Italian Popular Tales

Metadata

Gutenberg ID

—

Title

Italian Popular Tales

Language

en

Book source

Global Grey

Description max 80 words

A foundational collection of Italian folktales, legends, and ghost stories translated from recent sources. Thomas Frederick Crane presents narratives handed down orally, ranging from fairy tales and jests to religious legends, accompanied by scholarly notes tracing regional variants and comparative origins across Europe.

Summary up to 500 words

Thomas Frederick Crane's *Italian Popular Tales* presents a comprehensive collection of narratives transmitted orally among Italy's illiterate populace, preserving a literary heritage on the verge of vanishing. Published in 1885, the volume serves as both entertainment for general readers and a vital resource for students of comparative folklore. Crane translates stories ranging from the sixteenth-century works of Giovan Francesco Straparola to nineteenth-century provincial tales, offering them exactly as recorded from the mouths of the people. While Crane occasionally adjusts the tense for readability, he maintains the dramatic nature of Sicilian recitations, even if the resulting text appears disjointed when read rather than heard. The collection is categorized into fairy tales, stories of Oriental origin, legends, ghost stories, and nursery tales. It features iconic figures such as Giufà, a character whose name persists in various localities with slight phonetic changes. The anthology includes legends explaining natural phenomena, such as the origin of the ass's long ears, and religious narratives concerning Christ, Judas, and the Wandering Jew. These religious legends reflect the deep intertwining of faith and folklore in Italian culture, depicting figures like the Wandering Jew condemned to walk endlessly around a column and Judas, whose soul wanders the air haunted by the image of his own hanging. Crane supplements the narratives with extensive notes citing sources like Giuseppe Pitrè and R. Köhler. These notes provide context on the diffusion of tales from the Orient to Europe and reference parallel stories across Germany, France, and other regions. The work highlights the historical trajectory of Italian folklore, noting that while Straparola and Giambattista Basile introduced fairy tales into modern European literature, their collections were often forgotten until the scientific impulse given by the Brothers Grimm extended to Italy in the nineteenth century. By presenting these unacquainted English readers with a complete selection of Italian popular tales, Crane ensures that the unique voices of the Sicilian and Neapolitan traditions are preserved for future study.

LLM editorial rating

4.2/5

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Categories

• Folklore