Photo credit: Mythological Beasties and Co
E is, of course, for elves. What else could it be for on the day my posts center on fairy tales and the like? Today's story comes from Dutch Fairy Tales for Young Folks by William Elliott Griffis, published 1919. The elves in his story are bright, beautiful, happy creatures who love the moonlight and are full of fun. "They loved to vex cross people and to please those who were bonnie and blithe. They hated misers, but they loved the kind and generous."
One of the oldest of the elves, Styf, was also one of the best pranksters. He liked to mix up everyone's wooden shoes that were left outside doors at parties. He would lead people trying to save money on candles deep into swamps, and once he bought tulips from an old miser with silver made by the Moss Maidens, and the coins crumbled in the man's hands when he went to count them the next...
Image credit: SurLaLuneFairytales.com
"Hop o' My Thumb" was first published by Charles Perrault in Histoires ou Contes du Temps Passé in 1697, but I couldn't find a copy of that version on-line. The versions I read are from Anderson Lang's Blue Fairy Book, first published in 1889, attributed to Perrault, and one provided by the California Digital Library. Once again, it's surprising how many fairy tales echo each other. While you read the summary, think about what other stories it reminds you of.
Hop o' My Thumb is the youngest of seven sons, all between the ages of 7 and 10, of a poor woodcutter and his wife. He is the youngest, weakest of the boys, and also the most quiet, so the others thought him a simpleton, but he was actually quite a clever boy. The parents are so poor that they realize they will not be able to feed their family so they agree, after much arguing on the mother's part, to take...
Today's rather creepy story comes from Russia. "The Dead Mother" was retold by W. R. S. Ralston in his Russian Fairy Tales. I'm having trouble finding a date for the original printing of the book, but from what I can tell, it was probably in the late 1800s.
The story is quite short. A happily married couple have a baby, but soon after it is born the mother dies. The father is of course terribly sad and hires an old woman to help him take care of the baby. During the day, the baby only cries and cries, and wouldn't eat anything. At night, though, it slept peacefully. The old woman wonders why the baby is so quite at night, and decides to stay up to find out what is going on. At midnight, she hears someone enter the room and go up to the crib, then the baby quiets. For three nights, the old woman hears the same thing, and...
"Penta with the Maimed Hands" is an Italian tale, written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. Interesting, the is not the first story I've read about a girl whose hands get chopped off, but this one is entirely different from the Grimms' "The Girl Without Hands." The Pentamerone is a collection of 50 stories, told within a frame story of a deceitful queen who has demanded that her husband tell her stories, and he in turn has hired a group of ten female storytellers who each tell five stories over five days. "Penta with Maimed Hands" is the second story of the third day.
The king of Pietrasecca lost his wife and fell in love with his sister, Penta. He implored her to marry him. When she refused and he continued to implore her, she asked what attracted him, and he praised her beauty, but most highly, her hands. She tricked a slave into cutting off her hands, and...
Really, how odd can fairy tales be? "The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage" by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm is about just what it says, a mouse, a bird, and a sausage, all of whom talk by the way, including the sausage. The three live together happily, each doing their own jobs. The bird fetches firewood, the mouse makes the fire, fetches water and sets the table, while the sausage cooks.
Now one day while out in the woods, the bird meets another bird. After hearing the living arrangements, this other bird tells the first bird that he has the tough part, that while he is out working the other two get to stay home and have the easy time. The mouse gets to rest between her jobs, and the sausage only has to cook the food, rolling itself around in the broth or vegetables when they were nearly done to add to the flavor.
So the bird insists that the next...
Several legends have grown around the Italian bread, panettone. It's a type of sweet bread loaf originally from Milan, usually prepared and enjoyed for Christmas and New Year, and is one of the symbols of the city of Milan. One tale goes back to 15th-century Milan. A nobleman loved the daughter of a poor baker named Toni and wished to marry her. To win her father's approval, the nobleman disguised himself as a baker and invented a rich bread to which he added flour and yeast, butter, eggs, dried raisins, and candied lemon and orange peel. It's this tale that dePaola retells for pre-schoolers and early elementary kids in Tony's Bread, admitting that he has taken "great liberties" with the story.
Tony is a baker in a small town who dreams of opening a bakery in Milan and become famous. Tony has a daughter, Serafina, whom he loves and treats like a princess. Serafina wants to get married, but Tony doesn't...
