Cumulative tale
In a cumulative tale action or dialogue repeats and builds up as the tale progresses. Such tales depend upon repetition and rhythm for their effect. The climax is sometimes abrupt and sobering as in "The Gingerbread Man." The device often takes the form of a cumulative song or nursery rhyme.
Examples of cumulative tales
- "This Is the House That Jack Built"
- "Johnny-Cake" and other runaway food tales
- "The Old Woman and Her Pig"[1]
- "There Was an Old Lady Who Swallowed a Fly"
- "Bringing the Rain to Kapiti Plain[2]"
- "The Death of the Little Hen"[3]
- Chad Gadya
Notes
- ^ English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs Everyman's Library 1993 ISBN 978-1857159172 In his notes Jacobs gives the source of this tale as Halliwell’s Nursery Rhymes and Tales, 114, lists parallels and mentions that it is one "of the class of Accumulative stories, which are well represented in England."
- ^ retelling of a tale from the Nandi people by Verna Aardema, illustrated by Beatriz Vidal, Macmillan Children's Books, 1986, ISBN 978-0333351642; PDF version
- ^ The first part of this tale is cumulative. Collected by the Brothers Grimm given in Wikisource
External links
- The Old Woman and Her Pig from "English Fairy Tales" by Joseph Jacobs