LAUSR

Abstract:Little has been written on the figure of the Jew in traditional European fairy tales. Andrew Lang's The Blue Fairy Book (1889) opens with a little-known fairy tale, "The Bronze Ring," which features a wicked, sorcerous Jew as an antagonist. This essay examines the publication history of this tale and places the figure of the wicked Jewish magician in the context of traditional European Christian antisemitism as well as that of the British reaction to the waves of Ashkenazic Jewish immigration to England in the late nineteenth century. I conclude with a consideration of the role this story plays in the imperialist project of the colored fairy books.