Текст Лекции (изначальный) (Lectures of The Linguistic Culture), страница 9

Thomas Percy, Robert Harley, Francis James Child, Sir Walter Scott and James Hogg were early collectors and publishers of ballads from the oral tradition, broadsheets and previous anthologies. Percy's publication of Reliques of Ancient Poetry and Harley's collections, such as The Bagford Ballads, were of great import in beginning the study of ballads. The Child Ballads are a collection of 305 ballads from England and Scotland, and their American variants, collected by Francis James Child in the late 19th century. The collection was published as The English and Scottish Popular Ballads between 1882 and 1898 by Houghton Mifflin in 10 volumes. The ballads vary in age; for instance, a version of "A Gest of Robyn Hode" was printed in the late 15th or early 16th century, and the manuscript of "Judas" dates to the 13th century. The majority of the ballads, however, date to the 17th and 18th century; although some probably have very ancient influences, only a handful can be definitively traced to before 1600. Moreover, few of the tunes collected are as old as the words. While many of them had been individually printed, e.g. as broadsides, Child's collection was far more comprehensive than any previous collection of ballads in English. (However, there were comprehensive ballad collections in other languages, like the Danish collection Danmarks gamle Folkeviser, which Child referred to in his comments.)

One Child number may cover several ballads, which Child considered variants of the same story, although they may differ in many ways (as in "James Hatley"). Conversely, ballads classified separately may contain turns of phrase, and even entire verses, that are identical.

The Child Ballads deal with subjects typical to many ballads: romance, supernatural experiences, historical events, morality, riddles, murder, and folk heroes. On one extreme, some recount identifiable historical people, in known events. On the other, some differ from fairy tales solely by their being songs and in verse; some have been recast in prose form as fairy tales. A large part of the collections is about Robin Hood; some are about King Arthur. A few of the ballads are rather bawdy. This small anthology of English ballads of the early nineteenth century has been one of the most popular Tecla publications since it first appeared in 1983. Because of continuing interest, the book is now reprinted, with only small changes to this introduction.

The ballads were art songs, that is to say original compositions by composers of this period. They are usually to a new literary text, and they usually have nothing to do with folk-songs, which are of a different nature and have a different social connotation. A further distinction must also be made: they are not quite the same as the Victorian "drawing-room" ballad, which dates from the later part of the century. These songs from the earlier part of the century, written before Victoria came to the throne in 1837, are subtly different: to my ear at least they are sturdier, less maudlin, participating still in an eighteenth-century tradition.

It would be true to say that the ballads of that time were among the most popular forms of music of their day. Published in their thousands, they reached and touched most people, and their appeal was enormous. Their sentiments often appeal to us to this day, and songs of a very similar nature are still performed by singers with enormous success on stage and television. Sometimes their sentiments seem exaggerated in the context of today's taste, but nevertheless most ballads are stories of love with a charming simplicity and a splendid melodic gift that can easily and gladly be surrendered to today. The best of them are works of art that, beyond any question, deserve to be taken seriously.

Ballads are considered to be a rich source of data connected with history, social life, feelings and values of the British people.

Patriotism is the main theme of the ballads devoted to the war between England and Scotland for independence. All history of relations between England and Scotland can be traced in the historical ballads. There were ballads recounting historical events, such as battles between the English and the Scots (The Border Ballads).

The battle of Harlaw was fought on July 24, 1411. Donald of the Isles, to maintain his claim to the Earldom of Ross, invaded the country south of the mountains with ten thousand islanders and men of Ross in the hope of sacking Aberdeen, and reducing to his power the country as far as the Tay. He was met at Harlaw, eighteen miles northwest of Aberdeen by Alexander Stewart, the Earl of Mar and Alexander Ogilby, sheriff of Angus, with the forces of Mar, Garioch, Angus. The Highlanders lost more than nine hundred men, the Lowlanders five hundred, including nearly all the gentry of Buchan. The story is told by a Highlander, and begins with his meeting with Sir James the Rose and Sir John the Gryme (Graham), who ask for information about Macdonell (Donald of the Isles).

The battle of Otterburn was fought on August 19, 1388 and was prefaced by an invasion and several skirmishes. A feud between the great families, Percy and Neville, of northern England was a fortuitous split of which the Scots could not resist taking advantage. Assembling their armies, which amounted to twelve hundred cavalry and forty thousand foot soldiers, the Scottish barons and knights mustered near the border at Jedburgh.

The English barons and knights, having received word back from heralds and minstrels they had sent north, made preparation for the invasion, but remained quietly in their houses, waiting until they learned that the Scots were making their move. They had decided to make a simultaneous counter raid.The Scots learned of this plan from an English spy they had captured. They divided their army sending the main body west to Carlisle, under command of Douglas, Earl of Fife, son of the king, while a detachment of three or four hundred men at arms, supported by two thousand soldiers, partly archers, commanded by James, Earl of Douglas, the Earls of March and Murray, struck out for Newcastle with the intention of crossing the river and burning and ravaging Durham.

There was skirmishing for two days outside the city and in the course of a long combat between Douglas and Henry Percy, the Scot got possession of the Englishman's pennon. He told Percy he would raise it on the highest point of his castle at Dalkeith. Percy responded that not only would Douglas never accomplish that self-glorifying boast, nor would he manage to carry the pennon out of Northumberland.

Thus the stage was set for the battle at Otterburn, thirty miles northwest from Newcastle, where there was a castle or tower set in marshy ground. Percy, greatly mortified at the loss of his pennon, presented his case and the affront to his honor to the knights and squires of Northumberland. Convinced that Douglas was backed by the whole power of Scotland, they replied that it was better to lose a pennon than it was to expose the country to further risk. Later, scouts arrived with information that Douglas was encamped at Otterburn, but that the main army had departed for Carlisle to join with their countrymen there. In reality, they had made themselves huts in the trees and driven their cattle into the bogs.

In the end, the losses of the English were put at 1,040 prisoners, 1,860 killed and more than 1,000 wounded. Those of the Scots were about 100 killed, including the Douglas himself, and 200 captured. Douglas was interred at Melrose Abbey. Over his body a tomb of stone was built, and above this was raised the Earl of Northumberland's pennon.

The Hunting of the Cheviot is about two noblemen of opposite sides of the border region between England and Scotland – Percy of Northumberland, England and Douglas of Scotland – square off in this lengthy ballad which takes place in the Cheviot Hills. In a departure from classic tales of border warfare, which usually involve cattle rustling, this ballad begins with a dispute about deer hunting, and evolves into an alternate version of The Battle of Otterburn, which occurred in 1388.

English fairy tales

This is the usual English term for a group of oral narratives centered on magical tests, quests, and transformations, which are found throughout Europe and in many parts of Asia too. They are defined by their plots, which follow standard basic patterns, and have been classified by Antti Aarne and Stith Thompson, The Types of the Folktale (1961); their function is to be oral entertainment for adults as well as children, and telling them well is a skilled art. The term ‘fairy tale’ only appeared in the 18th century, almost certainly as a translation of the French Contes des Fées, the title of a book by Madame d'Aulnois published in 1698 and translated into English the following year. It is universally understood, but not in fact accurate, since many of the best-loved stories have no fairies in them, though magic abounds; consequently some scholars prefer the terms ‘Wonder Tales’ or ‘Magic Tales’.

Cross-cultural transmission

Two theories of origins have attempted to explain the common elements in fairy tales found spread over continents. One is that a single point of origin generated any given tale, which then spread over the centuries; the other is that such fairy tales stem from common human experience and therefore can appear separately in many different origins.

Fairy tales with very similar plots, characters, and motifs are found spread across many different cultures. Many researchers hold this to be caused by the spread of such tales, as people repeat tales they have heard in foreign lands, although the oral nature makes it impossible to trace the route except by inference.[47] Folklorists have attempted to determine the origin by internal evidence, which can not always be clear; Joseph Jacobs, comparing the Scottish tale The Ridere of Riddles with the version collected by the Brothers Grimm, The Riddle, noted that in The Ridere of Riddles one hero ends up polygamously married, which might point to an ancient custom, but in The Riddle, the simpler riddle might argue greater antiquity.[48]

Folklorists of the "Finnish" (or historical-geographical) school attempted to place fairy tales to their origin, with inconclusive results.[49] Sometimes influence, especially within a limited area and time, is clearer, as when considering the influence of Perrault's tales on those collected by the Brothers Grimm. Little Briar-Rose appears to stem from Perrault's Sleeping Beauty, as the Grimms' tale appears to be the only independent German variant.[50] Similarly, the close agreement between the opening of Grimms' version of Little Red Riding Hood and Perrault's tale points to an influence—although Grimms' version adds a different ending (perhaps derived from The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids).

Fairy tales also tend to take on the color of their location, through the choice of motifs, the style in which they are told, and the depiction of character and local color.

When discussing English Fairy Tales, one must begin by defining terms, the first of which is the word English. Some who discuss English fairy tales focus on the fairy tale tradition among the English speaking peoples, primarily of the British Isles and sometimes of America. Others use the term to designate the fairy tale tradition specifically in England. This discussion will take the more limited focus on the fairy tale tradition in England.

The second term that needs clarification is fairy tale. It is the English word for a class of folktale (a tale that is part of the oral narrative tradition that characterized pre-literate societies) that is more accurately expressed by the German word Märchen or by more recent terms, magic tale or wonder tale. These tales do not generally have anything to do with fairies, as the English term implies; they are identified by the presence of certain tale motifs (such as wicked stepmothers, fairy godmothers, magical transformations, etc.); they take place in an undefined time and place, in an unreal world filled with the marvelous. In this marvelous world, peopled by supernatural beings, magical objects, and enchantments, humble heroes (or heroines) overcome evil, succeed to kingdoms and marry princesses (or princes).

The oral fairy tale tradition in England has been largely lost to history. The English people, like those of all cultures, must have had a rich narrative tradition as evidenced by references to then well-known tales and characters that have come to us from literature, correspondence, and other writings of English authors ranging from Chaucer, to Shakespeare and Ben Johnson, to James Boswell. Unfortunately, before anyone conceived of the idea of collecting England’s native oral fairy tales and preserving them in print.

A ballad is a poem usually set to music; thus, it often is a story told in a song. Any myth form may be told as a ballad, such as historical accounts or fairy tales in verse form. It usually has foreshortened, alternating four-stress lines ("ballad meter") and simple repeating rhymes, often with a refrain.

Native English fairytales must once have been abundant, but unfortunately at the very period when someone might have thought of collecting them and transferring them from orality to print, a flood of foreign tales appeared—first the French ones of Charles Perrault (1697), Madame d'Aulnois (1698), and Madame de Beaumont (1756), then the German ones of the Brothers Grimm (1812, and subsequent editions), who collected and wrote down many fairy tales. They said fairy tales were the remains of ancient myths and should be set down and studied.

Selections from these were quickly translated and cheaply printed; by now established favourites such as Cinderella, Bluebeard, Sleeping Beauty, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, The Frog Prince, Red Riding Hood, Snow White, Rumpelstiltskin, Rapunzel, The Tinder Box, and The Little Mermaid are totally absorbed into English culture, together with a few items from the Arabian Nights, notably Aladdin.

The English fairytales which did get printed in chapbooks were humorous ones (Jack and the Beanstalk, Jack the Giant-Killer, Tom Thumb), except for the more magical Three Heads in the Well. Later, Victorian collectors found some oral examples, including Tom Tit Tot and Cap o' Rushes from Suffolk, the Small-Tooth Dog from Derbyshire, and the Rose Tree from Devon. However, the great majority of fairytale texts recorded in Britain were found either in Scotland and Wales or among Gypsy storytellers; the typical English narrative genres are the jocular anecdote, the horrific anecdote (e.g., Mr. Fox), and the local legend. However, current research among teenage schoolchildren shows that some evolve personal versions of fairytales and tell them orally to their peer group (Wilson, 1997: 255-60).

The best collection is Philip, 1992, with accurate texts and valuable introduction and comments, with some texts summarized; Jacobs, 1890/1968, with texts often reworked. All three collections include other genres of folktale besides the fairytales.

One of the oldest printed fairy tales in England was Tom Thumb which appeared in 1621 in a chapbook. Chapbooks were works of popular literature sold for a few pence by pedlars or ‘chapmen’ from the 16th to the 19th cent. In 1711 there appeared the first printed version of Jack the Giant Killer, a popular English folk tale.

Tom Thumb is born in answer to the wish of a childless poor couple, who desire a son even if he should be no bigger than his father’s thumb. Magician Merlin answers their wish and the Fairy Queen names him and gives him a hat made of oak leaf and a shirt of spider’s web. Tom then encounters many adventures. The last of them is being eaten by a fish which is then caught for King Arthur’s table; Tom becomes a knight and when he dies is mourned by the whole Arthur’s court.