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One of the more important figures in the lively Western European tradition of written fables deriving from a combination of the tales of the Aesopic tradition and tales from Persian and Arabic collections was the woman known simply (from a couple of lines in the epilogue to her collection) as "Marie de France." Her late twelfth-century collection (which she claims to have translated from an English translation of an Aesopic collection) contains what are generally held to be the earliest surviving written versions of a number of important fables... including the one that lies at the root of Boccaccio's tale of the "pregnant" fool Calandrino (Decameron 9th day, third story).... which is why I've been delving into it and the other collections from the period for a chapter in my book on the differing understandings of selfhood among Christians and Jews and the construction of gendered identities in Western Europe and the US from the first century CE to the Leo Frank case. Marie's collection, written in Old French has been translated into English several times. If the Aesopic tradition of which it's a part isn't too far removed from your (oral?) folktale interests I'll be happy to provide some bibliography. It is fascinating material!! Happy hunting! Kris Kristin Eldyss Sorensen Zapalac assistant professor, History Washington University in St Louis kzapalac@artsci.wustl.edu http://www.artsci.wustl.edu/~kzapalac/
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