For all those who, like ourselves, carried the task of classifying a regional corpus of folktales, this third revision of the Aarne-Thompson catalogue was the best news we could hope for. In fact we were all acutely aware that
the “AT” was a research tool with as many qualities as it raised problems.
One of these was the gap between the aim of its scope —to cover the whole folktale world— and the poor representation of certain geographic areas in
terms of versions included

Correia, Paulo

Sapientia

notas e recensões323Congratulamo-nos, pois, com o presente catálogo e fazemos votos para que em breve surja uma versão expandida do mesmo.Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales. A Classification and Bibliography, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004, 3 volumes: FFC 284 (619 pages) + FFC 285 (536 pages) + FFC 286 (284 pages) Paulo CorreiaFor all those who, like ourselves, carried the task of classifying a regional corpus of folktales, this third revision of the Aarne-Thompson catalogue was the best news we could hope for. In fact we were all acutely aware that the “AT” was a research tool with as many qualities as it raised problems. One of these was the gap between the aim of its scope —to cover the whole folktale world— and the poor representation of certain geographic areas in terms of versions included. Also, the precariousness of so many types based solely on one or two versions and the scarce descriptions provided for many of the entries. We therefore hail the immense effort of Hans-Jörg Uther to fill in many gaps connected with those problems, namely the fact that the types have been restated taking into account a large number of new versions coming from all the continents. It should nevertheless be said that, in spite of the universality of the catalogue remaining the aim of the catalogue organizer, its adequacy to the universe of the pan-European traditional narrative as the catalogue’s main strength remains very much a fact.Hans-Jörg-Uther is a member of the editorial staff of the Enzyklopädie des Märchens in Göttingen, and he had developed an enormous amount of folktale research within the scope of that monumental project. His herculean task of completing, updating and remodelling the indispensable but imperfect 1961 edition of The Types of the Folktale, at the head of a small editorial staff —Sabine Dinslage, Sigrid Fährmann, Christine Goldberg and Gudrun Schwibbe— is now the object of this review: three volumes of impressive research, the first two containing the type catalogue, and the third one the appendices: a bibliography (pp. 29-131) with additional references (132-133), a subject index (pp. 134-285); and indices of new, discontinued and changed type numbers as well as of motifs (pp. 8-28).The introduction to the catalogue which opens the first volume is in itself a long declaration of methodological intentions and, from now onwards, a key text to “think” the classification systems of folk literature. Uther’s revision of the old catalogue attempts, we are told, “to meet the objections 324E.L.O., 13-14 (2007-08) of previous critics of the Aarne / Thompson catalogue without forsaking the traditional principles of how the tale types are presented” (p. 7). Ten major criticisms to the 1961 catalogue are listed and, accordingly, a list of proposals are presented to “eliminate or mitigate” those faults (p. 8). For the sake of space, let us mention just three of the measures systematically adopted all along the present catalogue:– The bibliography, entailing thematic monographs, folktale collections (literary and oral) and regional catalogues, has been updated until 2003. The exponential growth of written sources (quite overlooked in the AT) —not unknown to the search for a “literary history” of the oral versions— should be noted.– All the type descriptions were re-written based on versions existing in the E.M. archive and a large number of titles were modified. – Many AT types were also reduced by being compacted, often in “miscellaneous types.” Around 250 new types have been added (III, p. 12), twice as many were displaced (III, pp. 10-11), and around 750 types were discontinued (vol. III, pp. 8-9). Besides confining itself to duplications, this last measure is also applied to folktales belonging to one single ethnic group and “for which no more information is available”. This more controversial measure, justified on the importance of “widely distributed types” in an international catalogue, raises the following problem: if in the future other similar versions are taken account of, how can they be classified and saved from being lost in the relative anonymity of regional catalogues? A telling example for this case is the non-existence in the present work of a type classified in Ulrich Marzholph’s catalogue of Persian folktales5 with no. *122F, Flucht im Kürbis, where it appears with six versions in Iran and the mention of its presence in Pakistan. 84 versions of the same folktale have been registered in Portugal,6 and it appears in the Spanish catalogue, with a single version.7 We recently came across a Nepalese version.8 In Portugal we would single out this well-loved tale and looked for its presence in other countries. We came up with nearly a hundred versions spread through four ethnic groups, now certainly worth appearing as an ATU type. And of course one of the important uses of regional catalogues is to wave the banners of our “neglected” new types or ecotypes across one’s borders, to try and catch the echo of those same types in other countries, sometimes unexpectedly far away.  5 U. Marzolph, Typologie des persischen Volksmärchen, Beirut, Kommission bei Franz Steiner Verlag, 1984.6 I. Cardigos, Index of Portuguese Folktales, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2006, *122F (Marzholph) Flight inside Pumpkin.7 J. Camarena / M. Chevalier, Catálogo tipológico del cuento folklórico español – Cuentos de animales, Madrid, Editorial Gredos, 1997, 168B.8 Folktales of Asia, Asian Cultural Centre for UNESCO (xerox).notas e recensões325To the heading of each typological cell (consisting of a number and a title) the modifications that took place in relation of the 1961 revision are added in between brackets: the old title and / or the convergence of types. This is followed by a very clear résumé of the type, accompanied by its main motifs. A “miscellaneous” type will have several alternative résumés. There may follow an indication of the main types normally associated with it. Below this résumé, different headings list “combinations” of the type, “remarks” (usually old written or literary versions), “literature” and “variants”: the main studies concerned with the type and the collections and catalogues where versions are found, ethno-linguistically as well as chronologically organized.All the AT types that cease to have an autonomous existence and merge into a sole type are indicated in their original place and remitted to the new type, without any mention of versions associated with them.The résumés are remarkable for their clarity. This undeniable advantage is a simplification that raises problems when the narrative is more complex —as with many tales of magic or with novella— and has developed a web of different variants that won’t be apparent in a single (or a couple of) monolithic description(s). Maybe the regional catalogues will have a specific role in refining the description of their own versions, under a synopsis signalled with alternative options that will allow for a more precise inter-textual study of the tale in the diversity of its versions — a luxury that an all-embracing catalogue cannot possibly afford.The option for a small set of résumés under one single type arises from the preoccupation of merging of AT types. The regional catalogue will tend to revert to singling out each type when both types co-exist in the same region, as these are then clearly perceived as different types. For instance, from our perception of Portuguese folktales, type AT 437, The Supplanted Bride (The Needle Prince), now appearing as résumé no. 2 of ATU 894, The Ghoulish Schoolmaster and the Stone of Pity, is clearly perceived as a different tale type; whereas ATU 894 is perceived as a version of ATU 710, Our Lady’s Child. Incidentally, we regret the loss of a remarkable Angolan version9 (noted in the Aarne-Thompson under type 437) now absent from the new catalogue, a version that caused this folktale to become so well defined in our minds. On the other hand, we have a very well outlined Hispanic ecotype (La Comeniños in the Ca-Ch catalogue)10 that bears a very close relation to both ATU 710 and ATU 894, but none to AT 437.Once again, it is perhaps the vocation of regional cataloguers to unfold and keep the diversity of folktales we are familiar with, whereas the international catalogue will need to be synthetic and sufficiently versatile to 9 H. Chatelain, Folk-Tales of Angola, Boston and New York, American Folklore Society, 1894, tale nº 1.10 J. Camarena / M. Chevalier, Catálogo tipológico del cuento folklórico español – Cuentos maravillosos, Madrid, Editorial Gredos, 1995, type 710 A.326E.L.O., 13-14 (2007-08) allow its types to be split and (mis?)handled under the analytic zoom into the folktales of a given region — on the understanding that these will never be a miniature of the “international” all-embracing look.The brief descriptions of the Aarne-Thompson catalogue, often reduced to just a title (in the Jokes section, for instance), are now expanded and based on a reliable corpus (the E.M. archive) every time they are considered worth keeping. The verbal unfolding of what laconically appeared as just “obscene” in many AT types was perhaps one of the healthiest improvements in ATU, thus providing a firm ground to the comparative study and classification of the so-called licentious folktales.As a classificatory tool, the ATU inevitably presents both advantages and disadvantages: if, on the one hand, it allows the regional cataloguer more confidence in the classification through a direct confrontation between one’s version and the résumé in the catalogue, on the other hand there is a un-differentiation factor caused by the merging of several types. The easy alternative for the regional catalogue will be to revert to the AT (1961) type number whenever this is deemed necessary. This said and accepted, it will be extremely useful when all the previous followers of the AT catalogue update their Indexes according to the new ATU (safeguarding the differences that they regard as valuable): this will enable all the catalogue users to find a valid equivalence in a wide fan of narratives to which they could not have had direct access.    In the awareness that a catalogue of this nature is always provisional and permanently subject to revisions, we shall say that the unifying endeavour of this catalogue, well expressed in its title (“International Folktales”) was, once more, well centred in narratives of the European tradition (“from the Atlantic to India”, in the expression of Stith Thompson). This in spite of the real effort to encompass all the continents. It is an excellent catalogue as a tool in the dissemination of this tradition in space and time, but it doesn’t allow the confrontation of the different traditions belonging to wide cultural-linguistic (or civilizational) areas such as sub-Saharian Africa or American Indian — a crucial confluence for the deep understanding of  Brazilian oral literature, for instance. While we toast congratulating the appearance of this International Types of the Folktale, let us make a wish for the creation and publication of more “ethnic” regional catalogues, so that, one day, there may appear a truly global type catalogue as a tool for the study of the immense diversity and interpenetration of human narratives.  

Hans-Jörg Uther, The types of international folktales. A classification and bibliography, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004, 3 volumes: FFC 284 (619 pages) + FFC 285 (536 pages) + FFC (284 pages)

Universidade do Algarve

notas e recensões
323
Congratulamo-nos, pois, com o presente catálogo e fazemos votos para 
que em breve surja uma versão expandida do mesmo.
Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales. A 
Classification and Bibliography, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum 
Fennica, 2004, 3 volumes: FFC 284 (619 pages) + FFC 285 (536 
pages) + FFC 286 (284 pages) 
Paulo Correia
For all those who, like ourselves, carried the task of classifying a regional 
corpus of folktales, this third revision of the Aarne-Thompson catalogue 
was the best news we could hope for. In fact we were all acutely aware that 
the “AT” was a research tool with as many qualities as it raised problems. 
One of these was the gap between the aim of its scope —to cover the whole 
folktale world— and the poor representation of certain geographic areas in 
terms of versions included. Also, the precariousness of so many types based 
solely on one or two versions and the scarce descriptions provided for many 
of the entries. We therefore hail the immense effort of Hans-Jörg Uther to 
fill in many gaps connected with those problems, namely the fact that the 
types have been restated taking into account a large number of new versions 
coming from all the continents. It should nevertheless be said that, in spite 
of the universality of the catalogue remaining the aim of the catalogue 
organizer, its adequacy to the universe of the pan-European traditional 
narrative as the catalogue’s main strength remains very much a fact.
Hans-Jörg-Uther is a member of the editorial staff of the Enzyklopädie 
des Märchens in Göttingen, and he had developed an enormous amount 
of folktale research within the scope of that monumental project. His 
herculean task of completing, updating and remodelling the indispensable 
but imperfect 1961 edition of The Types of the Folktale, at the head of a small 
editorial staff —Sabine Dinslage, Sigrid Fährmann, Christine Goldberg 
and Gudrun Schwibbe— is now the object of this review: three volumes 
of impressive research, the first two containing the type catalogue, and 
the third one the appendices: a bibliography (pp. 29-131) with additional 
references (132-133), a subject index (pp. 134-285); and indices of new, 
discontinued and changed type numbers as well as of motifs (pp. 8-28).
The introduction to the catalogue which opens the first volume is in itself 
a long declaration of methodological intentions and, from now onwards, 
a key text to “think” the classification systems of folk literature. Uther’s 
revision of the old catalogue attempts, we are told, “to meet the objections 
324
E.L.O., 13-14 (2007-08) 
of previous critics of the Aarne / Thompson catalogue without forsaking 
the traditional principles of how the tale types are presented” (p. 7). Ten 
major criticisms to the 1961 catalogue are listed and, accordingly, a list of 
proposals are presented to “eliminate or mitigate” those faults (p. 8). For 
the sake of space, let us mention just three of the measures systematically 
adopted all along the present catalogue:
– The bibliography, entailing thematic monographs, folktale collections 
(literary and oral) and regional catalogues, has been updated until 2003. 
The exponential growth of written sources (quite overlooked in the AT) 
—not unknown to the search for a “literary history” of the oral versions— 
should be noted.
– All the type descriptions were re-written based on versions existing in 
the E.M. archive and a large number of titles were modified. 
– Many AT types were also reduced by being compacted, often in 
“miscellaneous types.” Around 250 new types have been added (III, p. 12), 
twice as many were displaced (III, pp. 10-11), and around 750 types were 
discontinued (vol. III, pp. 8-9). Besides confining itself to duplications, this 
last measure is also applied to folktales belonging to one single ethnic group 
and “for which no more information is available”. This more controversial 
measure, justified on the importance of “widely distributed types” in an 
international catalogue, raises the following problem: if in the future other 
similar versions are taken account of, how can they be classified and saved 
from being lost in the relative anonymity of regional catalogues? A telling 
example for this case is the non-existence in the present work of a type 
classified in Ulrich Marzholph’s catalogue of Persian folktales5 with no. 
*122F, Flucht im Kürbis, where it appears with six versions in Iran and the 
mention of its presence in Pakistan. 84 versions of the same folktale have 
been registered in Portugal,6 and it appears in the Spanish catalogue, with 
a single version.7 We recently came across a Nepalese version.8 In Portugal 
we would single out this well-loved tale and looked for its presence in other 
countries. We came up with nearly a hundred versions spread through four 
ethnic groups, now certainly worth appearing as an ATU type. And of course 
one of the important uses of regional catalogues is to wave the banners of 
our “neglected” new types or ecotypes across one’s borders, to try and catch 
the echo of those same types in other countries, sometimes unexpectedly 
far away.  
5 U. Marzolph, Typologie des persischen Volksmärchen, Beirut, Kommission bei Franz Steiner 
Verlag, 1984.
6 I. Cardigos, Index of Portuguese Folktales, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2006, 
*122F (Marzholph) Flight inside Pumpkin.
7 J. Camarena / M. Chevalier, Catálogo tipológico del cuento folklórico español – Cuentos de animales, 
Madrid, Editorial Gredos, 1997, 168B.
8 Folktales of Asia, Asian Cultural Centre for UNESCO (xerox).
notas e recensões
325
To the heading of each typological cell (consisting of a number and a title) 
the modifications that took place in relation of the 1961 revision are added 
in between brackets: the old title and / or the convergence of types. This is 
followed by a very clear résumé of the type, accompanied by its main motifs. 
A “miscellaneous” type will have several alternative résumés. There may 
follow an indication of the main types normally associated with it. Below 
this résumé, different headings list “combinations” of the type, “remarks” 
(usually old written or literary versions), “literature” and “variants”: the 
main studies concerned with the type and the collections and catalogues 
where versions are found, ethno-linguistically as well as chronologically 
organized.
All the AT types that cease to have an autonomous existence and merge 
into a sole type are indicated in their original place and remitted to the new 
type, without any mention of versions associated with them.
The résumés are remarkable for their clarity. This undeniable advantage 
is a simplification that raises problems when the narrative is more complex 
—as with many tales of magic or with novella— and has developed a web 
of different variants that won’t be apparent in a single (or a couple of) 
monolithic description(s). Maybe the regional catalogues will have a specific 
role in refining the description of their own versions, under a synopsis 
signalled with alternative options that will allow for a more precise inter-
textual study of the tale in the diversity of its versions — a luxury that an 
all-embracing catalogue cannot possibly afford.
The option for a small set of résumés under one single type arises from the 
preoccupation of merging of AT types. The regional catalogue will tend to 
revert to singling out each type when both types co-exist in the same region, 
as these are then clearly perceived as different types. For instance, from our 
perception of Portuguese folktales, type AT 437, The Supplanted Bride (The 
Needle Prince), now appearing as résumé no. 2 of ATU 894, The Ghoulish 
Schoolmaster and the Stone of Pity, is clearly perceived as a different tale type; 
whereas ATU 894 is perceived as a version of ATU 710, Our Lady’s Child. 
Incidentally, we regret the loss of a remarkable Angolan version9 (noted in 
the Aarne-Thompson under type 437) now absent from the new catalogue, a 
version that caused this folktale to become so well defined in our minds. On 
the other hand, we have a very well outlined Hispanic ecotype (La Comeniños 
in the Ca-Ch catalogue)10 that bears a very close relation to both ATU 710 
and ATU 894, but none to AT 437.
Once again, it is perhaps the vocation of regional cataloguers to unfold 
and keep the diversity of folktales we are familiar with, whereas the 
international catalogue will need to be synthetic and sufficiently versatile to 
9 H. Chatelain, Folk-Tales of Angola, Boston and New York, American Folklore Society, 1894, 
tale nº 1.
10 J. Camarena / M. Chevalier, Catálogo tipológico del cuento folklórico español – Cuentos maravillosos, 
Madrid, Editorial Gredos, 1995, type 710 A.
326
E.L.O., 13-14 (2007-08) 
allow its types to be split and (mis?)handled under the analytic zoom into 
the folktales of a given region — on the understanding that these will never 
be a miniature of the “international” all-embracing look.
The brief descriptions of the Aarne-Thompson catalogue, often reduced 
to just a title (in the Jokes section, for instance), are now expanded and based 
on a reliable corpus (the E.M. archive) every time they are considered worth 
keeping. The verbal unfolding of what laconically appeared as just “obscene” 
in many AT types was perhaps one of the healthiest improvements in ATU, 
thus providing a firm ground to the comparative study and classification of 
the so-called licentious folktales.
As a classificatory tool, the ATU inevitably presents both advantages and 
disadvantages: if, on the one hand, it allows the regional cataloguer more 
confidence in the classification through a direct confrontation between 
one’s version and the résumé in the catalogue, on the other hand there is a 
un-differentiation factor caused by the merging of several types. The easy 
alternative for the regional catalogue will be to revert to the AT (1961) type 
number whenever this is deemed necessary. This said and accepted, it will be 
extremely useful when all the previous followers of the AT catalogue update 
their Indexes according to the new ATU (safeguarding the differences that 
they regard as valuable): this will enable all the catalogue users to find a 
valid equivalence in a wide fan of narratives to which they could not have 
had direct access.    
In the awareness that a catalogue of this nature is always provisional and 
permanently subject to revisions, we shall say that the unifying endeavour 
of this catalogue, well expressed in its title (“International Folktales”) was, 
once more, well centred in narratives of the European tradition (“from the 
Atlantic to India”, in the expression of Stith Thompson). This in spite of the 
real effort to encompass all the continents. It is an excellent catalogue as a 
tool in the dissemination of this tradition in space and time, but it doesn’t 
allow the confrontation of the different traditions belonging to wide cultural-
linguistic (or civilizational) areas such as sub-Saharian Africa or American 
Indian — a crucial confluence for the deep understanding of  Brazilian oral 
literature, for instance. While we toast congratulating the appearance of 
this International Types of the Folktale, let us make a wish for the creation and 
publication of more “ethnic” regional catalogues, so that, one day, there may 
appear a truly global type catalogue as a tool for the study of the immense 
diversity and interpenetration of human narratives.  


https://sapientia.ualg.pt/bitstream/10400.1/2460/1/13-14-Correia-Hans-Jorg.pdf

Hans-Jörg Uther, The types of international folktales. A classification and bibliography, Helsinki, Academia Scientiarum Fennica, 2004, 3 volumes: FFC 284 (619 pages) + FFC 285 (536 pages) + FFC (284 pages)

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