The Dervish and the Three Coins

For the low, low price of three coins, you can get four pieces of wisdom!

Hello, reader. Since it's still winter, I thought we'd look at a tale from Turkey where it's warmer. Today's tale is The Dervish and the Three Coins. We learn several life lessons in this tale.

As this story opens, we have a merchant who is not good at managing his money. When he's down to just three coins, he takes all of his money and leaves his family. So far, I'm not seeing a great guy. Because of his shame, he abandons his family and leaves them with nothing. He needs to get his priorities checked. Then, when he finds a dervish, the merchant gives over all of his money to learn some wisdom. This worked out well for him in this story, but I was pretty worried for the merchant's family for a moment. I'm guessing the dervish was trying to get the merchant to see that wisdom is more useful than money, but it could have ended pretty badly for our main character.

As it turned out, it worked out really well for our merchant. Remembering the four pieces of advice the dervish gave him, the merchant was able to make much more money and return home a rich man. By this point, he had been gone for several days with no word to his family, so when the merchant meets a neighbor on the way home and he learns that his wife is looking at other men, I wasn't too surprised.

Let's look at this from her perspective. She probably had to assume he was dead and in order to keep her family alive, she needed to be married to someone, or go live with someone in her family. There was a real sleezeball who apparently started courting her just about the day her husband left. So, this woman's sister took her in. It was the closest thing to a restraining order they could get. Thank goodness for kind-hearted sisters, otherwise this story would have gotten very complicated.

While we can learn the four morals, or pieces of wisdom, the merchant learned, I prefer to think the moral is: Manage your business well and life will be a lot easier.

The Little Girl and the Winter Whirlwinds

I imagine this is what Frosty Winter Witch rides.

Hello, reader. Since the winter solstice just happened, I thought we'd look at a tale about winter today. The Little Girl and the Winter Whirlwinds is a sweet story about a village of cowards. It comes from another fairy tale blog, so it's good to support them.

When winter stays too long, the people in the village at the bottom of the mountain have a decision to make: someone has to go up the mountain and find out what's going on with Father Christmas. An old man starts to volunteer and then realized that he's too old. His granddaughter offers to go instead. The other villagers kick up a fuss, but no one else offers to go. That is why I say it's a village of cowards. They let a little girl climb a mountain by herself. At least the other children give her a coat and such so she doesn't have to rely solely on her warm heart.

The little girl is protected by her warm heart, until Frosty Winter Witch plays on that and sings a lullaby that the orphan girl's mother used to sing and lulls the girl to sleep. The girl's warm heart protected her from whirlwinds and blizzards, but not hypothermia. Fortunately, after the mountain animals find her and revive her the rest of the journey is easy. Father Christmas is only too happy to bring spring back and the girl returns to her village. I kind of wanted her to stay with Father Christmas since she proved herself to be so tough yet kind. I suppose her village would be in a lot of trouble without her, though.

The moral this week I suppose is that if winter goes on too long, climb a mountain and it will be done by the time you come home. But only if you have a warm heart.

Thumbelina

Come live in the marsh with a toad you just met. It'll be great!

This week's tale is long story about a tiny girl. Thumbelina is a piece by Hans Christian Anderson, which makes the country of the week Denmark. There is so much to dig into in this story, but I'll try to keep it light.

Thumbelina, or Tiny as she's also called, is pulled from one part of the story to another. She's kidnapped twice and is almost married off three times. Her life is not easy. She goes from living a sheltered life with her mom, to fending for herself in the forest. The only time Tiny takes control of her life is when she agrees to leave with the swallow whose life she saved.

Throughout the story, Tiny's beauty is a curse to her. It's why she gets kidnapped so often and is why so many animals want to marry her. The only time it is a good thing for her is at the end of the story when she meets the fairy king. Only then, when she wants to marry someone, does it help her that she's attractive. Marrying someone based only on their looks is problematic, but we don't have space to dive into that here. I'm sure it worked out fine for them.

I suppose a moral for this story could be, "Try not to be pretty when times are tough," but I don't like that moral. Instead, let's say, "When all sorts of animals are trying to marry you, hold out for the Fairy King who lives where it's always warm."

How the Phoenix Got Her Fine Plumage

Even now, the other birds are asking for food when they have none.

This week, I thought we'd pick a particular country in Asia to visit. Unfortunately, the website I found didn't break the stories down into countries, so we're somewhere in Asia for How the Phoenix Got Her Fine Plumage.

This story not only explains the way things are, it also comes with a moral. It's a two for one with a Phoenix. How can you lose?

This story brings out the importance of trusting your gut, even when people mock you for it. It is impressive that Phoenix stuck to her guns about their plentiful food someday running out. It also speaks to her character that Phoenix shared her food with everyone, even though they had made fun of her for storing it.

One of the features of this story that is missing from other tales like this is that the other birds actually gave something in exchange for Phoenix's generosity. Their feathers were really the only thing the birds had, and they all chose the most beautiful to give to Phoenix. I try to keep this in mind to get past how superficial their gift is. Nevertheless, Phoenix is the prettiest bird in the forest now.

If we're looking for an alternative moral to this story, I would say it's: trust your instincts and don't be a jerk if you're proven right.

Crow Brings the Daylight

He looks dependable.

This week's tale comes to us from Canada. Crow Brings the Daylight is a folktale about, you guessed it, Crow. It is also one of those folk tales that explains the natural world.

It is interesting to think about Crow bringing brightness. Never mind the logistics of flying a ball of daylight all the way up north. Crow was the one who brought light where there was darkness and drove away the shadows. He illuminated everything, bringing in the ability to see as well as changing the way the sky looked. I know the journey south tired him excessively, but Crow seemed able to fly right back home. I wonder why he didn't go get a second ball of daylight so that they could have sunlight all year long. I know that wouldn't explain the way it works in the Arctic Circle, but it is puzzling.

Also puzzling is that dropping the ball of daylight made it go everywhere and didn't make it lose its shine. The ball broke, and I was worried Crow had just wasted a trip. I had thought that Crow would have to fly high into the sky and put the daylight there like the sun. Shattering the ball of daylight is more feasible though, allowing the logic of balls made of daylight attached to a string.

I suppose the moral of this story is that if you need something done, don't let it deter you when someone says they're too old.

Armadillo's Song

He looks like a great singer.

This week, we take a stroll to Bolivia to look at the armadillo and his burning desire to sing. In Armadillo's Song, we see a level of commitment and sacrifice usually only seen in romances. That is one of the reasons it stood out to me.

Things tend to happen in fairy tales in threes, so it is no surprise to me that the armadillo was laughed at by frogs, crickets, and canaries before he achieved his goal. Part of what I find sad in this story is that the armadillo doesn't understand the creatures who sing so beautifully. He admires their art so much, but he can't understand what they're saying. It is kind of a good thing because they were laughing at him, but that must have been frustrating for him. Here were three different creatures who were making beautiful music, but he was missing part of the meaning because he didn't know what the words meant.

I truly feel for the armadillo. He wanted to make music so badly he was willing to die for it. Then he wouldn't be able to know that he was making music or how it sounded. Putting aside his trust in the wizard, that is a desperate move to make. It makes we wonder about his life and how music came to dominate it so completely. In the end, I suppose the armadillo thought it was worth it because he did get to sing. I just hope the wizard was a good musician.

Have a story you want me to write about? Comment below!

The Wishing Skin

Does it still feel like you have immense power when your crown is bigger than you are?

This week's folk tales comes to us from Hungary, and it's called The Wishing Skin. It's got everything from talking rabbits to royalty, and it focuses on a woodcutter who rises to immense power and prestige.

One of my main problems with this story is the scope of the woodcutter's wishes. It's understandable that he would want all of the luxury and riches that he never had, but I don't understand why it takes him so long to wish he were taller. All he has to do is wish that the wishing skin wouldn't change his height and then he could have as many wishes as he liked. That would break the story, so it makes sense that he doesn't do it, but it still bothers me.

Let's take a moment to look at his wife, Joan. At first, she stops her husband from wishing for more. When they first become a lord and lady, Joan interrupts her husband mid-wish. He's only three feet tall and she is satisfied with what they have and doesn't want to sacrifice his height for even more. However, after she sees that they only have about as much as their neighbors do, suddenly she values power over her husband's size and convinces him to wish for more. She allows herself to be taken over by the ability to get whatever she wants with no direct consequences. After the first time, she doesn't seem to mind too much that her husband is a midget and, eventually, doll-sized.

I also find it interesting that the woodcutter decides to make these further wishes, even though he has to bear the consequences. It seems to be worth more to him to have peace in his household than to have his usual height. We can tell who truly has the power in this relationship. That is especially obvious when the woodcutter lives in a doll house in the garden and has no say in how their kingdom is run. Sometimes I have to wonder about men being afraid of having women in power, but this is unfairness sent far to the other side of the spectrum. In any event, the woodcutter finally wishes to have everything back that he had before and that's where we leave him. With the experiences they just had, I have to wonder if they were able to go back to the way things were before, or if something has changed in their relationship.

I suppose the moral of this story is either, "Don't follow the advice of your wife if she's greedy for power," or "Be satisfied with what you've worked for and not what you have handed to you through magic."

Know a folktale you'd like me to write about? Comment below!

Tatterhood

Does that mean they're actually triplets?

Hello, reader! This week's tale comes to us from Europe, probably Norway or Iceland, and is called Tatterhood. This also happens to be the name of the main character. Hang onto your goats, folks. We're in for a ride on this one.

Right from the beginning, we have a comparison set up between Tatterhood and her sister, Betsy. Tatterhood is no doubt from the rare flower, while Betsy must be from the fair flower. The queen was warned not to eat the rare flower, and that must be how a hood, tattered or otherwise, a spoon, and a goat came out with the first twin. Modern science is drawing a blank on how else this could have happened.

This is one of the few folktales where two girls set out to find their fortune instead of the youngest son of either a peasant or king. And Tatterhood is a force to be reckoned with. When she was seven years old, she and her goat drove away marauding trolls that adults had learned to accept. When one of the trolls steals her sister's head, Tatterhood jumps on a sailboat and gets herself over to their home to steal back the head. I'm pretty impressed that a seven year old can sail by herself. I doubt the goat helped much.

On the other hand, we don't know very much about Betsy. We know that she loves Tatterhood, even though she is completely different, and that she's willing to marry a prince she just met without telling her parents. Perhaps we need to look at her condition that she will not marry until someone asks Tatterhood to marry him. It could be that she wanted to marry this love-struck prince, but it could be that she realized that, even though she loved Tatterhood, few people would love her twin when they first met her. Betsy might have been trying to buy some time to figure out whether or not she wanted to marry this guy. After all, since she and Tatterhood were setting out to seek their fortune alone, they had no pressure from someone else to marry the first set of princes they met. Either way, on their wedding day, we know both princes loved both twins, and we know the feeling was returned, or Tatterhood would have gotten them both out of there.

There are a few different versions of this tale. Some of them cast Tatterhood in a harsh light, making her flower ugly to begin with and having the prince who has to marry her scold her into changing her appearance into something dazzling. I prefer this version because a personality as wild as Tatterhood's would not let herself marry some guy who was going to take control of her life. And change is always easier when the one changing initiates it.

If we are looking for morals, I suppose the best one is this: "Respect the crazy ways of your twin sister because she will save your life and she'll change when she feels like it." Or perhaps it's just, "When someone is chasing trolls around the castle, don't look outside."

Have a folktale you want me to write about? Leave a comment below!

The Girl Who Got the Better of the Gentleman

It's hard to find a picture to fit this story, so here's a picture of Ireland.

This week, we travel to Ireland to look at one of their folktales, specifically, The Girl Who Got the Better of the Gentleman. It fits right in with The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo. Well, almost.

In this tale, we have a wise girl with an old father. The man the girl's father works for keeps threatening to kill the old man unless he can answer these riddles. Of course, the girl figures them out and the old man's life is saved. What puzzles me is that this girl then agrees to marry the gentleman. Not only did he try to "take liberties" with her, but he kept threatening to put her father to death. Then again, they were beggars before the gentleman employed her father, and marrying a man who was so well off would ensure that she would never have to beg again. Hopefully, he respected her wishes after they were married.

In any case, I love these stories where the heroine answers the outlandish riddles to save someone's life. A riddle seems like a trivial thing to kill someone over, but it happens in several stories. Part of my enjoyment is that the woman is getting the better of the man asking the riddles, but also that these stories celebrate the intellect and not just brute strength. Many of our heroes are brave and strong, but we never really know how smart they are, because someone else always gives them the tricky answers to problems that they can't fight their way through. A perfect example of this was our story last week, The Fire Bird and Vasilisa. Of course, in this story, the wise partner is a horse, but that's another analysis entirely.

I suppose if we're looking for a moral to this story, there's a few. One is "Be careful not to damage your husband's fragile ego, or he'll try to get rid of you." Another moral could be, "The smartest girl gets the rich man." Or perhaps, it's simply, "If you are only able to take three loads out of the house with you when you leave, be sure to just have two kids."

Have another folk tale you want me to write about? Do you have a particular country or region you want to hear a story from? Comment below!

The Fire-Bird and Vasilisa

Get back here, you! Otherwise, the tsar will kill me.

Today, we're heading over to Russia to look at The Firebird and Vasilisa. I find it interesting that the story is titled this way when the firebird isn't a big part of it. Still, that's why I happened to choose this tale for today, so I guess it was a good move.

Firstly, I would like to talk about Ivanushka's horse. A talking horse is a rarity, but this horse also gives good advice and can cast spells. It's quite the companion. Also, it is only because of the horse that Ivanushka doesn't find himself on the run or dead. He gets in way over his head from the beginning and only through the horse's help does he come out on top. It's a pity this wise, important character doesn't have a name.

We need to talk about Princess Vasilisa as well. She tries to take a free lunch, and soon finds out that's not possible. She's been kidnapped to be married off to some old jerk. At least he's a tsar, I guess. What surprised me is that they take her requests seriously. Before she gets married, she needs a ring from the bottom of the ocean and for the tsar not to be so old. She probably didn't expect them to be able to get the ring, so she tries to kill the tsar next. I have to wonder what her exit plan was here. If she thought the tsar would just jump into a vat of boiling water because she told him to, she was overestimating her influence on him. However, if it did work and she managed to kill him, without first falling in love with Ivan, was she going to race out the door and keep running until she got home? Or was she expecting they would kill her next? Maybe she would overturn their values and declare herself tsar of that kingdom. That would have been interesting.

Fortunately for Princess Vasilisa, Ivan was the first one to try the boiling bath and he was able to come out more pleasing because of a spell from his wonderful horse. Then the tsar was only too willing to try it and, without magical protection, died. Of course, since Ivan is the hero of our tale, the princess fell in love with him and the people of the land decided that this archer turned kidnapper would be a good tsar. So, Ivan gets everything the old tsar wanted and then probably dances on the old man's grave.

If we're looking for a moral in this story, it's either if you're kidnapped and expected to marry some rich old man, demand outrageous things until he kills himself, or respect your friends, even if they carry you on their backs, because they may save your life. One of the two.

Have a fairy tale or legend you want me to write about? Comment below!

A Legend of Kanikaniaula and the First Feather Cloak

Look at this sweet feather cloak.

I've always wanted to visit Hawaii, so this week, we'll look at A Legend of Kanikaniaula and the First Feather Cloak, which is a Hawaiian folktale. It's a bit long, but worth the read.

We start off our tale with a bright young man, well respected at court, getting sidetracked from his duty by a pretty girl. So far, it sounds pretty normal. However, it soon becomes clear that she wants his help. What Eleio sees walking around is her spirit and she wants to be restored to life. Fortunately for her, he knows how to do this.

One of the things I find interesting about this story is that there's no villain. Eleio is overcoming death and, later, the king's extreme displeasure, but not a character who is trying to hurt him. Another interesting bit in this story is all of the detail. We know which plants they used to build the lanai and how they kept everything quiet, including their animals. Also of note is that Eleio does not marry the girl, even after she's offered to him. In some stories, a servant is sent to fetch a bride for the king (we can talk about treating women like property later), but generally if a young man wins a young woman, he marries her for himself. Not here. Eleio decides the girl would be a great bride for his king. This works out well for Eleio because otherwise he would have been burned to death. Ouch.

I have to wonder at Kanikaniaula's perspective on the whole thing. She obviously wanted to be brought back to life, but did she want to be indebted to and owned by some stranger? Her parents give her to this guy because he brought her back to life. Leaving my feminist outrage aside, that's not necessarily giving her back her life. That's taking it for another purpose that she doesn't necessarily want. Oh well. At least she can make awesome feather cloaks.

Have a folktale you'd like me to write about? Comment below and I'll make a post on it!

The Death of Baldur

Oh hey! That one hurt!

This week's legend is from the Norse library again. The Death of Baldur is a trickster tale where Loki just feels like being a jerk, so he  causes the first sign of the end of the world. It's a classic trickster thing to do.

This tale begins with Baldur feeling worried that he's about to die. Since he brings this up so publicly, Loki decides to do something to mess with him. Loki has a pretty dark sense of humor. So, he finds the one thing that didn't promise not to harm Baldur. And sharpens it. He also manages to get a blind god to throw the mistletoe dart at Baldur, so Loki can't be directly blamed.

In this story, we see a more serious impact of a trickster's actions. Loki doesn't care about consequences. If the rest of the gods know Balder's death will lead to Ragnarok (the end of the world), then Loki knows it as well. He just decides it would be too funny to kill Baldur with the one thing no one expected to be able to harm him. To me, that encapsulates a trickster perfectly. It doesn't matter what will happen later, Loki just wants the fun of the moment. Too bad his moment of fun ends the world, but these things happen, occasionally. Especially when you're Loki.

Have a folktale you want me to write a post about? Comment below and I'll write about it!

How Coyote Stole Fire

What a cute fire-stealer!

Hello again, reader. Today, I thought we'd take a journey down a different path in the folktale library. We'll be looking at How Coyote Stole Fire, which comes to us from the Native Americans. I wish the source for this story said which tribe this came from, but it's not there and I couldn't find out which one or ones it was.

In any event, this is a fun tale because a trickster is actually working to help someone out, and that "someone" is humans. Often, trickster tales begin because the trickster is bored or threatened, so this is a good change of pace. Coyote has one goal here: to give human beings fire so they can survive the winter. It's a surprisingly noble goal for a trickster. I also thought it was interesting that the Fire Beings had to sleep, but Coyote didn't. They're obviously different sorts of beings, so one of those differences must be the need to sleep.

I also thought it was noteworthy how they worked so many creation myths into this story. Not only do we have the title theft of fire, but we have why coyotes, chipmunks, squirrels, and frogs look the way they do. That's efficiency. Although, I do feel bad for the frog, since it lost its tail. Poor thing.

Across cultures, mankind has to steal fire in order to get it. Think of Prometheus, for example. Coyote has to steal fire for humans, and then he teaches them how to get it out of Wood. It is kind of elegant to think about fire that way. Wood has it inside and we just have to coax it out. There's a metaphor about hidden potential there. I also wonder what the Fire Beings did after that. If humans already had fire, did they still feel the need to guard it? Maybe they all got to get a good night's sleep for the first time in years. It's a nice thought, anyway.

Know of a folktale you want me to write about? Comment below and I'll check it out.

Princess and the Pea

You call this twenty mattresses? Anyone could feel a pea through this!

Today we look at the only time I know of where it's a good thing to bruise incredibly easily. It's the story of the Princess and the Pea and you can read it here. How did they stack so many mattresses, anyway?

Firstly, we need to look at the prince in this story. He wanted to be particular about his bride and he decided to use the justification that all of the candidates he saw weren't real princesses. Which is a terrible excuse. Princesses are pretty obvious what with the crowns and entire countries vouching for their position. I feel like there had to be more to the story there. If his only qualification for a bride was that she had to be a princess, he could have gone one kingdom over, or however many it took until a king had a daughter, and married the first one he met. In any case, he found something wrong with all of them and returned home a bachelor.

The queen is with him in this ridiculous quest. She is the one who has the idea about the twenty mattresses and twenty feather-beds with a single pea underneath it all. I wonder how the princess got into that bed, and how she kept from falling off of it in the night. I would imagine she was tossing and turning all night trying to be comfortable. I guess that's part of what proves that she is a princess: not only could she not fall asleep on a pea buried beneath a mountain of softness, but she also did not fall off the bed.

I am also amused that it's never made clear if the girl is actually a princess or not. The prince and queen believe she is because she was so sensitive, but that's not proof to me. Why was a princess wandering around alone in the middle of a storm? More importantly, if a pea bothered her, what did she usually sleep on? I feel pretty bad for everyone in her house. She must have been a real pain to deal with, whether she wanted to be or not. Poor princess. Hopefully the prince had a lot of delicate things for her to sleep on, sit on, and wear.

Have a folktale you want me to talk about? Comment below and I'll look it up!

Rumpelstiltskin

Because who doesn't need spools of gold?

This week, we're back on familiar ground with Rumpelstiltskin. You can read it here. I always forget about Rumpelstiltskin's death. What a drama queen.

This tale is another where a peasant rises up to become royalty. Although, in this case, the only extraordinary thing about the miller's daughter is that someone with magic powers comes to her aid. We need to look at Rumpelstiltskin's motivation here. Clearly the ring and necklace were just a build-up to getting the baby. If he can make gold out of straw, what use would Rumpelstiltskin have for jewelry like that?

Making the queen guess his name was a pretty solid test since he never introduced himself. However, he blew it by dancing around singing his name. There was only one day left, but he just couldn't hold it in. Then, once the queen guesses his name, he tears himself in half. This is a pretty stupid guy. However, I prefer an alternate view. What if Rumpelstiltskin was actually smart? What if he needed to fake his death?

There would be no more public place than a king's throne room for his act, especially after he threatened the prince or princess. Everyone would want to know what happened to him and word would get around pretty quickly about his stunt.

That's one of the things I love about folk tales: there's so many ways to interpret them and different parts to look at. I might look at this story again later. We didn't even talk about the king or queen.

Have a folk tale you want me to talk about? Comment below!

The Little Match Girl

Sometimes, all you need to see through the darkness is a match.

This week, by request, we'll look at The Little Match Girl. You can find it here. This one is pretty sad.

We get a fairly stark juxtaposition of the rich and poor in this story. Our protagonist has no shoes, no hat, and no warm place to live in the dead of winter. All she has are these matches, which she can't use if she's going to sell them. Meanwhile, in the warm houses around her, they're having a feast because it's New Year's eve.

As I was going through this story, I was trying to pinpoint the moment she died, terrible as that sounds. At first, I thought it was when she saw the shooting star, but at the end, she had burned a whole bundle of matches, which happened after she saw the star. So the shooting star couldn't have been for her. That makes me wonder who it was for. Since we don't know about her parents and her grandmother is already dead, I suppose we might not find out.

I do love the imagery in this story. Matches give off light which we use to illuminate things to see them better. The Match Girl uses matches to illuminate things that wouldn't be there otherwise. She uses the whole bundle to keep her grandmother there because the girl knows otherwise she'll disappear. That is, until the Match Girl dies and can go join her grandmother in heaven. It's sort of a depressing ending, but at least she'll never be cold again.

Have a folktale you'd like me to talk about? Comment below and I'll write a post about it.

The Creation of Thor's Hammer

Loki's just a stand-up guy. When he feels like it.

This week, I decided to mosey over to the Norse store of mythology. Just a note, for those of you familiar with Loki and Thor in the Avengers universe, they're a bit different in Norse mythology. For example, Loki is Thor's uncle, not brother, and everybody is more violent. Their personalities are pretty much the same, though. You still can't trust Loki as far as you can throw him. Assuming you could throw him; his father is a giant. In any case, you can find today's legend here.

Firstly, let's dwell for a moment on the fact that this whole story starts because Loki is bored. So he decides's to cut off Thor's wife's hair. Not the smartest move he could have made, but it speaks to Loki's character. He is a force of chaos and he doesn't feel the need for logic to guide that chaos. He lives in the moment and counts on his quick wit to get him out of whatever trouble he lands himself in.

His nature does not always bring bad things for the gods, though. It is only because Loki taunts Brokkr and Sindri that they make  Mjollnir, Thor's hammer. I know, the Norse names are certainly interesting. Loki also gets away from this adventure relatively unscathed because of his tricky reasoning. In comparison to losing your head, getting your mouth sewn shut is not that big of a deal. So all in all, it was a win for the gods.

I do have to wonder what happened when Sif's hair grew back. Did she still wear the dwarf hair, or put it away for the next time Loki messed up her 'do? The dwarf version was supposed to be prettier...

Do you know any folktales you'd like me to talk about? Comment below!

Sun, Moon, and Talia

Spin some flax? What could possibly go wrong?

We've covered the story of Sleeping Beauty already on this blog.  Today, I thought we could look at a variant, called Sun, Moon, and Talia. You can find it here. It's just a little different.

Firstly, it is interesting to me that even though the cause of the death-like sleep is now flax instead of a spindle, the vehicle is still the same. I wonder why spinning was such a terrible thing. The difference is very important because Talia didn't need a kiss to wake her; she needed the flax removed. This allowed the king to come into the house and rape her without her waking up. At least she's happy about her twin babies whom she doesn't remember making.

Honestly, the king is a slimeball. Not only does he rape this girl, but then he promises to bring her and their children to his kingdom. Which he never does. It works to his advantage to leave Talia, Sun, and Moon in their secluded castle where no one will know about them, and rule the kingdom with his wife. It doesn't seem like Talia even knows he's married. She also doesn't seem to mind that he slept with her when she wasn't awake to consent. That's either got to be his delivery or her not knowing that's wrong.

We also have the king's current wife, the queen. The story makes us dislike her as soon as she's introduced. At first, she does nothing wrong. She just wants to know if her husband was cheating on her, which turns out to be a valid concern. Her actions after that are less than stellar. Who even thinks about cooking up babies and feeding them to their father? Besides the stepmother in The Juniper Tree, I mean.

At the end, everything works out well for Talia. Or, as well as it can. I have trouble with the moral written as part of this story. Talia did not get good fortune in her sleep. The real moral of this story is that if you're leaving someone alone and they're passed out, you'd better be sure they're safe. Perhaps if she'd had a hedge of briars...

Do you have a folk tale you'd like me to talk about? Leave a comment below!

Unanana and the Elephant

He looks like he could eat a couple of kids whole.

Hello, reader. This week, I'd like to look at a tale that is probably unfamiliar to you. Unanana and the Elephant is a folktale from Southern Africa and it's pretty great. You can find the version I'm talking about here, just try not to get lost in all of the pictures.

Firstly, Unanana is dedicated to her children. She has been out all morning gathering firewood and when she hears her children have been kidnapped, she only stops to get what she needs before going out again. She is going to rescue them by herself. Also, think about how far she must have already walked that morning, and how far she walked after getting her beans and knife. Once she finds the elephant, she has to be worn out, but she doesn't let the elephant know that, which leads me to my next point.

Unanana is also incredibly brave. She goaded that elephant with one tusk into eating her alive. She had no real way of knowing what would happen to her after she was eaten, but if there was a chance that her children were still alive, then she would be too. Luckily for her, they were alive and so she didn't die either. She brought her knife along not so that she could try to kill the elephant when she found it, but so that she could cut her way out from inside of it. This is not a woman you want to cross.

We aren't told much about appearance except for Unanana's children, who are beautiful. It doesn't matter in this story what anyone else looks like, which is kind of a nice change from the Grimms' formula. Although, it is sad that the children are kidnapped because they're pretty.

So, if we're looking for morals, this one is simple: don't kidnap the kids of a woman who will do anything to get them back. Especially if she has a giant knife.

Have a story you want me to talk about? Leave me a comment below!

The Six Swans

Guys, can you hurry up? I'm burning, here.

Today, we're meandering back toward the known path with this story. The Six Swans is a fairy tale that has a female protagonist who does more than look pretty. There are several stories like this in the world's folktales, thank goodness. Go ahead and read this story here.

As usual, we do have the moral that if you look pretty, things will turn out well for you. It was because the princess looked so nice that the king in that land took her away to marry her. It is interesting to note that we are not told how she feels about this marriage until nearly the end of the story when she calls the king "dearest husband", and we just have to take it on faith that she means this genuinely. She also has three children and she didn't die in childbirth, so it's a win all around.

However, let's look at the other side of this. This princess got what she needed through hard work. She was too afraid to tell her father that her stepmother had bewitched her brothers, but she went after them. On her own. Once they tell her the way to set them free, she gets to work right away. This is a princess. She could have come home and gotten someone else to do it, or gotten the king to make her stepmother do it as punishment for transforming the boys in the first place. She takes personal responsibility for this quest and starts making shirts out of flowers. She's got six years to do this, which makes me wonder how well preserved the flowers would be, but I assume part of the spell keeps them in good enough shape to make a garment. She is dedicated enough not to speak, even when her mother-in-law accuses her of eating her own children. I'm impressed by our protagonist's dedication, but also very confused by the mother-in-law. How did she decide on cannibalism, of all things, as the way to defame her daughter-in-law?

In the end, we learn one overwhelming truth: don't give strangers your necklace, or they'll want everything else you have too.

Have a story you want me to talk about? Leave me a comment below! It doesn't have to be a Grimm fairy tale. I'll be expanding to the folk tales of other cultures soon.

The Juniper Tree

All this for an apple?

So far, I've looked at standard fairy tales. Most people know those stories, and those versions of them. Today, I want to take us down a less well-traveled road. Around the Victorian era, someone decided that fairy tales should be for children, so they cleaned up what they could, and completely erased others. Like this story. The Juniper Tree has murder, cannibalism, and some more murder. Not exactly something you want the nanny reading to your children before they go to bed. The link to the version I'm talking about is here.

Let's begin with the women in this story. In the most obvious aspect, you have the stepmother as the villain. She kills her stepson and makes her daughter think that she had killed the boy instead. Then they hide the body in a stew. Which the father eats all of. Crafty, but in a gross way. She's defeated when her sins come home to roost, literally, and the bird drops a millstone on her head. In a way she set up her own demise, but I doubt she was thinking her stepson would come back as a magic bird after he'd been eaten.

On the other hand, we have the boy's mother. I know she died after the first few paragraphs, but she still plays a role in this story. She clearly loved the juniper tree quite a bit, even eating the berries, which might have been a terrible idea, since it's possible those berries were poisonous. That might explain why the mother died. Whatever her cause of death, it's very important that she was buried beneath the juniper tree. That's the reason the tree was able to change the little boy's bones into a magical bird. It's because, as much as this woman loved the juniper tree, she loved her son even more. This story can be seen as two women's wills battling because they are the ones who set these events in motion. In the end, the mother's love wins out over the stepmother's greed and insecurity.

However, let's not discount the boy entirely. It was through his mother's love that he came back, but his actions after that were his own. Once he is a bird, he learns the lesson that everyone who wants to make a living in the arts has learned: never sing for free if you can charge for it. He charges pretty high prices too, a gold chain, red shoes, and a millstone. He also plays his cards well, dispensing gifts to his father and stepsister, and death from above to his murderous stepmother. Once he is revenged, he turns back into a little boy and the family happily goes inside. I guess someone else had to clean up the mess under the millstone.

I suppose the moral of this story is not to murder anyone, because they might come back to kill you.

The Little Mermaid

Oh hey. Wanna fall in love?

This week, let's look at the Little Mermaid. I mean the story written by Hans Christian Anderson, found here. It's a bit longer than most fairy tales, but I'll wait while you read it.
Love is a funny thing. Anderson spent most of his life pining for someone and that shows through in his stories. In this one, the mermaid falls in love with a man who considers her like a sister and they are never together the way she wants them to be. Poor little princess.

In this story we learn that if you give up everything for someone, you might not end up with them. I'm not sure if the little mermaid considers a shot at having a soul better than getting to live with and love her prince. Or even if she considers spending 300 years to earn a soul better than turning to foam on the sea. I can see why Disney changed the story when they made it into a movie. It's not a happy ending, but it's not as sad as it could have been, I suppose.

We also learn that communication is incredibly important and that if you're going to pin your hopes on loving someone, you'd better be sure they aren't in love with someone else first.

Beauty and the Beast

Oh, my beloved boar-man.

Hello again, reader. This week, I'd like to talk about a story where it is the beauty on the inside that matters...as long as there's also beauty on the outside. I'm talking about Beauty and the Beast, and you can read the version I'm looking at here.

One of the morals we pick up is from the Beast himself. After Beauty has begun to get used to him, he proposes to her. If you don't ask for something, you never get it. She did refuse him, timidly, but that put the thought in her mind, and, at the end, she does agree to marry him. So, even if someone says they don't love you, just keep them prisoner in your castle for a little longer. Eventually, the Stockholm syndrome will set in and she'll even come back if you let her leave!

The next moral is, of course, about looking pretty. This is a common theme in fairy tales. I keep waiting for the villain to twirl a handlebar- mustache while chortling, but I think I'll have to keep waiting for that. In any case, as is standard, our protagonist is both beautiful and virtuous. Because the two things always go hand in hand. Once she loves the Beast for who he is, the Beast also becomes beautiful. You see, if he'd stayed ugly then he would not have been a good reward for Beauty.

So, to wrap this up, if you're going to steal a rose from a magical castle, you'd better be prepared to sacrifice your daughter, but only if she's beautiful and virtuous. If she's not, this might turn into Bluebeard's story instead.

Snow White

A dead girl? Can I keep her?

This story is a little different than the Disney version we're probably all familiar with. Go ahead and read this version here. It's a little bit more intense than the more common one, right? Snow White is seven when she's kicked out of her house for being too pretty. It is interesting to me that this is one of the few fairy tales where it's actually a bad thing to be pretty, at least at the beginning.

Also, can we talk about the seven dwarves? Not in a creepy way, lots of folks have covered that to death. In this particular story, the seven dwarves' house is incredibly clean. Just indescribably spotless. They also have dinner ready on the table for them when they get back. So, when they offer Snow White room and board for the cost of keeping house for them, how much does she actually do? The list looks pretty lengthy: "take care of our house, cook, make the beds, wash, sew and knit, and if you will keep everything neat and clean". I wonder how much of that list she actually ended up doing. Those miners are very generous.

They're also patient. I know Snow White is a child, but she opens the door for a stranger three separate times. And she nearly dies each time because of it. I do have to salute the queen's creativity, though. Lacing Snow White's corset too tightly is kind of a standard idea, at least for me, but a poison comb, and poisoning only half of an apple? That's pretty darn impressive. Through all of these various ways that Snow White almost dies, the dwarves never yell at her. They just warn her to be careful. I would have dragged her to the mine with me. Although that has its own set of dangers, so maybe not.

At the end, after all of this care that the dwarves give to her, they willingly give up her body to a prince who has seen her once and declares that he loves her. To add to this, she was seven when she was kicked out of her house. We're not told how much time passes before the prince shows up, but she's still probably a kid. Ew. I guess luckily for Snow White, when she wakes up, she decides that she loves the prince as well and is totally fine with marrying him.

In the end, everyone danced at Snow White's wedding, even the evil queen. It was the last dance she ever had. I told you it was brutal.

Jack and the Beanstalk

An ogre, just trying to life his life. With cattle on his belt.

Of course, not all fairy tales are princess tales. This week, I thought we'd take a look at Jack and the Beanstalk, found here. I managed to find a version of this story by Perrault, but he made Jack out to be much too nice of a character. Part of what I find interesting about this story is that the protagonist is rewarded for being a thief and a jerk.

Firstly, Jack is an idiot. He trades five beans for a cow. Of course the man who gives him the beans goes into detail about how the beans sprout up into the sky overnight, and then he adds that if Jack isn't completely satisfied with his product, he can have his cow back the next day. You know, if he can find this guy. It's like Jack has never been scammed before. Then, surprisingly, the beans actually grow into a beanstalk. I suppose if the beans are going to turn out to be magic, it can only be in a fairy tale.

Once Jack gets up the beanstalk, we see how rude is. After begging breakfast from the first person he sees, he hides in her oven and hears her husband talk about how he eats little boys, but the wife conceals Jack from her murderous husband. This woman feeds him and keeps him safe. How does Jack repay her? He steal a sack of gold from her. Yes, stealing it out from under her husband is just like stealing it from her. After he gets bored with the gold, Jack steals from her two more times, taking the gold-egg laying hen, and the magic harp, which are possibly the two most awesome things in their house.

We all know how it ends. Jack gets caught stealing the harp, but he manages to get away and kill the ogre, so he can live happily, and richly, ever after. And marry a princess as an add on.

I suppose the lesson to learn from this tale is that if you're going to be a thief and a jerk, then you'd better be fast. At least it's better than having to rely on being pretty.

Sleeping Beauty

The only woman with attractive bedhead.

Sleeping Beauty is another classic fairy tale with questionable morals. As with all of these tales, it was originally told for entertainment to a wide audience. There is a version where our main character gives birth to twins. Before she wakes up. We'll get to that version later. For now, we'll start with the one most people know, which you can find here.

Let's start with our main character, the Sleeping Beauty. We don't learn very much about her at all. We know she's beautiful, has the "temper of an angel" whatever that means (I'm assuming the avenging kind of angel), she's full of grace, sings like a bird, dances like a flower (which probably doesn't look like how people dance), and she plays music unlike any folks have ever heard. Other than those things that others put on her, we have no idea what she's like. She could be arrogant and have an over developed sense of vengeance. Did anyone else notice how her parents got old and died before she woke up? Maybe she decided to get revenge on the fairy who saved her. I would read that story. Either way, from what we know of her, Sleeping Beauty is not a real person. She's an idealized cut-out.

On that note, she's hardly a character in her own story. All she does is wander the castle at seventeen and find some deaf old woman so the princess can prick her finger on a spindle. Then she wakes up, talks to some stranger for hours, and marries him the night she meets him. I'm assuming he was the one who proposed. She is only a vehicle for this prince to find a bride and for the story to have a happy ending.

As far as morals go, this story doesn't have many that I've seen. If you're pretty, some guy you've never met will kiss you while you sleep and marry you that night. But only if he has to wander through a creepy castle to get to you. And only if you're not an actual person, but an idealized collection of attributes. Hopefully no one takes Sleeping Beauty as a role model.

Cinderella, Darling

We're all familiar with the story of Cinderella. Well, a story of Cinderella. Most of us probably think of the version by Perrault, more or less. As is common in some versions of these tales, they tell you the moral at the bottom of this one. Just in case you missed it. However, I have two other morals that stood out to me in this story.

Do I have to make a wish? Because that's a lot of effort.

1. No matter how badly you have it, don't do anything to make your life better.
Apparently, Cinderella couldn't complain about her stepfamily to her father, who disappears shortly after we are told this, but if it was truly that terrible, she could have left. If she'd become a maid in someone else's house, at least she'd be paid for it. She could have refused to do the chores her stepfamily told her to do as well, but Cinderella seems to have done every task with a smile. She only gets out of this slavery because her godmother finally appears to save her from it. Otherwise, she would have just cried most of the night of the ball and been stuck as a serving wench for the rest of her days. Depressing. The only thing Cinderella does on her own to help herself is ask to try on the slipper at the end. Other than that, she's just following the current.

I'm so hot that guys are always chasing me.

2. Beauty is the most important way to win a husband.
The only thing we're told about the prince's and Cinderella's interactions are that she dances nimbly, he won't stop complimenting her, and that he won't stop looking at her. When she first walks in, everyone just talks about how beautiful she is and how nice her clothes are. They don't wonder who she is or how she got an invitation. That doesn't matter because she's gorgeous. Not to mention the several times we're told in this story how beautiful Cinderella is, especially in comparison with how ugly her stepsisters are. This feeds into our first point because Cinderella didn't have to do anything once she got to the ball because she was so beautiful. The prince went out and got her from her carriage, for goodness sake!

So, to marry the prince, you should put up with everything, no matter how terrible, and be beautiful. Only then will you find your happily ever after.

Did anyone else notice the father and stepmother disappeared from the story? I think they just left their daughters to find a happier story somewhere else.