How about a brownie story from Scotland today? Traditionally, brownies inhabit houses and aid in tasks around the house. However, they do not like to be seen and will only work at night, traditionally in exchange for small gifts of food. Among food, they especially enjoy porridge and honey. They usually abandon the house if their gifts are called payments, or if the owners of the house misuse them. Brownies often make their homes in an unused part of the house. The brownie in today's story, "The Brownie and the Thievish Maids," shares some characteristics with the ùruisg or urisk, who are similar to brownies, but lived outside in streams and waterfalls and was less likely to offer domestic help. Around the end of the harvest, he became more sociable, and hovered around farmyards, stables and cattle-houses. He particularly enjoyed dairy products, and tended to intrude on milkmaids, who made regular libations of milk or cream to charm him off, or to...
I was looking at my list earlier, and realized I haven't done many tales from Iceland, so I hunted one up. "Which Was the Foolishest?" was published by Andrew Lang in The Brown Fairy Book, 1904, but his source was the Neuislandische Volksmärchen. I don't actually like the story much. First, let my give you the gist of the story and then I'll tell you why it bothers me.
Two couples lived side by side in a little village and the men were good friends. The wives, however, argued constantly over whose husband is the most stupid. One put the baby's clothes on upside and planted rocks instead of potatoes, the other gave the wife's best hat to the hen to lay eggs in and returned from the market with 150 ducks instead of butter. The two women decided to prove once and for all whose husband was the most foolish.
One wife made her husband a coat of the finest wool, so fine he couldn't see...
Happy New Year!!
Today, I decided not to focus on a specific story, mostly because I want to show off some photos from the Cathedral of Learning's German room. We got to see them back on December 21st. The stained glass windows depict various characters from the Grimms' stories. The stained-glass windows were designed by master stained glass artist Charles Connick, however they were not completed until 1953 by Connick protege Frances Van Arsdale Skinner.
Aren't they gorgeous? Did you recognize the stories?
A little about Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm:
Jacob (1785–1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786–1859), were German academics, linguists, cultural researchers, lexicographers and authors who together collected and published folklore. They are among the most well-known storytellers of folk tales and I've featured many of their stories here. Their first collection of folk tales, Children's and Household Tales (Kinder- und Hausmärchen), was published in 1812.
Kinder- und Hausmärchen was not an immediate bestseller, but its popularity grew with each edition. The early editions attracted lukewarm critical...
Another Christmas story today, this time from Mexico.
There was once a poor Mexican girl called Pepita who had no present to give the baby Jesus at the Christmas Eve Services. As Pepita walked to the chapel, sadly, her cousin Pedro tried to cheer her up. 'Pepita', he said "I'm sure that even the smallest gift, given by someone who loves him will make Jesus Happy."
Pepita didn't know what she could give, so she picked a small handful of weeds from the roadside and made them into a small bouquet. She felt embarrassed because she could only give this small present to Jesus. As she walked through the chapel to the altar, she remembered what Pedro had said. She began to feel better, knelt down and put the bouquet at the bottom of the nativity scene. Suddenly, the bouquet of weeds burst into bright red flowers, the first poinsettia, and everyone who saw them were sure they had seen a miracle....
How about a Christmas story today? "The Legend of the Christmas Robin" reminds me a little of the hymn we never sing at church, "The Friendly Beasts," which tells of all the animals' gifts to Baby Jesus. This story tells of the robin's gift.
That first Christmas night was extremely cold and a breeze blew constantly into the stable where Mary lay with her baby, Jesus. The fire in the stable, the only source of heat, was about to go out and all that Mary could do was call the surrounding animals for help. She asked the sleeping ox, lazy donkey, horse and the sheep, but they were either of no use or just refused to help. Suddenly, Mary heard the flapping sound of wings. A robin had heard Mary's cry for help and had flown to the stable to help her out. The robin flapped his wings hard at the dying embers until the fire was rekindled and became bright red. He...
Today's tale, "Why the Sea is Salt" from East O' the Sun and West O' the Moon by Gudrun Thorne-Thomsen, starts with a poor man on Christmas Eve. The man went to his rich brother and begged for something for Christmas. The brother gave him a whole piece of bacon, two loaves of bread, and candles under the condition that the poor brother never step foot in the rich brother's home again.
The poor brother set out back toward home but along the way met an old man who begged him for a bite to eat. Although the man himself was poor, he still shared what little he had, especially since it was Christmas eve. We all know it's good to help people, especially old, mysterious people, in fairy tales, and this time is not exception. The brother handed the old man a loaf of bread and a candle and was just about to give him a hunk of bacon when the old...