fairy tale – Carol's Notebook

Favorite Fairy Tale Characters

May 10, 2012May 10, 2012 by Carol7 Comments

A week or two ago, as part of a Thursday Tale/ Giveaway post, I asked people to tell me their favorite fairy tale character. I thought I'd share the results. A total of 42 characters were mentioned, not all of which I would actually have described as fairy tale folks, but I guess that's beside the point. Seven women received a majority of the love, maybe because so many people have seen the Disney movies. Here's how it broke down, with the characters and the number of times they were mentioned. Beauty / Belle - 38 Cinderella - 21 Little Mermaid / Ariel - 16 Sleeping Beauty / Aurora- 9 Snow White - 9 Red Riding Hood - 7 Rapunzel - 5 Hansel and Gretel - 3 Rumplestiltskin - 3 Puss in Boots - 3 Peter Pan - 3 Mad Hatter (from Alice in Wonderland) - 2 Shrek - 2 12 Dancing Princesses - 2 Matchstick Girl - 2 Beast - 2 Pinocchio - 2 Sister from 6 Swans - 2 Anastasia (from the 1997 movie) - 2 Mulan (from 1998 movie) - 2 Gretel...

Thursdays Tale: The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage

March 8, 2012March 7, 2012 by Carol7 Comments

Really, how odd can fairy tales be? "The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is about just what it says, a mouse, a bird, and a sausage, all of whom talk by the way, including the sausage. The three live together happily, each doing their own jobs. The bird fetches firewood, the mouse makes the fire, fetches water and sets the table, while the sausage cooks. Now one day while out in the woods, the bird meets another bird. After hearing the living arrangements, this other bird tells the first bird that he has the tough part, that while he is out working the other two get to stay home and have the easy time. The mouse gets to rest between her jobs, and the sausage only has to cook the food, rolling itself around in the broth or vegetables when they were nearly done to add to the flavor. So the bird insists that the next...

Thursday’s Tale: Hans the Hedgehog

March 1, 2012February 29, 2012 by Carol7 Comments

I've been reading fairy tales regularly for over two years now, but I'm still surprised by just how odd some of them are, like "Hans the Hedgehog" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm. The story starts off in a usual fairy tale way, with a man who desperately wants a child, so much so that he calls out one day, "I will have a child, even if it be a hedgehog." Of course, the next spring his wife has a son, but the upper part of him is a hedgehog, while the lower part is that of a boy. His parents name him Hans the Hedgehog, but they are horrible to him and make him stay behind the stove on a pile of straw. The father is thankful, when after he gives Hans a set of bagpipes he requested, that Hans states he will ride away on the cock and never come back. Hans however, just retreats to the woods, taking pigs and...

Thursdays Tale: The Little Girl Sold with the Pears

February 9, 2012February 8, 2012 by Carol8 Comments

We're still visiting Italy this week. "The Little Girl Sold with the Pears" is a fairy tale collected by Italo Calvino in Italian Folktales, published in 1954. You'll notice some familiar themes in the story. A man had to pay the king four baskets of pears each year, but one year he only had 3½ baskets to send, so he put his little girl in the bottom of the fourth basket and covered her up. She is eventually discovered by the King's kitchen staff. She is given the name Perina and she goes to work in the kitchen. Of course, she's beautiful and kind and smart and the prince falls in love with her. The other maids though become jealous and tell the King that Perina has boasted that she can steal the witches' treasure, and he sends her out to do so. Perina travels through the woods, spending the night in a pear tree. In the morning, a little old woman...

Thursday’s Tale: Tamlane by Joseph Jacobs

January 19, 2012March 24, 2016 by Carol7 Comments

"Tamlane" is a tale of a young man and the woman who loves him, both children of earls, told by Joseph Jacobs in More English Fairy Tales, 1894. I like this one because it's the woman who has to come to the man's rescue. Tamlane and Burd Janet grew up together and had known since they were young that they would marry, but when the time comes near, Tamlane up and disappears to no one knows where. Many days later, Burd Janet takes a walk in the Carterhaugh Wood and is picking flowers from a bush when who should appear but Tamlane. She asks where he's been, and he responds that he's been in Elfland, a knight of the Queen. He says it's a wonderful place, except he misses her and he's afraid that he is going to be the tithe the Elves pay to the Nether world every seven years. Burd Janet asks what she can do to save him. Tamlane...

Thursday’s Tale: King Thrushbeard by The Brothers Grimm

January 12, 2012January 11, 2012 by Carol13 Comments

The princess in "King Thrushbeard" is a bit unusual for the heroine in a Grimm tale. She's beautiful, naturally, but not good and kind. She was proud and haughty and no matter how many suitors her father the King presented to her, she found fault with each one, ridiculing them and mocking them. She was exceptionally mean to one good king who had a slightly crooked chin, saying his chin looked like a thrush's beak, of course earning him the nickname King Thrushbeard. Finally the King is so angry that he vows to marry her off to the first beggar who shows at his door. A few days later, a fiddler comes and plays under a window, begging for alms. The King holds true to his word, forces his daughter to marry the beggar and then to leave the palace to go and live with her husband. On the trip to the beggar's home, the couple passes through a beautiful wood and...