The Crow Child is not an actual “Fairy Story,” but it illustrates remarkably well the way in which “Fairy Stories” developed. Every event in The Crow Child is strictly true, but much of the story appears to be based on magic. A true story of this sort, told in primitive times, and retold again and again, with new emphasis placed on the elements of wonder, would have developed into a pure story of wonder,—a “Fairy Story.”
The author of this original, and modern, “Fairy Story,” Mary Mapes Dodge, was born in New York in 1838. For many years she was the efficient editor of St. Nicholas, a young people’s magazine of the highest type. In addition to her editorial work she wrote many books for young people, the most famous being Hans Brinker, or the Silver Skates. She died in 1905.
THE SOUL OF THE GREAT BELL
By LAFCADIO HEARN
Very often the earliest stories are not crude accounts of ordinary events, exaggerated enough to be worthy of note. They are poetic narratives founded on matters of deep significance in the life of a people. All primitive people are poetic, because they see the world through the eyes of emotion rather than of scientific understanding. They also have an instinctive recognition of fundamental nobility. Therefore we have such stories as the legends of Hiawatha, in which an ideal man is presented, bringing benefit to his kind. Any story that is handed down from generation to generation, and that presents as facts matters that have no other verification, is legendary. The highest type of legendary story is one that presents high ideals.
The Chinese, whose literature is exceedingly ancient, have always been an idealistic people. It is not surprising that they should create such an appealing legendary tale as The Soul of the Great Bell. Although the elements are quite simple the story has been turned from being a simple account of tragic self-sacrifice, and has become an explanation of the music of the bell, as well as an example of filial devotion. The preservation of such stories shows natural appreciation of short story values.
The present rendering of The Soul of the Great Bell undoubtedly far surpasses the Chinese version. The story has been appropriately introduced, amplified and given added poetic and dramatic effect by careful choice of words, descriptive passages, suspense, onomatopœia, and climax.
Lafcadio Hearn was born in 1850, of Irish and Greek parentage, in Leucadia, of the Greek Ionian Islands. At 19 he came to America and engaged in newspaper work, living at various times in New Orleans and in New York. From 1891 until his death in 1904 he made his home in Japan, where he became a Buddhist and a naturalized Japanese citizen under the name of Yakumo Koizumi. He learned to know the oriental peoples as few others have known them. His literary work is marked by poetic treatment, and an atmosphere of the Orient. He wrote Glimpses of Unfamiliar Japan, Out of the East, Some Chinese Ghosts, and many other books on oriental subjects.
Ta-chung sz’. Temple of the Bell. A building in Pekin, holding the bell that is the subject of the story. The bell was made in the reign of Yong-lo, about 1406 A. D. It weighs over 120,000 pounds, and is the largest bell known to be in actual use.
Kwang-chan-fu. The Broad City. Canton.