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The Importance Of Folktales

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As folklore has become an increasingly more studied field, the importance of proper classification of folkloristic material has also grown in importance. Axel Olrik contributed to this goal by articulating numerous “laws” of what he considered the “Sage”, or works of myth, folktale, legend or folk song that could be used to identify folklore from other written works. Three of these such laws are The Law of Repetition, The Law of Two to a Scene, and The Law of Opening, which we will examine through their presence in the folktales of “Jack Frost” (Guterman 366) and “Three Pennies” (Guterman 115). The tale of “Jack Frost” tells of a family in which the mother adores her own daughter while hating her step-daughter. Although the step-daughter is smart and kind, the step-mother never fails to find a fault in everything she does. One day she tells her husband to take the step daughter out into a field to die so that she doesn’t have to deal with her anymore. The father does so, but when Jack Frost comes to freeze the girl, she greets him with kindness so he bestows gifts upon her. He returns twice more and bestows more gifts each time. The stepmother then sends her husband to retrieve the girl’s corpse, but instead the step-daughter returns draped in ornate clothing and jewelry. Seeing this, the stepmother demanded that her husband take her own daughter to the same field, which he did, but when Jack Frost came, the girl did not extend kindness, so he froze her. The husband

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