Tricksters in Folktales and Fables

Sep 26, 201215 min read

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Published: Sep 26, 2012

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Article Series: Tricksters in Literature, Part 2 of 5

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Many of us have fond memories of listening to stories as kids. Perhaps the stories were the fairy tales that we liked to hear at bedtime, but maybe instead of princesses and dragons and knights in shining armor, you wanted to hear something different. Maybe you wanted to hear stories about mischievous creatures performing wild antics that left you cheering them on and giggling. Maybe you wanted to hear stories where creatures overcame seemingly impossible odds to best their adversaries, helped you learn an important life lesson, and did it all in a lighthearted and entertaining way. Maybe you wanted to hear a folktale or a fable.

So what is the difference between folktales and fables and the mythologies and folklore that we discussed in the previous article? And how do tricksters fit in?

Fox, Folktale Trickster

"Fox" by Skia Skia

Before we answer these questions, let’s quickly review. The Trickster is one of psychologist Carl Jung’s most widely known archetypes. Archetypes are the unconscious ideas that all humanity inherits, and these ideas transcend time and are found in the mythologies of all cultures. Archetypes are important because these unconscious roles are universal and are useful in the analysis of mythology, literature, art, and religion. (1) The Trickster archetype in particular is a character that revolves around the concept of one individual, human or animal, tricking or deceiving another individual or group. (2)

There are several characteristics that are common to most, but not all, tricksters. Tricksters are: ambiguous, amoral, almost always male, deceitful, shapeshifters, culture heroes, self-serving, solitary, less physically imposing, and boundary-crossers. (A more detailed list can be found here: fav.me/d5fpa2)

Now that we are all up to speed about archetypes and tricksters, let’s find out how folktales and fables are different from the mythologies that we discussed in the previous article. Myths (as in mythology) can be defined as creation stories, stories which explain the origins of the world and sometimes the origins of people as well. These may be sacred, may involve gods or other supernatural creatures or events, and may explain cultural traditions. Folktales and fables, on the other hand, tell of the way characters deal with everyday life through a collection of fictitious tales. These can revolve around animals or people, may involve conflict or calamity, and usually involve superstitions or other unfounded beliefs. (3)

The main difference seems to be that while mythologies deal with stories about the gods and are, therefore, sacred to the belief systems and culture of various peoples, folktales are fictitious tales that revolve around everyday events instead of the creation of the world. And as most of us already know, there is a moral of the story to every fable. Both types of storytelling leave plenty of opportunities for tricksters to run rampant, causing trouble and laughter at the same time.

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So where does the trickster character fit into folktales and fables? The trickster’s role in folktales and fables isn’t really very different than his role in folklore, which we discussed in the previous article. We have already established that folktales tell stories about events in everyday life; the role of the roguish and cunning trickster in folktales as well as fables is to cope with the struggles and obstacles, sometimes even danger, in his daily existence using the defense mechanisms of trickery and deception. He has to elude his adversaries using his shrewd intellect rather than violence and brute.

I think that it is important to note that even though a fable might teach a life lesson through the “moral” found at the end of the story, that does not mean that the trickster himself is either moral or immoral. Quite the opposite is true, in fact. Tricksters are every bit as amoral in folktales and fables as in any other form of literature. Their tricks and deceptions teach others, but they remain neutral on the issue of morality.

Now that we understand the difference between the role of the trickster in mythology versus the role of the trickster in folktales and fables, let’s meet a few of the most popular trickster characters in these tales: Anansi from West African folktales, Br’er Rabbit from folktales in the Southern U.S., and Reynard the Fox from French fables.

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Anansi, the spider trickster who can also appear in the form of a man, is one of the most important figures in West African folklore and folktales. He is also known as Ananse, Kwaku Ananse, and Anancy, depending on the region, and he has evolved into Aunt Nancy in the Southern U.S. He can be compared to Coyote and Raven from Native American folklore, which we discussed in the previous article. Anansi and his stories (Anansesem - “spider tales”) traveled from Africa to the Caribbean and the New World during the Atlantic slave trade. As slaves used cunning and trickery to gain an upper hand within their own situations on plantations, so did Anansi the trickster reverse the fortunes on his persecutors. Anansesem became a very important part of oral culture, and children are raised on these stories.

Anansi, West African spider trickster

"Anansi" by trowicia trowicia

The tale of how Anansi got his stories is an interesting one and a good example of the cunning nature and slick tongue of this trickster. There was a time when there were no stories in the world because the Sky-God, Nyame, possessed them all. When Anansi asked the cost of the stories, Nyame gave him a list of creatures for Anansi to bring to him, including a python, a leopard, hornets, and a dwarf. One by one, Anansi tricked them into getting themselves captured. Once he had them all, he handed them over to Nyame, who rewarded him with the stories. And that is how Anansi became associated with the entire body of stories now known as Anansesem. (4)

What is interesting is the fact that Anansi used a gum doll to capture the dwarf, which illustrates the close relationship of Anansi’s tales with those of Br’er Rabbit, who was fooled by a tar baby that Br’er Fox had made to capture him.

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Br'er Rabbit, African American folk trickster

"The Laughing Place" by shadowraine wielderofthewind

Br’er Rabbit is a popular trickster in the Southern U.S., thanks to Joel Chandler Harris’s Uncle Remus folktales. He is also known as Brer Rabbit or Bruh Rabbit, both of which are shortened versions of Brother Rabbit. The Br’er Rabbit character originated in tales told in the central and southern regions of Africa and was brought to America the same way as Anansi – through the slave trade. Like Anansi, Br’er Rabbit represented to the slaves a way to overcome adversity and fight back against slave-owners using their wits, manipulative words, and tricks; that made this trickster a folk hero, while his self-serving, amoral nature made him out to sometimes also be a villain. (5)

Br’er Rabbit is considered to be one of the tricksters who used signifyin(g) to outwit his oppressors through twisted language along with the Signifyin(g) Monkey. The problem that the slaves had, according to Audre Lorde, was that “the master’s tools [would] never dismantle the master’s house.” The answer came in the form of signifyin(g), a concept introduced by Henry Louis Gates, Jr., which said that the master’s house could be dismanted using his tools if those tools are used in an unexpected and unorthodox way, and Br’er Rabbit was a master at using cleverly manipulated language to slowly break down social convention. (6)

If you are interested in reading more about the Signifyin(g) Monkey, Lion, and Elephant, click this link www.bryburcon.com/BillsPageSig… to read the story in song form.

Br'er Rabbit, about to get into trouble

* "Br'er Rabbit and the Tar-Baby" by E. W. Kemble (1904)

One of the most well-known of the Br’er Rabbit stories is that of the Tar-Baby. Br’er Fox makes a doll out of tar and turpentine, dresses it, and sets it in the road for Br’er Rabbit to see. Br’er Rabbit speaks politely to it, is offended when the tar-baby repeatedly “ignores” him, becomes enraged and starts punching and kicking it. The more he struggles, the worse he gets stuck. Br’er Rabbit begs Br’er Fox to do anything with him except throw him in the briar patch, which Br’er Fox does. Br’er Rabbit escapes, taunting Br’er Fox when he says, “I was born and bred in the briar patch.” This is a perfect example of the way tricksters in general and Br’er Rabbit specifically used cleverly manipulated language to get the better of their adversaries. (7)

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Reynard the Fox, fable trickster

"What's Up Isengrim?" by Skia Skia

Reynard was an anthropomorphic red fox, a trickster, and the central figure of a literary cycle of allegorical French, Dutch, English, and German fables, though he is primarily associated with French folktales. He is given a great deal of attention in the Old French Le Roman de Renart, which was written by Pierre de Saint-Cloud around 1170. In this story, Isengrim the Wolf has filed charges against Reynard, and Leo the Lion, the king Noble, has summoned him to answer the charges. Bruin the Bear, Baldwin the Ass, Tybalt the Cat, and other anthropomorphic creatures plot and scheme the entire time. In other stories, the animals attend Reynard’s funeral and give artificial elegies, and Reynard plans and carries out his revenge on them.

There is a rivalry between Reynard and Isengrim, who is most often outwitted by the fox, which Pierre de Saint-Cloud builds to epic proportions in the opening of his story:

          “Lords, you have heard many tales,
           That many tellers have told to you.
           How Paris took Helen,
           The evil and the pain he felt
           Of Tristan that la Chevre
           Wrote rather beautifully about;
           And fabliaux and epics;
           Of the Romance of Yvain and his beast
           And many others told in this land
           But never have you heard about the war
           That was difficult and lengthy
           Between Renart and Ysengrin.”

Reynard has had a heavy influence on literature and popular culture. He was referenced during the third hunt of the Middle English poem Sir Gawain and the Green Knight, and he also appears in Geoffrey Chaucer’s Canterbury Tales, “The Nun’s Priest’s Tale,” as Rossel along with an ass called “Brunel.” The cat in Reynard’s tales is the namesake of Tybalt in Shakespeare’s Romeo and Juliet, and Goethe used Reynard in his fable Reineke Fuchs. (8) Finally, when Walt Disney animators conceived the design for the main character in Robin Hood, they used elements from Reynard the Fox, making their Robin Hood an anthropomorphic red fox trickster character. (9)

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See the links below for further reading.

Next article: Shakespearean Tricksters