How to read a folktale [electronic resource] : the Ibonia epic from Madagascar / translation and reader's guide by Lee Haring.

Available through Open Book Publishers.

Includes bibliographical references (pages 141-147) and index.

Foreword to Ibonia / Mark Turin -- Preface -- 1. Introduction: What Ibonia is and How to Read it -- 2. How to Read Ibonia: Folkloric Restatement -- 3. What it is: Texts, Plural -- 4. Texture and Structure: How it is Made -- 5. Context, History, Interpretation -- 6. Ibonia, He of the Clear and Captivating Glance -- There Is No Child -- Her Quest for Conception -- The Locust Becomes a Baby -- The Baby Chooses a Wife and Refuses Names -- His Quest for a Birthplace -- Yet Unnamed -- Refusing Names from Princes -- The Name for a Perfected Man -- Power -- Stone Man Shakes -- He Refuses More Names -- Games -- He Arms Himself -- He Is Tested -- He Combats Beast and Man -- He Refuses Other Wives -- The Disguised Flayer -- An Old Man Becomes Stone Man's Rival -- Victory: "Dead, I Do Not Leave You on Earth; Living, I Give You to No Man" -- Return of the Royal Couple -- Ibonia Prescribes Laws and Bids Farewell Appendix: Versions and Variants -- Text 0, "Rasoanor". Antandroy, 1650s. Translated from Étienne de Flacourt (1661) -- Text 2, "Ibonia". Merina tale collected in 1875-1877. James Sibree Jr. (1884) -- Text 3, Merina tale collected in 1875-1877. Summary by John Richardson (1877) -- Text 6, "The king of the north and the king of the south". Merina tale collected in 1907-1910 at Alasora, region of Antananarivo. Translated from Charles Renel, Charles (1910) -- Text 7, "Iafolavitra the adulterer". Tanala tale collected in 1907-1910 in Ikongo region, Farafangana province. Translated from Charles Renel (1910) -- Text 8, "Soavololonapanga". Bara tale, ca. 1934. Translated from Raymond Decary (1964) -- Text 9, "The childless couple". Antankarana tale, collected in 1907-1910 at Manakana, Vohemar province. Translated from Charles Renel (1910) -- Text 14, "The story of Ravato-Rabonia". Sakalava, 1970s. Translated from Suzanne Chazan-Gillig (1991) -- Works Cited -- Index.

Open access resource providing free access.

"How to Read a Folktale offers the first English translation of Ibonia, a spellbinding tale of old Madagascar. Ibonia is a folktale on epic scale. Much of its plot sounds familiar: a powerful royal hero attempts to rescue his betrothed from an evil adversary and, after a series of tests and duels, he and his lover are joyfully united with a marriage that affirms the royal lineage. These fairytale elements link Ibonia with European folktales, but the tale is still very much a product of Madagascar. It contains African-style praise poetry for the hero; it presents Indonesian-style riddles and poems; and it inflates the form of folktale into epic proportions. Recorded when the Malagasy people were experiencing European contact for the first time, Ibonia proclaims the power of the ancestors against the foreigner. Through Ibonia, Lee Haring expertly helps readers to understand the very nature of folktales. His definitive translation, originally published in 1994, has now been fully revised to emphasize its poetic qualities, while his new introduction and detailed notes give insight into the fascinating imagination and symbols of the Malagasy. Haring's research connects this exotic narrative with fundamental questions not only of anthropology but also of literary criticism."--Publisher's website.

Mode of access: World Wide Web.

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