If you’ve read J. R. R. Tolkien’s essay, “On Fairy Stories,” you’re familiar with the fact that folk tales can trace their origins back through millennia and through countless cultures. Stories are adapted by each culture to meet its own peculiar needs, as outlined in this Telegraph.co.uk article.
However, you’ll also recall that Tolkien was very adamant in insisting that the fact that one story is descended from another does not mean they are the same stories.
Tip: Cronaca.
I remember an essay I read in college about a convention of feminist, marxist, and assorted critics who were deconstructing fairy tales without profit to show for it. The writer sarcastically suggested, maybe in an open forum, that the key to understanding Red Riding Hood lay in the metaphor of Grandma’s door hinges, and the critics thought he had a good point. Nothing, he concluded, was ridiculous to this crowd. They could shallow it all, except perhaps the stench of Christianity.
Cartoon about literary criticism.
That’s priceless.
Yes, isn’t it nice we can get it for free?