Meeting with Great January: an archetypal interpretation of the Slovak fairytale “The Twelve Months”^*

* This article is dedicated to Leland Roloff.

ABSTRACT

The Slovak fairy tale “The Twelve Months” is a variant of the international tale type known as “The Kind and the Unkind Girls” (AA-TH 480), of which Charles Perrault’s “Les Fées” or Andrew Lang’s “Toads and Diamonds” may be the most widely known versions. While this story may initially appear to be about sibling rivalry, or female individuation, or dysfunctional family relations, from an archetypal perspective, this story is about an encounter with the mysterium tremendum et fascinans. Retold within the context of this tribute issue to Leland Roloff, “The Twelve Months” may be read as an allegory for his teaching.

KEYWORDS:

• Fairytale
• Slovak
• “The Twelve Months”
• Jungian
• archetypes
• the numinous

Acknowledgements

I am grateful to Judith Hamera, co-editor of this special issue of TPQ, for seeing this allegory and for her helpful suggestions for revision. I am also grateful to the late V. Walter Odajnyk, Jungian analyst, for his encouragement of an early draft of this essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author.

Notes

* This article is dedicated to Leland Roloff.