Medieval and oral variants of the tree demon tale type (atu 1168b): Literacy and orality in the study of folklore

In this article the study of literary and oral versions of The Tree Demon (ATU 1168B) relates to the broader issue of the oral versus written transmission of folktales, which was raised in the late nineteenth century and is still relevant today. It examines three literary versions in compilations from the Middle Ages: a Hebrew version from the tenth century and two Muslim versions from the thirteenth and fifteenth centuries in Persian and Arabic. These are compared with three oral variants from Burma and Cambodia. The development of the Tree Demon tale type as a test case is demonstrated through an analysis of the versions' different religious, cultural, and social functions, which reflect their different channels of transmission and historical settings.