CANTIDAD DEL ACEITE ESENCIAL DE LAS

The collection of folk tales compiled by Jakob and Wilhelm Grimm is probably cited most frequently by Child as the basis for his own work. This is partly due to the theories of folk history which support the collection, as well as the editing techniques and assembly

425 _{Motherwell, William. 1827. Minstrelsy Ancient and Modern. John Wylie Publishing, Glasgow. Appendix, p.} xxiv.

methods which constructed the collection. The collection published by the Grimm brothers was titled Kinder – und Hausmärchen or ‘Children’s and Household Tales’, which may reveal something about the intended audience of the collection. However, this does not

necessarily detract from the scholarly ambition of the collection, since the Grimm brothers, like Herder, were established linguists and philosophers of language. In addition, the title may be slightly confusing because it may not speak to the suitability of the collection, or its intended use, but rather the origins of the folk tales. The tales themselves may have been gathered from the domestic settings described in the collection, and it has been shown by Dégh that this was indeed the source of much of the Grimms’ investigations. One of the important points to note about Kinder – und Hausmärchen is that, because of its success as a book for children, modern editions dispense with the introduction, without which the scholarly nature of the collection may be somewhat compromised. Dégh states, ‘The

unacquainted reader, looking at the German title of Grimm’s Household Tales – Kinder – und

Hausmärchen – will probably take for granted that it contains what it promises: tales for the

nursery and the household.’426

Dégh goes on to argue that despite the surface appearance of the collection, it was meant as a scholarly collection, and in this capacity it has been very influential.

The Household Tales had set the model which was followed in similar basic collections by patriots of many European nations…the Household Tales soon became the standard work for international tale study, basic for comparative analysis…evidently Household Tales was originally intended for the scholarly reader.427

Bendix is in agreement with the transformations cited by Dégh, which included

accompanying notes for the folk tales, and a more extensive introduction for the collection. Both Bendix and Dégh cite these innovations as important in the history of the folklore discipline, which was emerging as a branch of comparative literary analysis and these transformations reflected that. Given the extent to which Child was influenced by the work

426 _{Dégh, Linda. 1979. ‘Grimm’s Household Tales and its Place in the Household: The Social Relevance of a} Controversial Classic.’ Western Folklore. 38/2. p. 83.

427

of the Grimms, the structure of Kinder – und Hausmärchen likely contributed to Child’s preferences for the structure of Ballads. Harker notes of Child that, ‘Throughout his life he kept a picture of Wilhelm and Jakob Grimm on the mantel over his study fire – place.’428 The

vorrede (preface) which introduces Kinder – und Hausmärchen details the theories of the

Grimm brothers regarding the origins of the tales in their collection, and their cultural importance for Germany. As Dégh observes, ‘The gathering of tale materials, according to Jakob, would lead to a history of German poetry.’429 Child’s theories of folk music and his aims for Ballads are closer to those of the Grimms than any of the other collectors in the American tradition, all of whom inherited certain conventions from the Grimms, but were working in very different intellectual contexts. Child was aiming to document the history of popular balladry in England and Scotland, and to this end conducted research even more extensive than that of the Grimms, and based aspects of his collection on Kinder – und

Hausmärchen. Child undoubtedly moved on from certain theories the Grimms advanced,

such as his acceptance that ballads are composed by a person, although the composer may be anonymous, nevertheless Child still deferred to the Grimms in his collection.

As mentioned previously, Sharp argued for the importance of the work in his introduction and, like Jakob Grimm, suggested that the collection should be a contribution to national culture, ‘this national type is always to be found in its purest, as well as in its most stable and permanent form, in the folk – arts of a nation.’430 Although it is important to note that, despite the similarity in the desire to use folk music as national culture, the motivations were very different. The Grimms were working in a post – Romantic period, as Bendix describes it, in which recovering artefacts of the past was the most important thing, and preserving them as evidence of a more authentic life. In Sharp’s case the motivation was own idea of Fabian socialism, in which folk music and dance could become national culture through education, and in doing so the culture and society of the nation could be improved. Sharp’s efforts were geared more towards social improvements rather than preserving artefacts, and this is shown in Sharp’s folk song and dance curriculum which he designed for schools in England and America. There is also the state of the nation to

consider during the period in which the collectors were working: in 1812 when Kinder – und

428

Harker, Dave. 1981. ‘Francis James Child and the ‘Ballad Consensus’’. Folk Music Journal. 4/2. p. 149. 429 _{Dégh, Linda. 1979. ‘Grimm’s Household Tales and its Place in the Household: The Social Relevance of a} Controversial Classic.’ Western Folklore. 38/2. p. 85.

430 Ibid.

Hausmärchen was first published the Holy Roman Empire had recently been dissolved

following its defeat in the Napoleonic Wars and there was still no unified language or culture of Germany, which was partly responsible for the Grimms pushing their folktales forward as national culture. In the case of early twentieth century England there was not the political fragmentation, but there was social upheaval with the Suffrage Movement, and in a thoroughly industrialised society there was an Antimodern feeling that the nation had lost touch with its roots. Progressive reformers attempted to reintroduce folk culture to the industrialised working – classes and halt the seeming cultural decline.

The structure of the Grimms’ Kinder – und Hausmärchen contributed to the conventions of a literary folk song collection, with the introduction being responsible for much of its scholarly weight. The aspect of the tradition that the Grimms built on more significantly is the use of the introduction to assert the importance of the material for national culture, and both Child and Sharp used this technique, though in different ways. Sharp used this convention to promote the material he was collecting as ideal national culture, and Child conceived of popular ballads in a similar way. However, Child believed the ballads had previously been a kind of national culture but had declined in popularity and been superseded by inferior types of popular culture. He described the situation in which this popular balladry appeared as being without the rigid class structure that exists now, and little division in culture.431

John Lomax used the introduction to Cowboy Songs in a manner similar to the precedent established by the Grimms and continued by Sharp. He argued for the importance of the songs in Cowboy Songs, stating in his introduction,

They are chiefly interesting to the present generation, however, because of the light they throw on the conditions of pioneer life, and more particularly because of the information they contain concerning that unique and romantic in modern civilisation, the American cowboy.432

Once again, though, it is essential to note that despite Lomax and the Grimms both using the introductions to their collections to promote the music, Lomax‘s intellectual context was

431 _{Child, Francis. 1900. ‘Ballad Poetry’. Johnson’s Universal Cyclopaedia. New York.} 432

the Antimodernist reaction to overcivilisation in late nineteenth and early twentieth

century, and the promotion of an Anglo – Saxon American cultural hegemony. The scope of Lomax’s introduction is governed by the Antimodernism and Anglo – Saxon nativism

promulgated at Harvard during his education and his early work with cowboy songs. The idea of using the music as national culture is, at its most rudimentary level, something many collectors had in common, and using the introduction of a collection to promote this idea is similarly common. However, each of the collectors is very much distinguished by the intellectual and political context in which they were working, and this dictated the content of their introductions and how they conceived of a national culture. The history of the folklore discipline is populated by numerous conventions like the arrangement of collections, but the transformations introduced to these conventions are determined by whatever political, cultural, and intellectual trends are influencing the collector.