| Christine Goldberg: The Tale of the Three Oranges. FF Communications No. 263. Helsinki: Suomalainen Tiedeakatemia (Academia Scientiarum Fennica). 1997. 268 pp. ISBN 951-41-0810-8 (hardback) 26 euros (hardback)
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| The Tale of the Three Oranges begins with five complete examples of this folktale (AT 408), which is told from India across the Middle East and Southern Europe to Portugal. A modified version of the comparative method yields a hypothetical tale type that helps to demonstrate the uniformity and the variation of this tradition. The Three Oranges is based on vivid images, many of which it shares with other tales or with other traditional genres such as songs and beliefs. The stability of this folktale is credited not to any descent from a single original version, but rather to the harmony of its images.
CHRISTINE GOLDBERG, who received a Ph.D. in Folklore from Indiana University, is an advocate of the comparative study of folklore. She writes articles on different tale types and has written a book, Turandot’s Sisters (New York and London: Garland, 1993), on the riddle-tale AT 851. From 1987 to 1993, she worked in the Archive of American Popular Beliefs and Superstitions at the University of California, Los Angeles. |
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