Beauty and the Beast comes out next month, and I've already told David we're going to see it. I thought I'd share one of the trailers today.
I'm sure there will be/is all kinds of tie-in merchandise for the film, but I say this Heidi Daus castle necklace that HSN will be selling is notable. I actually think it's pretty, although totally unwearable.
Thursday's Tales is a weekly event here at Carol's Notebook. Fairy tales, folktales, tall tales, even re-tellings, I love them all. Feel free to join in....
Today I have another tale comes from The Chinese Fairy Book edited by Dr. R. Wilhelm, 1921. "The Spirit of the Wu-Lian Mountain" isn't about a dragon, though.
To the west of the gulf of Kiautschou is the Wu-Lian Mountain, where there are many spirits. Once upon a time a scholar who lived there was sitting up late at night, reading. And, as he stepped out before the house, a storm rose up suddenly, and a monster stretched out his claws and seized him by the hair. The monster lifted him up in the air and carried him away. They passed by the tower which looks out to sea, a Buddhist temple in the hills. In the distance, in the clouds, the scholar saw the figure of a god in golden armor. The figure looked exactly like the image of Weto which was in the tower. In its right hand it held an iron mace, while its left pointed toward the monster,...
Last week I focused on a Chinese tale because of the Lunar New Year. This week I finished listening to The Girl with Ghost Eyes, which takes place in San Francisco's Chinatown at the end of the nineteenth century and incorporates a lot of the Chinese culture, traditions and legends. I decided to stick with the Chinese theme today. "The Bird with Nine Heads" comes from The Chinese Fairy Book edited by Dr. R. Wilhelm, 1921.
There once lived a king and a queen who had a daughter. One day, when the daughter was walking in the garden, a huge storm suddenly came up and carried her away. The storm had come from the bird with nine heads, who had stolen the princess and brought her to his cave. The king did not know where his daughter had disappeared to, so he proclaimed throughout the land: “Whoever brings back the princess may have her for his bride!”
Now a young man had seen the...
Chinese New Year was celebrated last Saturday, so I thought I'd concentrate on Chinese stories for a few weeks. "The Dragon After His Winter Sleep" was retold in The Chinese Fairy Book edited by Dr. R. Wilhelm, 1921.
Once upon a time, a scholar who was reading in his house. It was a rainy, cloudy day and the weather was gloomy. Suddenly he saw a little thing which shone like a firefly. It crawled onto the table, and wherever it went it left traces of burns. Gradually it wound itself about the scholar’s book and the book, too, grew black. Then it occurred to the scholar that the creature might be a dragon. So he carried it outside on the book. He stood there for a while, but it didn't move at all.
Then the scholar said: “It shall not be said of me that I was lacking in respect.” With these words he carried the book back inside and laid it...
I thought it might be fun this month to re-post some of my most popular fairy tale posts. “The Lion, the Hare, and the Hyena” always gets a lot of views, but to be honest, it's not a story I remembered at all.
“The Lion, the Hare, and the Hyena” is a story from Kenya. The version I read in Nelson Mandela’s Favorite African Folktales was told to Phyllis Savory by Gwido Mariko and illustrated by Tamsin Hinrichsen.
A lion who lived alone in a cave had an injured leg and cannot hunt , but luckily for him a hare, Sunguru, who was passing by realized the lion needed his help and stayed to take care of him. The lion gained strength and was soon well enough to catch food for them to eat.
One day a hyena smelled the bones that were left from the two friends’ meal. The hyena, wanting the delicious bones, tried to convince the lion that he had been...
I thought it might be fun this month to re-post some of my most popular fairy tale posts. Another often visited post is "Crocodile's Treason". The folktale comes from South Africa and takes place during the time when animals could still talk. The Crocodile is the leader of all the water animals, so when the river dries up, he comes up with a plan to trek to another river, one that the otter assures him still has water and will be able to withstand any drought. There are a couple of problems. First, traveling across dry land is dangerous for water creatures. Second, to get to the other river they have to pass by a Boer's farm.
The Crocodile comes up with the solution. He offers peace to the lion and other veldt animals. In exchange for allowing the crocodile and his friends to cross without worrying about being eaten and to escort them pass the farm, the other animals will...