The Fairy Tellers

30/01/2024
18:00-19:30
online talk

'The Witches' Guild in Waldkirch' photo Nicholas Jubber

The Fairy Tellers

A Folklore Society online talk by Nicholas Jubber

Tuesday 30 January 2024, 18:00-19:30

A journey amongst some storytellers who collected, transmitted & in some cases invented fairy tales, showing how the form changed over time

This talk focuses on three key tellers of traditional tales: Giambattista Basile, the Neapolitan courtier and soldier-of-fortune who collected Europe’s first integral fairy tale collection in the 17th century; Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, who produced the first version of ‘Beauty and the Beast’ (although not of course the archetype on which the story was based); and the Russian folklorist Ivan Khudyakhov, whose ‘Great Russian Folk Tales’ featured early versions of the Baba Yaga tales, and whose chaotic life ended up in Siberian exile and a vagrant’s grave. Delving into each of these storyteller’s lives, we see how life and storytelling overlapped, how despite being largely forgotten today each of them did radical things to the traditional tale, and how their legacies continue to shine today; and in exploring their lives we learn how they each struggled, in different ways, against the political and literary establishments of their times.

Nicholas Jubber is the author of five books of non-fiction, a winner of and multiple nominee of the Stanford Dolman travel book award. He has written for The Guardian, Spectator, Telegraph, BBC Online, and other publications; and spoken, amongst other venues, at the Hay-on-Wye, Edinburgh and Rome literary festivals.

Tickets £6.00 (£4.00 for Folklore Society members with the Promo Code: log in to the Members Area https://folklore-society/members-only to get the promo code): https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-fairy-tellers-online-talk-by-nicholas-jubber-tickets-772204754207?

Every ticket sold helps to support the work of The Folklore Society.

Image credit: ‘The Witches’ Guild in Waldkirch,’ photo by Nicholas Jubber