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As interest in folklore increases, the folktale acquires greater significance for students and teachers of literature. The material is massive and scattered; thus, few students or teachers have accessibility to other than small segments or singular tales or material they find buried in archives. Stith Thompson has divided his book into four sections which permit both the novice and the teacher to examine oral tradition and its manifestation in folklore. The introductory section discusses the nature and forms of the folktale. A comprehensive second part traces the folktale geographically from Ireland to India, giving culturally diverse examples of the forms presented in the first part. The examples are followed by the analysis of several themes in such tales from North American Indian cultures. The concluding section treats theories of the folktale, the collection and classification of folk narrative, and then analyzes the living folklore process. This work will appeal to students of the sociology of literature, professors of comparative literature, and general readers interested in folklore.

How to Read a Folktale offers the first English translation of Ibonia, a spellbinding tale of old Madagascar. Ibonia is a folktale on epic scale. Much of its plot sounds familiar: a powerful royal hero attempts to rescue his betrothed from an evil adversary and, after a series of tests and duels, he and his lover are joyfully united with a marriage that affirms the royal lineage. These fairytale elements link Ibonia with European folktales, but the tale is still very much a product of Madagascar. It contains African-style praise poetry for the hero; it presents Indonesian-style riddles and poems; and it inflates the form of folktale into epic proportions. Recorded when the Malagasy people were experiencing European contact for the first time, Ibonia proclaims the power of the ancestors against the foreigner. Through Ibonia, Lee Haring expertly helps readers to understand the very nature of folktales. His definitive translation, originally published in 1994, has now been fully revised to emphasize its poetic qualities, while his new introduction and detailed notes give insight into the fascinating imagination and symbols of the Malagasy. Haring’s research connects this exotic narrative with fundamental questions not only of anthropology but also of literary criticism.

Folktales are timeless and, although a product of a particular culture, they have universal relevance because they give insight into the human condition. In Folktales from Africa, award-winning South African author Dianne Stewart has retold stories from the African continent.

En medio de la selva salvaje de África Occidental viven los ovimbundu de Angola. Durante generaciones, su cultura se ha transmitido de boca en boca a través del arte de los narradores tribales. Ahora, por primera vez, un norteamericano que vivió entre ellos durante casi 40 años ha traducido y puesto por escrito estos cuentos y leyendas de los umbundu, sin alterar su tono, ritmo y franco detalle. Hay una mina de material fresco en estas historias de magia y aventuras extrañas, con una visión especial de la sensibilidad, las tensiones, la exuberancia y el orgullo de Angola y el África Negra. Aquí hay emocionantes registros de hechos y fantasías, de orgas, tabúes, brujas, canibalismo, cortejo primitivo, problemas domésticos tribales, caza, hambruna, aventuras con animales y muchas más complicaciones dramáticas intrínsecas en las vidas y costumbres de estos pueblos aislados durante mucho tiempo. También hay fascinantes paralelismos con las historias del «Tío Remus» de los negros del Sur e incluso con la mitología clásica y nórdica. Los cuentos están ordenados por temas y asuntos, y una introducción de Albert Lord ofrece un análisis comparativo de muchos tipos de relatos. Se trata de una lectura enriquecedora para todos los que deseen saborear el verdadero sabor de los cuentos populares africanos y la vida tribal, y para todos los interesados en el hombre y sus mitos y en cómo revelan el alma inconsciente de un pueblo.