Cornelia Funke's top 10 fairytales
Cornelia Funke was born in Germany and began her career as an illustrator, taking up writing only when she grew bored with the stories by other people she was working on. She is probably best known for her Inkheart trilogy, following the adventures of Meggie Folchart, a teenager who can bring fictional characters into the real world by reading aloud. Her latest book, Reckless, is published in paperback this week.
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"I didn't like fairytales when I was a child. I didn't like them at all. But in those ancient times there were only two TV programmes (in black and white), books from my local library, and a few scratchy vinyl LPs I listened to at night. One book was all about frog princes and witches that eat children, about cruel stepmothers and curses that turn you into a swan. Of course, I am German and that means I was brought up on Grimm's Fairy Tales (I am not so sure that would still be true today). However much they frightened and saddened me, I couldn't stop listening to them and, at the age of 52, I still find them quite unforgettable. Fairytales deal with human nature, and have no illusions about our wishes and desires and the darkness that lurks both in old forests and human hearts.
"I am not sure I should call the 10 I have picked my favourites. Some of them made a huge impression on me as a child with their haunting sadness and images that speak to us in far more than just words. Others I only just discovered when I did my research for Reckless. Are the tales about Arthur fairytales? And how about the Mabinogion, my favourite collection of folklore? I didn't put either of them on my list, as they each encompass too vast a universe. I chose instead short and more isolated tales. Though, of course, once you have a closer look, they are all related, as they all speak about human nature."
1. The Goose Girl
The one tale that immediately comes to my mind when I think of my childhood fairytales. There was nothing sadder than the head of the beloved horse hanging over the gate through which the motherless princess had to pass each morning looking after the geese. "Alas, young Queen, how ill you fare!" I hear him hoarsely say. "If this your tender mother knew, Her heart would surely break in two."
2. The Six Swans
Another favourite from my childhood. The sister who has to save her brothers from an evil spell by neither speaking nor laughing for six years, and knitting shirts of starwort to give them back their human form. They are swans, wild swans, and she throws the shirts over them while her enemies tie her to a stake intending to burn her. One isn't finished and her younger brother will always have a wing instead of an arm. I loved that tale. I still love it.
3. The Mistress of Copper Mountain
This one I only discovered last year when I promoted Reckless in Moscow. My translator told me about a circle of folk tales from the Urals, told by miners. These are very different from Grimm's Fairy Tales and the story has a very strong female character. No sighing princesses here, no one waiting for a prince on a white horse. The Mistress of the Copper Mountain is a protector of gems and precious stones, who capriciously bestows the ability to find these treasures only on those who please her. Once upon a time women were very strong, even in fairytales.
4. The Story of a Boy Who Went Forth to Learn Fear
This story makes you laugh, and with that laughter it chases away all the fear that the others evoke. It also presents one of those wonderfully foolish heroes that fairytales love: the innocent fool, usually the youngest son, who is so much wiser in a world where cleverness is frequently combined with greed and cunning cruelty.
5. Gold Foot
Another one I discovered only recently while working on Reckless. It is a French tale about the cruel smith who chops off the feet of his very talented apprentice to keep him as his slave, but of course the apprentice forges two golden feet for himself (and even sprouts wings) and takes revenge – which is pursued quite shamelessly in fairytales and with wish-fulfilling cruelty.
6. The Nightingale
This is not a folk tale but written in rather modern times by Hans Christian Andersen. As a child, I owned a big book with his tales, and knew every word and every illustration by heart. I didn't wonder why I loved that tale about the mechanical and the true nightingale so much. I guess every child knows that man cannot create magic half as well as nature does. Andersen clads that truth in a truly magical story. And of course, the real nightingale doesn't need golden feathers.
7. The Birthday of the Infanta
Another tale that has quite modern origins. I mention this one, because it touched me so deeply that I illustrated it once for a picture book project, but in fact all of Oscar Wilde's fairytales should be on this list. He is the master for me, when it comes to modern fairytales. I like him better than Andersen, who doesn't have Wilde's social compassion. The ugly dwarf doesn't turn into a beautiful swan. Wilde loves him as the ugly dwarf.
8. Donkeyskin
A tale from France that tells us about a king who decides to marry his daughter. Incest, murder, cannibalism – fairytales spin a dark yarn. The girl hides in a donkey's skin to escape but a prince spots her under the hideous disguise. Once again a female heroine. There are many versions of this story. Sometimes it is an animal skin, sometimes it is bark. She seems to change into a man to hide, into a tree or animal … anything but a woman.
9. Merlin and Vivien, as told in Brittany
I didn't put TH White on this list, who wrote my favourite account of my favourite story of all time, the story of Arthur and Guinevere and Lancelot and of course Merlin. But I just came across this version of how Merlin fell in love with Vivien. Here it is not a curse but just love, and Merlin becomes its prisoner willingly. It is a much older version and once again the woman is a far more positive character than in later tales.
10. Dreamfighter and Other Creation Tales by Ted Hughes
No, I cannot choose just one here. It would feel like taking one pearl off a necklace. When I first read these stories they reminded me of the enchantment I felt as a child reading Kipling's Just So Stories. Now I know what the worms are digging for and that they are truly… elephants!