Friday, September 12, 2008

True Treasures of European Folklore: Not From Germany, But in Sicily

The ANNOTICO Report

 

Despite common beliefs, the true treasures and most prolific Folk Tales came from Sicily, Not Germany.

 

The greatest European folklorist of the nineteenth century was Giuseppe Pitrh (1841-1916).

Pitrh was born into a family of fishermen in Palermo and became a medical doctor, councilman, and professor. He wrote over forty books and collected hundreds of fairy tales, legends, anecdotes, riddles, and myths and published them in Sicilian dialect.

A selected group of Pitrh tales has been translated and edited into a two volume collection

 THE INTREPID GIUSEPPE PITRH AND HIS COLLECTION OF SICILIAN FOLK TALES

"The Collected Sicilian Folkand Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitrh" (Routledge, 2008).  Two Volumes.

Translated By Jack Zipes (University of Minnesota) and Joseph Russo (Haverford College)

The true treasures of European folklore are buried not in Germany, but in Sicily, and the greatest European folklorist of the nineteenth century was Giuseppe Pitrh (1841-1916).

Pitrh was born into a family of fishermen in Palermo and became a medical doctor, councilman, and professor.

He wrote over forty books and collected hundreds of fairy tales, legends, anecdotes, riddles, and myths and published them in Sicilian dialect.

Indeed, his collection is the most important nineteenth-century collection of tales in dialect.

Jack Zipes (University of Minnesota) and Joseph Russo (Haverford College) translated the tales and edited a two volume collection "The Collected Sicilian Folk and Fairy Tales of Giuseppe Pitrh" (Routledge, 2008).

 

The ANNOTICO Reports Can be Viewed (With Archives*) on:

Italia USA: www.ItaliaUSA.com * [Formerly Italy at St Louis]

Italia Mia: www.ItaliaMia.com *

Annotico Email: annotico@earthlink.net