delphipsmith (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
delphipsmith) wrote2015-06-22 11:00 pm
delphipsmith) wrote2015-06-22 11:00 pm
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If you like folk/fairy tales you may be excited about this
Today I discovered the Multilingual Folk Tale Database. Not only does it have almost 5000 folk tales, fairy tales and fables from all over the place -- 5th century Greece, 13th century Holland, 19th century Germany -- you can view them in their original language or side by side with a translation, so you can practice your middle Dutch or your 5th c. Greek.
Don't you love that the Danish word for witch is "heksen"?
It also incorporates the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) classification system, with descriptions, so you can go from a classification to representative stories, or from a story to its classification type. For example, The Devil's Three Golden Hairs is ATU 461.
I know, I know, this is SO geeky, but I love it. The only drawback is it's heavy on Western Europe and Scandinavia (thank you, Jakob und Wilhelm Grimm). There are a scattered few from Africa and South America but not many, and nothing from China, Japan, Russia, or the Middle East. Not all the stories have an English version, either So if you know any folk tales from Japan, or if you speak Hungarian, Polish, Icelandic, or Danish, hop on over there and get to work!
| Danish | English |
| "Hvad vil du nu med det fyrtøj," spurgte soldaten. | "What are you going to do with the tinderbox?" asked the soldier. |
| "Det kommer ikke dig ved!" sagde heksen. | "None of your business," said the witch. |
Don't you love that the Danish word for witch is "heksen"?
It also incorporates the Aarne-Thompson-Uther (ATU) classification system, with descriptions, so you can go from a classification to representative stories, or from a story to its classification type. For example, The Devil's Three Golden Hairs is ATU 461.
I know, I know, this is SO geeky, but I love it. The only drawback is it's heavy on Western Europe and Scandinavia (thank you, Jakob und Wilhelm Grimm). There are a scattered few from Africa and South America but not many, and nothing from China, Japan, Russia, or the Middle East. Not all the stories have an English version, either So if you know any folk tales from Japan, or if you speak Hungarian, Polish, Icelandic, or Danish, hop on over there and get to work!
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How odd that there are not many in that data base from those countries you listed. We know those countries are rich in folklore, so there's tons out there.
I remember being in second grade (back in the Stone Age) and checking out books on fairy tales from Japan and China from our school library. And I just recently found my old, tattered Bros. Grimm paperback.
Memories...
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I also have about a hundred or so Tetum (Timorese) folk stories with translations at hand, which I note the database does not have ... :)
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