NURSERY FAIRY TALES

Evening Star, Issue 20055, 21 December 1928, Page 14

NURSERY FAIRY TALES

PARENTS AS “OGRES" THE MEDIEVAL WITCHES, Co-operation between psycho-analysts aml folk-lorists was suggested by Dr Ernest Jones in his speech before the Jubilee- Congress of tho Folklore .Society in London recently. it was generally recognised, he said, that in nursery tales tbo conception’ of giants with their stupidity and their alternation of clumsiness and ogreish devouring of children was a projection of various infantile thoughts about grown-ups, particularly the parents. Professor Y. M. Goblet, of Paris, read <% paper by M. Nourry, in which lie said that lie had come to tho conclusion that during the Middle Ages there was a kind of magic religion and a secret church of wizards. For instance, there was the Chief Witches Sabbath, which took place at the same time as the great Christian Festivals, especially at Christmas and on Juno 5, ,St. John’s Day. On these festivals everybody' went to church, so that it was easy for the wizards to assemble at sumo remote place without awakening suspicion. The belief in witches’ meetings under tho chairmanship of the devil had been traced back to pagan timeu. During the Middle -Ages the Spanish Inquisition used to make inquiries about tho nightly ridings of witches, and witches and wizards were accused of worshipping the devil. Professor Goblet paused in his reading to say that in France to-day there were peasants who had books of black magic, and who, because of that, were refused absolution by priests. Dr A. H Krappe, of the United States, said that no country in the world nowadays had as many secret societies as his country. In a country in which there was such complete equality— at least in theory—there was a craving for honours and all that sort of thing, which politics could not satisfy. " This craving explained the number of secret societies, and a similar craving among the peasants of the Middle Ages, held down by the aristocracy, must have resulted in a similar group of societies. Naturally, _ the secrecy which surrounded those societies must have afforded a foundation for all sorts of stories about them.