This drawing by Isobel Lillian Gloag (d. 1917) illustrates the Grimm’s 1812 version of Rapunzel–not the 1857 version.
Simplia burst through the door. “Haloo-oo!!?” she said.
From upstairs she heard Bob Dylan singing The Times They Are A-Changin’. (Not really, she knew. It was just the radio.)
“I’m up here!” Sagacia called out. “I’m changing the sheets.”
Simplia puffed up the stairs and plopped into the window seat.
“I thought you were going jogging,” Sagacia said, or maybe asked.
“I was,” Simplia replied, unlacing her shoes. “But these new running shoes pinch, so I came home to change to my old ones.”
She stepped into the closet and pulled the cord. The light flicked on quickly, then off again.
“Ooops!” she said. “Time to change the bulb.” She picked up her old shoes and stepped back out. “I thought you were going to the post office.”
“I was,” Sagacia said. “But I changed my mind.” She flipped the fresh sheet open across the bed and it floated gently downward. Murzik darted underneath.
A pale blue sheet of onionskin paper floated downward, too, from–well–somewhere and landed itself right on top of the sheet. Murzik had crawled his way out from under the sheet, and he pounced for it, but Sagacia reached it first and read:
Dear Vasilisa the Wise,
You know how, when you’re crafting a story and there is sometimes something in it that you don’t like or that doesn’t seem right to you, you just change it slightly? Well, to me, that is something different from changing the story.
What I mean is, when storytelling and story-passing-along was an entirely oral activity with no written versions around, wouldn’t people always change them? Maybe not even on purpose, but just because you have to retell a heard story in the way that you remember and that makes sense to you, which might be just a bit different from the way you heard it.
What that means is that, as time went by and social values changed, the stories would change, too, right? Maybe “evolve” is a better word—because whatever the change is, it isn’t final, just a next step. I’m thinking of the famous example of the changes the Grimm’s made in Rapunzel between their 1812 edition when Rapunzel was pregnant and the one published in 1857 when the world was more Victorian and prudish. These days, after more time and further social change, people seem to be telling it more like the 1812 version again. To us, it just makes more sense that way.
The problem is that when a story gets written down at last, the written version quits changing; it endures way past the time when the values it expressed have lost their currency, while the various evolving oral versions simply disappear into the air. So it is that we are left with some 200-year-old written versions of stories that seem sexist or violent or unnaturally pious to today’s listener.
Might not those details have changed gradually or disappeared if left to the natural tell-listen-tell-listen-tell way of doing things?
What I’m thinking is that storytellers who adjust a story are not really guilty of “changing the story” in any culpable sort of way; they are just doing to it what might have happened naturally if the story had never been written down in the first place. Making up for lost time, you might say.
If that makes sense to you (and your magical friends), I’m wondering how you and they may have changed some stories to make them “right.” I’m very interested in this process, so I’d also be interested in others’ views in general.
Changing in Charleston
“Maybe I should change shoes, too” said Sagacia. “We need to run this over to the Fairy Tale Lobby right away and ask our magical friends for help.”
“Right!” Simplia agreed. “Time to change the Fairy Tale Question of the Month!”
“Meow,” said Murzik.
“And maybe change the litter box, too,” said Sagacia. “When we get back.”
They thundered down the stairs as Bob sang on . . .
Come writers and critics who prophesize with your pen
Keep your eyes wide, the chance won’t come again
Don’t speak too soon for the wheel’s still in spin
And there’s no tellin’ who that it’s namin’
For the loser now will be later to win,
For the times they, they are a-changin’
Fairy Tale Lobby 
Oh I love this discussion.
I agree with Fran…literary tales are not on the table with this discussion. Unless one is given permission or it is in the public domain.
But, I wonder…If we can see ourselves as emissaries of our own culture…American early 21st century in my case NYC Eastern European Jewish….then perhaps the way telling folktales in our own ways, infused with our own culture, are adaptations just as the old Jewish version of a story that also was told in the surrounding area….infused with a different culture but still the bones of the same story…is an adaptation.
It is, perhaps, in the way we “bill” it…as a story from a certain culture or inspired by a story from a certain culture. Honesty is the best policy – creativity is fun!
I think you need to be careful of the core of the story even if you are not quite certain of it. In Tipingee from The Magic Orange Tree, the child is being threatened with being sent off with a wizard. She’s to wear certain colors, red one day, black one day when she goes to the well so he will know her. All her friends agree to wear the same colors and confuse the old man. I’ve heard a teller use the colors the kids she was telling to had on, can you wear something aqua, can you wear something pink? It makes it more participatory, but red and black and white are meaningful colors in stories. I don’t think some things are open to adaptation and too many changes robs the story.
I think a lot of it depends on the venue and the audience. If you have a program for adults titled something like “old Hungarian folktales” (for instance) you have the chance to create an environment where stories can be told in their “older” recorded forms, and then maybe have a discussion about collection and preservation, and what life and values were like in the olden days. Cultural history.
On the other hand, if you are telling something like “Stories for Young Ladies” and you happen to shift a fairy tale around so that the princess actually selects the prince instead of being given to him as a prize, I am all for that. Changing in Charleston is right, most traditional tales were never meant to be frozen in time.
There are exceptions, of course – sacred and serious stories, myths, epics were often taught to apprentice storytellers through word by word repetition, and that’s a whole other topic. But mostly, yes, stories are meant to change when the core values they promote are outdated. You can either shift them around (with grace and expertise, obviously) or just select to not tell them.
One thing I hold important though: It is good to see where stories came from. It is not only intriguing, but vital to understand the changes they went through. This is why, even though I might tell an “updated” or “rewritten” version of a tale, I always try to find the older (I don’t like “original”) versions as well.
[Of course if it’s a literary story, the author may give permission only if we swear not to change anything–maybe not even the exact words.]
If it’s a public domain folktale, AND our aim is to open a window into that culture for our listeners, I think we must be very cautions about changes. We must research the culture and make sure that whatever we do does not misrepresent the culture’s values or style. If we find something we don’t like, it’s not ours to change! Go find a different story.
But if we want to whomp up a creative new version all our own, go ahead, that is Folk Process. We must however take all the blame/credit, and not pretend it’s still an old folktale.
I agree with that :) There are a number of things I sometimes do:
1. Add a caveat, something like “You know, back in those days, customs were different. It was tradition that a man had to kidnap the woman he wanted to marry…”
2. See whether the change affects the core values of the tale. You were absolutely right that a lot of research is needed if you are dealing with another culture. But sometimes changes don’t really affect the main message of the tale. For instance, in my example above (below?) the hero’s journey is not in essence changed by the princess seeing him and being attracted to him instead of a king throwing a random daughter at the hero’s feet. He still gets the girl, except, now the girl has a personality too.