Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (LibriVox), Part B

This story is from the Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm

The Fox and the Horse: This story is about a horse who has become old. His owner turns away from him and says he (the horse) shall not return until he is stronger than a horse. Out in the wild, the horse meets a fox and he shares his story. The fox tells him that he can help him with becoming as strong as a lion. He tells the horse to stretch out on the ground and lie very quietly. In the meantime the fox goes and gets a lion and tells him he knows where he can come and find a horse. The fox ends up tricking the lion and ties all of his legs together. The lion freaks out and makes a ton of noise and the horse's owner can hear him roaring. He decides that the horse has done what he was supposed to and tells him he can stay in his stables forever. I really like this story and I am planning on using it for my story this week. I want to tell the story from the point of view from the fox. I plan to have him watching the horse and when he sees the rejection of the owner, he decides to try to help the horse. There are a lot of possibilities for the retelling of this story.

The Fox and the Horse

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (LibriVox), Part A

These are stories from the Fairy Tales by Brothers Grimm

The Straw, the Coal, and the Bean: This was a story involving three inanimate objects: a piece of straw, a piece of coal, and a bean. They have all escaped the wrath of a woman who was cooking and are looking to get away. On their escape mission, the piece of straw gets burned and the coal joins. The bean, who was much more cautious, laughs so hard at the others misfortune that he bursts into pieces. His luck allowed him to be sewn back together by a tailor who was passing by. As a result, all beans in the future would have a black seam. I thought I would do notes on this story because it seemed different from the other stories this week. It was not a normal fairy tale that I am familiar with so I thought it would be interesting to come back to on Wednesday when I write my story.

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage: This story was about three things that come together and live in one single household. They each have certain jobs and do their work nicely. One day the bird realizes that he does much more work than the others so they decide to all change jobs. The sausage ends up getting eaten by a dog, the mouse gets burned by a log, and the bird ends up drowning. I would like to retell this story from the point of view of each animal after the jobs have been switched and leading up to their deaths.

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage

Wikipedia Trail: From Hansel and Gretel to Assyria

This week I started by looking up Hansel and Gretel. One of my readings this week reminded me of this story so I thought I would read a little more about the story. This brought me to a page on hags. From here I clicked on a link to the Persian people. Lastly, I went to a link on Assyria. It is amazing how one link can lead you to such a different place.

Hansel and Gretel

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part B

These are from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Mr. Miacca: I liked this story because it reminded me of Hansel and Gretel. A little boy leaves his house, even though his mother tells him not to, and gets captured by Mr. Miacca who wants to eat him. The boy tricks Mr. and Mrs. Miacca and escapes only to get caught again when he sneaks out of his house. He figures out a way to escape and is good after this and does not leave his house. I thought it was an interesting story and I thought it was funny that there are stories in many cultures about little children getting cooked for supper.

Mr. Miacca

Fairy Ointment: Dame Goody is a nurse who takes care of babies and sick people. A man comes to her one night saying that his wife needs her help. She came and helped this family and rubbed oil on the baby's eyes. This turned them all into fairies. The family paid Dame Goody more than ever before in her life. This story caught my attention because I have not read anything with pixies in it before. It was very different from many other stories I have read in the past so I really liked it.

Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part A

This week I chose readings from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Binnorie: This is a very interesting story; one that stuck out to me from this weeks first reading. It is about a jealous sister who eventually drowns her sibling in order to get her love. After her death, someone finds her body and makes a harp out of her breast bone and hair. The harp sings and tells those that her sister drowned her and then the harp breaks. Jealousy is a cruel and powerful emotion that can drive people to do very crazy and unthinkable things.

Mouse and Mouser: This story kind of reminded me of the cartoon Tom and Jerry. A mouse is talking to a cat and telling him of how he went to market and bought some pudding. In the end the cat eats the mouse. It is told in a rhyme scheme that is very repetitive. I think it would be cool to tell the story in the same way but make it more humorous and have a happier ending...maybe one similar to a Tom and Jerry cartoon.

Tom and Jerry

Tech Tip: Pinterest Embedded

Here is my Pinterest board I have created for this class. I have added some pictures from the different cultures we have been reading about. I love Pinterest because they have so many different ideas and articles from all around the world! It has really helped me visualize the different aspects of each culture!

Reading Notes: Japanese Fairy Tales, Part B

The Crab and the Monkey by Andrew Lang: This is a story about manipulation and revenge. The monkey continually has the upper hand in his exchanges with a crab. The crab is even beaten by the monkey at one point. His friends help him to heal and they all plan an attack of revenge on the monkey. The monkey comes to make a half-hearted apology and finds himself stealing an egg from the crab. This backfires on him when the egg explodes, he gets stung by a wasp, and falls into a hole and dies. At the end it describes the crab living happily ever after and peacefully dying of old age. This was a sad story for both the crab and the monkey. If I were to retell it I think I would try to make it a little more upbeat.

Crab

Schippeiraro by Andrew Lang: This story was a little confusing, but I thought it was also quite interesting. It tells of a Japanese custom where boys are sent off when they become young men in order to find themselves and gain independence. This one young boy wonders and finds himself in a chapel where he decides to sleep. He wonders into the nearby village and becomes involved in something there. From my understanding, he takes this dog back to the chapel where the cats and their king are going to kill him. Instead of letting this happen, the boy and the other youth there cut off the cats head. This causes them all to be heroes and celebrated every year. If I were to retell this story I would make the people animals. I think it would be cool to tell of the animals journey before he finds himself in the chapel. It discusses how sometimes the men would chat and discuss their journeys, but other times these men would be robbers. It would be interesting to maybe make up a story about a robber and the man (animal).