STORYTELLER: FAIRY TALES ARE FOR ADULTS, NOT CHILDREN, AUTHOR SAYS

CAPE GIRARDEAU -- Storyteller Folke Tegetthof claims fairy tales are for adults, not children.

"Most people's first association with fairy tales is that they have something to do with children," Tegetthof said. "In my work with fairy tales for the last 12 years, I have learned that fairy tales are not for children; they are for adults.

"To tell a story is one of the first arts that was created."

Tegetthof, who is also a fairy tale author, spoke to students at Southeast Missouri State University Monday afternoon.

Tegetthof is considered the leading fairy talk author of the 20th century, said Dr. Richard Kump, assistant professor of German at the university. He has written 25 books of fairy tales and lectures around the world on the importance of fairy tales.

The School of University Studies, the College of Liberal Arts and the department of foreign languages sponsored his lecture.

Tegetthof said he always begins storytelling programs with a story from Africa.

"In Africa, the oral tradition is still very important," he said. "On that continent, there are still many people who do not write or read."

He told students an African story about the first people on Earth, Adam and Eve and their two sons, Cain and Able. The first family, he said, was black.

"Cain was a very bad guy," Tegetthof said, and killed his brother.

"Cain heard a voice asking, `Cain, where is your brother?' Cain did not respond. Again the voice asked, `Where is your brother?'

"Cain turned around and stood before God. He was terrified. He was so scared his hair straightened and his skin became white. Cain was the first white person on Earth."

Fairy tales, he said, are frames. "You must fill the frame with the story, using your imagination and creativity," he said.

Tegetthof said the Brothers Grimm, who collected German folk tales and wrote them down, triggered the end of fairy tales.

"The moment they were written down, they started to die. There was no longer a chance for the story to develop," he said.

About the same time, poets began creating what he called the "artificial fairy tale."

Prior to that time, stories had evolved as many people told and re-told them. The new fairy tales are created by just one person. Tegetthof is one of the "artificial fairy tale writers," he said.

He compared writing a story to giving birth to a child. "It starts with a single word or picture or idea down here," he said, pointing to his abdomen. "When it's ready, when it's done, it comes out and I write it down."

Being a fairy tale writer, Tegetthof said, required that he become a storyteller too.

"But storytelling is not entertainment; it's work," he said. "What we are doing here is work, very nice work. We are learning how to communicate. I believe that is a skill we have to learn again.

"When I tell a story, I open myself up to you, but for the story to get to your heart not your ears, but your heart you must do the same thing and open yourself to me," Tegetthof said. "There is no story without listeners.