Cumulative tale
Encyclopedia
The Gingerbread Man
The Gingerbread Man Thegingerbread Runner is the anthropomorphic protagonist in a fairy tale about a cookie's escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. The Gingerbread Boy makes his first print appearance in the May 1875 issue of St...
." The device often takes the form of a cumulative song
Cumulative song
A cumulative song is a song whose verses are built from earlier verses, usually by adding a new stanza to the previous verse. A simple cumulative song having n verses is structured as-Examples of cumulative songs:* "The Twelve Days of Christmas"...
or nursery rhyme
Nursery rhyme
The term nursery rhyme is used for "traditional" poems for young children in Britain and many other countries, but usage only dates from the 19th century and in North America the older ‘Mother Goose Rhymes’ is still often used.-Lullabies:...
. Many cumulative tales feature a series of animals or forces of nature each more powerful than the last.
History
Cumulative tales have a long pedigree. In an early Jewish MidrashMidrash
The Hebrew term Midrash is a homiletic method of biblical exegesis. The term also refers to the whole compilation of homiletic teachings on the Bible....
, considered to date from the sixth century AD, Abraham
Abraham
Abraham , whose birth name was Abram, is the eponym of the Abrahamic religions, among which are Judaism, Christianity and Islam...
is brought before King Nimrod
Nimrod
Nimrod means "Hunter"; was a Biblical Mesopotamian king mentioned in the Table of Nations; an eponym for the city of Nimrud.Nimrod can also refer to any of the following:*Nimród Antal, a director...
, who commands him to worship fire. Abraham replies that it would be more reasonable to worship water, which can quench fire and is therefore more powerful. When this premise is granted, he points out that the clouds, as sustainers of water, are more worthy of worship, and then that the wind that disperses them is more powerful still. Finally he confronts Nimrod with the observation that "man can stand up against the wind or shield himself behind the walls of his house" (Genesis Rabba
Genesis Rabba
Genesis Rabba is a religious text from Judaism's classical period. It is a midrash comprising a collection of ancient rabbinical homiletical interpretations of the Book of Genesis ....
xxxviii).
There is a similar tale, The Mouse Turned into a Maid
The Mouse Turned into a Maid
The mouse turned into a maid is an ancient fable of Indian origin that travelled westwards to Europe during the Middle Ages and also exists in the Far East. Its Classical analogue is the Aesop's Fable of "Venus and the Cat" in which a man appeals to the goddess Venus to change his cat into a woman...
, in the Panchatantra
Panchatantra
The Panchatantra is an ancient Indian inter-related collection of animal fables in verse and prose, in a frame story format. The original Sanskrit work, which some scholars believe was composed in the 3rd century BCE, is attributed to Vishnu Sharma...
, in which the mouse-maid is successively introduced to the sun, the cloud, the wind and the mountain. She prefers each in turn as stronger than the last, but finally a mouse is found to be stronger than even the mountain, and so she marries the mouse. Stories of this type, such as the Japanese The Husband of the Rat's Daughter
The Husband of the Rat's Daughter
The Husband of the Rat's Daughter is a Japanese fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson type 2031C, a chain tale or cumulative tale. Another story of this type is The Mouse Turned into a Maid.-Synopsis:...
, are widely diffused.
Classification
In the Aarne-Thompson classification system, types 2000-2100 are all cumulative tales, including:- Chains Based on Numbers, Objects, Animals, or Names 2000-2020
- How the rich man paid his servant 2010I
- The house is burned down 2014A
- The goat that would not go home 2015
- Fair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-PoltrieFair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-PoltrieFair Katrinelje and Pif-Paf-Poltrie is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales as tale 131. A nonsense tale, it was introduced into the first edition as number 45 of the second volume....
2019
- Chains Involving Death 2021-2024:The cock and the hen 2021
- An Animal Mourns the Death of a SpouseThe Louse and the FleaThe Louse and the Flea or Little Louse and Little Flea is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, number 30.It is Aarne-Thompson type 2022, An Animal Mourns the Death of a Spouse, and takes the form of a chain tale, sometimes known as a cumulative tale.-Synopsis:A louse and a flea are...
2022
- Chains Involving Eating 2025-2028
- The Fleeing PancakeThe Gingerbread ManThe Gingerbread Man Thegingerbread Runner is the anthropomorphic protagonist in a fairy tale about a cookie's escape from various pursuers and his eventual demise between the jaws of a fox. The Gingerbread Boy makes his first print appearance in the May 1875 issue of St...
2025 - The fat cat 2027
- Chains Involving Other Events 2029-2075
- The Old Woman and Her Pig 2030
- The Sky Is Falling 2033
- This Is the House That Jack BuiltThis Is the House That Jack Built"This Is the House That Jack Built" is a popular British nursery rhyme and cumulative tale. It has a Roud Folk Song Index number of 20584. It is Aarne-Thompson type 2035.-Lyrics:This is perhaps the most common set of modern lyrics:...
2035 - The Mouse Who Was to Marry the Sun 2031C (JapaneseThe Husband of the Rat's DaughterThe Husband of the Rat's Daughter is a Japanese fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Brown Fairy Book. It is Aarne-Thompson type 2031C, a chain tale or cumulative tale. Another story of this type is The Mouse Turned into a Maid.-Synopsis:...
, IndianThe Mouse Turned into a MaidThe mouse turned into a maid is an ancient fable of Indian origin that travelled westwards to Europe during the Middle Ages and also exists in the Far East. Its Classical analogue is the Aesop's Fable of "Venus and the Cat" in which a man appeals to the goddess Venus to change his cat into a woman...
) - Pulling up the turnip 2044
- Tales in which animals talk 2075
Other examples of cumulative tales
- "The Death of the Little Hen"
- Why Mosquitoes Buzz in People's EarsWhy Mosquitoes Buzz in People's EarsWhy Mosquitoes Buzz in People's Ears: A West African Tale is a picture book told in the form of a cumulative tale written for young children, which tells an African legend. In this origin story, the mosquito lies to a lizard, who puts sticks in his ears and ends up frightening another animal, which...
- The Fisherman and His WifeThe Fisherman and His WifeThe Fisherman and His Wife is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale no. 19. It is Aarne-Thompson type 555, the fisherman and his wife. Its theme was used in The Tale of the Fisherman and the Fish, a 1835 poem by Aleksandr Pushkin. Mrs Ramsey reads the story to James, her son in...
- The StonecutterThe StonecutterThe Stonecutter is a Chinese folklore of unknown authorship. It is closely related to the themes of The Fisherman and His Wife, a well known fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. In the legend, a poor stonecutter takes notice of the lifestyles of those from higher in the social hierarchy and...
- Chad GadyaChad GadyaChad Gadya is a playful cumulative song in Aramaic and Hebrew. It is sung at the end of the Passover Seder, the Jewish ritual feast that marks the beginning of the Jewish holiday of Passover...
- Green Eggs and HamGreen Eggs and HamGreen Eggs and Ham is a best-selling and critically acclaimed book by Dr. Seuss, first published on August 12, 1960. As of 2001, according to Publishers Weekly, it was the fourth-best-selling English-language children's book of all time....
- There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a FlyThere Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly" is a children's song with a cumulative structure. The song was written by Alan Mills, and the lyrics were penned by Rose Bonne...
- I Bought Me a Cat, featured in the 1950 Aaron CoplandAaron CoplandAaron Copland was an American composer, composition teacher, writer, and later in his career a conductor of his own and other American music. He was instrumental in forging a distinctly American style of composition, and is often referred to as "the Dean of American Composers"...
song set Old American SongsOld American SongsOld American Songs are two sets of songs arranged by Aaron Copland in 1950 and 1952 respectively. Originally scored for voice and piano, they were reworked for baritone and orchestra....
External links
- The Old Woman and Her Pig from "English Fairy Tales" by Joseph JacobsJoseph JacobsJoseph Jacobs was a folklorist, literary critic and historian. His works included contributions to the Jewish Encyclopaedia, translations of European works, and critical editions of early English literature...