysis of the tale and explores these two levels of meaning. The paper also ponders over what we can benefit from studying the tale, as well as what society can do to ameliorate the plight of orphans and the downtrodden people in African society. L'orphelin joue un rôle très important dans beaucoup de contes africains, malgré le fait que ce personnage compte généralement parmi les défavorisés de la société. Cependant, il semble que peu d'études aient été consacrées à ce caractère controversé. Le conte de l'orphelin et du prince possède deux niveaux de signification: le niveau de surface qui est chronologique et le niveau de la structure sous-jacente où les images et symboles prennent signification. L'article donne une analyse thématique du conte et explore ces deux niveaux de signification. Il réfléchit aussi sur ce que le conte peut nous apprendre et sur ce que la société peut faire pour améliorer la misère des orphelins et des opprimés dans la société africaine. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article discusses the publication of the fifth volume of the Greek Folktale Catalogue, a catalog and archive of Greek folk literature. The history of the catalog, whose first volume was published in 1961 is presented and the methods of classification used by original researcher Georgios A. Makos and the folklorists who took over the project following his death in 1990 are discussed.

The article studies sixteen Romance language versions of tale-type ATU 709 that present the same initial motif: the heroine is the daughter or step-daughter of a beautiful innkeeper. This motif determines the development of the tale and conveys a more realistic character to its versions, unlike what happens in other ones that contain greater doses of fantasy. In the study, an analysis of the tale's structure leads to the observation that all versions rely on the repetition of a basic structural pattern, which can develop in three surroundings: the family home, the thieves' house and the prince's home. The description of the motifs and actions taking place in these environments is followed by reflections on the importance of the structure and the contents for an analysis of the tale's meaning. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper analyzes the tale-type Snow White (AaTh/ATU 709) in the folk tradition of West and South Slavs, which preserves different versions of this tale. AaTh/ATU 709 is found among all West and South Slavic groups, with the exception of Kashubians from the vicinity of Gdańsk, Polabians, a minority (now extinct) in Germany, and the South Slavs in Montenegro. The paper examines the characteristics of the tales, both from the aspect of their contents and meaning as well as their imagery, reflecting social rituals, transition rites, regional and cultural characteristics, and temporal and spatial aspects that have been preserved in them. These tales emphasize the role of the mother, which seems to be a contrasting (mirror) image of the midwinter deity. Interesting elements in the Slavic Snow White tales are the temporary dwelling of the heroine and the creatures with which the girl finds shelter, their number and their appearance, which vary considerably. The motif of the heroine's marriage to the chieftain of these men who live in the forest may be connected with the custom of the false marriage: it had a protective function which served to ensure a happy marriage with the right man. While the many layers of this fairy-tale remain hidden to the average reader, its multifarious variants exhibit regional peculiarities and elements from local history. Influences from Central European, East Slavic, Mediterranean and Oriental, especially Turkish traditions can be traced throughout the texts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article explores the literary history of Snow White, from the supposed predecessors of the tale to the first full variants which emerged between 1782 and 1833 in Germany and Russia, including some later offshoots that appeared before the Grimms' tale had become canonic. In an attempt to establish possible interdependencies, these early forms of Snow White are related to each other and to cognate folk narratives. Significantly, the first specimen of the tale-type ever printed, Musäus' Richilde, is a playful adaptation, whereas the other early variants appear to be widely independent. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper discusses the three different groups of versions of the international tale type of Snow White in Africa: Arabian versions in North and East Africa, versions similar to oral Portuguese traditions in former Portuguese colonies and a mixture of Grimm derived texts and oral traditions from Southern Europe in Namibia. They are compared with an African tale that shares with them the same basic topic: the attacks on the life of an innocent, beautiful girl. This comparison shows the differences between European and African magic tales and at the same time proves that a certain type of ancient African tales can be classified as magic tales as well. The analysis of the African tale sheds light on certain traits of the European tale. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Snow White is usually held to be of European origin, as most of its variants appear in Europe. However, we found a number of versions in Central Asia and Eastern Siberia, among Mongolic and adjacent Turkic and Tungusic peoples, which can hardly be traced back to European influence. Except for one Mongolian and one (as such unrecognizable) Daghur variant, none of these texts have so far been registered in any typological index. Here, we shall deal especially with a long variant from the Daghurs, a Mongolic people living in China's northernmost Heilongjiang province and Inner Mongolia. Prior to the middle of the seventeenth century, the Daghurs settled north of the Middle Amur, on a vast territory known in Russia to this day as Dauriya. The gist of the Daghur variant which we give in a full German rendering is as follows: The hunter Zhaos Mergen lives together with his younger sister Zhanglîhuâ Katô and his three wives. He gives his most precious furs and the best meat to his sister who lives in a wooden tower. This raises the envy of two of his wives who plan to kill her sister-in-law by making an ancle bone fall into her throat. The apparently dead sister is placed into an ovenbed-chest; two stags draw her into the wilderness. The chest falls down in front of a house where an old couple named Atirkân and Etirkên live. These names (of Evenki origin) are designations for the she-bear and the he-bear used by Daghur hunters. The old couple treat Zhanglîhuâ Katô as if she were their own child. Soon, a young hunter falls in love with Zhanglîhuâ Katô. During their wedding the new husband becomes so enraged by his wife's unresponsiveness that he strikes her. This brings her back to life, the crime is cleared up, and the two sisters-in-law are put to death. The three sequences of 1) isolation in a tower, 2) temporary death and sojourn in the otherworld with mysterious new parents and 3) return to life and subsequent marriage suggest a premarital rite de passage. The Grimm version and East Slavic variants of Snow White have already been interpreted within the frame of the female initiation scenario (N. J. Girardot, R. Becker). According to these authors the structure of the rite de passage (preliminal, liminal, and post-liminal phases) and the general theme of maturity are shared by the ritual and the maerchen. Most probably, the falling into oblivion of a once widespread ritual has led to the creation of the narrative as a re-interpretation of the ritual. It cannot be excluded that European, in particular Russian influence may have played a part in the creation of this Central Asiatic tale. However, the tale is also part and parcel of several apparently ancient Mongolic and Turkic epics, for instance Buryat epics which do not seem to depend on a Russian folktale. A possible adaptation to the context of medieval Christian Europe is not too difficult to imagine. The Central Asiatic versions also show that the stepmother-stepdaughter conflict is not original to this tale. Some Caucasian versions appear to be related to the Central Asiatic ones (the ‘prototype’ of Snow White). An Abkhaz version is part of the Abkhaz Nart epics. In addition, we found an Ossetian version. Mongolian influence on the Nart epics is well-known and has been explained through the role of the Alans as mediators (T.A. Guriev). This has made us suspect a possible Alanic role in the transmission of the tale to Europe, too, as Alanic groups have not only migrated to Hungary and Rumania, but also to Central Europe. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The last vita of Bishop Guðmundar Arason of Hólar, Iceland (1161–1237) bears a distinctly learned character. Its author, Arngrímr Brandsson (d. 1361 or 1362), is predominantly interested in exegesis. Yet despite his display of erudition, he delights in the narration of a number of folktales. The question arises how these folktales contributed to the sanctification of a bishop, whose actions in office were controversial during the three decades of his tenure (1203–1236/37). Arngrímr's method was syncretistic. He transmuted traditional belief into the normative Christian mold, with some folktales carrying a political message superimposed upon the historical record. Guðmundr was both a member of the community of saints, emulating holy predecessors in character and in the performance of miracles, and akin to a hero of old, delivering the community from monsters. While his power and function were identical to that of a traditional hero, his attitudinal perspective and means of dispatch were dissimilar. Guðmundr was the agent of God, commanding a spiritual power that would, if necessary, manifest itself in corporeity, a physical force as potent and effective as the brawn of the hero. Accordingly, the folktales serve the same interest as did the miracles. Both were illustrative signs of Guðmundr's incontestable sainthood. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Folktale, especially in its oral form, is the progenitor of any tales told in a society. Hence its impact on the culture of a nation is seminal. Against this backdrop, this paper, in the first place, attempts to examine some of the narrative politics that must have gone into the making of folktales, which at the surface level sport an innocent and pleasing outlook. Secondly, by way of studying a selection of Ethiopian folktales, the paper uncovers the presence of logocentrism and a priori binary opposition being at work in Ethiopian folktales. These two elements attempt to endorse and validate the ‘given’ subservient position of women in society. The paper concludes that apparently innocent folktales with their latent prejudices, when fed to the young in a routine way, can warp their mind with respect to the relationship of women and men. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The paper examines established terminology for literary units and relationships in oral literature, and the imprecise use of terms in scholarly literature. It tries to make the terminology more precise and probes into the nature of the concepts and the relationships between them. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The field of this research is a small island in the Dodecanese, at the south-east of the Aegean Sea, (re)populated three centuries ago. Part of the Greek territory since 1948, it has been most probably repopulated at a time when it still belonged to the Ottoman empire and before it came under Italian rule. A rich oral tradition of local legends reflects a homogeneous and uninterrupted history, rooted in time and space. Three great thematical cycles could be found: 1) mythology of the origins and genealogies; 2) miracles and hierophanies; 3) treasures and topography of the island. This approach aims at demonstrating how these narratives contribute to the development of a collective identity among today's inhabitants. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

no abstract available [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Slavic traditional oral literature contains many myths which describe the creation of the world in terms quite different from those of the Biblical account. These myths often involve a conflict or rivalry between God and the devil. The devil (or sometimes a bird) dives to the bottom of a primeval ocean to retrieve earth. This Earth Diver myth (Mot. A 812) has been recorded in Siberia, South and Southeast Asia, and in North America. In Eastern Europe, it appears in Russia, Belarus, Ukraine, Hungary, Romania, Slovenia, and Bulgaria. Some scholars have searched for the origin of this myth in ancient Iran, others in Siberia. It appears to have reached the Slavs from Finno-Ugric peoples. Besides the form of a prose myth, a small number of Christmas carols have been recorded in Galicia (Western Ukraine) which present doves or other birds as diver-creators. The Slavic prose myths and the Galician carols raise many interesting questions about the development and diffusion of oral literature, and its interaction with written traditions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses upon the questions of the frame, the plotting and the genre of H.C. Andersen's last tale Auntie Toothache. The way the device of the frame is employed in the tale is linked to the European tradition of the Novelle. But it is also shown how the tale plays on and subverts the conventions associated with the frame in this tradition as well as the modes of literary subgenres like the fantastic tale. Another playful aspect of the tale pointed out in the article is that it is polyphonic in more ways than one. At the same time it is a highly allegorical text. It is argued that playfulness and allegory go hand in hand in embracing the otherness that great literature will always have to engage with. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Andersen loved attention and applause and, from a very young age, desired fame; consequently his audience was most important to him. For a proletarian who had invaded a patrician and hierarchal world, such a wish was highly understandable, and, likewise, it was nearly inevitable that the relationship between such an artist and his audience would become a complex and tortured one. Andersen realized early on that his audience did not fathom the emotions and opinions that he put into his texts. And this is where Andersen and the traditional carriers of oral-formulaic tales part ways, for while the latter have a fairly harmonious relationship to their public, the modern reinventor of tales may well challenge and even insult his audience. That is what Andersen did, especially as the years went by, and what the present essay attempts to demonstrate. Andersen eventually came to feel a deep contempt for those readers who did not grasp what he was saying through his stories. Although some of his last tales are scathingly witty, they show that love in the love-hate relationship with his audience was dwindling away - hence the title of this essay, taken from The Swineherd where the male protagonist cruelly rejects his former love with these same words. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Examines one case of transformation of a story from "Alf Laylah" in its 19th century literary Persian translation and then into an oral performance recorded in pre-war Afghanistan. Identification of elements of the then-current oral folktale style in Dari (Afghan Persian) and in surface stylistics that the teller introduced into the performance of a tale; Specific changes in a written narrative when it turns or returns to oral performance and transmission.

Argues that Greek historian Herodotus has constructed an account of his trusted bodyguard Gyges which uses specific traditional narrative motifs to introduce several themes that are basic to his narrative as a whole. Story of how the throne of king Candaules was usurped by Gyges; Presence of some stories that exhibit themes or motifs which are characteristic of folk narrative in the course of Herodotus' inquiry into the History of the Persian Wars; Image of eastern depot; Characteristics of the tyrant; Dramatic nature of historical events.

Focuses on Greek folk tales from Imera, Pontos. History of Greek folk tales; Characteristics of Greek folk tales from Imera; History of the village of Imera from where the folk tales have been taken.

In juxtaposing three intertwined narratives, two from the past, one from the present, the one legendary, the others biographical and autobiographical, the author confront again the enigma of the stories, on how to make sense of them, especially when the central text, the legend, exists only on the printed page. The printed text appeared in 1831 in an obscure antiquarian publication of the Maitland Club, as Appendix III. The heart of the volume contains the publication of a "710 Description of Lanark and Renfrew" by William Hamilton of Wishaw, that is a description of two of the old counties of Scotland. The appendix was the work of William Motherwell, known to ballad scholars as the editor of a significant collection of Scottish ballads in 1827, that is some four years before the publication in question. The legend is inserted into the appendix as a possible explanation for the creation of one of the hills in the area, made for a wrestling match/fight between representatives of the English and Scottish kings, in the narrative friends who visited yearly and watched exhibitions of martial exercises.

The article presents a report on a conference on narratives of causation in folk literature, held in Paris, France, from October 4-6, 2012. Topics of discussion included different genres of European folk tales and legends, common themes and motifs of folk literature, and etiological tales in the Bible.

The article presents a report on a conference on folk narratives, held in Göttingen, Germany, from June 25-26, 2012. Topics of discussion included the terminology of research on fairy tales, the representation and adaptation of fairy tales in such motion pictures as "Pan's Labyrinth," directed by Guillermo del Toro, "Hansel and Gretel," directed by Pil-Sung Yim, and "Bluebeard," directed by Catherine Breillat, and the reception of the fairy tales of the Brothers Grimm in the United States.

A bibliography of books on folk literature, received for review at the offices of the journal, is presented, including the titles "Wotische Folklore: Ein Gang durch die Textpublikationen und Forschungsliteratur," by Hans-Hermann Bartens, "Erzähler – Erzählstoff – Erzählkunst: Ein Beitrag zur volkskundlichen Erzähler-Forschung," by Siegfried Neumann, and "The Shāhnāama Tradition: Storytelling in Contemporary Iran," by Evangelos Venetis.

An obituary for Dagmar Klímová, a Czech scholar of folk literature, is presented.

Evgeniya Mitseva was born in 1945 in Sofia. She gratuated in Slavic philology (Serbo-Croatian profile) at Sofia University in 1968. As a student and under the influence of Professor Tsvetana Romanska she showed an early interest in folklore. It was therefore quite natural that she went to work at the Folklore Department of the Institute of Ethnography with Museum in 1970. When the independent Institute of Folklore was established in 1973, she became one of the founder scholars. She was also among the founders of the Department of Balkan and Slavic Folklore Studies at the Institute of Folklore in 1985, and in the 1990s she became the head of the Department. Evgeniya Mitseva who had defended her Ph.D. dissertation in 1984 and had attained an academic rank (habilitation) in 1990, became a Doctor of Philology (Humanities) in 2002, and soon after that was elected a Professor. During her scholarly career she took part in numerous Bulgarian and international forums, including Congresses of Slavic and Balkan studies. She was a member of the International Society for Folk Narrative Research (ISFNR), of the Committee of Slavic Folklore of the International Congress of Slavists, and of the Union of Scientists in Bulgaria, and other associations. An important part of the scholarly activity of Professor Mitseva was her work as a lecturer at Plovdiv University, where she read courses in General Mythology and Mythology of the Slavs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A bibliography of books on fairy tales, received for review at the editorial offices of the journal, is presented, including "Märchen in den südslawischen Literaturen," edited by Vladimir Biti and Bernarda Katušić, "Postmodern Reinterpretations of Fairy Tales: How Applying New Methods Generates New Meanings," by Anna Kérchy, and "Stranger Magic: Charmed States and the Arabian Nights," by Marina Warner.

The article presents a list of books received by the publication including "Die Kommunikation der Gerüchte," edited by Jürgen Brokoff, Jürgen Fohrmann, Hedwig Pompe, and Brigitte Weingart, "Religion Among the Folk in Egypt," by Hasan El-Shamy, and "Marvelous Geometry. Narrative and Metafiction in Modern Fairy Tale," by Jessica Tiffin.

. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]