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!