Illustration: Sur la Lune Fairytales
"Something, it appears, may be learnt from books.”
Published in 1844, "The Nightingale" tells the story of a Chinese Emperor who learns from a book about his land that there is a bird in the woods just outside his garden who sings so beautifully it is truly the treasure of the kingdom. When he orders a nightingale brought to him, a kitchen maid leads the court to thewhere the bird is found. On the way, the courtiers hear a cow and frogs, and the girl has to tell them those are neither is the song of the nightingale. When asked, the nightingale agrees to appear at court. The Emperor is so delighted with the bird's song that he keeps the nightingale at court in its own golden cage. It is let out occasionally, but can only fly with ribbons attached to its legs. When the Emperor is given a bejeweled mechanical bird he loses interest in the...
Photo: Alaska-in-Pictures.com
I enjoy folktales and legends that explain why our world is like it is. Today's tale is a fun, little example. "The Raven and the Goose" from Eskimo Folk-Tales by Knud Rasmussen tells how the raven became black. On the day when all the birds were getting their patterns and colors, the raven and goose agreed to paint each other. The raven painted the goose first, a nice nice black with a lovely white pattern showing through. The goose was quite pleased, and began to paint the raven in the exact same way.
But then the raven fell into a rage, and declared the pattern was frightfully ugly, and the goose, offended at all the fuss, simply splashed it black all over.
So that's why the raven is black, at least according to this story. I'd be pretty upset if I was the goose, too. The goose thought the pattern was nice and was trying to make the raven beautiful too,...
This is not the story I think of when I think of the Golden Goose, but it's an amusing little tale by the Grimm brothers. It starts off with a pretty standard family, a husband and wife with three sons, the youngest of whom is always teased and put down. He even has the nickname of Dummling. As usual, the youngest one is the hero of our story, but we're not there yet.
The oldest son goes out to the forest to cut wood and his mother sends with him a sweet cake and a bottle of wine. When he enters the woods, he meets a little gray-haired man who asks to share his cake and wine. The boy refuses and keeps going, but when he's cutting the tree, he cuts himself with the axe and has to go home to have it bandaged. The story leaves no doubt that the "accident" was due to the little man. The middle brother...
Isn't that bird gorgeous?
Lots of threes in this story. A tsar, with three sons, has a magnificent walled garden, full of rare trees, including an apple tree whose apples were made of solid gold. One day, the tsar notices each night one apple goes missing. He sets guards to watch the garden and they reported that
every night there came flying into the garden a bird that shone like the moon, whose feathers were gold and its eyes like crystal, which perched on the apple tree, plucked a golden apple and flew away.
The oldest two sons fail in their attempt to catch the Fire Bird, and on the third night, the youngest, Ivan, only succeeds in grabbing a feather, but after that the bird doesn't return.
The two older brothers go out to retrieve the bird, but give up when it became difficult and pitched their tent in a pleasant area and relaxed. When they don't come back, Ivan begs until he...
The only bit of magic in this tale comes in the form of dreams. A peddler, who lives in Swaffham in Norfolk. "He'd much ado to make his living, trudging about with his pack at his back and his dog at his heels, and at the close of the day's labour was but too glad to sit down and sleep." One night he dreams about the London Bridge and hears that if he goes to the bridge he will learn good news. when he wakes up, he dismisses the dream, but he has the same dream the next night and the third night.
He can't ignore the dream any longer, so he travels to London and stands on the bridge for two uneventful days. On the third day, however,...
Puss in Boots is a character I was familiar with but I don't remember ever reading the actual fairy tale. The tale was first published by Charles Perrault in 1697. It's a quite entertaining story of a very special cat.
The picture above is the cover of the version I read, Puss in Boots translated by Malcolm Arthur, illustrated by Fred Marcellino. Isn't it gorgeous? The cat looks mysterious and intelligent. The title of the book has been relegated to the back cover, so tit doesn't distract from the image.
The story begins with a dead miller's estate being divided between his three sons. The oldest gets the mill, the middle gets the donkey, and the youngest gets the cat. The youngest is disappointed, of course, but the cat tells him not to worry. The cat requests a pair of boots and a sack, which the young man gives him. Since this is a fairy tale a talking cat is not remarkable.
Puss...