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!