When I saw the Lost Yorkshire Fairytales project on Kickstarter, I knew that I had to back it. I really enjoy folk tales, fairy tales, and mythology, and I haven’t read much (if any) from Yorkshire. So to fill the gap in my knowledge, I decided to pledge enough for the finished book and the chapbook.
Well, the kickstarter succeeded and the book arrived well ahead of schedule. It may look like a slim volume, but there are over 50 stories inside! Well, not just stories – there are rhymes, charms, and even curses lurking in the pages. These stories and rhymes are taken from various sources, mostly from the 19th to 20th century.
The best part of this was that almost all the stories were new to me. There was only one story that felt familiar – The Donkey, The Table, and The Stick, which also appears in a fairytale collected by the brothers Grimm called The Wishing-Table, the Gold-Ass, and the Cudgel in the Sack. The stories are remarkably similar, so I wonder where it originated and how it was passed from one country to another.
There was also an intriguing story called The Wicked Giant of Penhill that made several references to Odin (one of the gods in Norse mythology). I’ve been listening to the British history podcast and I realise that a lot of migration but I wonder how Odin managed to stay unchanged. Was this a very old story or was it something relatively recent that took reference from tales overseas? It’s something interesting that I would like to read about – let me know if you know of any books on how fairy tales and myths travel through the centuries and across countries!
The chapbook that accompanied this was a lovely little handsewn work, containing several stories from the book. I really enjoyed the short list of fairytale creatures at the end too – it sounds very interesting!
Overall, I was really happy to have backed this. I learnt a lot about Yorkshire folk and fairytales, which is something I wouldn’t have known about otherwise. Singapore is so small that we don’t have such regional differences, which makes learning about how a particular region has its own stories fascinating.
Hi Eustacia–You asked a question about how fairy tales travel across space and time. If you haven’t read it yet, I recommend Joseph Campbell’s “The Hero With A Thousand Faces.” I read it long ago and your question made me want to reread it! He talks about the universality of experience across all cultures throughout history and how that has become expressed through myths and storytelling as humankind seeks to find truth (spirituality?) and answers to life’s existential questions. Let me know what you think.
Hi Warren, The Hero With a Thousand Faces is on my TBR list. I’ll have to bump it up because this sounds fascinating! Thanks for the recommendation, I can’t wait to read it!
Hi Warren, I’ve read The Hero with a Thousand Faces – definitely an interesting read (although I don’t buy it on the level that Campbell is advocating). My review of the book can be found here: https://eustaciatan.com/2019/05/the-hero-with-a-thousand-faces-by-joseph-campbell.html
Hi again, Eustacia–Be sure to tell me your impressions of the book after you’ve read it!
This sounds like such a cool exploration of Yorkshire folk tales- really cool that you backed this!
Thanks, I’m really glad I backed this too!