Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
**Overview of "Tales from Silver Lands" by Charles Finger**
"Tales from Silver Lands" is a celebrated collection of South American folktales retold by Charles Finger, who gathered these stories during his travels across the continent. The book features nineteen captivating legends that showcase the vibrant storytelling traditions of South American Indigenous cultures. Finger's retelling is characterized by rich, descriptive language that enhances the magical quality of the narratives while respecting the origins and contexts from which they stem. Each tale, accompanied by woodcuts from artist Paul Honore, explores themes of morality, cultural values, and the human experience through engaging adventures and whimsical characters, such as witches, wizards, and heroic figures.
The stories address complex human traits, including virtues like bravery and selflessness, and flaws such as greed and selfishness. Notable tales in the collection include "A Tale of Three Tails," which explains the origins of certain animals, and stories from the Hero Twins trilogy, illustrating cleverness in the face of adversity. Originally published in 1925, the work was awarded the Newbery Medal and remains one of the few accessible collections of South American folktales for young readers. Through its entertaining narratives, "Tales from Silver Lands" not only entertains but also invites reflection on life lessons and values relevant to both children and adults.
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Tales from Silver Lands by Charles Finger
First published: 1924; illustrated
Subjects: Animals, nature, and the supernatural
Type of work: Short fiction
Recommended Ages: 10-13
Form and Content
These tales are distinctive, not only for their appealing stories but also for the rich, descriptive language that Charles Finger uses to pass them on to his readers. While traveling throughout South America, the author collected legends at first hand from South American Indians; nineteen of these stories are featured as separate chapters in Tales from Silver Lands. Finger retells the legends in a direct and charming manner, elaborating on details that appeal to the senses, much as the original storytellers must have done. Each story is retold with respect, and many are prefaced with descriptions of the persons who told them. Woodcuts by Paul Honore are found at the beginning of each chapter, contributing to the magical flavor of the stories. These tales of origin and enchantment describe the native creatures and natural settings of South American countries and reflect the traditional values of those who tell them. The weaknesses and foibles of humans are writ large, with greed, avarice, sloth, gluttony, and selfishness vividly portrayed. Traditional values are demonstrated in the persons of virtuous heroes who are brave, strong, faithful, persistent, and unselfish.
The origin tales include “A Tale of Three Tails,” from Honduras, which tells how the rabbit, deer, and rat came to have short tails and why the armadillo has a thick, leathery skin. Other stories explain the origins of seals, llamas, and monkeys. The quests of brave young men are chronicled in “The Calabash Man,” “The Magic Dog,” and the Hero Twins trilogy. In the latter stories, two clever brothers trick destructive giants into killing themselves. Some tales feature stories inside of stories, such as “The Tale That Cost a Dollar,” which tells how the author came to receive the tale from a Chilean storyteller. This enchanting story of a boy who has never seen night and a girl who has never seen day was a favorite of the author’s daughters. Other tales are stories of enchantment and involve wicked witches, wizards, and gigantic or mysterious creatures that change shape.
In “The Hungry Old Witch,” an evil witch is undone by her gigantic appetite. A tar baby ploy is used to free hostages from a giant evil bird in “The Magic Knot,” and “The Wonderful Mirror” is a delightful tale reminiscent of “Snow White” that involves a terrible spell and a wicked stepmother.
Many of the stories are direct in making moral statements, such as a comment in “The Hero Twins”: “Evil things must be laid low if the world is to be fair.” In “The Bad Wishes,” the narrator observes that “no one in the world was wise enough to wish things as they should be wished” and “no man knows the thing that is best for him.” The substance of true courage is explored in “The Cat and the Dream Man,” when the storyteller notes that “the brave one is not he that does not fear, but rather he that fears and yet does the thing that he has set out to do.”
Critical Context
Charles Finger was born in England and traveled extensively throughout the world before settling in the United States. Although he wrote books for adults and children, he is best remembered for Tales from Silver Lands, which received the Newbery Medal in 1925, and another collection of folktales, Tales Worth Telling (1927). Tales from Silver Lands was one of the first collections that made South American Indian folktales accessible to young readers, and it is still among the few in print; others are Natalia M. Belting’s Moon Was Tired of Walking on Air (1992), a collection of traditional South American Indian creation myths, and The Mythology of South America (1988), by John Bierhorst, a more scholarly volume that includes references and notes on sources.
The stories in this collection can be enjoyed by a wide range of ages, but they are quite appropriate for young readers because of the various levels at which they are written. Each tale is an entertaining adventure story, but they can also be explored in terms of the context of the storyteller, which includes the particular geography, life-forms, weather, and traditional values of particular regions. The maxims on which the stories are based are worth examining, because they reflect not only regional values but ancient wisdom about life as well. These are stories told to the young people of a culture to direct their ways, to create reflection on behavior, and to caution. Yet, they also reflect the concerns of contemporary young readers with questions such as “How should I live my life?” “What goals should I seek?” and “What values are worth having?”