Category: Thursday’s Tales

In Magic Spring, Nami Rhee retells a Korean folktale told in her family, the story she remembers most vividly from her childhood. As in many tales, hard work is rewarded, but even the villain gets a second chance. The Magic Spring begins with rather a traditional fairy tale couple, an old man and his wife who have no children. They are both hard workers and never complain, even when their rich, greedy neighbor makes fun of them and taunts them for not having a son. One beautiful day a bird leads the old man to a clear spring, which he drinks from with his cupped hands. This being a fountain of youth story (see here for a similar story), he becomes a young man again. The next day he takes his wife to the spring, and she too drinks just enough to become a young woman again. The now young couple returns to home, healthy and happy, only wishing they had a child...

"Why the Sea Moans" is a Brazilian tale, similar to Cinderella, but with a rather depressing ending. The title is actually what grabbed me first, beautiful, sad, I had to know the story behind it. A lonely little princess lived in a palace and had no other children to play with. One thing she loved was to sit in the corner of the garden and watch the sea, which seemed to say her name as it hit the shore, "Di-o-ny-si-a." One day the little princess, sitting all alone as usual, wished she had a living thing to play with her, even if it couldn't be another child. And of course, this being a fairy tale, her wish was granted. Out of the waves came a sea serpent, but it didn’t' look like a monster, it seemed kind and gentle. It told the little girl its name was Labismena and it had come to play with her. The two played together and...

Image: Embroidery Library We finally had some rain yesterday. It's been a while since we had a good rain at our house and it's been pretty warm. The heat I don't mind so much but watering the plants every day or every other day is a bother. When I sat down to think about what tale to discuss today, I thought I would go with a rain story. "The Four Dragons" is a tale from China where long ago, the story says, there were no lakes or rivers, only the Eastern Sea, home to four dragons: the Long Dragon, the Yellow Dragon, the Black Dragon, and the Pearl Dragon. These dragons swam in the sea and flew in the air above. One day, as they were playing in the clouds, the Pearl Dragon saw a disturbing sight he shared with the others. He saw the people down below praying for rain. The land was in a drought, the plants were withering, and the people had...

Today's story comes from Micronesia, a series of islands in the western Pacific. We learn how a brave girl learned the art of navigation, an essential for the islanders, and taught it to her people. The tale starts with a bird, a huge kulung, a golden plover that is a legaselep, a man-eating spirit. He goes from town to town, island to island, killing all the peope, until he tries to reach Pulap and can't get there because Pälülop, a great sea god, has hidden the island from him. Pälülop tells his daughter to make some food for the legaselep, take the food to the end of the island, and give it to the bird when he arrives. Then, he allows to the bird to see the island. When the legaselep comes to the island, he sees the food, but he also sees the girl. At first he says he will not be satisfied with the food, but she convinces him to try it, and since it's magical, as he eats...

We saw Brave in the theater last weekend. I have to say I loved it. Merida is quite the princess, good with a bow and arrow, free spirited and adventurous, but still teenager enough to think she can make a deal with a witch. All of us who read fairy tales know that's a bad, bad idea. Happily it all works out in the end, with Merida and her mother learning a lot about themselves, about each other, and about what's truly important. I thought today I'd share another story about a woman in Scotland who makes a deal she shouldn't, but in this case it's with a fairy, "Whuppity Stoorie." A woman's husband went to the fair and never returned; she was left alone with her baby son and owning only a big sow. The Goodwife was poor and alone, for although the whole village was sorry for her, no one would help her. The sow was about to have piglets, and she...