Heavens Unearthed in Nursery Rhymes and Fairy Tales (review)

Matt Kane utilizes a myriad of examples from world mythology and traditional nursery rhymes and folktales to expound his theory that these ancient tales and rhymes were closely connected to sonar and lunar activity. The text is organized, after the first two introductory chapters, around the specific tales "Snow White," "Rumpelstiltskin," "Jack and the Beanstalk," "Little Red Riding Hood," and "Cinderella," as well as the nursery rhymes "Goosey, Goosey Gander," "Diddle, Diddle Dumpling," "Jack Be Nimble," "There Was a Man and He Had Naught," "Little Polly Flinders," "Three Blind Mice," and "There Was a Man Lived in the Moon." Each chapter contains the entire text of the tale or rhyme that is subdivided for discussion and is printed in italics for easy recognition. The discussions within the chapters are organized around the phases of the moon for a period of seven months. Recurring themes include the symbol of the bear and the moon, discussions on the etymology of words, and holidays and folk traditions.

Kane is very creative in developing links and expanding his point of view. For example, while he concentrates on Joseph Jacob's version of "Jack and the Beanstalk," he also goes further afield to bolster his hypothesis. Kane looks to an early literary version of the tale in which a fairy meets Jack at the top of the beanstalk to inform him of the prior relationship between Jack's father and the ogre. Jack is not, therefore, stealing from the giant but reclaiming his own inheritance. But this is not the concern of the discussion but rather an opportunity for the author to explain a solar eclipse: "The death of Jack's father is the death of the sun that brightens the upper world. The ogre is the new moon that brought about the death through a solar eclipse. The banishment of Jack and his mother to the lower world is the exile of the full moon to the nether world" (p. 169).

The discussion on Jack, as well as Jacob's text, is subdivided by the full and new phases of the moon for seven months. In each of these mini discussions, there are numerous analogies to other myths and tales. Often, these connections are made without much collaboration within the text. In less than a page, for example, under the heading of the full moon of the first month, Kane proposes that the cow is the perfect metaphor for the moon (p. 158). Analogies for this proposal are drawn from the myth of Europa, "the Greek cow goddess," the golden calf on Mount Sinai, the Egyptian cow goddess, Hathor, the Sumerian practice of decorating the moon with a pair of cow's horns, the sacred cow in India, and the funeral practice in the Vedic tradition involving the sacrifice of a cow. In an earlier discussion on the nursery rhyme Jack, Kane explores the game of candlestick jumping, which he immediately links to the significance of the Hare in Europe and for the Aztecs as well as the myth of the theft of fire: "Jack, like the rabbit, brings fire to humans, ensuring the continuation of civilization and the renewal of life" (p. 140).

In another giant leap, there is also an interesting comparison between Persephone and Snow White. Kane acknowledges that Demeter bears little resemblance to the wicked queen, but in both tales the daughter is beautiful and naïve; the girl leaves home by force; the mother is upset and cruel; it is an underworld figure who forced the girl to leave home (the huntsman, as a man of the forest, is considered to be of the dark underworld); a boar or pigs are killed; there is a dark reflective informant (Hecate and the mirror); the mother possesses the mirror, is told of her daughter's whereabouts and is angry at being betrayed. Kane makes no mention here that, although Demeter was concerned about the health and return of her daughter, Snow...