CRAWFORD'S FAIRY TALES

Barbara Godard

Today, we sometimes forget that fairy tales were not always the exclusive domain of childhood. Their remote origins lie in the folk tradition, but in the last three centuries they have become part of popular literature. Recognition of this fact has often led readers to identify this relatively primitive art form, "the childhood of art," with "the art of childhood." In particular, this confusion gained ground in the nineteenth century when, between 1840 and 1890, Victorian England witnessed a great flowering of children's literature, much of it fairy tales, such as Kingsley's The Water Babies, Thackeray's The Rose and the Ring, Ruskin's King of the Golden River, to name some of the more famous examples. All these books were read by children; not all of them were written for young readers. While Carroll's Alice in Wonderland was written for a specific child, Christina Rosetti's Goblin Market was the product of self-exploration. What is important, though, is the concept of the child in the literature at this time. Jonathan Cott has suggested that many writers used "the child as a way to mediate the conflicting claims of evolutionary change and ethical improvement, of environment and technology": the child became "an emblem of wholeness." Moreover, "the child archetype specifically implies a connection with the mysteries of the Beginning" and reflects the concern of the period with the theological idea of creation.¹ This focus on the child was made possible because, in this century for the first time, men were able to explore their childhoods freely without either apologizing for doing so or, as Perrault had done, using alibis.

Isabella Valancy Crawford's Fairy Tales must be placed in this context. They are a part of this Victorian literary fashion. Whether she wrote these stories specifically for children is immaterial; had they been published, they would undoubtedly have been read by children. Crawford certainly began writing her stories to explore her own childhood, since her earliest story – "The Vain Owl and the Elf" – was written while she lived at North Douro (Lakefield) between 1864 and 1871.² Such evidence of the formative influences on Crawford's imagination is the prime claim to our attention exerted by these tales. But they are important works for other reasons. Crawford used later tales to elaborate her characteristic symbols: the rose, the waterlily, the forest, the lake, the circle, and gold. They were also to become vehicles for allegorizing her aesthetic, as we shall see in "How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose." With its "impersonal symbolic portrayal of subjective experience,"³ the fairy tale form influenced Crawford's entire oeuvre. Strikingly evident in the narrative Malcolm's Katie, this structure is found in other poems as well.⁴ I shall not dwell extensively on this relationship, concentrating instead on the links between the fairy tales and Crawford's prose romances. Particularly in her short tale "A Rose in His Grace,"⁵ we see that the fairy tale form, with its quest pattern and magically sudden transformation, is incorporated into a more realistic mode of fiction. In this respect, we should note Cott's statement that "fairy stories are the original family romances."⁶

What is a fairy tale? Is fairy tale the proper name for these narratives? In trying to answer these questions, I shall make use of the recent analyses of fairy tales be folklorists and anthropologists who have concerned themselves with identifying the sources of tales, with recording processes of transmission and clarifying original meanings. They have also developed systems for cataloguing tales and analyzing their structures. It will be my aim in this paper to prove initially, by examining her stories in relation to the typical structural and stylistic elements established by Vladimir Propp and Axel Olrik respectively, that in "The Waterlily," "Prince Papillon," and "Wava, The Fairy of the Shell," Crawford was following the fairy-tale form very closely, while in "The Rose and the Rainbow," "The Rival Roses," "The Vain Owl and the Elf," and "How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose,"⁷ she is writing fables. I shall then attempt to demonstrate that her occasional deviations from the norms provide the reader with a key to the meaning of the stories.

Propp,⁸ in approaching the fairy tale structurally, perceives a consistency from tale to tale. In all, he traces thirty-one elements, each represented by a letter or symbol, which comprise the full morphology of the fairy tale. Briefly, the single story which Propp finds at the basis of all folk tales involves the hero's progression from a condition of lack to one of fulfillment. Initially, the villain either causes harm to a member of the family (A) or the hero suffers from a lack (a). After being made aware of this misfortune or of his own lack (B), the hero either agrees to or decides upon counteraction (C) and leaves home (^). He then successfully fulfills a number of tests (D), meets his future donor, and by responding correctly (E) wins magical aid or a heller (F). In the next stage of the story, the hero is transferred to the whereabouts of the object of his search (G) and – after joining in combat with (H), suffering a scar from (I), and killing the villain (J) – is able to eliminate the initial misfortune or lack (K). Finally, the hero returns to his kingdom (↓) after escaping (Rs) from pursuit (Pr) and is married and ascends the throne (W). Thus the basic pattern would be written as follows: A or B C D E F G H I J K Pr Rs W. l have attempted a tentative mythological analysis of Crawford's tales using Propp's method. They may be transcribed as follows:

"The Vain Owl and the Elf"⁹
A¹⁶ B³ C^ D² E² F⁹ K^l U W⁰

"Prince Papillon"

A¹¹ B³ C^ Pr⁵ Rs⁴8 D² E² F⁶9 G⁵ D¹ E¹ F⁹ K⁸ T¹2 Q G² . . . . B³ C^\

H¹ J¹ K⁹ T¹ W⁰3 a¹ A³14

"Wava"

ß³ A¹⁰ B³ C^ D² E² F⁶9 . . ………………………D²
a¹ ß3 y¹ hl e¹ A¹ B³ C^ K¹⁰ U
E² F⁹ G³ KF⁶ T³ W³

"The Waterlily"

Ch. I A⁵15¹¹ B⁴ C^ . . . . . . . . . .CH. III. D² D² F²6⁹ G² . . . .

Ch. II ß³ y¹2 d² n² e² . . . . . . . . . . a¹ B¹ C^

Ch. IV O D² E² F⁶9 ] G² H¹ J¹ KK⁴10 . . . . . [T³ T⁴t W

"How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose"

a¹ --[ 1 L B³ C^ G³ D² F⁶9] H² a¹ B² C^ [G¹ Pr^l Rs⁹       [B³ C^D¹ E¹ F⁶9 G3]                         [G1 . . . . . . a¹ B³ C^ K⁵

N K⁵ t Ex Q T⁴ U W

Propp's method is applicable to the animal stories and marvellous tales,¹⁰ but not to the two moral stories about flowers.

When Crawford's tales are juxtaposed to the Proppian norm, it is at once evident that they are complex and manifest structural experimentation in their variety. Nevertheless, there is repeated use of several structural elements which are of thematic significance. Most striking is the relative absence of conflict in these tales. The villain is not often fought and killed (H J) except in "The Waterlily." He dies ("Papillon") or is outwitted ("Wava") or bested in a contest ("Nightingale"). In their central plots these tales dramatize quests of a more passive sort, pursuits of a vision. On the way, helpers offer themselves spontaneously to the questing heroes (F⁶ 9) and their goals are reached instantaneously (K⁴ or KF or K⁵). This pattern is implicit in the initial situation which frequently begins with the hero's recognition of his incompleteness and his desire for something (a), whether a wife or husband or the grail-like waterlily, rather than with the aggression of a malevolent figure (A). These latter appear in secondary plots - Papillon's raven, Roseblush's waterbeetle, Goldie's shark. Although equally representative of the dark forces of the subconscious which must be assimilated and overcome, they do not seem as terrifying or as dominant in the story as the familiar daemonic creatures of classic fairy tales: bears, wolves, dragons, or beasts.

In a mythological analysis of Wilde's tales, David Monaghan¹¹ isolates the fact that in "The Star-Child" and "The Happy Prince" one finds "instead of a sequential process from task to reward . . . a horizontal one whereby the reward emerges in the course of fulfilling the tests," a pattern identical to that in Crawford's tales. He suggests that this indicates that for Wilde. the heroic quest is still possible, but operates only on an individual level. "Society cannot be heed of its basic villainy because the hero cannot communicate his lesson to others. The hero-deed is still relevant to the inner experience of the individual who must, in Campbell's words, ‘bring to light again the lost Atlantis of the co-ordinated soul.’"¹² Crawford, unlike Wilde, does not introduce specific references to place and time which would locate this alienation of the hero from his society in the nineteenth centum. Her settings remain universal, non-specific: the evils are located within the human heart. In the moral allegories, the special soul descending from the primary perfect kingdom is humbled, and vanity is punished before the hero triumphs. The marvellous tales chart the movement from a state of innocence through an encounter with the fallen world of mortality and evil, a movement which, when assimilated and empowered by human love, allows the hero to be transformed to a higher state of perfection. An identical "mythological rebirth after the apocalypse" is identified by Ann Yeoman in Malcolm's Katie.¹³ Commonly, critics emphasize the redemption of society which operates in that poem. Within the fairy tales such social transformation is rare. Individual perception is revolutionized, and such renewed perception gives rise to true art, as we see in "How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose," an art which may ultimately change society, though it has not done so yet. Only in this fairy tale and "The Waterlily" do we sense the possibility of that integration of individual and social quests characteristic in primitive societies.

When we examine the stylistic qualities of Crawford's tales, we become aware that Crawford is not writing simple folktales for a primitive society but sophisticated literal tales. An analysis of deviations from the standard pattern of the fairy tale again makes clear the visional quality of Crawford's tales, their emphasis on the retum to the state of higher innocence, the new reign of gold. These tales vary more from the norm in style than they do in structure. Although "a fairy tale is seldom about fairy folk,"¹⁴ "it is about Faerie, the realm where fairies have their being and includes the seas, the sun, the moon, the sky, the earth and all the things that are in it - tree and bird, water and stone, wine and bread, ourselves, mortal men when we are enchanted."¹⁵ This last element is very important: true fairy tales have humans as heroes. Animals or flowers play this role in several of Crawford's tales, making them more correctly fables. Fairies too play a predominant role in these tales. In this departure from the rule, they may be influenced by the Irish oral tradition with its respect for the little people, for a study of the motifs in the tales shows many to have a Celtic origin,¹⁶ or find their inspiration in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, whose Titania and Oberon preside over the court of fairies in "The Waterlily."

In "The Epic Laws of Folk Narrative," Axel Olrik¹⁷ demonstrates that there are several main recurring compositional elements in the fairy tale: 1) The tale does not open or close abruptly. 2) Repetition, usually three-fold, is used extensively. 3) The number three appears frequently. 4) No scene includes more than two characters. 5) Frequent use is made of contrast between the hero and the characters around him. 6) Two characters can be used to fulfill the same role. 7) Whenever a series of persons or things occurs, then the principal one will come first. However, the character who comes last will always be the one for whom the reader feels the most sympathy. 8) The tale is always single-stranded. 9) Different episodes tend to be pattered in very similar ways. 10) The story reaches its climax in the form of one or more tableau scenes. 11) The plot is internally plausible, but need make no reference to external reality. 12) The tale possesses epic unity, with the result that its conclusion is forecast from the very beginning. 13) The tale concentrates on a leading character. This is the most important single element in the folk tale.

Crawford's tales embody most of the elements. The absence of particular time and place, the lack of concern for political, religious and social manners (11), and the ritual once-upon-a-time ending which moves on to the foreseeable happy ending (1, 12) are among the more obvious characteristics of fairy tales which Crawford's work evinces. Like the typical tale, hers have simple language, a surface simplicity through the use of repeated detail in the construction of scenes (9, 7), as when the parrot and the nightingale use their voices in slightly different ways during the Fairy Queen's test. Being short, they rely on straightforward presentation of action to open the reader's perception to its vicarious experience. Situation is more important than characterization (6, 4). Depending on two-dimensional stock characters - all good or all evil, who are contrasted (5), as are Papillon and the raven - and a highly coloured plot, the action in a fairy tale is not typically analyzed. These elements of the tales are among the most characteristic features of Crawford's prose romances.

In her treatment of a few stylistic elements, we glimpse Crawford's thematic interests. Most significant is her constant use of repetition (2). In "The Waterlily" we have two quests for the lily; in "Prince Papillon," two metamorphoses where, in successive episodes, the hero and helper reverse roles. Again in "How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Roses" we follow the suit of the two birds for the hand of the rose. In "Wava," Goldie is rescued first by the mermaids and then be the fairies. On the island, help in finding her mother is offered first by the bird Fleetwing and then by the shark. Repetition we have, but not the common three-fold variety (3). Thompson's Motif-Index indicates that three, a masculine number, is commonly found in European tales, whereas four, a feminine number, is the basic element of North American and Oriental Indian tales. While Crawford's preference for two over three might aid a feminist reading of her work and show the influence on her of the two different Indian sources,¹⁸ its importance, it seems to me, is essentially thematic. The primary focus of all Crawford's tales is on the union of polar opposites. In the various paired characters and episodes (9) I have mentioned, we see contrasting characteristics placed in similar episodes, a structural devise which aids their ultimate fusion. In "The Waterlily" we have spirit and matter, Goldenball and Maggie, fairy and mortal; in "Prince Papillon" air and earth, Papillon and Violet, good and evil, Papillon and Raven; and the nightingale and the parrot in their story represent generosity and selfishness, true art and false art. To these pairs might be added the helpers of Goldie in "Wava": the mermaids and the fairies - sea and land - and the bird and the shark - air and water, height and depth. In developing her parallel episodes and in keeping with her theme of the union of polar opposites, Crawford, as a brief glance at the structural analysis of the plots reveals, has been led to abandon the principle of a single-stranded narrative (8). At the same time, she has rejected the emphasis on the single leading character, which is the most important stylistic feature of all. One might argue that ultimately Maggie is the heroine of "The Waterlily" and that Tommy is not an independent character but merely another mortal, interchangeable with Maggie. Again, since Maggie is the one who can pick the waterlily, it might be argued that she takes precedence over Goldenball, that the quest is primarily hers. But a careful reading of the tale suggests that the most important element in the quest is the interrelationship of polar forces. Goldenball and Maggie are equally necessary: spirit and body must be fused to win the lily who represents eternity. Similarly, the marriage of Tommy and Maggie, the union of male and female demonstrated on the quest when she plucks the lily and he kills the beetle, is central to the meaning of the story. As we shall see when we examine the tale more closely, even the elements of the setting have been selected to illustrate the union of opposites. Crawford is primarily interested in the point where metamorphosis occurs, where one thing blends into another. The marvellous fairy tale is the ideal formal mode in which to explore this merging.

The complexity of plots in the tales also alerts us to the fact that they are the work of a conscious literary artist, not a part of an oral tradition. With respect to the use of tableaux (10) Crawford also reveals the literal origins of her tales. In the folk fairy tale, one is offered a minimum of sense impressions, only enough to catch his imagination. While still economical, Crawford's lengthy descriptions of gardens ("How the Nightingale . . .") forests ("Waterlily," "Papillon") sea-girt isles ("Wava") - all settings of thematic

significance in her poetry as well - indicate that her tales belong among literary fairy tales. Such description is extensive in relation to the action in the tales and in "Wava" occupies fully one-half the tale. Thus Crawford develops the pectoral qualities at the expense of action, adding to the visionary aspect of the tales, one of the most appealing features of their style.

Writers of literal fairy tales are also more likely to change the impersonal form of the oral tale, bending it to their own purposes - satire, adventure, morality, fantasy, or allegory. Crawford has been most free in this respect, and one can find considerable variety in her tales, ranging from the delightful humour of the trickster tale "The Vain Owl and the Elf" to the bitter satire of the artist's situation in society and the allegory on poetry in "How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose." That Crawford did not excessively complicate the meanings of the stories be the inclusion of personal detail is evident in that they still fit into Propp's model. Nevertheless, elements such as the long rhymed moral which concludes "The Rival Roses" in the manner of Perrault¹⁹ show Crawford's models to be other writers of literary fairy tales. These are less evident in her best tale, "The Waterlily," the imaginative strength of which comes from the strong autobiographical element (the girl in the cottage by the river), mitigating the literary boastings to develop the depths of the classic fairy tales, like Beauty and the Beast or Cinderella, and to avoid the shallow moralizing of many literary tales.

Before turning to an analysis of two tales and a study of their sources, I should like briefly to explore the nature of the fairy tale as it is viewed be the psychologist. Indeed, it is the impetus of the many psychological readings of fairy tales which has led to their current popularity, for the commonly held belief that fairy tales are escapist literature has been redressed when they have been shown to be one of the profoundest forms for coping with our problems and teaming the "reality principle." Fairy tales show the way to grow up; they deprive the self-realization of a fully integrated individual, charting his/her way from the "golden" realm of his/her parents' kingdom through the dark forest ("The Waterlily") or across the ocean ("Wava") as he/she learns to cope with the dangers of the physical and material realm or the pressures of cosmic forces, which, when assimilated, may be transcended as the child is transformed into an adult king or queen, ruler of a new "golden" kingdom. Enchantment is the opposite of dream, for the magic in fairy tales lies in people and creatures shown to be what they really are.²⁰ No change is wrought in the person's soul by this magic, only in his outward form. The magic in fact is not transformation but disenchantment, effected be the perfect love of one person for another. Through its happy ending, the tale proclaims that the most satisfying thing on earth, the equivalent of eternal life, is the formation of true adult love, which on its most profound level involves the union of the sexes, the unification of the soul with the primitive self, the journey to the enchanted lake (the well of truth) in the dark forest before the world of gold, silver, and precious jewels may be attained. In this definition, the genre of the fairy tale implies the union of opposites through love, the theme which we saw emphasized in Crawford's manipulation of the stylistic elements of the tale. Nowhere is this more evident than in "The Waterlily," which is dominated by this symbol of wholeness.

As I have suggested, this is Crawford's richest tale, uniting the polar opposites of her life as a girl in a cottage be the river with the universal world of books. Not only does it have the most complex plot with two intersecting quests, but many opposites are united through this interlocking where fairy and mortal, soul and body, join forces to help each other. The narrative begins with the announcement to the fairy court under the oak²¹ of the disappearance of the fay Roseblush whom, it is feared, has been abducted by a magician. The fay Goldenball becomes her hero and sets off to discover the hiding place of the lost fairy. Goldenball's name is an indication of his potential greatness: all those associated with gold - Goldilocks, Goldie in "Wava," the golden goose - have a spiritual potential the mark of which is this precious metal, the most valuable possession in the realm of Faerie. Goldenball represents the soul on its quest. His name, moreover, might signal to us the transformations to take place within the tale, for it echoes Grimm's The Frog King where the young heroine lets her golden ball, gold and spheric (symbol of her spiritual potential), fall into a well in the forest.²² Everyone knows the end of the story; how the Frog fetches the ball from the well in exchange for the Princess' promise to share her food and bed with him. When she has done this, has joined her soul to his sexuality, the Frog becomes a King, and the Princess with her knowledge of perfect love leaves for a new kingdom. Such is the plot of "The Waterlily" though the focus here is on the lesson of death and resurrection to be learned from the well of truth, here changed to a circular lake.

On his quest Goldenball needs help, and his first aid is the Naiad playing a golden harp (water and spirit) who directs him to the source of the stream, the lake where the fairy is held prisoner by the Waterbeetle, Prince Crystalcoat. Air spirits and water spirits are aligned in both positive and negative combinations. The Naiad also informs Goldenball in song that only a mortal child can break the evil spell. Eventually to attain his aim, Goldenball must disguise himself as a man. Only one subject to death can unlock the secret of the lily on the lake. At this point the fairy's quest is identified with Maggie's. The girl's search for the waterlily begins with an extended description of the garden surrounding the white cottage by the stream where live the widow Tidy and her daughter, "like the flower in the garden for beauty and sweetness and with a voice like the birds who sang amongst the inhabitants of the garden"²³ for melody. Maggie leaves this archetypal world of innocence to go fishing with the Miller's son, Tommy Bolt, as she has often done before. Dame Tidy allows her to go, cautioning her against falling in the river and enjoining her to return early. Many tales begin with such interdictions: they then record the transgression of the restrictions which results in the hero falling under the power of the enchanter. Not much is made of this issue in Crawford's tale. Maggie returns home after moonrise, and her mother makes no mention of the fact. The reader is aware that Maggie has fallen under the "spell" of the lily, though again little attention is given to Maggie's state, more emphasis being focused on the lily and the magnificent lake.

This element is central to two stories which might have served as models for Crawford, though there is no way that I can prove she ever heard of them, and many tales about waterlilies were in circulation.²⁴ Like Crawford's tale, both tales have two sections, and she would seem to have borrowed one section from each. Another Waterlily tale in verse was written be the Cornwall poet F. D. L. Waters about 1883.²⁵ Here a young girl disobeys her mother and goes near the edge of a round lake where she falls into the water as she tries to pick a lily. The girl is restored to life after drowning by a "Wandering Angel," who is a parallel to Maggie's Goldenball. Like Crawford's tale, Waters' explores the subject of death. It too has a second part, a parallel story wherein the girl's distraught mother, seeking her daughter, falls under the spell of a black bird and pines away. Mother and child are reunited in death. Waters has given the source of his tale, "The waterlily," first read in a collection of Oriental Fairy Tales,²⁶ which I have managed to locate. I suspect that this tale influenced Crawford too. She may have read it in the collection, or, as Waters did, in the 1870's as a separate piece in an anthology. Many details are similar in the two tales: the union of sky and water at sunset in the Oriental tale's opening lines, the flower a palace for a beetle whence comes music at sunset, and the angel helper. Although the lily here is yellow, not white as in Crawford's tale, Roseblush does change Maggie's lily to gold. A possible second thread of Crawford's narrative is different and relates most closely to the fourth chapter and the triumph over death in eternal life. Here I detect a passible echo of the Ojibwa legend of the first waterlily.²⁷ This tale begins with a boy defying his mother and paddling to pick a water lily. He falls into the river and, as he is being dried off by his mother, listens to her narrative of how the evening star chose this incarnation to be close to the Ojibwa people. Again, the second part of Crawford's tale differs, though the symbolic implications in the identification of flower and star, the unity of water and sky, are maintained. "As the sky grew paler, a large and magnificent star suddenly appeared floating on the bosom of the lake."²⁸ If these are indeed the sources of Crawford's tale, we would find here the origins of the three partners on the quest for the lily, Maggie and Goldenball having their origins in the English tale, while Tommy in search of a boat to cross the lake echoes the Indian tale. Such a blending of European and North American, literary and oral traditions, within a single tale would indeed be appropriate in a narrative whose theme is the union of opposites.

Psychoanalytic interpretation of the tale can best aid us in discovering the meaning of these polarities. Finding few fish that evening, Maggie and Tommy wander further into the forest - that forest familiar to readers of Goldilocks and the Three Bears, Hansel and Gretel, or Little Red Riding Hood - the forest of the dark magician where one is separated from the soul forces of the early innocent world. Here a split occurs within the human being between the soul and body, the rational and irrational, which must be reconciled. Within the forest lies the well, symbol of life and death, of initiation and purification through baptism - promise of rebirth into eternal life - here grown larger in the shape of a lake "which was nearly circular."²⁹ Many forests also contain a mysterious house contrasting to the childhood home which contains the bad witch or the bewitched magician or the holy grail. In "The Waterlily" (as in "Prince Papillon") the magician and his prisoner, Roseblush, are within the grail itself, the lily, both contained by the life force of water. Through such a concentration of symbols, Crawford has made it possible for the heroes to heal the internal split. To obtain the magic object, the lily, is to integrate opposing forces of dark and light, evil and good, death and life, time and eternity, soul and body, intellect and unconscious.

When Tommy and Maggie bring the lily into Goldenball's boat, the waterbeetle³⁰ bites Maggie, bringing her under his dark power, but Tommy promptly crushes Crystalcoat, killing him. Plucking the lily of death³¹ from the water of life, Maggie has prepared the way for a new reign. She has been able to do so and to change the moment of vision of the lily from one of death to one of eternal life only with the aid of Goldenball. As his boat reaches the shore, the forces of the soul are released again. Roseblush is freed from the lily. Cyclical flower, enclosed by the circular lake, has been confronted be a unification of temporal and spiritual powers. Now that the polarities have been transcended by this return from the voyage to death, Roseblush turns Maggie's lily to gold in sign of her attainment of spiritual perfection. Goldenball is transformed into a fairy once more, returning to his spiritual shape. To Tommy, he grants the prize of catching fish with golden scales and eyes of pearls (The Tempest). The fairies then return to the court. Tommy, we are told, becomes a rich man, rich we are aware in spiritual gifts, and when he grows up he marries Maggie and they "lived together very happily for a great number of years, respected and beloved by rich and poor."³² These concluding lines are rare among Crawford's tales, indicating, as they do, that the heroes have carried the lesson from their quest to society. Their life is marked by the memory of that first vision of the lake, a visual design of the union of opposing forces and internal conflicts to be won with the lily of the lake.

The edge of the lake is shadowed by the dark circle of the forest while its centre burns like the ruby rose with the sun's light reflected on its waters. Sky and water, dark and light, are contained within the circle. Day gives way to night, sun to moon: time's passage is reflected in the water. On the silvered lake the waterlily becomes, like the evening star, visible. White like snow. glowing in the dark, the lily of death, of the ultimate repose of the soul in Nirvana - that moment of peace and transcendence when polarities are contained within it - blooms in the waters which had been filled with the sun of day and life.³³ The lily itself is ultimately transformed into a golden sun, an artifact which subsumes and transcends the polar opposites of nature. In this one tale, Crawford has given to the lily all the attributes of aspiration, mortality, freedom, and eternity ascribed to it in the poems where it also figures as a prominent symbol. It is also clearly a symbol of the work of art.

Although this tale focuses on the vision which is the ultimate end of all Crawford's art, it is not a discussion of poetry, as is the allegory "How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose." A less evocative tale, more truly a fable, this combat of true and false poetry has an economy of detail and elegance of style which raise it above Oscar Wilde's similar "The Nightingale and the Rose." While Crawford's other tales, particularly "The Waterlily," develop the theme of androgyny which is central to her artistic vision and process, this allegory explains the prime role of love in creating true metre or in attaining perfection. Although the importance of love is a message implicit in the fairy tale form, this tale of a quest for a marriage partner makes explicit the process whereby a high beauty transforms a low creature through the power of love and wins the final consolation of a happy eternity. Implicit in the goal of the quest, to marry the rose, is the definition of happiness. With its many-petalled circular flower, the rose symbolizes perfection, but above all love, most specifically Christian charity. And it is this quality which the pretender to the Rose's hand must show before he can win her. As befits such a quest, the setting for the tale is the paradisal garden to be gained by the bird who wins the competition.

From its beginning, the outcome of the tale is never really in doubt. By altering the traditional structure of the tale and making the parrot hail the aspen (his helper) instead of her addressing him first, Crawford indicates to us that he is the false hero to be unmasked. As bashful and shy as the parrot is bold and forward, the nightingale needs the urging and intercession of the Fairy Queen to pay his court. True poetry, it is implied, is instantly recognized by creatures from aethereal, spiritual realms, and their magic helps make it known to a wider world. We know that the nightingale is the true poet, for he sings lyrics, while the parrot chatters like every mortal. The link with Philomela, the weaver, reinforces this identification.

Even though the parrot may be the lesser artist, the situation to which he is exposed when he proclaims the rose's beauty to human lovers is a scene of satiric comedy befitting this dramatic tale, for his auditors fail to see any magic in the parrot's speaking, nor do they listen to his message of sublime beauty. His quest terminates unsuccessfully when they attack and chase him away. Although we feel there is justice in this humbling of the vain, self-centred bird (and we recognize here a constant message of Crawford's tales), our anger should also be directed at the indifferent lovers, who cannot recognize the beauty and poetry of life. In his quest, the nightingale is successful for the very fact that he finds a receptive audience. Although they may not applaud him publicly, the sick child and his mother hear the nightingale's song and respond to it. The bird's joy as he eases their pain and suffering exemplifies the artist's reward when his song is understood. True artist and audience are bound by ties of charitable love. In exercising a selfless employment of his gift of song, the bird is rewarded not with a gift of gold like the parrot's golden hoop - a symbol here of false aspiration - but with the flaming circle of the living Rose and entry into her garden.

Sketched briefly, this tale sounds like a parable developed on the theme "the meek shall inherit the earth." As an obscure, starving poet, Crawford obviously found personal consolation in the idea that lasting recognition (eternity) might eventually be obtained through her selfless dedication to her art. But her main theme in this tale is the nature of the love necessary to produce enduring art. In this contrast between the poor, lyrical nightingale and the rich, vain, prosy parrot, Crawford explores the nature of love which creates the one perfect moment. Significantly, she here rejects the implications of sexual love with its union of male and female symbolizing the integration of all polarities when the Parrot's declaration of his passion is ignored by human lovers. The way to completion, she suggests, is not through the joining of male and female, but through the abdication of the self. Selfless mother love, as expressed in the anxiety and care of the mother for her sick child, creates a being receptive to poetry. Likewise the nightingale's song is an expression of charitable love. Here the singer-poet forgets himself, puts himself in the place of others, and feels an identification with them, becomes their brother. By repeating this process of identification, he is ultimately enabled to absorb contraries into himself and his completed work.

The implications of this vision of love are far-reaching. It helps explain why the wise men/women or magic helpers in the tales play no tricks, set no tasks, but at once step to the aid of the hero. For the highest form of wisdom in Crawford's world is this vision of selfless dedication to the removal of human suffering and longing. More significantly, this insistence on the abandonment of the self would explain why the tales involve passive rather than active quests; the emphasis is not on annihilating enemies or contraries, but on reaching a state of receptivity (openness) whereby all otherness may be assimilated to the self. Such is the mystic's way of separation, abnegation preceding ultimate fusion. Crawford's symbol of the rose points towards this form of transcendence. Such a union after nothingness is described as well in the quest for the waterlily, which can only be attained after death, after reaching Nirvana. Finally, the impersonal symbolic mode of the fairy tale provides the formal equivalent of this self-emptying identification, since it dramatizes the exploration of the psyche. The result is not the self-effusive lyric of the pure romantic, but objective, restrained portrayal, where the symbolist theory of correspondences may be detected. Forms of psychopathia in which the traditional pattern of the tale maps the soul's journey from golden kingdom through the dark forest to a new golden kingdom of which it is king, Crawford's tales project outward in the objects encountered on the journey this identification and harmony between the self and the other.

Crawford was be no means the only writer of fairy tales in the nineteenth century: her tales reveal a typical Romantic interest in the exploration of the irrational and a development of symbolism which was characteristic of both the English use of the genre as exemplified in Wuthering Heights and the tales of German Romantics - Wackenroder, Tieck, Brentano, Hoffman, and Novalis. In their fairy tales, under the guise of a naive little story, these writers reach out to a new world of meaning, turning away from explicit substance and the realms of rational experience. They abandoned the familiar ring of concrete description and the helpful use of the common measurement of both clock-time and geographic location. Abstractions of the most varied sort were explored in their tales, most notably ideas about art and reality. As Novalis wrote, the fairy tale is the "poetry of poetry." "Everything is a fairy tale - poetry is a fairy tale, history is a fairy tale, love is a fairy tale. As such it contains the deepest truth, surpassing all naturalistic transcriptions of the world."35 The familiar, intelligible world alienates itself from us in the fairy tale, only to be reflected in new ways through veiled symbols.

Crawford was a part of this movement. Her tale of the "Nightingale and the Rose," on an old folk theme, probably has its origins in the tales of Hans Christian Andersen, who was an admirer and friend of the German Romantics. Andersen's tales were translated into English in 1846 (Wonderful Stories for Children by Mary Howitt, published in New York in 1847; A Danish Story Book, The Nightingale and other Tales, and The Shoes of Fortune and other Tales by Charles Bonner) and did much to prepare the way for the fairy tales and fantasy written in England in the later part of the century. (Andersen, for example, was a friend of Dickens). That the tales were available in Canada seems certain from the fact that Lampman had obviously read them. The hero of his tale "The Fairy Fountain" is named Anders Christensen, which when combined with that of his other hero, Hans Fingerhut, reveals the source of his fairy tales.³⁵ That Anders is a cobbler, as was the Danish writer's father, that his closeness to nature and poverty win for him the key to poetry, that his pursuit of riches deadens the creative life - all are elements of an allegory elaborated by Andersen in "The Nightingale." Hans Fingerhut learns other things, but his "Frog lesson" is not unlike that of Andersen's "Tiny Duckling" or his "Hans Clodhopper." Lampman's use of these ideas is very free, and his stories introduce new motifs and entirely new narrative patterns.

Crawford would seem to be more heavily indebted to Andersen for b0th the motifs of "The Nightingale and the Rose" and for its allegorical implications, although what she has done is not slavish imitation but the condensation of at least three different tales. In "The Swineherd," undoubtedly her main source of inspiration, a prince's gifts of a nightingale and a rose are refused by the princess because they are real, not artificial. She refuses to see the prince, yet grants a kiss to him when, disguised as a swineherd, he makes the steam of a pipkin animate some bells and bring forth the perfume of the cooking pots of every house in town. The prince spurns the princess and reproaches her for her plebian taste. While the conclusion of this story suggests the contrast between the elevated and the plebian characteristics of Crawford's allegorical nightingale and parrot and the poor audience for poetry, the main focus of Andersen's criticism is directed at the academic literary circle of Heiburg, a publisher, satirized as the parrot in "The Shoes of Fortune." Andersen claims that the literary establishment attached to the court prefers mechanical, repetitive poetry to the fresh "native wood-notes" of his own voice. In his tale "The Nightingale," he contrasts the pure voice and charitable concern of the real nightingale with the lack of variety and limited feelings of its mechanical reproduction made at the Emperor's request. Here Andersen is satirizing the literal critics who failed to accept his tales, attacking them for their colloquial ease. Crawford has found here the germ of her theme of charitable love.

But to enumerate the sources of "How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose" is not to discover slavish imitation, for Crawford declined to repeat many of the distinctive elements in Andersen's work. Hans Brix³⁶ has said that "in every one of the tales, there is a drop of the writer's (Andersen's) heart's blood - and that is why they remain fresh and alive." As far as I have been able to detect, Crawford's tales do not have the personal implications that Andersen's do, directed as they are to his loves or enemies: "The Swineherd," satirizing Louise Collins as the princess; Jenny Lind, "the Swedish Nightingale" with the natural voice; Heiberg in "The Shoes of Fortune"; Kierkegaard in "The Snail and the Rosebush." Consequently, she has retained neither the ironic aside, the thumbnail caricature, the satire in miniature, nor the colloquial style of their narration. She did, however, learn much from Andersen about the use of concrete imagery, expanding it extensively in her descriptive tableaux.

The importance of the fairy tales in the Crawford oeuvre is fully apparent only when they are seen in relationship to her other fiction. Most significantly, many of the fictional methods developed in the fairy tales are extended into her other work: notably the interest in plot rather than characterization; the repeated use of the magical transformation or reversal even though no fairy godmother be present; the stock character heavily symbolic (evolving little), either altogether good or bad; and the absence of specific setting in much of the fiction, though certain locales such as gardens or conservatories are described at length indicating their symbolic function. Many of these elements are characteristic of the romance. But it seems clear that Crawford was working from the fairy tale towards the romance and not in the other direction.

One of the short stories, still in manuscript, "A Rose in His Grace," clearly illustrates this development. Young Posie (the typical flower heroine - they're always blushing like roses, carrying roses or standing in gardens) has been brought up by an aunt, expecting to inherit her property, although the heir is a long-lost cousin. One Easter Day, a tramp comes to the door and is turned away by the Aunt as a drunkard. But Posie follows, offers him a kiss, a red rose, and her pearl engagement ring. One may hear echoes of "The Swineherd," though love is freely given to the poor man, and Posie breaks her engagement to do so. Several years later, the aunt dies intestate, and the grandfather who had disowned Posie's father inherits. An offer of help is proudly refused: "I had rather be a thorn in a hedge than a rose in his grace." The city, though. frightens Posie; she is starving and seeks out the Squire, finding in his place his grandson - the long-lost heir. He leaves the house to Posie and goes to Europe, but an accident stops him close by. Posie saves his life, returns to her aunt's rose garden, and there receives her cousin Peter again. The gift of a rose leads to identification and transformation, for young squire Peter is the tramp, saved and spliced by the rose and the ring. The lines describing Posie here are worth quoting:

Posie has a rose in her hand and is in white. Her eyes are purely pale but her lips are red and her eyes are glorious, a touch of the purple pansy in their grey.

Romance, sentimental romance . . . yet there is an alternate title scribbled on the manuscript - "Two Roses and a Ring," echoing Thackeray's lengthy fairy tale A Rose and a Ring. The aims of the two stories are very different, yet in both lost heirs are found, and love between cousins is confirmed with the rose and the ring. In Thackeray's story, these objects were gifts of the Fairy Blackstick to her godchildren, enabling them to become beautiful and noble when they wear these magic objects. The godmother is mixing in Crawford's tale, but the rose and the ring have maintained their magical properties and bring about the happy ending in marriage, an antidote to death, a form of eternity. As well, Crawford's story suggests, as the tales do, that this transformation to the state of bliss is effected not by magic but by the perfect love of one person for another which has sewed to reveal the true nobility of Peter's soul, hidden beneath a lowly appearance. Only in its sentimentality is this story opposed to the realistic sexuality of traditional fairy tales, for the erotic symbolism of "The Waterlily" is diluted here. When one explores the significance of the concluding reference to the sun, moon, and stars in conjunction with that of the mystic rose and the perfect pearl circle in terms of Crawford's oeuvre, the sentimentality is mitigated be the widening implication of the symbolism.

In developing a grammar of symbols, the fairy tales provide a bridge between Crawford's poetry and prose. The work of the imaginative architect, that mythopoeic superstructure has its foundations in the realm of faerie. Ultimately, Crawford moves beyond the boundaries of this country yet retains the enchantment. Her progress may be charted in one other image, which would suggest that Crawford's residence in the magic realm had as much to do with her irish origins as with her reading. In the novel Helen's Sock, Luttrell the hero has red hair, a sign of the inhabitants of faerie, which is recognized as such be a maid who comments on this unlucky omen.³⁷ Later she speaks of his "evil eye." Luttrell falsely accuses the heroine and must suffer through many twists and turns of the plot before he wins the girl. In Chapter 15, "Red Hair goes with very ardent emotions," the symbolic nuances of this character trait are deepened. Luttrell, the red head, marries his Italian "goddess of the roses" in a chapter entitled "Love is Lord of All" which in its opening pages (3) includes the phrase echoing the last lines of "A Rose in his Grace," "Love is a star and shines alone, a flower and grows alone . . . only God can build the star and the flower." The fire and the rose. In the incomplete novel Mr. Phoebus, this red hair is associated with classical mythology. Introduced in Chapter 1, "The Son of the Air" is clothed in "a tight-fitting dress simulating golden scales which give out torrents of light with every supple movement of his stately figure." In the second chapter this trapeze artist in the circus, the Marvel of Nations, has an accident when he lets fall the child who is his helper. But from the first description of him, the mythological role of this figure has been clear:

His hair was sufficiently red to become intense gold in the light, although the large disdainful eyes were wonderfully dark as well as miraculously insolent and the pride of Lucifer the son of morning sat on the haughty upper-lip already shaded by a delicate moustache.

An ever expanding circle of meaning is attached to red hair. Here the links with the sun-god Max become evident, and we glimpse the complexity of the interrelationships ordering Crawford's universe.

For long, it was assumed that fairy tales originated in the childhood of man and that in them could be found the debris of mythology accounting for the courses of the sun and other celestial bodies or describing the ritual celebrations of the season and initiation rites.³⁸ Whichever one is the source, mythology and fairy tales are linked. In Crawford's world, although their ties are very close indeed, it would seem that the fairy tales are the basis on which she built her own mythological cosmogony.

APPENDIX

The Vain Owl and The Elf

first story written while in North Douro
A¹⁶ B³ C^ D² E² F⁹ U/ W⁰
strictly a beast fable since humans play only an incidental role

initial situation - wealthy owl in a tower has refused the hand of
Princess Bruina - a bear
A¹⁶ agressor the owl obliges squirrel Jettie to marry him
B³ squirrel Swih wants to marry his cousin, takes the initiative
C^ goes to visit elf Ripple, a mischief maker
D² exchange of greetings with Ripple, who becomes donnor or
wise man
E²
F⁹ Ripple offers them his help
K¹ the object of the quest is accomplished by a trick (a trickster
tale)
the owl is called a nightingale, is flattered
is told a human princess wants to marry him
and is led to the farmer's where his daughter
locks the owl in the barn
U/ the aggressor is punished
W⁰ marriage of Jettie and Swift

Prince Papillon

Pr⁵ Rs⁴8 . . . . . . .
Flashback to - A¹¹ B³ C^ D² E² F⁶9 G⁵ D¹ E¹ F⁹ K⁸ T¹2 Q G²
New sequence - a¹ A³14
B³ C^ H¹ J¹ K⁹ T¹ W⁰o3

initial situation - extensive description of forest and well
Pr⁵ butterfly pursued by raven, tries to devour the hero
Rs⁴8 butterfly is rescued, hides under violet, doesn't let itself be
eaten
A¹¹ butterfly tells violet of difficulties - his uncle the raven has
put him under a spell to capture his property
B³ leaves
C^ beginning of contrary action with refuge with violet beside a
well - the well of truth in the forest - source of cosmic
truth
D²
E² dialogue with violet, her offer to help
F⁶9
G⁵ she intervenes with fairy queen
*D^1, E^1, and F⁹*: the fairy queen questions the violet - puts its faithfulness
and generosity to the test, which it passes, offers to help
K⁸ queen breaks the spell on the butterfly
his transformation is effected when he turns into a person,
receiving a new appearance, he offers to build a palace for
violet (2)
Q the hero is recognized as the prince of the Forest
New plot involves violet
a¹ misses her love prince
A³14 aggressor, raven, attacks her - he hurts what has been
planted and murders her
B³ (plots recombine) initiative comes from butterfly)
C^
H¹ enters into combat with his uncle the raven and kills him
J¹
K⁹ the dead violet is resuscitated
T¹ she receives a new appearance as a reward, transformation
to human being
W⁰o3 wedding of prince and princess take place, mount the
throne, receive the protection of the powers of the forest

Wava

ß³ A¹⁰ B³ C^ Rs⁹ G² D² E² F⁶9.......... D² E² F⁹ G3 KF⁶ T3 W³a¹
a¹ ß³ y¹ n¹ e¹ A¹ B³ C^ K¹⁰ U

initial situation is extensive description - 10 pages
circular island in ocean
poetry of fairies
cosmic forces of ocean
ß³ child leaves family in boat
A¹⁰ storm is aggressor - order to throw child into sea
B³ mermaids as heroes come to aid
C^
Rs⁹ rescued by mermaids - while life endangered
G² hero led over water to place of quest - island
D² exchange with Wava who promises help
E²
F⁶9 promises to ask bird to find mother

new situation
a¹ child misses mother, is impatient for Reetwing bird
ß3 Goldie goes near shore
y¹ forbidden to go near shark
a¹ interdiction disobeyed
n¹ shark - aggressor - tries to trick his victim be persuasion
O¹ Goldie lets herself be persuaded - to be taken in
A¹ aggressor captures a human being
B³ mermaid comes to the rescue
C^
K¹⁰ prisoner is freed thanks to a ruse - coral branch
U shark punished - can't eat with coral in mouth
D² exchange with Fleetwing - he is asked to help - flies
E²
F⁹ to bring news of child (represent child) to mother
G³ flies
KF⁶ resolution spontaneously accomplished thanks to aid of bird,
returns with mother
T³ transformation of heroine - new clothes given by fairies
W³ recompense in form other than marriage - return to mother

The Waterlilly

Ch. I A⁵ 15 11 B⁴ C^ . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Ch. III D² E2 F²6⁹ G²
Ch. II ß3 y¹2 d² n² e² . . . . . . . . . . . . . a¹ B¹ C^
Ch. IV **O / D² E² F⁶9 ** G² H¹ J¹ K⁴10 I³. . . . . . . . . **T³/ ...T⁴ W⁰**

Ch. I includes descriptions of fairyland, Oberon and Titania -
Shakespeare
A5 15¹¹ agressor (Prince Crystalcoat) - waterbeetle - attacks a
member of group - 5 - steals away fairy Roseblush
15 - imprisons her in waterlily and puts her under - 11 -
a spell
B⁴ The news is communicated by a messenger to the fairy court
Goldenball, a fairy, volunteers to go to her aid
C^
Ch. II new plot
involves description of house and garden where a stream
leads to a round lake with a waterlily in the centre
ß³ Child leaves family, Maggie
y¹2 is told not to fall into the river, to return early
d² does not return early, wanders far afield, discovers lake, but
mother doesn't seem to react to this at all
no does she fall under a spell?
O² does she let herself become its victim?
Ch. III
D² Goldenball meets a Naiad playing a golden harp singing by a
stream, he listens
E² then asks her for information about Roseblush
F²6⁹ she tells him where Roseblush is kept, in lake, and of means
of breaking spell - by a mortal child - the child then
comes forward spontaneously later on
G² he makes his way to lake where he overhears conversation of
Tommy and Maggie
a¹ Maggie desires waterlily - magic object
B¹ a cry for help is launched and hero responds immediately
C^ search for boat
Ch. IV
O Goldenball appears disguised as a big man
D²
E² he speaks to Maggie, she answers
F⁶9 he provides a boat
two quests coincide here - each helper is hero in other plot
G² make their way by water to object of quest
H¹ combat with waterbeetle as they touch lily - he bites
Maggie
J¹ Tommy crushes beetle
K⁴ for Maggie, object is gained immediately as a result of the
previous actions - 10 - for Goldenball - prisoner is freed
Tommy offered much success as fisherman, his fish will have
eyes of pearl (Shakespeare) and scales of gold, Lily is turned
to gold (T⁴ for Maggie - a rationalized transformation)
T³ hero receives new appearance - gentleman becomes
Goldenball (has coped with mortal material world, trans-
cends it again)
W⁰? marries Roseblush?
T⁴ Tommy becomes a rich gentleman - rationalized form of
transformation
W⁰ marries Maggie

How the Nightingale and the Parrot Wooed the Rose

morphological analysis

a¹ [L B³ C^ O G³ E² D² F⁶9

[B³ C^ O D¹ E¹ F⁶9 G³

Propp's method

H² a¹ B² C^O

Morphological analysis

L C^ G¹ Pr¹ Rs⁹

C^ G¹ . . . . . .

A¹ B³ C^ K⁵

Propp's method

N K⁵t EX Q T⁴ U W⁰

a¹ something is lacking one of the members of the family - 1
- signifies a fiancée or friend is needed - Parrot wants to
marry Rose
L Signifies false hero - Parrot
B³ the news of the lack is made public - 3 - indicates the
initiative come from the hero who leaves - Parrot
C^ beginning of quest (may be no movement in space) at this
point the helper arrives on the scene
O incognito
G³ hero goes to object of his quest - Aspen addresses Rose -
3 - he is led to the princess (usually follows DEF)
- 1 - By flying
D² the hero is put to the test in preparation for magic object -
2 - the giver greets and questions the hero - Aspen
answers - 1 - the giver puts the hero to a test
E² the hero reacts to the actions of the future giver - Parrot
addresses Aspen replies or does not reply to giver
1 succeeds or does not succeed the test
F the hero is given the magic object
6 object appears suddenly, spontaneously - Aspen agrees to
help
9 different people place themselves at the hero's disposition
- the combination means that the people do
spontaneously
- these actions are repeated for the Nightingale who is
addressed by the Fairy Queen, he answers, she likes his
humility and urges him to seek the Rose's hand, then speaks
to the Rose on his behalf
H² the hero and his aggressor meet in a combat
which takes the form of a competition
J² marks the termination of the combat with the hero victorious
- each of the birds must account for a day
K⁵ the lack is filled immediately thanks to the magic object
EX exposure of false hero - Parrot
Q recognition of true hero - Nightingale
T⁴ transfiguration of hero - Nightingale receives congratula-
tions, a rationalized or humouristic form, not humble
anymore
U punishment of false hero - Parrot is wounded
self-conceit
W⁰ marriage of Nightingale and Rose

York University

NOTES

¹Jonathan Cott, ed., Beyond the Looking Glass: Extra-ordinary Works of Fairy Tale and Fantasy (New York, 1973), p. xlviii.

²The manuscript contains the place name on the back of a page.

³Julius E. Heuscher, A Psychiatric Study of Myths and Fairy Tales, 2nd ed. (Springfield, Ill., 1974), p. 73.

⁴See John B. Ower, "lsabella Valancy Crawford: The Canoe," in Colony and Confederation, ed. George Woodcock (Vancouver 1974), p. 83.

⁵In the Crawford Manuscripts, Lorne Pierce Collections, Douglas Library, Queen's University.

⁶Cott, Beyond the Looking Glass, p. xxv.

⁷This last story is found in Crawford's Selected Stories, ed. Penny Petrone (Ottawa, 1975). The others are in Crawford's Fairy Tales (Ottawa, 1977).

⁸Vladimir Props, Morphologie du conte, trans. Marguerite Derrida (Paris, 1970).

⁹This tale is set in the Hartz forest, frequently used by the Brothers Grimm as setting.

¹⁰For a complete description of the tales see Appendix. Tolkien, in Tree and Leaf, 2nd ed. (London, 1975), p, 22, says that beast fables centred on animasl, not humans, and are not properly fairy tales, though they focus on an aspect of the marvellous, namely, the speech of animals. Elsewhere (p. 74) he suggests that precocious children usually write beast fables, not fairy tales, an observation certainly borne out by Crawford's "The Vain Owl and the Elf."

¹¹David Monaghan, "The Literary Fairy-Tale: A Study of Oscar Wilde's ‘’The Happy Prince' and ‘The Star-Child,’" Canadian Review of Comparative Literature, 1, No. 2 (Spring 1974), p. 163.

¹²Monaghan, p. 164.

¹³Ann Yeoman, "Towards a Native Mythology," Canadian Literature, No. 52 (Spring 1972). pp. 39-48.

¹⁴Iona and Peter Opie, The Classic Fairy Tale (Oxford, 1974), p. 14.

¹⁵Tolkien, Tree and Leaf, p. 16.

¹⁶Stith Thompson in Motif-Index of Folk-Literature (Bloomington, Indiana, 1957) lists the following motifs as Irish in origin:
-in "Wava":
D 1310.7 Singing waves giving supernatural information
F 242.1.2. Fairy chariot riding waves
F 213 Fairyland as an island "Wava"
F 347 Fairy helper
-in "Waterlily":
F 242.2 Fairy boat
F 233.5 Fairies have golden colouring
F 234.0.1 Fairy transforms himself
F 259.1.2. Fairy becomes mortal
F 235.1 Invisible fairies
F 347 Fairy helper
F 102.4 Golden fish
-in "Papillon":
F 347 Fairy helper
F 1156.2 Test of character, of fidelity
-in "Nightingale":
F 347 Fairy helper
H 1219.4 Quest assigned by fairy
H 1245 Quest to be accomplished in one day
H 1215 Quest assigned because of hero's
boasting, a tabu on boasting
H 1552 Test of character, of generosity
-in "Vain Owl":
H 1215 Tabu on boasting

¹⁷Axel Olrik, "The Epic Laws of Folk Narrative," In The Study of Folklore, ed. Alan Dundes (Englewood, N.J., 1965). pp. 129-41.

¹⁸The influence of the east Indian is clear from a study of the motifs (see note 16), but that of the North American Indian, with the exception of "The Waterlily," more difficult to document.

¹⁹Perrault's influence is also evident in the quotation of the phrase in French about owning the door from Little Red Riding Hood found in "Lodesley Abbey."

²⁰See Opie, The Classic Fairy Tale, p. 14. The rest of the definition is a résumé of Bruno Bettelheim's The Uses of Enchantment (New York, 1976).

²¹See Margo Dunn's forthcoming article for a dissuasion of the significance of this setting.

²²The Opies suggest an analogue for this tale in the celtic "The Well at the World's End": The Classic Fairy Tale, p. 83-84.

²³Crawford's Fairy Tales, p. 7.

²⁴In The Blue Book of Fairy Tales (1889), Andrew Lang printed one of them. It is very different, however, being essentially a story about gold spinning.

²⁵F. D. L. Waters. The Waterlily: an Oriental Fairy Tale (Ottawa, 1888). In his preface, he states his source.

²⁶Oriental Fairy Tales or Fancy's Wanderings in the East, illustrated by William Harvey (London, 1884): "The Waterlily," pp. 15-23.

²⁷Patricia Robins, Star Maiden; An Ojibwa Legend of the First Waterlily (Toronto, 1975).

²⁸Crawford, Fairy Tales, p. 9.

²⁹Crawford, Fairy Tales, p. 9.

³⁰According to Gertrude Jobe's Dictionary of Mythology, Folklore and Symbols, a water beetle is a symbol of corruption in Irish folklore, while the water lily is the cultic equivalent of the lotus, its five petals signifying the life cycle - birth, initiation. marriage, rest from labour, death.

³¹Crawford, Fairy Tales, p. 20.

³²Crawford, Fairy Tales, p. 20.

³³Crawford, Fairy Tales, p. 9.

³⁴See Marianne Thalmann, The Romantic Fairy Tale, Seeds of Surrealism, trans. Mary B. Corcoran (Ann Arbor, Mich., 1964), p. 11.

³⁵Other Canadian fairy tales of the time in verse were F. L. Waters' The Musician a Legend Of the Harz Mountain (1903) and The Waterlily an Oriental Fairy Tale (1888).

³⁶Reginald Spink, Hans Christen Andersen and His World (London, 1972), p. 70.

³⁷Crawford, Helen's Rock, Chapter 5, p. 8 in manuscript.

³⁸Such is the definition of folk tales in the works of Mircea Eliade, in, for example, The Sacred and the Profane.