It's December, which means Christmas stories on Thursdays. Today's folktale comes from Germany and was retold in Good Stories for Great Holidays by Frances Jenkins Olcott published in 1914.
The story tells of a handsome count, Otto, who was a confirmed bachelor who never so much as admired the pretty maidens of the kingdom, earning him the nickname Stone-Heart. One Christmas Eve, Count Otto organized a hunt, but in the midst of the chase he gets separated from the rest of the party and stops at a spring known as the "Fairy Well." He stops to wash his hands, but instead of the water being cold as he expected, it is warm. As he plunges his hands into the water, he feels a small soft hand grab his own and slip off the gold ring he always wore. And when he drew his hand out, the ring was gone.
Count Otto returns to his home, but can't sleep because he keeps thinking...
The story of "The Beekeeper and the Rabbit" is a sweet, romatic folktale, that comes to us from Ireland and is retold by Theresa Bane and Cynthia Moore Brown in Folklore and Food.
The beekeeper is a happy, gentle man who keeps rows and rows of beehives behind his house. He sells the honey and wax at the market, but the bees are also his friends and family. He talks to them and they gather around him without stinging him. He seems to be content, to have a good life.
One day, when he comes back from market, he finds a rabbit with beautiful blue eyes sitting on his front porch. The rabbit does not hop away when the man comes closer and instead follows him into the house. The rabbit and the man become inseperable. He keeps the rabbit with him him when he goes about his chores and when he takes her with him to the market to sell honey,...
Photo from CampScout.com
Today I though I'd share another Native American tale, although this one has nothing to do with harvest or corn. It's instead about two very smart girls, "The Lytton Girls Who Were Stolen by Giants." The story is from the Salishan People, who lived on the plateau between the Coast Range and the Rocky Mountains in the northwest US and southwest Canada.
Two girls, whose family were camped with other on the hills near Lytton, were playing far away from camp, even though their father had warned them multiple times that giants lived in the area. As expected, two giants saw the girls playing, grabbed them, and carried them off to their house on an island in the middle of a river far away. The giants were nice to the girls and fed them.
The girls lived with the giants for four years, until one summer when the giants took them to a place where a lot of huckleberries grew....
Happy Thanksgiving! I've been sharing Native American tales this month and I have another one today, a story that ends with a reminder to give thanks for all that we have and to teach our children to do the same.
"The Corn Spirit" is a tale from the Tuscarora people. Long ago, there was a village that was always blessed with abundant corn harvests, so much so that the people began to take the corn for granted. They stopped weeding the field, the children trampled on the stalks, they threw the corn to their dogs and even failed to store it properly for the witer, figuring they could always hunt if the corn spoiled. Only one man, Dayohagwenda, continued to show respect and give thanks for the corn.
That autumn, the people went hunting but had bad luck. It was as if all the animals had left the forest, and all the fish had left the streams. The people had to dig up the...
Photo from Wikimedia
Corn in some form or other is almost always a part of our Thanksgiving dinner. I think this year my mom will be making a corn casserole to go along with the turkey and potatoes and other sides. "The Strange Origin of Corn" is a tale from the Abenaki people of northeastern North America that tells us how corn came to be.
A long time ago, a man lived all alone, far from others and so lived on roots and barks and nuts. He became very lonely and tired of scratching for food. He lay down in a sunny spot and dreamed for several days.
When he awoke there was a beautiful woman with long light hair standing near him. He was thrilled to see her, but although he begged she would not come close to him. He told her how lonely he was and begged her not leave. She promised not to, as long as he did exactly what she said....
Photo from American Hunter
Turkey and Thanksgiving have become almost synonymous in America, so it seemed appropriate to share the Cherokee tale "How the Turkey Got His Beard" this month.
The story begins after a race between a terrapin, or a turtle, and a rabbit. As in Aesop's Fable, the turtle beat the hare, but this time around the turkey doesn't believe the terrapin actually won. He tells all the other animals that it must be some kind of trick, that the turtle can't run, and announces that he will test the terrapin.
The turkey meets the terrapin who is coming home from war, and the terrapin has a fresh scalp hanging around his neck. The turkey laughs and tells the terrapin that he looks silly, his neck is too short to wear the scalp like that since it is hanging all the way to the ground. He offers to show the terrapin how to wear it and the terrapin agrees, handing the scalp to...
