Friday’s Tale: The Story of the Three Little Pigs by Joseph Jacobs

by Carol6 Comments
"The Story of the Three Little Pigs" by Joseph Jacobs I thought I knew the story of the Three Little Pigs. They each build a house, the wolf blows down the first two and those pigs run and join the third in his brick house that the wolf can't destroy. Not exactly. It's true, the three little pigs leave home to make their ways in the world. Three is a common number in fairy tales by the way, with the "Three Billy Goats Gruff" coming to mind quickly. Anyway, the first pig meets a man who gives him straw to build a house. After he builds it along comes the wolf. Politely the wolf first knocks. "Little pig, little pig, let me come in." To which the pig answered: "No, ...
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Tangled (2010)

by Carol12 Comments
Tangled (2010) David, Amber (10), my mom and I watched Tangled on Saturday. Personally, I was amazed that Amber wanted to see one of Disney's princess movies, but it topped her list of movies to watch this weekend. Our theater wasn't showing it in 3D, happily. Supposedly it's the story of Rapunzel, but reality is it has next to nothing to do with the original fairytale, which I read back in March. The similarities are the girl's locked in a tower by a woman named Gothel and the girl falls in love with a man. Oh, and the girl has really, really long hair. That's it. The rest is entirely Disney. In this version, the baby is stolen from her crib by Mother Gothel, because of the child's hair which can magically heal people or keep them young.  Mother Gothel hides Rapunzel in the tower, forbidding her to ever leave it, keeping the precious hair safe. While Gothel is away getting a present...
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Hower House Fairy Tale Holiday

by Carol3 Comments
Since it's Fairy Tale Friday, I wanted to pass on a holiday destination for those of us in Ohio. The Hower House, an elegant 28-room mansion museum in Akron, Ohio, is decorated for the holidays with a Fairy Tale Theme. I've heard that there's a  Goldilocks and The Three Bears room located on the second floor and been reminded to look out for “The Wolf” in Red Riding Hood's room. I'm going to try to get up there one of these weekends. The Fairy Tale Holiday Tour times are Nov 10 – Dec. 23: Wednesday – Saturday, noon until 3:30 pm with self-guided tours Sunday’s 1 to 4pm. You can visit their website for more information....
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The Juniper Tree by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm

by Carol6 Comments
"The Juniper Tree" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm This is another one of the Grimms' tales that I hadn't heard before and it's really no wonder, part of it is downright gruesome. The illustration above is by Louis Rhead from Grimm's Fairy Tales, Stories and Tales of Elves, Goblins, and Fairies (New York: Harper and Brothers, 1917). The story opens with a rich, childless couple who love each other dearly. One winter, while the woman is pairing apples underneath the juniper tree in their courtyard, she cuts herself. When she sees the blood on the snow she wishes for a child "as red as blood and as white as snow," and immediately she feels happy and knows that she will have a child. Months pass and eventually she has a baby boy and then she dies. Father eventually remarries and, surprise surprise, the new wife turns into an evil stepmother who sees the boy as the only obstacle between her daughter and the...
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“The Old Grave-Stone” by Hans Christian Andersen

by Carol8 Comments
    "The Old Grave-Stone" by Hans Christian Anderson The title for this story sounds a lot spookier than the story really is. A fairy tale about a gravestone has all kinds of possibilities, but this is more the story of the people whose names are engraved on the stone. The gravestone was actually purchased when a church was being demolished and it now lay in the courtyard of a house. The people who live there are talking about the stone and the oldest man in the room remarks that it must be the gravestone of Preben Schwane and his wife, Martha. He tells of the couple who were well-loved by everyone. Preben and Martha were a fine old couple, and when they both sat on the bench, at the top of the steep stone steps, in front of their house, with the branches of the linden-tree waving above them, and nodded in a...
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The Little Mermaid by Hans Christian Andersen

by Carol8 Comments
"The Little Mermaid" by Hans Christian Andersen Disney's movie The Little Mermaid came out in 1989 when I was 14 or 15, but it was the only version of the story I can honestly say I was fmiliar with before I read the original for today's Fairy Tale Friday post. So I was of course expecting a happily ever after ending. Even looking at other fairy tales, Cinderella and the princess who sleeps on the pea get their prince, I assumed the Little Mermaid would too. I was wrong. After longing to see the world above the gorgeous undersea kingdom and hearing about its wonders from her older sisters and her grandmother, when the Little Princess is 15 she's finally allowed to swim to the surface wherever she would like. When she swims to the top, she sees a boat where a prince is having a birthday party. She is enchanted, but then the ship wrecks in a storm. She saves the...
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