Photograph by Terri Gostola
Today's the first day of November, a month that makes me think of Thanksgiving and harvest celebrations. Today's harvest tale comes from Russians living in the area of Central Europe called Galacia, which according to Wikipedia, lies on the border between Poland and Ukraine.
God is angry with mankind, the story is vague as to why, but He has caused a famine to spread across the world. For three years, there has been no harvest. People and animals are dying from starvation. In a certain kingdom, the ruler is a young man who surrounds himself with advisors who are also young and don't have the wisdom that age can bring. After consulting with his advisors, he issued a proclamation "that all old people were to be drowned, in order that, said he, bread might not be wasted in vain, but there might be a supply of bread for the young; and that no one should venture, on pain of death, to maintain...
Today's tale, "The Seven Ravens," is another from the Brothers Grimm. In several ways it's a typical fairy tale. We have some boys who are turned into birds and a youngest sibling who becomes the heroine.
A peasant has seven sons and no daughter. Finally a daughter is born, but is sickly. The father sends his sons to fetch water for her to be baptized, but in their haste, they drop the jug in the well. When they did not return, their father thinks that they had had gone off to play and, frightened the girl will dies without being baptized, curses them and so they turn into ravens.
The sister actually gets better, growing up strong and beautiful, but her brothers are kept a secret from her. Eventually she finds out and feels like she is to blame for their fate, so she sets out to find them. She attempts to get help first from the sun, who is to hot and eats...
October is the time for creepy, scary stories and today's tale certainly fits. "The Vampire Skeleton" comes to us from the Iroquois people of North America and is included in Fearless Girls, Wise Women & Beloved Sistes by Kathleen Ragan.
An evil wizard died and his body was left, according to custom, in a cedar plank box inside his home in the woods. Several nights later, a woman, her husband and their child were travelling though the woods. To the woman's embarrassment, her lazy husband complains about visiting relatives, taking them good and walking through the snow. Finally, when he sees the old lodge he decides they must spend the night there, even though the woman disagrees. The little boy cries as soon as they near the place but eventually settles in. Remember, forests are almost always full of danger.
The husband is not a good person. He's lazy, a complainer even when his wife is doing most of the work, and...
The title of today's tale. "The Wolf and the Seven Young Kids" is a little worrying, and it's a Grimm tale, which doesn't help. We know wolves eat people and animals, remember "Little Red Riding Hood" and the "The Story of the Three Little Pigs," and seven young kids, goats is case you were worried, would be very tempting.
There is a loving mother goat who has seven kids. She has to leave home and go into the woods to get some food. Notice the woods, a dangerous place as we know. Before she leaves, she warns them to be on guard against the wolf, telling them he can be cunning but they would be able to recognize him by his rough and black feet.
Soon after she leaves the house, wolf knocks on the door and wants to enter. The kids don't let him in and tell him his voice is too rough. So he changes his voice and tries again, but this time...
Today's folk tale comes to us from Iran, originally included in the Shahnameh, "The Book of Kings," an epic poem written by the Persian poet Ferdowsi around 1000 AD. The original poem consists of 60,000 verses and tells mainly the mythical and to some extent the historical past of Iran from the creation of the world until the Islamic conquest of Persia in the 7th century. The Knight, the Princess & the Rock is part of that poem, the love story of a young warrior and a beautiful princess retold by Sara Azizi.
The King sent a brave young knight, Bijan, to help some farmers whose farms were being destroyed by wild boars. Bijan drives offf the boars, but on the way home falls in love with a beautiful princess, Manijeh, the daughter of an enemy of Persia, the king of Turan. Her father banishes her from the palace and imprisons Bijan in a deep pit covered by a magical rock that cannot be...
Today's tale, "The Snake and the Princess," comes to us from Russia and was included in A. H. Wratislaw's Sixty Folk Tales from Exclusively Slavic Sources published in 1890. For a short story, it has a couple of the common fairy tale themes, but veers from the norm toward the end.
An emperor has three daughters. Of course there are three of them and I'm sure you can guess who most of the story is about- the youngest. The emperor becomes ill and sends the oldest girl for water. She goes to get it, but a snake stops her and asks her to marry it. She says no so it refuses to give her water. I guess the snake guards the water; it isn't really clear. The same thing happens to the middle daughter, but the youngest agrees to marry the snake so it gives her water to take back to her father and he recovers.
That Saturday a carriage arrives and the girl weeps. Did...
