I'm hoping to see The Huntsman: Winter's War this weekend, which has me thinking about Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs. I found the tale of the "Death of the Seven Dwarfs" at D. L. Ashliman's website. He credits the story to Ernst Ludwig Rochholz, who included it in Schweizersagen aus dem Aargau, vol. 1.
The story comes from Switzerland and as you can tell from the title, does not have a happy ending for the dwarfs.
On one of the high plains near the Black Forest, seven dwarfs lived together in a small house. Late one evening an attractive young peasant girl, who was lost and hungry, approached them and requested shelter for the night. The dwarfs only had seven beds, and they argued with each other about who would give up his bed for the girl. Finally the oldest one took the girl into his bed. I'm not sure what "took into his bed" means here. At first it sounds like the dwarfs...
I felt like looking at something a bit different today. This poem is a different, modern look at Little Red Riding Hood. So the image above is clearly not Little Red Riding Hood, but I thought it fit the poem.
Red Whistles at the Wolf
Red, Red’s riding in the hood
scarf on her head
lady looking good
Red, Red’s driving in the hood
convertible blush
lady’s in a rush
Lipsticked red
sunglasses red
tight dress red
retro retro red red red
Red, Red’s cruising in the hood
white hubcapped wheels
bringing those meals
Red, Red’s speeding in the hood
in her redfinned missle
gives the wolf a whistle
Red, Red’s roaring in the hood
wolf takes a jump
becomes a speed bump
Red, Red’s slowing in the hood
wolf’s now dead
don’t mess with Red
- Glynn Young
I love the image of Red in her convertible speeding down the road. She's definitely sexy in her tight red dress and red lipstick. I wonder if she's trying to attract the wolf. After she runs him over, she slows down a bit,...
I feel like nursery rhymes sort of fall into the same category as fairy tales and folktales. They're part of a culture, something passed down over the years that most everyone connects to, which is why I'm including Little Chickies as a Thursday's Tale. Little Chickies is based on a Spanish nursery rhyme, "Los Pollitos."
I found the nursery rhyme at NurseryRhymes.co, along with the translation.
Los pollitos dicen pío, pío, pío
cuando tienen hambre
cuando tienen frío.
La gallina busca el maíz y el trigo
les da la comida y les presta abrigo.
Bajo de sus alas, acurrucaditos
¡duermen los pollitos
hasta el otro día!
Translation :
The little chicks say pio pio pio
When they are hungry
And when they are cold.
The mother hen looks for corn and wheat.
She gives them food and grants them shelter.
Under mama's wings, huddling up,
Sleep the little chicks
Until the next day!
Jamarillo has done a wonderful job in the adorable book telling the story of the chicks whose mom takes care of them. Her lyrics are simpler than...
Today I wanted to spotlight an audiobook coming out next week. As you know, I love the Grimms' tales and this looks like a fabulous collection.
I'll have to pick this one up next week when it comes out. Just look at that list of stories and the all-star narrators. I can't imagine it being anything less than wonderful. I think I've read most of the stories, but I have to imagine hearing them told will enhance them for me. There are also a couple that I don't think I've gotten around to yet.
It's suggested age is 10 and up and if it's true that theses are the earlier versions of the tales, they can be a bit bloody and less happy than the stories we are used to.
Maybe I should just go ahead and pre-order it.
Thursday's Tales is a weekly event here at Carol's Notebook. Fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, even re-tellings, I love them all. Feel free to join in....
Today's story is from Japan. It was told by Lafcadio Hearn in Kwaidan: Stories and Studies of Strange Things, 1907. I found it in D. L. Ashliman's collection of Folklore and Mythology.
In a village of Musashi Province, there lived two woodcutters: Mosaku, an old man, and his apprentice, Minokichi. Every day they went together to a forest situated about five miles from their village. On the way to that forest there is a wide river and a ferry-boat that took people across. One night the two men were heading home when a snowstorm overtook them. When they reached the ferry, the boatman had already left. The men took shelter for the night in the boatman's hut, even though it had no heat and no place to build a fire.
Mosaku and Minokichi fastened the door, and lay down to rest, with their straw raincoats over them. The old man almost immediately fell asleep; but the boy, Minokichi, lay awake a long time, listening to the...
I came across an odd little story today. "Fox Steals the Butter" is a tale from Scotland, collected in J. F. Campbell's Popular Tales of the West Highlands, Orally Collected, 1862. I found it strange because the "bad guy" wins the day.
The fox and the wolf were walking near the seashore, when they found a keg of butter which they buried.
On the next day the fox went out, and when he returned, he told the wolf that a man had asked him to come to a baptism. The fox dressed up and went away. Of course, he went to the butter keg, but didn't eat any. When he came home, the wolf asked him, "What name was given to the child?"
The fox answered that it was Foveeal, which meant "under its mouth."
The following day, the fox again said that a man had sent to ask him to a baptism. Again he went to the keg, and this time he took out about half.
The wolf asked, when he came...