Image Source: Myths Encyclopedia
Today's tall tale features a lumberjack, a giant lumberjack.
In those days, when America was new, people had to cut down a lot of trees. They needed the lumber for houses, churches, town hall, ships, bridges, ballrooms, stores, pencils, wagons, and flag poles. Luckily, the trees were there, stretching in tall, wind-shining rows across America. The trees marched up mountains and down again. They followed rivers and creeks. They massed up together in purple canyons and shoved each other out of the way on the shores of lakes. They pushed their dark roots down into rock and their glossy branches into the clouds. (pg. 13)
I don't want to get into forest management or clear-cutting, but I did just love that description of the forests of early America.
And what Paul Bunyan was good at was chopping down those trees. But Paul was lonely. He could cut down a hundred trees at once, but he still had to drag them...
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We met Mike Fink briefly last week. He's another tall tale character, although in this case the legends are based on a real man who was born near Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania around 1770 or 1780. In addition to the exaggerated and imagined feats that make up his story, it may have been woven from the stories of two or more men with the same name.
Be that as it may, I read his story in American Tall Tales by Adrien Stoutenburg. The story starts with Mike Fink growing up in the woods around Pittsburgh, shooting wolves, bobcats, bugs, anything really. He was tough and bragged a lot, but always backed up his bragging with a show of his skill. He entered a shooting contest and beat out all the soldiers, hunters, Indian scouts, and boatmen, all the best shots in the country, even though he was just a child. He was too young to fight in the American Revolution, but when...
Image Source: Weingart Design
I guess June's going to be Tall Tale month on Fridays. Today's character is one of my favorites, even if she's not one of the most well-known. Women back int he America's early days had it just as tough as the men. They helped build cabins and clear land. They hauled water and hunted for food.
Davy Crockett done married the prettiest, the sassiest, the toughest gal in the West, don't ya know! Her name was Sally Ann Thunder Ann Whirlwind and she was all that and then some! She was tougher than a grumpy she-bear and faster than a wildcat with his tail on fire and sweeter than honey, so that even hornets would let her use their nest for a Sunday-go-to-Meeting hat.
One story tells of a bet between Mike Fink and Davy Crockett. Mike Fink bets a dozen wild-cats he can scare Sally Ann half to death. Davy Crockett, knowing his wife quite well, takes Mike...
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Tall tales are a part of American literature and history. The stories tell the bigger than life tales of men taming the early American frontier, exaggerating actual events, explaining natural phenomena. Some were based on true people like Davy Crockett and Johnny Appleseed, while others tell of folk heroes who stories were passed down through generations.
Pecos Bill was not a real historical figure, nor is he truly a folk hero. His is a later tall tale that first appeared in a "saga" written by Edward O'Reilly for a 1923 Century Magazine. Nonetheless, the story has become part of America's literary landscape. The version I read was retold by Mary Pope Osborne in American Tall Tales.
Pecos Bill, the story goes, was a baby in eastern Texas when his family packed up a wagon and headed west. Along the rough ride, Bill fell out and landed in the middle of the desert. Luckily, a coyote found him, took him home,...
Image Source: Sur la Lune Fairy Tales
I thought the Grimm version of "The Frog King" would be the familiar version of the fairy tale, and it is up to a point.
The king's youngest, most beautiful daughter is playing with her golden ball beside a well. We already know that thing's are going to work out well in the end for her, don't we? The youngest, most beautiful child is inevitably bound for a happy ending in the Grimms' tales.
The princess drops her ball into the well, and it sinks to the bottom. She cries and cries until a frog comes and offers to retrieve the ball but only if he is rewarded.
The frog answered, "I do not care for thy clothes, thy pearls and jewels, or thy golden crown, but if thou wilt love me and let me be thy companion and play-fellow, and sit by thee at thy little table, and eat off thy little golden plate, and drink...
Image: The Permaculter Research Institute of Australia
In Sri Lanka, the tale of "The Frog Prince" bears little resemblance to the version I know. About the only thing they have in common is a character who is at one time a frog and at another time a prince.
The Sri Lankan story begins with a widow who lives on the rice powder left over after she pounds rice at the king's palace. This woman bore a frog. I'm not sure why her child was frog, it just was. When the frog grew up, the king issued a proclamation. "I will give half my kingdom, and goods amounting to an elephant's load to the person who brings the Jeweled Golden Cock that is at the house of the Rakshasi." The Rakshasi is an ogress. The frog, hearing this, takes some rice and strings it on a wild date tree. Then he turns into a handsome prince and clothes and a horse appear.
The prince...