As children, most of us enjoyed reading those exciting fairy- and nursery-tale collections authored by Charles Perrault of France, the Brothers Grimm of Germany and Hans Christian Andersen of Denmark. But just as these worthy authors collected tales from their respective countries, the stories that were told around English fireplaces or nurseries were also being carefully collected; in this case, the collector was a rather unusual and, today, certainly unfamiliar individual whose efforts to transmit these stories to future generations have all but faded from memory. We’re not talking about some obscure tales known only to a few folklorists. No, the stories this Jewish man collected and popularized bear such familiar names as “Jack and the Beanstalk,” “The Three Little Pigs,” “Lazy Jack,” “The Three Sillies” and “Tom Thumb”—every one of them a classic English fairy tale.
I bring up this subject because 2016 marks the 100th anniversary of the passing in New York City of a rather extraordinary Jewish gentleman by the name of Joseph Jacobs. Born in Australia in 1854, Jacobs lived there until moving on to higher education in England, a career there as a historian and literary critic and, ultimately, an appointment in New York City as a professor of English Literature at the Jewish Theological Seminary.
The notion that these fables of creatures large and small, of magical beans, talking animals and misbehaving children owe their preservation to the actions of a Jewish intellectual is one of those factoids that strike people as odd. Yet, those very same Jewish traditions and norms of preserving culture to which Jews are exposed and permitted to share with other nations have proved through the efforts of Professor Jacobs to be essential to this favorite area of English literature continuing to educate and inform generations of young and old.
Jacobs’ interest in folklore was extensive. He edited several books on English fairy tales starting in 1890, and over the next 10 years authored popular collections of Celtic, Indian and European folktales. He had earlier compiled a collection of Aesop’s fables (1889). His fame grew to the point that he was chosen to contribute to the Encyclopedia Britannica and in 1900 was invited to become revising editor of the Jewish Encyclopedia being compiled in New York.
At this point in his life, Jacobs was a recognized man of letters on at least three continents. Yet, throughout his life, it was the English “fairy tale” that was his core interest. All the collections compiled by Jacobs were accompanied by detailed notes on the origin and meaning of the stories, and it is in those notes and observations that one gains insights into the creative process that made these stories memorable. First, Jacobs points out the obvious: few of the stories in the collections involve fairies. Rather, Jacobs chose that term to include all stories in which “something extraordinary… [occurs].” It will typically involve giants, dwarfs, fairies and talking animals. It will also include, in Jacobs’ words, “tales in which what is extraordinary is the stupidity of some of the actors.” For Jacobs to include a story in his collection it had to combine a sense of humor and dramatic power. That combination was sure to hold the attention of even an unlettered audience, one that contained preschoolers as well as older listeners.
What appears to be missing from Jacobs’ work is any systematic study of the psychological basis of fairy tales, a controversial area of inquiry popularized by Bruno Bettelheim in his seminal work “The Uses of Enchantment: The Meaning and Importance of Fairy Tales” (1976). In this volume, Bettelheim applied Freudian psychology to fairy tales and drew conclusions that children could benefit greatly by confronting the “dark sides of life” as represented by themes of abandonment, death, witches, threats and injuries that are contained in these stories. Emotional growth would likely follow from children being exposed to the symbolic challenges encountered.
Jacobs can, of course, be forgiven for focusing on the humorous aspects of the English fairy tale and less the psychological effects of the stories, since Freud’s theories were not widely known in literary circles until the mid-1890s. What appears to Jacobs as simply humorous and/or stupid in human conduct can be seen by us in our post-Freudian world to have grave consequences and subconscious effects or sources.
Which brings us back to the commemoration of Joseph Jacobs’ death 100 years ago. Much like a modern-day Jewish book publicist, who through his efforts popularizes a new author, Jacobs, through his efforts played an essential part in the education of almost every reader of this article. Whether the three little pigs and the big bad wolf caught your fancy as a child, or Goldilocks and the three bears, whether the giant in Jack and the Beanstalk terrified or amused you, whether that story taught you the importance of following your parents’ instructions exactly or the potential consequences of thinking “outside the box,” matters little. These fairy tales helped shape who you are. And for that, Joseph Jacobs deserves your recognition and thanks.
By Joseph Rotenberg
