Episode 310: The Tooth Fairy
/You checked under your pillow, and what’s that? A new Spirits episode? And it’s all about the Tooth Fairy?! We dig into the origins of this tradition, animals who collect teeth, and the ways we celebrate children’s milestones.
Content Warning: This episode contains conversations about or mentions of teeth, body horror, surgery, and animal/pet death.
Housekeeping
- Recommendation: This week, Amanda recommends Wisdom Continuum.
- Books: Check out our previous book recommendations, guests’ books, and more at spiritspodcast.com/books
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Transcript
AMANDA: Welcome to Spirits Podcast, a boozy dive into mythology, legends, and folklore. Every week we pour a drink and learn about a new story from around the world. I'm Amanda.
JULIA: And I'm Julia.
AMANDA: And this episode 310, which I hear is all about the Tooth Fairy.
JULIA: It is Amanda, I'm going to start this off right away. Amanda, what were your childhood memories of the Tooth Fairy?
AMANDA: Julia, it's at the Tooth Fairy gave me quarters. And I have friends who got their 20s.
JULIA: What?!
AMANDA: Or 5s at least. There was a big distinction in my mind between people who got dollar bills and people who got change. And I remember being old enough to go to school and be like, Wait, you got— you got $10 from the Tooth Fairy that you're spending on erasers shaped like fruit at the school store. And I was like, what— what gives? And I remember my parents being like, Tooth Fairy uh—we have a different Tooth Fairy. I know I tell you.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And it was an early representation of class Julia that I remember.
JULIA: There you go. I remember my parents definitely did this. But I also don't remember the specifics of it. Like I don't remember how much I ever got from the Tooth Fairy or anything like that. What I do remember is that when my dog was a puppy, and he started losing his teeth, I asked my mom if the Tooth Fairy would come and give him money, and my mom was like, girl, no. Why? Why would that happen?
AMANDA: Dogs can’t use money, four-year-old child.
JULIA: Yeah. What did I know? I didn't know. I—this is my first time having a dog and I lost teeth so, and he lost teeth. Why wouldn't he also get a visit from the Tooth Fairy?
AMANDA: Oh, that's so cute. I um—I also remember that when I moved out to college, my mom gave me a Ziploc bag of my own baby teeth.
JULIA: Okay, interesting.
AMANDA: And I said, mom, I don't want this. And she said, uh-oh, I put it in the box.
JULIA: Well, there were other options that she could have done with those teeth, which we'll talk a little bit about later on this episode.
AMANDA: Oh, really, I can't wait to hear. I'll have to call her up and ask her why she didn't— I don't know, turn them into like a candle or something.
JULIA: Well, so to get us started, for listeners who did not grow up with the Tooth Fairy either because your family didn't participate in this tradition or because it's just not a part of your culture. Here's the basic premise slash myth of the Tooth Fairy. When children lose their baby teeth, they put them under their pillow. And then while they're sleeping the Tooth Fairy visits and takes their baby teeth and replaces them, usually with money. But I also know that some families would do like little toys or other kinds of gifts like that cute.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Which I feel like that's probably better than just giving your child quarters or $20 bills.
AMANDA: Yeah, yeah, no, look, I think we might have had like a little like a plastic thing that the tooth goes in to like, yes, you know, keep it there for the Tooth Fairy. So there wasn't like a bloody tooth under your pillow. Which makes sense. Yeah, I don't think I got any, like, tweets or anything.
JULIA: I didn't remember the little tooth thing until you just said that. I'm like, yes. Now I remember exactly what you're talking about.
AMANDA: I know, where did parents get that? I mean, it couldn't have been at a toy store.
JULIA: Maybe your dentist would give it to parents on the sly?
AMANDA: Oh, that'd be good.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: That'd be good.
JULIA: Like when they knew that, like, oh, your teeth were gonna start coming out soon.
AMANDA: Sure. They'd be like, uh okay. Before you leave one of these little tooth guys.
JULIA: At least in the United States, this ritual is repeated every time a child loses a new tooth. And of course, these specifics change from household to household, like the amount of money as you pointed out, but the Tooth Fairy might also like leave a note or might not. Additionally, what the Tooth Fairy looks like differs from household to household and from culture to culture, but we'll dig into that a little bit later in the episode.
AMANDA: Right on.
JULIA: In your mind, what is the Tooth Fairy look like to you?
AMANDA: Julia, the Tooth Fairy looks like Art Lafleur, the actor from The Sandlot and Field of Dreams, who played the Tooth Fairy in the Santa Claus movies.
JULIA: Amazing.
AMANDA: Yep. I mean, as a kid, I pictured a sort of like, you know, garden-style fairy, you know, like a skinny like a woman with [4:16] butterfly wings, basically. But I was so tickled by that depiction of the Tooth Fairy that it's just canonical for me now.
JULIA: For mine. It was like a blue version of Tinkerbell. That's what I pictured.
AMANDA: Oh yeah. That's good yeah. That's good.
JULIA: So before we get into the full episode, I want to shout out to our researcher Sally for this episode idea, it was a great idea.
AMANDA: Thanks, Sally.
JULIA: I'm really excited to talk about it. Sally also pointed out that a lot of research that we have on the Tooth Fairy as a cultural phenomenon, and ethos was done by a professor at Northwestern University named Dr. Rosemary Wells. When she taught at Northwestern it was in their now defunct Dental Hygiene Program, even though she also had a Ph.D. in English literature.
AMANDA: Oh wow.
JULIA: Which is an interesting dichotomy of Dental Medicine and literature. So it kind of makes it unsurprising that she was kind of fascinated and dedicated her life to researching the Tooth Fairy.
AMANDA: That's really interesting because I bet dentists and dental hygienists get a lot of questions about the Tooth Fairy from kids and have to like, make small talk about it like, oh, the Tooth Fairy might be visiting you soon. You know, it's a—I'm sure we'll get into this. But it's—it's a way to kind of make kids not as scared about changes to their bodies. And I imagine that it makes a lot of sense to cover that in school.
JULIA: Yeah, absolutely. So it's really super interesting because there's also a lot of traditions and mythos and folklore around teeth. So to study it as an English literature professor is also very interesting as well.
AMANDA: That's awesome.
JULIA: Dr. Rosemary Wells is so fascinating. She also in her life, turned her split-level ranch home in the suburbs of Chicago into a Tooth Fairy Museum, which she opened in 1993. And it closed away when she passed away in 2000. The museum itself contains more than 100 Tooth Fairy dolls, and about 700 drawings from kids also included books, pillows, paintings, sculptures, and boxes designed to hold baby teeth as part of the collection.
AMANDA: That is fascinating. I hope that there are some archives of the collection somewhere, like photos of the— of the space.
JULIA: I have to look and see if I do find them. I will link them for our patrons in our director's commentary notes. And you guys can check those out.
AMANDA: Oh my god, that's so interesting.
JULIA: But I did find one or two photos of I think the exterior of the house online on like a now-defunct Museum website, so I'll have to share it.
AMANDA: My childhood dentist was in a split-level home in our town. So that makes total sense to me, to have either a dentist's office or a museum with the Tooth Fairy in the basement of the house where Dr. [6:46] lives.
JULIA: Yeah. I think you and I, at least for the first couple of years of our lives definitely had the same dentist, because I remember that house.
AMANDA: Oh, yeah, yeah.
JULIA: As I mentioned before, Dr. Wells was not only a museum curator, but a researcher as well, and did a series of surveys and studies to try to trace the rise of the Tooth Fairy mythos in the United States. In 1983, she conducted a study that found that 97% of parents felt positive about the Tooth Fairy and plan to pass down the tradition to their children. 74% of those felt the Tooth Fairy was a woman, while 12% believed that the Tooth Fairy was neither male nor female, and 8% believed the Tooth Fairy could either be male or female.
AMANDA: Interesting.
JULIA: So non-binary Tooth Fairy, that's what I'm coming from this.
AMANDA: Also people, people are way more able to hold the idea of ambiguous or non-binary gender in their minds. And they admit that they are.
JULIA: Yes, especially in 1983. So we know from Dr. Wells's research that this was a tradition that many parents specifically in the United States wanted to pass down to their kids. But where did it come from Amanda? Any guesses?
AMANDA: You know what, Julia, I would love to know. I would love to know. Is this a situation where this was invented by like, the toothpaste lobby?
JULIA: It's not.
AMANDA: Oh, okay, I will give you that, it's not a toothpaste lobby thing. That—that would like a— like a Victorian toothpowder add in the era of like, absent fairies that really would have warmed my heart. But no, I have no idea. I mean, I imagine like you're saying there's a ton of mythos around teeth. Anytime that there are, you know, whether its hair, teeth, blood, any kind of fluid, or part of a body is imbued with something, whether it's, you know, kind of good or bad energy or the ability to kind of get close to you or perform a spell or something on a person. You know, these are kind of like our fundamental ingredients. And so it's not like you're going to lose the thing you've been staring at in the mirror for, you know, the first eight years of your life and be like, check that in the trash. So I have no idea. But it makes all the sense in the world that there is mythos around this.
JULIA: Yes, of course. In terms of the origins of the Tooth Fairy. It's both a very ancient practice, but also in a lot of ways a fairly new one, especially in terms of the way that it is used and viewed in the United States. Talking about the way way back and also in a call back to our liminality episode, most cultures have some sort of ritual about the loss of baby teeth as a sign of growing up. However, a lot of these are not like huge, momentous occasions, but rather, some of them are rituals that are more about encouraging the new teeth to look or grow a certain way, which makes sense.
AMANDA: I remember my siblings and with me, being like, oh, we'll see how the baby teeth come out. We'll see the adult teeth come in, and we'll see about orthodontia. Like we got to see how it turns out.
JULIA: Exactly. So there was some research done by B.R. Townend, who was a mid-century researcher whose study focused both on oral tradition in the folkloric sense and oral tradition in the dentistry sense. In some published research from the 1960s, he categorized these tooth rituals into nine basic categories of what was done with the tooth. So here's the list. It's nine different things. The tooth was thrown into the sun, metaphorically, not literally.
AMANDA: Wow.
JULIA: The tooth was thrown into the fire. The tooth was thrown between the legs, the tooth was thrown onto or over the roof of the house, often with an invocation to some animal or individual.
AMANDA: Sure.
JULIA: The tooth was placed in a mouse hole near the stove or hearth or offered to another animal. The tooth was buried, and the tooth was hidden where animals could not get to it. The tooth was placed in a tree or on a wall, or finally, the tooth was swallowed by the mother, child, or animal. So when I was asking about things that your mom could have done with your teeth, instead of handing them back to you.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Your mom could have just reabsorbed the nutrients she gave you at birth by swallowing your teeth.
AMANDA: That's very possible, we could have also flushed down the toilet like we did with our, our goldfish that passed away, or we're a very beach-centered household, as we've talked a lot about. And so I feel like casting them into the ocean would have been our version of that ritual, potentially. I do remember, one of my younger twin siblings swallowed some of their baby teeth by mistake, which you know, happens.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And my parents were so mad. But I should have been like, listen, it's an ancient ritual.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Why are you mad about that?
JULIA: It'll either pass or dissolve. It'll be fine.
AMANDA: It's fine. It's fine. Yeah.
JULIA: Baby teeth are not like super sharp like puppy teeth.
AMANDA: No, no.
JULIA: You know what I mean? So.
AMANDA: No. I didn't know puppies lost their teeth. But that makes a total—total sense.
JULIA: Yeah, it's very cute.
AMANDA: No.
JULIA: So besides your mom not swallowing your baby teeth, which I really liked this idea of like you're reabsorbing the nutrients, you know?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: There are some more specific examples that are included in this research such as in medieval Europe, baby teeth were burned in the fire so that witches couldn't get them and use them as part of their magic in order to manipulate people.
AMANDA: There it is.
JULIA: Make sense. There it is. As you said.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: A lot of our body parts are imbued with magic and folklore. So, of course, you'd want to get rid of teeth so that people can't use them. There is another European myth that if the teeth weren't burned, then a person would be doomed in their afterlife to search for their baby teeth, unable to rest until they were found.
AMANDA: That sounds brutal. We—we shed like 1000s of skin cells a day.
JULIA: Yeah, but apparently teeth are more important than our skins.
AMANDA: I mean, there are fewer of them.
JULIA: That is true.
AMANDA: That's true.
JULIA: You notice it more when you lose a tooth.
AMANDA: For sure. You notice it more and there's no more where that came from. Like I learned every time I go to the dentist, and they're like, ma'am, you are anxiously brushing your gums too hard. And that shit does not grow back very easily. And I'm like, oh, oh God.
JULIA: You're like, oh, good point.
AMANDA: Oh, this is aging. Oh, God.
JULIA: So there's also a bulking ritual described in 1928 that involves burying the first lost tooth a child has within a tree. It specifically has to be done by an old woman or the matriarch of the family. And then it is covered with a peg in the tree and this was said to ensure that the child would never suffer a toothache.
AMANDA: Oh, I also like that, where you can look at the—you know, look at a tree. There was a tree in my home growing up next to our driveway that my uncle planted year the year I was born or the year I turned one or something. And the tree grew a lot and as I was growing, the tree was like 10-15 years old. And um, it grew too much. And it was a pain when parking the car, and so my parents would be like, look at Amanda's tree onto in the driveway again.
JULIA: God damn it Amanda's tree, come on.
AMANDA: That's so funny.
JULIA: Also, I feel like in this tradition, if the child did suffer a toothache, they were like, we have to go check the tree and see if your tooth is still in there, you know.
AMANDA: God damn it, did a chipmunk get it? [13:26] fucking squirrels really.
JULIA: So there's also a tradition in many East Asian countries like China and Japan, where when a tooth is lost from the lower jaw, the tooth is then thrown on the roof. While if it's lost from the upper jaw, it is put on the floor or even below that, with the idea that the new tooth is being pulled towards the old tooth and would grow in quicker, and straight.
AMANDA: [13:51] I love that.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: I think it's really cool. Especially as someone who's like, I haven't gotten my wisdom teeth removed because they're not bad yet, but one of them did come in like kind of sideways.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And the dentist, like we should do something about that. He's like, does it hurt? I'm like, no, and he's like, okay, never mind then. You want your teeth to come in straight and comfortable. Perhaps the closest to what would become the Tooth Fairy was a Northern European tradition that tied back to the Poetic Edda. So this was the tradition of the tooth fee, which was paid when a child lost their first tooth. First referenced in the sayings of Grimm Near. The God Freyr was given Alfheim the land of the Elves, by the Gods as his tooth fee or in some translations, a tooth gift.
AMANDA: Tooth F E E?
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: Or is it— does it just sound like the—uh.
JULIA: The fee that you pay to someone when they lose their tooth.
AMANDA: Interesting.
JULIA: Yeah. You were saying kids got $20 bills in elementary school, and Freyr got an entire land of elves, so.
AMANDA: It makes sense too because it's like something that's fairly traumatic like you know, for lots of kids, it's not pleasant to lose your teeth.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: I enjoyed when they were gone because I so didn't enjoy the ambiguity of like not being sure when it was coming out, you know.
JULIA: Yes.
AMANDA: And I felt that way when— when my period started. And I was like, the world should stop for me like the world should both not acknowledge this has happened and also like, give me gifts because this sucks. And so I like this idea of, you know, kids having to go through, you know, increasingly traumatic things as they, as they get older and you know, you should be given a fee. Yeah.
JULIA: Absolutely. Yeah, if you're like, you know what, that's right. Life's hard. Maybe I should get paid for it.
AMANDA: Exactly.
JULIA: So Amanda, that kind of brings us to the question as to where do we get this idea of a modern Tooth Fairy that came and took teeth, and then left a little gift behind, right? So we're gonna explore the oral traditions. I just keep—I love saying oral traditions. Oral traditions that led to our modern Tooth Fairy. But first, let's go grab a refill.
AMANDA: Let's do it.
[theme]
AMANDA: Hello, everybody. And welcome to the refill, I wanted to take a moment to thank our newest patron Maja, I'm so glad that you got the memo that our Patreon is now charging you monthly. That means when you sign up your tier is exactly what you'll pay each month. We used to charge per episode because that's what Patreon was like when we started way back when. And now we get to give you a simpler way to sign up, which is to pay four bucks a month, eight bucks a month, whatever you want, and also more tools for us, including, by the way, annual memberships. so now if you want to sign up for an annual plan at a 10% discount or gift one to a friend, it is a great time to do it. It's very easy to do when you get a year of support for Spirits and a year of cool benefits, like Tarot drawings, video advice podcast with Julia and me, bonus episodes of your urban legends for every single patron and more and more and more you gotta check it out. Go to patreon.com/spiritspodcast. 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JULIA: Amanda while not exactly inspired by the Tooth Fairy itself, I did find a Great Fairy Godmother-inspired cocktail that sounded really up my alley. It's from a website called The Moody Mixologist. And this cocktail has absinthe, elderflower liqueur, pineapple, lemon, and lime juice. And it's just like very floral and has like a little hint of sweetness, which is good because you won't have any unexpected visits from the Tooth Fairy after drinking too much of these.
AMANDA: Exactly. No toothache and I like how the [23:03] was on my mind. Do you really seeded that idea?
JULIA: Hihihi. Yeah, I did it. I did it. Unlike the Fairy Godmother, though, whose oral traditions go fairly far back. Our Tooth Fairy started making appearances in American oral tradition only around the turn of the 20th century. The first written reference to her that can be found was made in 1908, in an article from the Chicago Tribune, would you like me to read it to you? It is from the Practical Homekeeper's own page in the Chicago Sunday Tribune from September 27, 1908.
AMANDA: I would love nothing more. There is genuinely very little in the world I find more fun than reading old advice columns and housekeeping manuals. I love it.
JULIA: For some context, this was like a letter that was written in by one Lillian Brown, and it was submitted as advice for Practical Housekeeper's own page. Here's the quote, many a refractory child will allow a loose tooth to be removed if he knows about the Tooth Fairy. If he takes his little tooth and puts it under the pillow, when he goes to bed, the Tooth Fairy will come in the night and take it away, and in its place believe, some little gift. It is a nice plan for mothers who visit the five-cent counter and lay in the supply of articles to be used on such occasions.
AMANDA: I love that.
JULIA: Like you've been saying, I really love this idea that this might have started as a parent who was just like yes, I know it's scary to lose a tooth, but guess what happens when you do. Stop being so upset, okay? It's fine.
AMANDA: You get a present, come on, it's worth it. Because it can, it can be dangerous to kick a bite, it like it can be frustrating and you know you want to be there for your kid and make them look forward to a thing that they have to do when it is scary and weird and has blood.
JULIA: Yeah, yeah, we're just like, oh, be careful. It's okay. It's okay.
AMANDA: I know.
JULIA: Everything's fine. Any good little gift.
AMANDA: Exactly. This feels like a real kind of Elf on the shelf, you know mensch on the bench situation. That was the Jewish version that was on Shark Tank, where I thought my mom's, mom, grandma Jami made that up, because she was like, you know what, between Thanksgiving and Christmas, someone's looking out, you got to behave. And that must have been so helpful as my grandma tried to run a household and, you know, get ready for the holidays.
JULIA: Yeah. Yeah. Absolutely. Do you remember the little— I don't know if your either dentist or doctor's office would do that. But like the little like treasure chests that they would have with full of little toys.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: And they're like, you did a good job getting your shots and stuff here.
AMANDA: Uh huh.
JULIA: Take a little treat home with you.
AMANDA: Mine also had an arcade cabinet of Tetris in the lobby, which was the thing that my orthodontist does specifically, which I really looked forward to. I was like, I'll get poked and prodded and have my you know, like, gums really hurt by these braces, but only if I get in a couple of rounds, that good Tetris first.
JULIA: That's fair. I feel that, I feel that in my bones. So the next written record of the Tooth Fairy was from a 15-year-old girl, Nellie Mae Hans, who published a story called My Visit To Fairy Land in St. Louis Kentucky's courier-journal in 1911.
AMANDA: Oh my god, Nellie Mae.
JULIA: Nellie Mae crushing it. So the story begins, quote, when I was about six years of age, my aunt told me that if I would let her pull my tooth, she would tell the Tooth Fairy in quotes " to come and get it and leave me a present instead "
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: That night, I wrapped up the tooth and put it under my pillow. After I had fallen asleep. The Tooth Fairy came over to my bed, picked up the tooth, and said to me, Nellie Mae, would you like to go to Fairyland with me?
AMANDA: Oh, I'm loving this fiction.
JULIA: I know. So not only are we getting mythos for the Tooth Fairy, we're getting some Tooth Fairy lore here.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: Also, Nellie Mae gets to go on a cool adventure to Fairyland with the Tooth Fairy.
AMANDA: So Alice in Wonderland vibes, I'm loving it.
JULIA: It's really, really good. And then the first written quote-unquote " appearance of her " so rather than these recounting of tales that we've been seeing in these past two options, seems to be from a 1927 playlet for children, written by Esther Watkins Arnold. The only copy available is at Brown University, and it is described as, quote, " a play about a fairy who collected the lost teeth of little boys and girls and left a coin or two behind. "
AMANDA: Oh. Is a playlet, a pamphlet with a play in it?
JULIA: Yes. But it was like only eight pages. And for some reason, there are still 3x to the eight pages that make no content.
AMANDA: Incredible. Well, if any listeners work or attend Brown, check this out. Let us know, and take some pictures.
JULIA: Yes, because it is not on the internet. As far as I can tell.
AMANDA: Not digitized. Yeah.
JULIA: These are the first mentions of the Tooth Fairy. But the mystery remains as to how the existing traditions around marking the loss of a baby tooth, with payment of a fee, came to be associated with this, at least a kind of humanoid fairy image that became a part of American tradition. Right?
AMANDA: Right.
JULIA: So the likeliest path from tooth fee, to Tooth Fairy seems to be, two fairy tales that bridge the gap. So the first and perhaps the most likely bridge is the story of the tooth mouse.
AMANDA: What?! Tell me about him.
JULIA: So as we talked about earlier, with the rituals around teeth. Many cultures offered baby teeth to an animal. Oftentimes, this animal was one with notoriously strong teeth, in the hopes that a child's new teeth would grow in just as strong, right?
AMANDA: Oh, interesting. So like because the mice have teeth strong enough to make their little mouse holes, we are giving them an offering. So my child will have teeth as strong as a mouse.
JULIA: Exactly. So for that reason, the mouse was often a recipient of baby teeth, sometimes dogs as well, because dogs also like you know, they bite a lot of things. Which also seems to be the origin of the popular fairy tale of the tooth mouse. In Spain, there was a story of El Rantocito Perez, also known as The Vain Little Mouse.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So this was written by Louie Coloma, who was a Spanish writer who was commissioned by the Queen of Spain in 1894 to write stories for her son. So Coloma took the existing character of El Ratoncito Perez and wrote the stories which are then published in 1902 publicly.
AMANDA: Julia, I gotta tell you if I became like you know a leader, a president, a dictator [29:26] billionaire but I— you know, the thing is ethical.
JULIA: But the dictator makes the list.
AMANDA: Yes. No, it does. I would simply use all my money to commission art. I love reading WPA stuff. I love when it's like, ah, yes, you know, the crowns commission from the 1600s. And now we have like, really interesting cultural artifacts that were well preserved because it was for the frickin monarch. I would simply do that constantly.
JULIA: Yes, so I— 100% agree. Most money that's in excess should be then given to the arts, but that's beside the point.
AMANDA: Yeah, just write down the silly little stories you tell your kids and your friends, please.
JULIA: Exactly. Would you like a quick summary of the story so that we can see how this little mouse might have become the Tooth Fairy?
AMANDA: Tell me that El Ratoncito, please.
JULIA: There was once a young king who one morning was eating his bread and milk and discovered that his tooth was beginning to wobble. There was a big fuss, the court doctors were all called and they agreed that the king was beginning to change his teeth. And that the loose one would need to be pulled.
AMANDA: I see. I love the idea of a like elaborate and expensive department of like all the best surgeons in the country who are like ah, yes, young sir is losing his baby teeth.
JULIA: The young king, we must pull his tooth.
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: So they offered him laughing gas to calm him because again, this was like almost 1900 at this point, but because the king was a brave young man, he refused it. The most senior doctor tied a bit of red silk to the tooth and then neatly pulled it out, finding that it was as round and as white as a little pearl.
AMANDA: Oh my.
JULIA: See the doctors could not agree on what would be done with the tooth and the king's mother, the wise queen who was very loyal to old customs.
AMANDA: I hope they sign my paychecks, thank you, I love you.
JULIA: Thank you, ma'am. Decided that the young king should write a polite little letter and put it with the tooth in an envelope under his pillow that night. For everyone knew that Perez the mouse would come to fetch the tooth and leave a lovely present in its place.
AMANDA: Cute.
JULIA: So the young king did just that and went to bed early that night, insisting that all the lights be left on. He then placed the letter under his pillow and sat in bed determined to meet Perez the mouse, even if he had to wait all night.
AMANDA: Cute.
JULIA: Despite the fact that he tried to stay up, sleep soon took him. However, in the night, he felt something very soft tickling his forehead and he awoke. When he did he saw in front of him standing on the pillow. A tiny little mouse in a straw hat and slippers, and big gold spectacles with a little red satchel slung across his back.
AMANDA: I love him.
JULIA: Alright, hold on. I just sent you a picture of this.
AMANDA: Yes.
JULIA: We can [31:59] include it in the outline and it is incredible. [32:03]
AMANDA: Sally is crushing it. I love this so much. I love him. Look at the tiny envelope.
JULIA: Look at his little hat it's so cute.
AMANDA: Oh, he has a sweet little hat, with a little feather.
JULIA: Little feather. How did he find such a small feather? What bird did it come from? I also like, that he has a little sword too. Like he's a little Mouseketeer
AMANDA: Oh my god. So cute.
JULIA: Uh, so yes, that is El Ratoncito Perez. He is adorable. I will link it for our patrons in the show notes.
AMANDA: I love him.
JULIA: So the little mouse seeing that the little king was also awake, took off his hat and bowed. The mouse told the king about his life about his wife and children and what he got up to when he was not collecting teeth. And eventually at the end of the night, hints to the king that it's late and he has more teeth to collect. And the king ends up going with him after being transformed himself into a mouse on his many adventures through the rest of the night. And that's what makes up most of the book. This is just the beginning of the book.
AMANDA: Oh my god, the dream. I love that.
JULIA: It's so so cute. Oh, goodness, I love it so much.
AMANDA: Incredible.
JULIA: All of this to say is been theorized that the Tooth Fairy was inspired by the tooth mouse. However, in spreading to America, as it often does, things were muddled and the mouse was transformed instead into a fairy.
AMANDA: Love it.
JULIA: However, there is also another theory that derives from an Italian story of the mountain pegah. So the Italian version of St. Nicholas is Befana, who is this gaunt and toothless crone who is kindly to children and gives presents to the deserving during the Christmas season.
AMANDA: I know that.
JULIA: The Venetian version of Befana is [33:48] who not only gives gifts during the Christmas season but also hands out gifts when children lose their teeth.
AMANDA: I was gonna say, I—when we were guessing about the origins or when I was guessing, and you knew about the origins of the Tooth Fairy, it must be related to Santa Claus in some way, which is what got me thinking about advertising and like this as a marketing campaign, given Coca Cola and whatnot.
JULIA: Exactly. Not as far as that, but you're on the right track with it, certainly. So in the tradition of [34:15], a lost tooth is placed under the child's bed or under their pillow. And in the night [34:21] comes, thinking that the tooth is her own, takes it and leaves a coin in exchange. Because [34:26] she's like, oh, another tooth for me. Then puts it up in her mouth.
AMANDA: Thank you.
JULIA: And pays.
AMANDA: Which is really nice.
JULIA: Yeah, of course. So obviously, this story is very similar to our Tooth Fairy. And it should be noted that occasionally Tooth Fairy citations and translations, use witch, rather than a fairy. So it is quite possible that this is just a mistranslation that came over from Italy to the United States.
AMANDA: That's really interesting because a fairy and a witch in some ways couldn't be more different. Like I think that fairies are so often held up as youth and beauty and vigor and witches are so often depicted as you know, old crones in that ancient and you know, well known to us dichotomy. So I think it's really fascinating that— I'm sure there are lots of, you know, words that are very close and obviously they're both, you know, magical and usually female figures but I think that we would have at least in the US with our very puritanical distrust of witches and also anyone old, this would not be as kind of heartwarming and you know, well distributed— a myth if it were the tooth witch.
JULIA: Well, Amanda, that brings up a really interesting point because I think that the Disney Corporation might have played a role in turning it from a witch to a fairy.
AMANDA: Interesting. See, there is some kind of marketing lobby at work.
JULIA: Disney might have played a role in [35:42] originating the story of the Tooth Fairy both popularizing and solidifying its image of it.
AMANDA: They never do originate their stories, do they? They always just like decide on a version and then canonize that for all the generations to follow.
JULIA: And that's it. I got it. It is theorized by Tad Tuleja, in the article, the Tooth Fairy perspectives on money and magic. That the image of the Tooth Fairy was helped along quote," by the decade immediately preceding the proliferation of the Tooth Fairy costumes, saw the release of four feature films in which female pixies played a central role. In 1939 American children saw Billy Barnes as a shimmering Glinda the Good Witch of the North, teach Judy Garland the true meaning of home. A year later in the Disney version of Carlo Collodi's tale, the Blue Fairy taught Pinocchio about truth. In 1950, Disney Cinderella was rewarded for her selflessness by the fairy godmother who worked magic with mice. And in 1953, the most pixie-like of all our fairies, Tinkerbell was saved from death by the eternal boy Peter Pan, all these films reached massive audiences " end quote.
AMANDA: There you go, man. Julia, the only problem with doing Spirits is, every academic article you mentioned, I desperately want to read.
JULIA: I will link it for our listeners, I promise.
AMANDA: Yay.
JULIA: So it's also important to note that since this period of time where the image of the Tooth Fairy was solidified in the middle of the 20th century, it really has not changed all that much. Besides the amount of money or the type of gift that is left behind. Like actually, Planet Money did a funny episode on how the amount of money on average left behind by the Tooth Fairy, is a popular media indicator of how the economy is doing.
AMANDA: There you go, that makes sense.
JULIA: So you're like, okay, so on average here, based on these people polled, the average is like $8 left to the Tooth Fairy, which shows you know, people have a lot of excess money right now, you know.
AMANDA: Yeah. Or Tooth Fairy scaling back, we might want to start uh—start tightening our belts, people.
JULIA: Exactly. Yeah, I really, really like that. They also like interviewed someone at the White House, who also use that as an indicator. I'm like, wow, it goes all the way to the top man.
AMANDA: Yeah, that is— that is really—economics is such an interesting field. It is just kind of like watching and hoping that there's not a lot. It's really kind of like predicting how a big crowd will do. Like, it's the same as trying to order catering for a party or when you're like building a stadium or a train and you're like, okay, well, most people will take the train, but some will drive and like, they're probably gonna want to use a bathroom. It's just like a roller coaster tycoon. Like you're trying to place your bathrooms and trash cans where people will most need them. But sometimes, people do things that are irrational. And then you're like, oh.
JULIA: Economics is wild. And I'm so glad I didn't study it in college, because I had the option to and I was like, you know what? No, I don't think so. So Amanda at the end of the day, why is it that parents tell their children about the Tooth Fairy, like what does she represent? In my mind, for modern American Tooth Fairy, she is still a means of easing and celebrating the transition from childhood to adulthood as it was originally, however, where early tooth traditions are about moving on from childhood. The American tradition kind of does both. It both allows a celebration of the transition from childhood to adulthood, but also reinforces childhood innocence on the same level that like Christian children are told about Santa Claus, for example. So this kind of paternalistic deception is what like psychologists call it. I know, it's kind of a hot topic for some people, especially new parents who are deciding whether or not to continue this tradition and those who consider it quote-unquote," lying to their children " rather than a folkloric tradition or myth. And I think it's also interesting because when we compare the older traditions with our modern ones. The older tradition is usually a one-off ritual that is done only for the first tooth loss. While for the American tradition, each tooth is offered up to the Tooth Fairy until all the teeth are paid for, or until the child stops believing in fairies.
AMANDA: Yeah, and I also remember some instances where I would lose a few in a week and my parents had me save it up because I was— let's save the Tooth Fairy a trip. Oh, let's save it all up and then they'll do it one time, or the Tooth Fairy missed it one night and then later my parents arguing, and they're like, ah, it must have been too busy that night. Lots of kids losing their teeth. Let's move on.
JULIA: Yeah, it is the season for children losing their teeth.
AMANDA: Right. I don't know, it's a— it's a really good question. And you know, at first, I— certainly for me as a kid, it was a way to have a kind of reward for a necessary but a little bit kind of brutal of a task. My parents were also, you know, it's almost like another growing up ritual where, you know, you get potty trained, you start taking baths on your own, or showers on your own, you know, all these kinds of steps. And one of them was going from my parents pulling my baby teeth to me doing it, and wanting to do it myself and wanting to, you know, be a big kid. And you know, there's nothing more. I remember the— the twins kind of getting upset when I call them baby teeth, being like, no, like, I'm a big kid, like, I don't—I don't have baby teeth anymore. And I'm like, I mean, you once you lose them all, you [40:48] anymore. So I think it's just interesting. And I'm being really curious to hear from parents in the audience, who have made this decision for themselves and their kids like you're saying, and people who, you know, what—what was your losing your baby teeth ritual, where you're from if it's not the Tooth Fairy. But I think ultimately, like most things, it's a way for both parents and kids to kind of ease that transition into adulthood where, you know, my understanding of parenting and you know, from reading and like, knowing people with kids in my life. Every milestone is a joy and a loss, isn't it, like your kid is growing up, they need you less and less, whether it's, you know, rolling over or taking their first steps or going off to school, all of these things, you know, then—it's the increased independence. And one more step toward a day when you know, they're not dependent on you for anything at all. Even as it is a celebration of you know, your kid like hitting growth milestones, and growing up, healthy and safe, which is the goal. So I don't know. It's fascinating, and in some ways, feels really kind of discordant with the very, like, analytical, modern, you know, smartphone-using society that we are, that every day all around the country. 1000s of parents are like, alright, well go to bed, be a good girl, be a good boy. And maybe the Tooth Fairy will come.
JULIA: Yeah, so actually, that raises an interesting question for me. Because do you think that by introducing the Tooth Fairy as a concept, it's parents wanting to kind of cling to their children's use, because like, this is a milestone that your child is growing up? And then you're like, well, let me introduce a thing that requires childhood innocence to truly believe in, right? Like, yeah, is this supposed to be something that is maintaining their innocence even as they grow older.
AMANDA: It's a good question. I don't know. And I don't know, you know, if I were raising kids, you know, if I would want, like, what kinds of myths I would introduce, and you know, what kinds like, I can imagine both not wanting to kind of puncture their bubble of, you know, not wanting to make them be too rational or too realistic, too early. But it's— it's an experience I've only had on the one side, which is as the kid, thinking, you know, excellent, I can get this unpleasant task done, and there's a reward for me at the end of the day. Which, you know, in some ways, you can look at it as yes, prolonging the innocence. But I think it's also, you know, introducing a kind of reward-based motivation.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Of saying to the kid, you know, I know it's unpleasant, I know, you don't want to do it, but you have to, and you know, as a reward for your bravery, here's something nice that you can get at the end of the day. And I remember watching my siblings go through it and be like, you know, maintaining that story was a way for me to kind of ease their pain in a way.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Where they were uncomfortable, they didn't want to do it, or one was jealous of the other because they did or didn't lose their teeth quicker. And I was able to say, you know, I know it's unpleasant, but just you wait, there'll be something at the end of this for you. And a way to, you know, who doesn't want to like mollify their kid a little bit or give them a thing to look forward to, or a way to put a smile on their face, If they're going through something difficult. I have total sympathy for that.
JULIA: Yeah. I know, there's a lot of parents who growing up, they're like, oh, yeah, finding out that Santa Claus wasn't real or that the Tooth Fairy wasn't real. It was like, why are my parents lying to me about these like little silly things, Right? And I'll never tell my children those lies. But you bring up a really valid point as to like, why this mythos is important to like, learning these, like tasks that create your adult personality, you know what I mean?
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: And I always forget how practical of a child you are, or you were, put it in the practical adult that you became. So I think it's really interesting to kind of be like, okay, well, obviously, neither of us has children at the moment or, you know, we'll see. I think it's really interesting to look at it and be like, alright, well, what's worth a lie? What's worth, like, you know, instilling this belief in my children and what's not. Like, what are the skills that they will actually learn, or the lessons they'll actually learn from—
AMANDA: Yeah.
JULIA: Telling the story.
AMANDA: Parenting and caregiving are, you know, a million little decisions stacked up on top of each other. It's, you know, is it worth, you know, getting five minutes of silence or stopping the restaurant or the train or the bus from looking at me to like, give my kid an iPad even though I told myself I would never give my kid an iPad, right. Like there's a bajillion things that come to mind and a lot of the time you know, your theory can be as noble as you want it to be, and then the reality is, you know, not theory anymore. And you— and you have to, like make some kind of practical considerations, but there's also a joy in repeating those rituals of your childhood with your kids.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: Um or with your siblings, or you know, with your nieces and nephews. That's a huge part of like, the satisfaction of getting older, and of the lifecycle and I was taking care of my grandma recently, she had surgery, was in the hospital and I was helping her you know, get to the bathroom, change your sheets and all kinds of things. And she was like, God, I —I hate being dependent on people, like this makes me so upset. Like I'm you know, I'm so— I'm struggling with asking you for help. And I was like, Jim, how many times did you wipe my butt and put band-aids on my knees, and you know, clean up my spit up when I was a baby, you know, you a—you are— you are firmly in the positive of your tally, If we are tallying things. It's one of those things where every milestone is a— is a joy and— and grief.
JULIA: Yeah.
AMANDA: And I think that anytime you get to repeat those rituals and make memories to put alongside your wants, to do something, you know, with or for a kid or a loved one that echoes or overwrites or complements something that you did. That's part of how we contextualize our lives. And it's why something like the Tooth Fairy muddled and interesting, and varied as its origins are remains so pervasive, despite kind of all the odds.
JULIA: Yeah, I agree. And I couldn't say it better myself, so.
AMANDA: Well, thank you, Julia, and thanks, Sally. That was excellent.
JULIA: Yeah. Thank you, Amanda, for your insight. Thank you, Sally, for your research. Thank you conspirators for listening. And next time you find something interesting under your pillow. Stay creepy.
AMANDA: Stay cool.
[theme]
AMANDA: Spirits was created by Amanda McLoughlin, Julia Schifini, and Eric Schneider with music by Kevin MacLeod and visual design by Alison Wakeman.
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JULIA: Thanks for listening to Spirits. We'll see you next week.
AMANDA: Bye!