GUYS THIS IS AMAZING
SERIOUSLY
6000 YEARS
STORIES THAT ARE OLDER THAN CIVILIZATIONS
STORIES THAT WERE TOLD BY PEOPLE SPEAKING LANGUAGES WE NO LONGER KNOW
STORIES TOLD BY PEOPLE LOST TO THE VOID OF TIME
STORIES
GUYS LOOK AT THIS
OH MY GOD YOU GUYS
GUYYYYYSSSS
“Here’s how it worked: Fairy tales are transmitted through language, and the shoots and branches of the Indo-European language tree are well-defined, so the scientists could trace a tale’s history back up the tree—and thus back in time. If both Slavic languages and Celtic languages had a version of Jack and the Beanstalk (and the analysis revealed they might), for example, chances are the story can be traced back to the “last common ancestor.” That would be the Proto-Western-Indo-Europeans from whom both lineages split at least 6800 years ago. The approach mirrors how an evolutionary biologist might conclude that two species came from a common ancestor if their genes both contain the same mutation not found in other modern animals.”
So, a lot of this is fascinating, but I also think that it ignores some of the nuances of how fairy tales are transmitted. Like, for example, while variants of “Cinderella” are all over the place, the most many folklorists are willing to admit is that it seems to be ~1000 years old and might be from China originally.
“Proto Germanic” and “Proto Celtic” types might have been transmitted through a common ancestor OR they might have been transmitted via contact between the two cultures (either at the highest point of contact, with the Viking invasion and settlement of Ireland, or at some point later on). It’s one of the reasons why the Historic-Geographic Method has come under a lot of scrutiny over the years, even though it can be used really, really well when you do it carefully.
I’ve seen folklorists, for example, dredge up a story that is only found in Ireland and in a Slavic variant, but nowhere else – is it because it shares a common ancestor or is it because the story travelled from one to the other via, potentially, common links with the Vikings? Or even later? Especially since our earliest attestation to a lot of folktales isn’t much later than the 19th century, when the collection of folklore became significantly more scientific (the Grimm Brothers weren’t perfect, but they did get the ball rolling.)
There’s a lot that goes into the transmission of fairy tales and folklore, it’s a very complex field.
I think the first story ever told was about how if you make it back to the group, you’ll be safe and have food. Foodilocks, they called it.
