One of the primary concerns of folklorists is "fakelore". Fakelore is a term coined by Richard Dorson in 1950 in a scathing article published in American Mercury. Dorson contended that we should not be allowed to change tales to fit our needs. Much of the children's folk tale literature has been cleaned up, sterilized and dumbed down, as in fairy tales. Perhaps publishers and authors today feel children can't handle the rougher, selfish tales the oral traditions carried forward. In many of the older versions, guilty parties die; now they are punished. For a scathing attack on fakelore, I refer you to Elliot Singer's treatise Fakelore, Multiculturalism, and the Ethics of Children's Literature. He feels we should be insulted by what is passing as folklore today, and that we deserve better. I intend to continue my hunt through trickster tales, comparing versions I find. I fear since much of this had to be recorded from the oral tradition, the original tales are lost to us.
"It is a matter of grave importance that Fairy tales should be respected.... Whosoever alters them to suit his own opinions, whatever they are, is guilty, to our thinking, of an act of presumption, and appropriates to himself what does not belong to him."I share Dicken's respect for fairy tales and extend it to folk tales. They have a place in our world, and should follow the rules and forms of the native peoples that created them. Of course, with the oral tradition there is room for change and growth, as long as we understand and respect the traditions and intent of the tale.Charles Dickens, "Frauds on Fairies" (1853)