While I am all for intelligent, thought-provoking
literature, I’m also a big fan of just indulging in some mindless
entertainment. What season is better for
this than summer? It’s the season to go
to the movies and watch big, dumb, splashy blockbusters. It’s the season to go to comic book
conventions and buy up all sorts of comics from the days when comics were
disposable literature for kids and teenagers.
It’s the season to lie on the beach and read cheap romance and mystery
novels. In fact, I’d argue that some
amount of junk literature is good for you.
Writer Peter Dickinson has even come to the defense of junk literature
in regards to its effect on children in his blog post “A Defence of Rubbish”.
Now, it’s a completely different cultural landscape today
than it was when folk stories started circulating. So, I don’t know if folk literature has an
equivalent to the dumb summer beach book.
However, if they did, it would probably be some sort of fool story. Ah yes, the fool! One of the great folkloric archetypes. Those unassuming types who succeed through
some combination of naiveté and dumb luck.
In folklore, supposedly there are whole villages populated by nothing
but fools, like the Polish town of Chelm in Jewish lore or Gotham in
Nottingham, England. Usually these
characters sport average unassuming names like Jack, Hans or Ivan when they’re
named anything at all.
Now, it’s not to say that a fool story can’t have clever
bits to it. One of my favorite fool
stories has a rather clever set-up to send the main character out on his
adventure. In fact, it’s that set-up
that earns this story its title: “The
Youth Who Went to Learn What Fear is”.
For the record, this one’s another tale from the Brothers Grimm.
Our story begins with a man who has two sons. The older son is smart as a whip and capable
of a great number of things. The younger
was a fool who didn’t seem to be particularly good at anything. Now, whenever the older was asked to run any
errands after night fell he’d say “No, the darkness makes me shudder”. Or when people would tell ghost stories by
the fire, he’d say “That story makes me shudder”. Now, the younger son was puzzled by
this. He had never shuddered in his life
and was pretty sure he didn’t know how.
The way he saw it, it was some sort of art that he didn’t know how to
do. So, when his father asked him what
trade he would like to learn in order to earn his own fortune, he’d say “I
would like to learn how to shudder”.
Naturally, his father was less than pleased. The father explained his troubles to the
village sexton. The sexton told him that
he’d put his son to work and teach him to shudder at the same time. So, our nameless protagonist went to work
ringing the bell of the local church.
One night as he climbed up to ring the bell, he saw a figure in white
standing near the sounding hole. It was
the sexton dressed as a ghost trying to teach the boy how to shudder. Now, the thing is that our hero did not take
him to be a ghost. Instead, he figured
him to be some kind of thief or troublemaker lurking about at night. So, the boy shouts to the sexton to identify
himself or else he’ll throw him down the stairs. The sexton says nothing, figuring that he’s
bluffing. The youth asks two more times
with no response. So, what does he
do? He throws the sexton down the
stairs. Then he rings the bell and goes
back home.
The next morning, the sexton
is found at the bottom of the stairs with a broken leg. Our hero’s father is not happy. He gives his son fifty talers and tells him
to hit the road. Furthermore, he tells
his son to not tell anyone where he’s from or who his father is in hopes that
he’ll live this down someday. The son,
with what he perceives as his father’s blessing, vows to go off into the world
and learn how to shudder.
Now, our hero (antihero?
Maybe we should make that “protagonist”) . . . Anyway, now our protagonist makes it to a town
where he meets a fellow and explains his current quest and how he will give fifty
talers to anyone who teaches him how to shudder. The fellow tells him of a tree where seven
criminals were hanged and are still hanging.
He tells him that if he stays under that tree all night, that he’ll surely
learn how to
shudder.
So, he takes him
up on that. Now, our protagonist doesn’t
quite seem to understand the situation of the seven hanged men. The situation of them being dead, in fact. So, while he sits cold by his campfire, he
figures that the men hanging from the tree must be positively freezing. So, he decides to take them down and warm
them by the fire. However, once a spark
catches on one of the dead men’s clothes, he figures that they’re too stupid to
keep from getting burnt and hangs them back up.
The next day he meets with the fellow who tipped him off to the hangman’s
tree and tells him that he surely hasn’t learned anything and how he’d never
learn anything from people so stupid that they’d let their clothes catch on
fire. So, he left with his wallet still
full.
Now, I think this is enough to really communicate our
protagonist’s unique character and unique quest. Believe it or not, this is just
prologue. The real main event comes when
he finds out about a haunted castle.
Naturally, the king is offering his daughter’s hand in marriage to
anyone who can stay there for three nights.
So, our dim-bulb protagonist, who’s likely more interested in learning
to shudder than marrying any princess, decides to give it a whirl. He does so armed with only a fire, a lathe
and a woodcarver’s bench with a knife. I
won’t give anymore away, but you can read the story right HERE. Okay, maybe I will tell you that a scene like
the one below happens.
What I like about this particular fool story is the
character’s stated goal. While most Jack
tales and other tales of the sort have a protagonist who is simply going off to
“seek his fortune”, this story has a main character with a very specific stated
goal of learning something. This task,
though, is of course a fool’s errand.
And while he does learn how to do it in the end, shuddering was maybe
not as useful as not shuddering in the grand scheme of it all.
For those who are Henson fans, you may recognize this story
in that it was adapted into the “Fearnot” episode of Jim Henson’s The
Storyteller. The thing I love about the
Storyteller adaptation, other than just how well told it is, is the facial expressions of the main character. Half the time, he has an expression that
reminds me of an excited Labrador retriever.
So, there we have it. Our dumb
yet kind of clever summer folk tale. Pop
the popcorn and sit down to enjoy the tale in good fun. Until next time, I’m the Fairy Tale Geek.
I hadn't read this story before, but it definitely fits the fun summer read category. Thanks for sharing! Also, to be honest, I can't think of that may other fool stories, either. One which springs to mind is Ricky with the Tuft which I love, because the main protagonist in that is rather assuming and has a lot to learn by the end. Will have to do some digging for more. No matter how much you read/study fairy tales, there's always more. That's part of what I love about them!
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ReplyDeleteWhat a coincidence: At the moment I'm preparing a presentation on fairytales and fear for college and this tale is one of the exampes I'm going to use.
ReplyDeleteWhat I like about this tale is that is is a spoof. Classic horror elements from oral tradition (the moving bed, undead skeletons) are utilized but then contrasted with the protagonists completely unexpected reactions, the protagonist shows neiither relatablee fear, nor admirable bravery, but simply lacks the ability to understand the severity of the situation and the reader/listener doesn't want to see him succeed due to his bad character and his obvious inability to reign a country, the simplicity of how the conflict is resolved is in stark contrast to the elaborate attempts that preceeded it. All this is similar to how modern parodies work.
Another interesting thing is the protagonist himself. Unlike other "Dumblings" he isn't perceived as dumb to to his gentleness which clashes with what is expected of males in the times he lives in. The youth is not gentle at all. He is prone to anger and agression and lacks the empathy that distinguishes most other heroes of the "Dumbling" type. If he does show empathy (as in the scene at the gallows) it doesn't last long and his impatience and anger soon show again. Insteadhe is perceived as dumb, because he truly is. To modern readers he can even seem mentally challengned (which brings all kinds of unfortunate implications, since mockery is made of him so openly,but unfortunately this was reality fr mentally challegned people in medieval times)
It should be mentioned that tale is still pretty popular in Germany, but the modern retellings chane the tale pretty severely. The more gruesome scenes are omitted or edited, the protagonist is changed from agressive and unlikeable to a typical friendly underdog who's only character flaw is that he can't fear. While this makes the story loose some of its allurement, I think the original would probably be too dark for children today and it would be a shame to keep this truly fnny tale away from them completely, so I understand why those changes are made.
By the way, this tale has also been covered in the german fairytale podcast "Märchenstunde" and the hosts drew a similar comparison to you. Instead of comparing it to junk literature, they drew their comparison to casting shows and reality TV, where participants are often humiliated for the amusement of the audience. However unlike those shows "The Youth Who Wanted to Learn What Fear Is", still shows that even the ones at the bottomof the barrel can achieve success when they learn how to utilize their talents.
I also like this tale and its over the top situations and unlikely resolutions. And I'm all about light summer reading! Although I've been trying to make sense of the "In Defense of Rubbish" along with the fact that I think the quality of current children's entertainment is significantly lower than it was even 20 years ago. Disney channel shows aren't just goofy, they're embarrassing. Haven't read as many current children's books, but tv shows lack their ability to appeal to adults as well.
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