Today's tale is another of the Grimms' stories. I can't help it if some are just perfect for this time of year. "Fitcher's Bird" is quite gruesome - women chopped up with an axe left in a bloody room, a house full of guests burned to death.
Once up a time, a wizard took the form of a beggar and carried off young women from their homes. He carried off an oldest sister and assured her she would be happy with him. He took her to his house, which was marvelous, but then he had to go on a short journey. He told her she could go anywhere in the house except one room; he also gave her an egg and told her to carry it everywhere and be careful with it. Of course she went into the forbidden room, who wouldn't?, and found hacked-up bodies and a basin of blood. Shocked, she dropped the egg into the basin. The wizrd returned and demanded the egg. When he...
Today's tale,"The Man and the Satyr," is one of Aesop's fables, but it's different from most I've read. I usually think of animal stories that have a lesson to teach. This one includes a mythical being and made me laugh at the end.
A man who was lost in the woods met a satyr who offered to let him stay at his home for the night and to guide him out of the forest the next morning. The man thankfully Man had lost his way in a wood one bitter winter's night. As he was roaming about, a Satyr came up to him, and finding that he had lost his way, promised to give him a lodging for the night, and guide him out of the forest in the morning. The man was thankful and followed the satyr home, blowing on his hand to keep him warm. The satyr asked why he was doing that and the man told him that his...
Have I told you the tale of "Sweetheart Roland," from the Brothers Grimm? In wonderful fairy tale style, it starts off with a woman killing her own daughter. We've also got a witch dancing to death, and a cheating lover. After all that, though there is a happy ending, for the beautiful, faithful young woman. The Grimms do love pretty girls who do the housework, don't they?
A witch had a daughter, whom she loved, and a stepdaughter she of course hated. No father is mentioned, not that he would have been much use anyway. Her daughter wanted the stepsister's apron, and her mother promised she would have it: she would chop off the stepsister's head in the night, and the daughter was to make sure she lay by the wall, and her stepsister in the front of the bed. The stepdaughter overheard this and, after the daughter slept, shifted their places. The witch cut off her own daughter's head, and the stepdaughter rose and...
Today, I thought we'd look at another tale Baroness Orczy retold in Old Hungarian Fairy Tales, "The Suitors of the Princess Fire-Fly."
A long time ago, there lived a King Fire-fly who lived in a lovely lotus palace. He had a lovely daughter he kept safe inside the palace, but she became lovelier and lovelier and her fame spread throughout the land. All the moths, beetles and flies of neighboring kingdoms pulled out their finery in order to woo her, but she stated she would only marry the one who would perform a perilous task for her, bring back a spark of fire.
Many fairy flies, and beetles, and moths, and all types of insects fly off on the quest. The problem is that bugs and fire don't get along well. Many get burned, some find phosphorescent mosses but they go out when daylight comes. The "Red Admiral" finds a ring of fire, a diamond, but a boy picks it up before he can...
"The Wishing Skin" told by Baroness Orczy in Old Hungarian Fairy Tales starts in typical fairy tale fashion. We have a childless couple, a woodcutter and his wife, who humbly but contentedly in a nice cottage with a garden in front.
One day a peddler stops at the cottage and when he leaves, drops a book of tales on the road that the husband, Jack, picks up. That night he reads the stories to his wife while she sews, stories full of fairies and magicians. That night he has trouble sleeping, wishing a fairy godmother would come and grant him all his wishes. The next day, while working, a rabbit comes up to him and starts talking, telling him that although he is obviously not a fairy godmother, he does know where there is a wishing skin, made by fairies. Anyone wearing the skin, which I picture as a kind of coat, can wish for anything and the wish will be...
It's been a while since I featured one of Aesop's Fables, so today I dipped into the collection and found "The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass." One thing I like about these fables is their clear morals. This one's is learn from the mistakes of others, a good lesson for all of us.
The Lion, the Fox and the Ass agreed to help each other out in their hunting. After catching a lot of food, the Lion asked the Ass divide the food up, giving each of the three their portion. The Ass carefully divided the spoils into three equal shares and told the other two to make their selections first. The Lion became very angry and ate the Ass. Then he told the Fox to do him the favor and divide the food. The Fox gathered all that they had killed into one large pile and took for himself only the smallest possible bit to eat. The Lion asked who had taught him...