Origins of Fairy Tales

Not Just the Tudors

History Hit

History

4.8 • 3K Ratings

🗓️ 29 February 2024

⏱️ 31 minutes

🔗️ Recording | iTunes | RSS

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Summary

Fairy tales exist everywhere and in every time. Through centuries of oral tradition and the invention of print and later advances in television and film, fairy tales have altered and shaped themselves in reflection of changing cultural norms.

In this episode of Not Just the Tudors, Professor Suzannah Lipscomb goes back to the 16th and 17th centuries and to the first time that fairy tales were written down and compiled. She is joined by Nicholas Jubber, author of The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales.

This episode was produced by Rob Weinberg.

**WARNING: This episode contains some graphic language and descriptions**

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Transcript

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0:00.0	Cinderella, Little Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel, Seeping Beauty.
0:14.2	Fairy tales exist everywhere and in every time.
0:17.6	For most, they are our first stories,
0:20.2	our first trips of the imagination. Present through centuries of oral tradition
0:25.0	through the invention of print and later advances in television and film,
0:28.0	these stories have altered and shaped themselves
0:31.0	in reflection of changing cultural norms.
0:34.0	But let's go back to the beginning.
0:36.0	Let's go back to their creation and the first time that they were written down and fixed.
0:44.0	Let's go back to the 16th and 17th centuries.
0:47.0	Here to discuss fairy tales and their tellers in the 16th and 17th
0:52.0	17th centuries is Nicholas Jubber.
0:54.4	Author of the Fairy Tellers, a journey into the secret history of fairy tales. Nick, thank you for joining me.
1:07.6	Thank you, thanks very much for having me on.
1:09.6	I wonder if you can start by telling us a fairy tale, one of those that you tell in your book.
1:17.0	The Tale of the Flea, The King of High Mountain has been bitten by a flee and he is enraptured.
1:27.6	What a beautiful creature it is!
1:30.2	He feeds himself to his he mat a faggot guest until it grows to the size of a sheep and dies.
1:35.8	So gargantuan is its hide that nobody can guess the creature's identity and the king issues a proclamation.
1:45.0	Whoever can answer this riddle will marry his daughter. Noblemen flop to this bridal contest.
1:48.0	One says it's the skin of a lynx,
1:50.0	another suggests a crocodile.
	...

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