評論
打印
Narrator:Listen to part of a lecture in a literature class.
獨白:聽下面一段文學課程。
Professor:All right, so now we've talked about folk legends and seen that their ... one of their key features is there's usually some real history behind them.
教授:好的，我們討論了民間傳奇。我們看到，以及民間傳說的主要特征之一是每一個傳奇的背后，都有一個真實的故事。
They are often about real people, so you can identify with the characters, and that's what engages us in them.
傳奇往往都是關于真人真事的，所以，我們可以發現它們，這是我們癡迷于傳奇的原因之一。
The particular stories might not be true and some of the characters or events might be made up.
某些故事可能不是真的，人物角色或經歷可能是編造的，
But there's still a sense that the story could have been true since it is about a real person.
但它依然帶給我們真實感，因為它畢竟是關于真實存在的人物的。
That's distinct contrast from the other main branch of popular storytelling, which is folk tales.
這是它與其他民間流傳的敘事—比如傳說—迥異的地方。
Folk tales are imaginative stories that ... um ... like folk legends, they have been passed down orally, from storyteller to storyteller for ... since ancient times.
民間傳說是幻想的故事與傳奇相似的是，它也是口耳相傳的，自古至今，它從一代講說它的人口中傳遞給另外一代。
But with folk tales you don't ever really get the sense that the story might have been true.
但是，民間傳說身上體現不出來任何真實性；
They are purely imaginative and so quite revealing,
它們是純粹的幻想，這非常吸引人。
I think anyway, about the culture and the connection between folk tales and culture, which we'll talk about.
總之，我想我們應該要討論它與民間傳奇之間的關系。
But first let's go over the various types of folk tale and focus specifically on Norwegian folk tales since they illustrate the variety pretty well.
但在此之前，讓我們回顧一下民間傳說的類型，就以挪威傳說為例吧，因為它們非常能夠體現出傳說的多樣性。
There are in general three main types of Norwegian folk tales.
一般而言，挪威民間傳說可以分為三種類型。
One is animal stories, where animals are the main characters.
第一種是動物的故事，在這種類型的民間敘述文學中，動物是主角。
They can be wild animals or domestic, and a lot of times they can talk and behave like humans, but at the same time, they retain their animal characteristics too.
這些動物或是野生的，或是家養的，而且它們往往有人一樣的行為，還會說話，但同時，它們又保持了動物自身的特點。
They tend to involve animals like bears, wolves and foxes.
這個類型的故事涉及到的動物有熊、狼和狐貍。
The point of these stories, their, their internal objectives, so the speak, is usually to explain some feature of the animal, how it arose.
這些故事的主題，它們的內涵，通常是解釋它們身上的一些特征是怎么來的。
So there's one about a fox who fools a bear into going ice fishing with his tail.
比如，一頭狐貍哄騙一頭熊，讓這頭熊用尾巴去釣魚。
When the bear puts his tail into the water through a hole in the ice, to try and catch a fish, the ice freezes around it, and he ends up pulling his tail off.
當熊把尾巴放到了湖面上的冰洞里面去釣魚的時候，水在熊尾巴周圍結冰了。熊使勁兒往外拔它的尾巴，結果把尾巴拔掉了。
So that's why bears to this day have such short tails.
從此以后，熊的尾巴就是這么短了。
The second category of Norwegian folk tale is the supernatural.
第二個類型的民間傳說是超自然的神靈故事，
Eh...stories about giants and dragons and trolls, and humans with supernatural powers or gifts, like invisibility cloaks.
與巨人、惡龍和巨魔有關。傳說中的人往往都會使用魔法，且佩戴了有超能力的道具，比如隱形披風。
Or where people are turned into animals and back again into a person, those are called transformation stories.
有的故事里面的人還可以把人變成動物，或把動物變成人，這些故事叫做變形故事。
There's a well-known Norwegian supernatural folk tale, a transformation story called east of the Sun and West of the Moon, which we'll read.
有一個著名的挪威民間變形故事，叫做《陽之東，月之西》，后面我們也會讀到。
It involves a prince who is a white bear by night and a human by day.
故事中，有一位王子，他白天是人的形狀，到夜晚就變成了一頭白色的熊，
And he lives in the castle that's east of the Sun and west of the Moon, which the heroine in the story has to try to find.
他住在一座城堡里。這座城堡的位置在太陽的東邊，月亮的西邊，故事中的女主人公歷經千辛萬苦，要找到這個地方。
Besides being a good example of a transformation story, this one also has a lot of the common things that tend to show up in folk tales.
這個故事不僅是一個很好的變形故事的例子，而且還體現出很多其他民間傳說的特征。
You will find the standard opening, once upon a time.
我們能在這其中讀到一個標準化的開頭:很久很久以前。
And it has stock characters like a prince, and a poor but beautiful peasant girl, she is the heroine I mentioned.
它有一些經常出現的人物，譬如高貴的王子，貧窮的但美麗的農家女孩。這位美麗的女孩是故事的主人公。
And...um...it has a very conventional form. So no more than two characters are involved in any one scene.
并且，它的故事形式也很傳統，每一幕中涉及到的人物不超過兩位。
And it has a happy ending.
它有一個大團圓的結局。
And it's...the story is presented as though...well, even though a lot of the actions that occurred are pretty fantastic, so you'd never think of it as realistic.
還有，嗯，這個故事中有特別多的奇幻的動作描寫，所以我們肯定不會認為它是真的。
The characters still act like...they resemble real people.
故事里面的角色，行為方式和真人沒有區別。
They are not real or even based on historical figures.
但這些人既不是真實的，也不是歷史上有過的。
But you might have a supernatural story involving a king, and he'd act like you'd expect a Norwegian king to act. OK.
但假如某一個故事中出現了一位國王的話，你會不自覺地把他和挪威的國王聯系起來。好的。
The third main kind of folk tale is the comical story.
第三個類型的民間傳說，叫做滑稽故事。
We'll say more later about these, but for now, just be aware of the category and that they can contain supernatural aspects, but they are usually more playful and amusing overall than supernatural stories.
我們后面會講得更多，現在我們只需要了解這個類型，并且它也會涉及到超自然的事物，但總的來說，與純粹的超自然故事相比，這個類型的故事更加歡樂，更具有娛樂性。
Now, as I said, traditionally, folk tales were just passed down orally.
一般而言，民間傳說是一代一代口兒相傳的。
Each generation of storytellers had their own style of telling a story.
每一代的故事講說者都會有自己的講說風格。
But...um ...in Norway, before the 19 century, folk tales were just for kids.
但是，在挪威，在19世紀以前，民間傳說只是說給小孩子聽的。
They weren't seen as worthy of analysis or academic attention.
它們很少被放到嚴肅的學術著作中進行分析。
But this changed when the Romantic Movement spread throughout Europe in the mid-19th century.
但是之后，隨著19世紀中期歐洲浪漫主義運動的全面展開，這種局面發生了變化。
Romantics looked at folk tales as sort of a reflection of the soul of the people.
浪漫主義者把民間傳說看成是人的靈魂的反應。
So there was something distinctly Norwegian in folk tales from Norway.
所以，挪威人的民間故事鮮明地體現出挪威人的特色。
And there was renewed pride in the literature and art forms of individual countries.
每一個國家，都有自己自豪的文學或藝術形式。
As a result, the first collection of Norwegian folk tales is published in 1852.
總之，在1852年，第一本挪威故事集出版了。
And there have been many new editions published since then.
從此以后，新的版本一直沒有中斷。
For the people of Norway, these stories are now an important part of what it means to be Norwegian.
對于挪威人來說，這些故事體現出了他們的民族本色。
