Category: fairy tale

Image: The Permaculter Research Institute of Australia In Sri Lanka, the tale of "The Frog Prince" bears little resemblance to the version I know. About the only thing they have in common is a character who is at one time a frog and at another time a prince. The Sri Lankan story begins with a widow who lives on the rice powder left over after she pounds rice at the king's palace. This woman bore a frog. I'm not sure why her child was frog, it just was. When the frog grew up, the king issued a proclamation. "I will give half my kingdom, and goods amounting to an elephant's load to the person who brings the Jeweled Golden Cock that is at the house of the Rakshasi." The Rakshasi is an ogress. The frog, hearing this, takes some rice and strings it on a wild date tree. Then he turns into a handsome prince and clothes and a horse appear. The prince...

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...

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,...