What is a source text?

In my opinion and from what I have been educated on a source text is the original story. This means that this source text is version one. It is the base of the many versions that may have been created. For a source text to be constituted as a “source text”, the only qualification that is needed in my opinion is that it is the first one that was ever made. If you think about it, it makes sense. Adaptations are created by using the original story as their source to create new and original ideas. Now, there are a few questions that may stem from this stance I have taken. One of them being if an author used an adapted version for “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” to create new and original ideas for their own story what is considered the source text for them? The original story or the adapted story that they used? The answer is simple. The source would be the original, first ever made story. This is because without that, the first adaptation wouldn’t have been made. You can always link adaptations of stories all the way back to the original. If the story isn’t the first one that was ever created, it shouldn’t be considered a source text due to the fact that it wasn’t the original story and that it used someone else’s ideas to create their own.

Take my story “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” for example, after doing some research on Aesop, who was the author of not only “The Boy Who Cried Wolf,” but many other tales as well,  I have found out that according to John Horgan his tales had been “written down in Greek between 10th-16th CE…” (https://www.ancient.eu/article/664/aesops-fables/). It is unsure the exact time when they were written, but the original “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” was written down in Greek. If this writing was still around today I would describe it as the “source text.” I would do this because as I said before a source text to me is the first version ever created.Now as time carried on and this story started to spread from culture to culture it slowly started attain changes here and there. This has been stated by Horgan in that same article. He said, “Over time, and largely due to the numerous times the stories were re-told, words may have been changed or eliminated in order to fit the storyteller’s purpose.” (https://www.ancient.eu/article/664/aesops-fables/). With that being said those changes are what as known as adaptations. According to the Merriam Webster Dictionary, the definition of the word “adapt” is to make fit (as for a new use) often by modification. That is what was done to the original version that was written in Greek. Modifications were made to fit a new purpose. These adaptations have lead to a plethora of many other versions of this tale. Many and many of centuries have gone by and throughout those centuries many changes and modifications have occured to this tale. But there is still only one source text for “The Boy Who Cried Wolf” no matter how many adaptations took place or no matter how many adaptations of adaptations took place.  

Source texts and their adaptations can be viewed as a linear network. This network though is convoluted, it isn’t a straight line that connects all these stories together. It would look more like a web shape due to all the different connections that happen throughout. But, in this linear web network, you can always find the starting point. You can always find the point where it all started. Where all the original ideas came from and how those ideas were the stem and root of many stories to come. It is kind of like a food web. A food web shows all the different ways that plants and animals are connected. Within a food web there is always that one specie that is not prey and is only a predator and will eat and be connected to anything. That specie in a food web is similar to source story because everything can be linked back to it and it can link it self to everything.

When it comes down to it finding the source story or the first ever version of that story that was written, is very difficult at times. This is where the Grimm Brothers became of importance. These two men created and “published a collection of tales that would become one of the most influential works of folklore…” (https://www.neh.gov/humanities/2015/marchapril/feature/how-the-grimm-brothers-saved-the-fairy-tale). As Zipes stated in that magazine, these brothers published a set of tales. This set is what we refer to as the “source stories.” The only problem with that statement is that they really are not the original and first ever version of that tale that was written. The Grimm brothers would go through stages of editing and revising these stories and would end up publishing many of editions of this collections. With these revisions occurring it takes the label of source story away. In my opinion, I find it hard to use the Grimm Brothers works as source stories. They were not the original versions and they went through changes to fit their style. This doesn’t fit my definition of source story. In order for something to be a source story, it needs to be the first one that was ever made. If there are any changes to it or extensions on it, it does not qualify as a source story, but as an adaptation. In order to find your source story, you will have to do research far beyond the Grimm Brothers time.     

In conclusion, source texts are the first version of that given tale that has ever been created. When changes are made to that said source text, that new tale is known as an adaptation. There can be infinite amounts of adaptations of a story, but there can only be one source story. The adaptations are all intertwined and linked together and they can connect back to the original source text.