"The Measure of Rice" is a Jataka Tale. The version I read was retold by Ellen C. Babbitt in 1912 that I found on SurLaLunefairytales.com. I have never read a Jataka Tale before, but they are Hindu in origin. Apparently the Jatakas, or Birth-stories, form one of the sacred books of the Buddhists and relate to the adventures of the Buddha in his former existences, the best character in any story being identified with the Master. These legends were continually introduced into the religious discourses of the Buddhist teachers to illustrate the doctrines of their faith or to magnify the glory and sanctity of the Buddha. Quaint humor and gentle earnestness distinguish these legends and they teach many wholesome lessons, among them the duty of kindness to animals.
In the "Measure of Rice," a dishonest king has a Valuer in his court. I assume the honest, good Valuer is the character associated with Buddha. The Valuer set the price that should be paid...
No story today. Instead I thought I'd share some of the fairy tale goodies I've seen.
From IKEA - Your child can have fun recreating the fairytale by rescuing the grandmother from the wolf’s belly, safe and sound.
Love this cross stitch pattern available at 123Stitch.com.
Aren't these shadow puppets wonderful? Available on Amazon.
I'm pretty sure I have something I could wear this necklace with. Available from Forzieri.
Wonderful dice to encourage story-telling. Available on Amazon.
And if you're a sewer, the projects in this book look adorable. Available on Amazon.
Thursday’s Tales is a weekly event here at Carol’s Notebook. Fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, even re-tellings, I love them all....
We're visiting Italy today. "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 is standing...
I haven't seen Frozen yet - one of these days. It's based in part on Hans Christian Andersen's "The Snow Queen," which I hadn't read until today. I'm not sure how I passed over one of Andersen's most famous fairy tales, but it's a long story with a bunch going on. "The Snow Queen" was first published in 1845.
A demon makes a magic mirror that distorts the appearance of everything it reflects. It fails to reflect the good and beautiful aspects of people and things, while magnifying their bad and ugly aspects. The demon teaches a school. He and his pupils take the mirror throughout the world and delight in distorting everyone and everything; the mirror makes the loveliest landscapes look like "boiled spinach." They try to carry the mirror into Heaven with the idea of making fools of the angels, but the higher they lift it, the more slippery the mirror becomes and it slips from their grasp and falls back to...
Actually, U is for Ugly Duckling, a story by Hans Christian Andersen, 1844.
"The Ugly Duckling" story is one most of us know. A mother duck is sitting on her nest and all but one egg hatches. The ducklings are adorable, but the mother continues to sit on the last, largest egg, despite being told by another duck to leave it. Of course, the last egg hatches, and the young one is very large and doesn't look like the others, but he can swim and the mother declares "he is not so very ugly after all if you look at him properly."
But his mother can't protect him from all the abuse he endures from the other farmyard animals and even the girl who feeds the poultry, so he runs away.
One day he sees some beautiful white birds flying over head, but he does not interact with them. He is terrified by a hunter and his dog. He spends some time with...
"Old Hildebrand" is a fairy tale from the Grimm Brothers, told in their Household Tales.
A peasant's wife and the neighborhood priest fancied each other. At the priest's urging the wife faked an illness for several days, but on Sunday she insisted her husband go to hear the sermon. The priest preached that whoever had an ill family member could go to the Cuckoo's Mountain in Italy, and get laurel leaves that would cure the ill person. The peasant, Hildebrand took the advice and left to get them. He wasn't gone two minutes before the priest came to the home.
Not far into his journey, Hildebrand met a kinsman, an egg merchant. When the merchant heard Hildebrand's tale, he informed Hildebrand that the priest just wanted to spend time alone with Hildebrand's wife. He took Hildebrand back tot he house, hidden in his egg basket.
At the house, the priest and Hildebrand's wife were having a marvelous old time. The story tells us that the wife had slaughtered most of the farm...