Category: folktale

"The Green Knight" Today I'm looking at a fairy tale from Denmark, and while it has several similarities with Cinderella, I think I actually prefer "The Green Knight." Like Cinderella, the princess's mother dies and a mean step-mom and step-sister enter the household. This though, it is through her pleading that the King re-marries, even though he knows it is not the best course of action, he cannot go against his daughters wishes. He loves her and wants to make her happy, which holds true throughout the story. Yay for the dad for once. Fairy tales aren't usually very father-friendly. The King moves the princess to the summer castle, where she can be happier not having to live with the step-mom and sister. the day comes when the King has to go to a gathering of royalty and his daughter asks him to take a message to the Green Knight for her, that she's waiting for him and only he can free her...

"The Story Bag" I love today's story, which comes from Korea. It's about a boy who always wanted to be told new stories by everyone he met. He kept all the stories in a bag, never letting them out. Eventually, the boy grows up and is about to be married. The stories, tired of being trapped, conspire together to kill the boy, each deciding what they will turn themselves into. One decides to be poisonous berries, another a red-hot iron skewer, a third dangerous snakes. Each would position himself along the trail to the bride's home or in the bridal bed itself. A loyal servant overhears their plans and saves the young man, telling him what happened only after the last of the threats has been defeated. That is why when stories are heard they must never be stored away to become mean and spiteful, but must always be shared with other people. In this way they are passed from one person...

"The Tiger, the Brahman, and the Jackal" Today's folk tale comes from India, but once again we see a large, strong animal simply outwitted by another. A tiger is trapped in a cave. A Brahman comes by and the tiger begs and pleads to be let out. The Brahman eventually releases him after the tiger promises not to eat him. Of course once the tiger is loose, his story changes. "What a fool you are! What is to prevent my eating you now, for after being cooped up so long I am just terribly hungry!" The tiger finally agrees to allow the Brahman to tell the story to three things and the tiger will abide by what the three things say. The Brahman asks a tree, a buffalo and the road, but all three agree that the Brahman should expect nothing from the tiger, that it is reasonable for the tiger to eat him. Finally, the Brahman talks to a jackal, who pretends not to...

"The Lion , the Hare, and the Hyena" "The Lion, the Hare, and the Hyena" is a story from Kenya. The version I read in Nelson Mandela's Favorite African Folktales was told to Phyllis Savory by Gwido Mariko and illustrated by Tamsin Hinrichsen. A lion who lives alone in a cave has an injured leg and cannot hunt for good, but luckily for him a hare, Sunguru, who was passing by realized the lion need his help and stayed to take care of him. The lion gained strength and was soon well enough to catch food for them to eat. One day a hyena smells the bones that are left from the two friends' meal. The hyena, wanting the delicious bones tries to convince the lion that he had been truly concerned about the lion while he was injures. The lion, being fairly smart, doesn't buy it and the hyena  shuffles away. The hyena, though can't forget about the bones, so he comes...

Last week, I talked about the real Johnny Appleseed, John Chapman. Today, we're looking at the legend he left behind. I read "Rainbow-walker" in American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenburg, although I'm sure there are many versions of the story available. While the story does focus on Johnny's love of apple trees and his mission to plant orchards west of Pittsburgh and help others do the same, his love of animals struck me most. He heals them and talks to them. They are his friends and companions during his trek through the wilderness. On days when he found no settlers or friendly Indians to spend the night with, he slept out in the open with a fox or raccoon curled up beside him to keep him warm. One of the animals he healed, a large black wolf, became his friend, followed him constantly as they both grew older. I have to admit to bawling during the part of the story when the...

"The Mother of the Jungle" The Mother of the Jungle is a mythic woman, the spirit of nature, protector and defender of the jungle, who originated in Colombia, though her stories are told throughout Latin America. I read this version of the story in Once Upon a Time / Habia una vez by Rueben Martínez, illustrated by Raúl Colón, a fascinating book that tells traditional Latin American tales in both English and Spanish, side by side. A peasant boy is walking through the jungle with his dog when he meets a huge bearded  man who is proud of how much money he is making by cutting down the trees of the forest. The boy knows this is wrong, a belief reinforced when he realizes a river he visits daily has dried up. That night he hears a strange noise in the jungle, and he and his dog investigate. He finds the bearded man standing in a clearing at the center of an odd...