Kotharian Lightning

Why Folklore?

It is said that literature reveals the Soul of a people. What do we glorify, indulge in, revere, despise. In literature it is all revealed. From stories that are historical, pseudo-historical, mythological, and fictional, we explore our identity as members of a folk, members of humanity, and children of the universe. Folk stories, those tales which originate beyond the bounds of commercialism, organized religion, and state propaganda, speak of matters that are close to the heart of a folk. Thus, exploring these stories is a way of understanding a people beyond what even an examination of historical texts or official art can tell us. Folk tales are how a people see themselves, in all their good points and bad points.

Folklore will often be garbed in the language that is popular in any time, whether that is an organized religion or a political ideology, yet these are often apart from the true spirit of a work. Indeed, if one takes a closer look at folktales, ones can see the echoes of the distant past, elements of a people that are near forgotten, tales of lost history and religion veiled in allegory awaiting remembrance, and even flashes of subtle brilliance. Some stories are serious, while others are meant to entertain. Some persons are historical or pseudo-historical, while others are abstract or fantastical. The past lives on in forms abstracted that still maintain their allure. Sometimes these fragments shine brightly, other times they are veiled to all but the discerning eye.

How do you choose stories? / Do you agree with the stories you post?

Stories are posted without commentary, and I only include it when some vital point needs to be briefly explained. This is to ensure that stories are allowed to speak for themselves objectively. Naturally, accuracy of language is in the hands of a translator, and not every word or phrase of a language can be adequately rendered in English, at times only approximated. Often times words that are particularly difficult to translate are related in their phonetic approximation with a rough translation.

The scope of folklore in this blog is worldwide, and will cover many different tribes, peoples, nations, and religions. Whatever your interest you should be able to find something here for you. Some stories are serious and incorporate religious elements or folk heroes of a people, while others are intended to be humorous or entertaining rather than to be taken seriously.

As for how I choose stories, it is a mixture between personally finding them interesting, amusing, or finding that they have something deeper to say. I make no claim to agreement with all elements of the stories that I post, and my own opinions are represented only in the articles and stories that I write.

Is this site for children?

It is a common misconception that fairy tales are meant specifically for children. This is largely a western misconception, but one that is quite common. The truth is that many fair tales and folk stories in their original forms, especially from more primitive tribes, feature graphic violence, sexuality, and complex themes such as loss and revenge. In their more refined forms, many continue to deal with mature themes like suffering, injustice, political/familial intrigue, and morality. While the name fairy might conjure up images of make believe pixies in the modern mind, the original concept behind such entities are much more mature than that (as I will eventually show in my overview of them).

So, having stated all that, where does this modern western misconception come from? Well, first off we know that Christianity to a certain degree sanitized the folklore of Europe, something that also happened to a lesser extent with the folk tales of the Middle East due to the influences of Islam. Many of our most popular stories are continuations of ancient tales that span continent and peoples. For example, the story of Cinderella has variants that occur in Western Europe, Eastern Europe, and even as far away as India.

Naturally many of these stories have origins in times long before the rise of Christianity. When Christianity arose during the Middle Ages the form of the original stories were often kept with elements of the old Gods replaced with Christian trappings. This sometimes occurs even when elements of them are almost inexplicable from a religious perspective which divides sapient beings into humans and angels. For example, the existence of beings lives elves and fairies are hard to explain from a Christian doctrinal perspective. Naturally, the closest comparison in such a doctrine in to demons (that terms itself being a negative translation of a broader Greco-Roman term). Yet, such beings rarely follow such negative concepts in fairy tales, often displaying as wide a moral preference as the humans they interact with. Islam proved moderately better adapted to adapt concepts like fairies since the Jinn serve as a third group of sapient beings alongside humans and angels.

In terms of morality, Christian writers often kept the violence of old stories while attempting to minimize the sexual elements within them, at least on the more explicit side. Chivalric tales often had a certain notoriety about them as they incorporated elements such as premarital sex, bastard birth, and adultery as vital elements of stories. The story of Lancelot and Guinevere, or Tristan and Iseult can be cited here. With the rise of Protestantism and especially Protestant Moralism, these elements were intentionally minimized from tales to a greater extent. This tendency reached its peak during the Victorian Era which is when the concept of Fairy Tales as being primarily for children/youths was promoted as a marketing concept by publishers. This reached its furthest limit in sanitized nursery rhymes, many of which still incorporated elements from earlier folk tales.

This tendency in turn led to pop culture in the 20^th century, dominated as it was by the United States. This, in turn, leads to the largest popularizer of fairy tales in media history, Walt Disney. Walt Disney took the already sanitized stories familiar to readers of folklorists like the Brothers Grim or Hans Christian Anderson and intentionally made them family friendly musicals. Many of these revisions represented highly modified versions of the tales, often conflicting with the message of the originals (such as with the Little Mermaid). However, as movies were (and perhaps still are) the culturally strongest method of influencing a population, popular conscience came to view these stories through the lens of Disney movies rather than their original forms. This popularity in turn meant that publishers of fairy tales often sought to revise them into the image of Disney, thus having a further effect upon how people view them.

So, having cleared up that misconception, I can say that the folklore posted here will not hesitate to incorporate adult elements into it. Some stories may be fine for small children, others for older youths or adults. Frankly though, given what passes for children’s literature nowadays, the reader might find even the less suitable stories more fitting for young people.

Where do you source the stories from?

Traditional stories are sourced from collections of oral traditions, religious books, and sometimes historical records, mostly recorded/translated by Europeans. Some modern stories also find their sources in modern literature based. This is the distinction between folklore and fairy tales on this blog. Most of the books I source these stories from are in the public domain and may be found on the internet. Some minor sections may be quoted from more modern works for the purposes of education.

How do you deal with bias/other issues?

Generally speaking, the more honest anthropologists will not have an innate bias against the material that they are studying, with many. Unfortunately in some cases there is some bias in the material. If this blatantly comes across in the text, I would tend to avoid using that source. An important note is that sometimes less than savoury sources might be used, although this is by far the exception rather than the rule. My rational behind this is that Folklore stories ultimately belong to the peoples and tribes, not the one who recorded/translated them. Even if the actions or ideas of the translator might have issues with them, this does not imply that the translation itself is faulty.

However, it should be said that contrary to what many people imagine, early anthropologists were often complimentary to the people they studied and tried to clear up misconceptions about them. For example, a common scene in many early Hollywood movies taking place in Africa involves the capture of the protagonists by tribal Africans, who invariably stick them in a pot and attempt to boil them alive. Yet, if one reads African folklore it rapidly becomes apparent that cannibalism is the domain of monsters, demons, and evil witches who associate with them. As you can see, having access to folklore is an important way to clarify what peoples are like.

Aren’t fairy tales black and white, simplistic?

Are they? How many of them have you read to come to that conclusion? Some stories have obvious heroes and villains, while others deal with characters that are themselves anti-heroes or anti-villains. Even were this not the case, is the modern “complexity of the grey” idea truly so profound? Characters with white, black, and grey morality are as interesting and complex as you want to write them. And, unsurprisingly, many folk stories and fairy tales include such characters. Don’t believe me? Let me demonstrate for you:

Amadis the Gaul

Few knights in chivalric tales rival the nobility and pure hearted nature of Amadis the Gaul. He has a single minded love for his lady, Oriana, is always willing to fight for a noble cause, and chooses to battle fairly, treating even monstrous opponents with honor.

Yet, it is this same honor that led to the one black spot on his record. Oriana and Amadis were never fully engaged while he was adventuring, though they had a continuous affair which resulted in a child. This lack of marital commitment became a problem when Oriana’s father arranged for her to marry the Emperor of Rome. Amadis managed to rescue Oriana and flee to a magical island, but both the emperor and Oriana’s father pursued them with their armies, forcing a large-scale battle and the death of the Emperor of Rome (and presumably the unspoken political fallout from said death). This all could have been avoided had Amadis and Oriana admitted that they’d already had a child out of wedlock, something Oriana’s father points out after the battle. Yet, honor ultimately doomed them to fight a war. So even with this character of honor, love, and nobility, there is still a lesson to learn about properly using such things.

King Arthur

There most popular telling of the Arthurian legend in our time goes as follows:

• Arthur is born out of wedlock to one of Uther Pendragon’s affairs, and his birth is confirmed with a falling star like a Red Dragon. He is then hidden away by Merlin to avoid the political intrigues that eventually lead to the death of Uther Pendragon.
• Arthur ascends to the throne of Britain by uniting the people after pulling a sword from stone, as advised by his adviser, the wise Wizard Merlin. Numerous knights gather around him, inspired by legends and the deeds that he performs. These men are known as the Knights of the Round Table.
• The evil sorceress, Morgan, conceives a son with Arthur by deception to steal away the Kingdom.
• Merlin sees this and tries to eliminate Mordred by setting him adrift.
• The sorceress takes away the councillor of the King (Merlin) by tempting him with a handmaiden and then sealing him away.
• Mordred is brought to Camelot where he begins seeking out allies that plot against the King.
• The knights embark on their great quest to seek out the grail. Few are destined to returned.
• The best of the knights, the greatest of humanity, achieve the Grail, demonstrating the true nobility and worth of the human spirit. Thereafter the Grail serves as the symbol of what humanity can strive towards.
• Having achieved the greatest act of humanity, the purpose of Camelot has been fulfilled.
• The Kingdom goes into decline. Evil forces (represented by Mordred) attempt to subvert the throne with the intention of ultimately destroying Arthur and the Knights of the Round Table.
• Mordred arranges for Lancelot to be caught with Guinevere, resulting in them fleeing from the kingdom to France and a subsequent war (reminiscent of the Trojan War).
• A truce is eventually called and Arthur learns about how Mordred has been subverting his place in Briton.
• Mordred and Arthur go to war. Arthur defeats the evil, thus saving the land from future tyranny, but is himself wounded in a final climactic showdown with Mordred.

You’ve all heard this version of the story. Now, here is another take on it where the tale of King Arthur is a cautionary story about the how idealism becomes gradually tainted and flawed when applied to reality, eventually becoming the thing it hates. This was the version of the story most popularly told in France, with even some elements used in popular pseudo-histories in England.

• Arthur is born out of wedlock to one of Uther Pendragon’s affairs, and his birth is confirmed with a falling star like a Red Dragon. He is then hidden away by Merlin to avoid the political intrigues that eventually lead to the death of Uther Pendragon.
• The King unites the Kingdom with a magic ritual that astounds the population (pulling the sword from the stone), but only for a time.
• The King finds himself influenced by both the Fey queen Morgan le Fey and the wizard Merlin. Morgan constantly undermines the court by questioning the nobility of his knights (especially noting their numerous affairs that cause turmoil in the nobility), while Merlin attempts to uphold this. Arthur is thus placed in a conflict between two powerful religious sects (Fairy and Christian), one that he physically confirms as his lineage (by having Mordred, his only son, with Morgan la Fey) and the other that he attempts to support with the ideals of his rule (Merlin the Christian).
• The King is influenced by Merlin and attempts to kill Mordred as an infant, resulting in the most evil act Arthur ever did, where he rounded up many young children from across the realm and abandoned them at sea. (reminiscent of the Herodian genocide). However, Mordred is later found as the only survivor amongst all the others. This earns Arthur the enmity of the nobility, though it is said that they blamed Merlin for the act more than he.
• Morgan, recognizing this as an attack upon her influence, has one of her handmaidens seduce Merlin, then seals him away in enchanted sleep to prevent further attacks on Mordred. When Mordred is fourteen, he is brought to Camelot where he becomes a knight.
• The knights of Camelot slowly die off in quests for various relics, even as the realm slowly rots away. Thus, even as their idealism becomes ever stronger, the realm becomes weaker.
• The greatest relic is one that is personal (the Grail) rather than something that can be attained and used as a universal symbol. This represents a fragmentation between the people and the men who they look up to, and even amongst the knights only three are deemed worthy of this prize. In fact, the true heart of the story suggest that Percival, the peasant knight who grew up far away from courtly intrigues and the deceits of man, is the only one worthy of the Grail.
• The courtly love (often straying into adultery) indulged in by many of the knights ends up leading to the split between Lancelot and Arthur over Guinevere. This is the fall into decadence that has historically brought down so many kings and nobles in history.
• Knightly honor compels King Arthur to pursue Guinevere and Lancelot to France, where they engage in an ultimately futile war (reminiscent of the Trojan War).
• The war bankrupts the kingdom, causing the people to turn on Arthur and join Mordred. By the time Arthur arrives in Britain, Mordred has managed to prove himself a better practical ruler than Arthur, uniting the nobility and people of the land behind him, not with relics or stories, but simply with good governance.
• The two engage in a battle which leads to the total destruction of Britain (and presumably contributing to its later conquest by Germanic and Norse peoples).
• Arthur is finally compelled by honor to attack a dying and ultimately powerless Mordred, resulting in Mordred’s death, by a lance through his side, and Arthur’s mortal wound, by the a blow to the head.

So, is the story of Camelot one of black and white? Grey? A moral fable? A mixture of all these?

In conclusion, as you can see it is one of the tragedies of our modern age that there are so many misconceptions about these stories. Yet, when one actually takes the time to study such stories that they are not simple. And with that, this overview is complete.