New research shows that some fairy tales are practically dating from the beginning of human civilization, being older than the Bible. Among them are included "Beauty and the Beast" and a few other folktales.
Researchers were able to date the origins of some stories based on statistical ties between languages from parts of Asia and Europe and a set of folktales. Their study dating the origin of some fairy tales to thousands of years ago was published in the journal The Royal Society Open Science.
Experts come to the conclusion that the oldest folktale is "The Smith and the Devil." Its ancient roots are dating back to the Bronze Age. These findings may dispel the wrong popular conception that some well-known folktales such as "Beauty and the Beast" or "Rumpelstiltskin" are just recent inventions.
An anthropologist at Durham University in England and coauthor of the study, Jamie Tehrani, says that the first literary evidence of these stories is much newer than the stories themselves. Linguists trace a phonetical and grammatical structure though time when they study languages evolution. Tehrani explained, as reported by Science News, that for scientists it is important to apply the same method for other elements of culture as well.
The New University of Lisbon in Portugal's scientists Tehrani and Sara Graça da Silva have chosen to study from a database of over 2,000 types of folktales just 275 magic-based stories. Magic stories are the largest folktale group and they include objects or beings with supernatural powers.
Based on statistical analyses of the relationship between folktales and between language and folktales, the researchers have chosen 76 as strong candidates for estimating accurately folktale age. The research team investigated then how the folktales are related to region's language history based on family trees of Indo-European languages throughout Europe and Asia.
According to the findings of the study, four tales have a high probability of dating back to the beginnings of the Proto-Indo-European language. Among them scientists are absolutely confident that "The Smith and the Devil" is a Proto-Indo-European tale, according to Tehrani.
