The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese

This. Looks. Delicious.

Hello again, reader. This week, I have a Dutch tale for you. I chose The Boy Who Wanted More Cheese because I always want more cheese, so I had to see what happened to this boy. Don't worry, it's not a dark fairy tale, so he survives. Follow the link above to read the story before we dive below the surface of it. There's quite a bit of detail at the beginning, but they do get to the plot after that.

Firstly, we've all known those people who are about as big around as a stick, but who seem to have bottomless stomachs. Klaas is one such person. He must be kind of a trial to his parents. They want to be able to feed all of their children enough, but Klaas can never get enough. He seems to be a good child in everything else, but I wonder if his parents feel a bit inadequate that they aren't able to feed him until he's full. Hopefully they just accept his hunger along with his more pleasing traits. After all, this isn't Hansel and Gretel where the kids are abandoned in the forest because they're eating more than the parents can afford.

As soon as Klaas knew that fairies were calling him and he decided to answer their call, I thought he would either never go home again, or it would be about 50 years later when he got there. Fairy time runs differently than human time. Then, with all of this unknown risk, he gets to their fairy ring and there's no cheese! I was a little outraged for him. He's throwing away everything to get some more cheese and when he gets there, the fairies just want to dance with him. However, Klaas doesn't seem to mind working up an appetite and the fairies don't dance him to death, which was also a possibility I was wondering about. Then, and only then, does Klaas get the lesson of being careful what he wishes for.

Klaas seems to eat an impressive amount of cheese, but even he has a limit. I have to take a minute here and marvel that he ate the cheese straight. There is no mention of crackers, bread, or anything else. We've all eaten cheese straight, but it is more enjoyable with something else to go with it. Oh, you haven't eaten cheese by itself? I do recommend it, just not to the extent that Klaas does it. When he wakes up and Klaas realizes he's eating grass, I have to wonder about the rest of the cheese. Was some of it real, but the fairies switched out for grass at the end? It makes more sense that all of it was grass, but as a fellow cheese lover, I hope Klaas at least got some of the cheese he was wanting.

The moral I found for this story is to make sure you specify that you only want real cheese when you're accepting unlimited amounts of it from fairies. What do you think? Did Klaas get what was coming to him for messing with the fairies? Or is he to be pitied for being lied to?

Do you have a fairy tale or legend you want me to read? Comment below and I'll write a post about it!

East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Because who would be afraid to ride a bear?

Hello, reader! This week's story comes to us from Norway. East of the Sun, West of the Moon is a story about a man who's a real bear, and the woman who loves him. Follow the link above to read the story before we start dissecting it.

I like the heroine of this story right off the bat. Her father is essentially trying to sell her into marriage to a bear and she says no. This girl knows her own mind. Of course, her family is starving, so she eventually decides that she will marry the bear after all and off they go. In several places throughout the story, the heroine is asked if she is afraid, and she always truthfully replies, "No." You have to admire that kind of courage. This woman isn't afraid to do anything to get her love back. Either that, or she just doesn't realize how many things could go wrong in her adventure.

I also want to look at the bear's stepmother for a moment. What kind of stepmother bewitches her stepson to be a bear during the day and a man at night? I am also confused about the princess in this story. The princess and the stepmother live in the same castle. Is the princess from a previous marriage of the stepmother's? That would be pretty messed up to try to make half-siblings get married. Or, maybe the princess is from somewhere else and the stepmother is so determined to marry the girl to her stepson that she invited the princess to live with her. Either way, it's strange. We also never hear about the prince's father, which makes me wonder about his stepmother. And any woman this stepmother wants her stepson to marry.

But I digress. We know this stepmother has quite a bit of magic at her disposal, yet she never interferes with the heroine's journey to win back her man. The heroine is doing quite a bit of running around and you would think there would be plenty of opportunity for the stepmother to foul up the heroine's quest. Maybe the stepmother is too focused on what's happening in her own castle, or she doesn't think the heroine will be able to get to the castle East of the Sun and West of the Moon. Either way, she seriously underestimates the heroine and pays the price for it. By exploding. Maybe her heart just failed her, but the story seems to paint a picture of troll pieces all over the castle. No wonder the reunited couple left it behind.

As far as the moral of this story, I would say it's either not to drip burning wax on the person you love, or to understand that you either have to put your patient pants on or undergo a dangerous and long quest if you want to be happily married to a bear.

What about you? What sort of moral would you give this story? Comment below!

Is there a story you want to see me take apart? Put it in the comments, and I'll write a post about it.

Simorgh; An Ancient Persian Fairytale

Simorgh looks like a good friend to have.

Hello, dear reader. This week, our tale comes to us from Iran. Simorgh is a story about a too-trusting prince, and the women who help him.

I was a little surprised at the emphasis on God in this story, but once you get past that, this fairy tale is very similar to some others I've discussed. The brothers staying awake to find the thief in the night is just like The Firebird. We also have the jealous brothers who leave the youngest for dead. That's in too many fairy tales to count. However, there are many things that make this tale interesting, and I'll focus on those.

Jumping right in, this prince is noble, as all youngest princes in fairy tales are, but I was surprised that Prince Khorshid wouldn't kill the deav (a demon) in his sleep. It would have been the easy road, but it's not the way this prince wanted to go, and he defeated two other deavs because this woman he rescued wanted her sisters freed as well. There's one thing that bothers me about this woman, whom he instantly fell in love with, and her two sisters. These women are the same ones who were the pomegranates on the tree in the beginning, right? Let's go with that. Otherwise Price Khorshid failed at his quest and those three women/fruit are wasting away somewhere.

This woman who Khorshid loves is very wise. It makes me wonder why she wasn't able to rescue herself from the deav. Then again, if she is a pomegranate woman, she wouldn't have been there very long, so she might not have had time. In any case, she saves Khorshid's life several times over with her wisdom. Firstly, she doesn't trust his brothers, even though she's never met them. Secondly, she tells him what secrets she knows about how to get him out of that place and help him find her once he does. Thirdly, she uses what she told him to stall so she didn't have to marry some random guy, but could hold off on marrying anyone until he found her again. If only Khorshid hadn't jumped on the wrong bull.

Khorshid's indebtedness to women doesn't stop there. Once Khorshid does several Herculean tasks, he wins the friendship of Simorgh, the bird/perfect human being/etc. and she agrees to carry him back to his world and even gives him three chances to call on her again, should he need her.

Prince Khorshid is brave, strong, and good-hearted, but he wouldn't have gotten anywhere without the women in this tale. I suppose the moral is to be the best that you can be, but to make friends with those who make up for what you lack. Either that, or to get a better security system for your pomegranate tree that sometimes has women on it.

The Witch in the Stone Boat

It's really rude to climb aboard someone's boat without permission.

This week's tale comes to us from Iceland. They have some unusual and wonderful stories and The Witch in the Stone Boat is no exception. This story, like so many others, only happens because the king doesn't pay any attention.

We start off commonly enough with royal families not caring that much about family. The king tells his song to go marry a faraway princess because she's pretty and the prince agrees. That's quite the recommendation. Then, once the princes gets there and marries the princess, he agrees not to leave this kingdom until he gets word that his father has died. Wow. It's a shame that both the prince and this princess have such frail fathers. As is typical in fairy tales, their mothers are either dead, or so unimportant that we never hear of them. I have one more complaint about the prince, who becomes a king. He is supposedly very in love with his wife, but doesn't notice when she's replaced. When the witch walks over to him, instead of saying, "Who are you and why are you holding my child?" the king goes along with it and only wonders why his wife has become so mean.

The queen, on the other hand, is doing what she can to save herself. Although she was unable to do anything against the witch in the stone boat, she was able to bargain with the witch's brother. I wonder if the witch was just trying to get herself and her brother married. I could understand that would be an important goal in this time, but she's going about it in the most ridiculous way. In any event, it is only because the queen negotiates to come to the surface world three nights before marrying the three headed giant that the king even notices that anything is wrong. It is the king who cuts the queen's chain, which causes the death of the giant, but that is only after he had no way to misunderstand what was happening. It's a good thing for him that he married her. I'm not so sure about the reverse, but at least they love each other.

The moral of this story is to either keep witch repellent on you when you're going sailing, or to marry an observant man.

Penta With Maimed Hands

Just because you wear this, doesn't mean you're wise.

 
This week's fairy tale comes to us from Italy. Penta With Maimed Hands is a story about one woman's determination not to marry her brother.

I'm not sure who advised the king to marry his sister, but clearly that person and the king needed to be relieved from their duties for awhile. Penta, who was not crazy, refused her brother's advances. While it is incredible that she had her hands cut off to try to get her brother to stop wooing her, I always get stuck on that. Why did her brother think her hands were her best feature? I don't think I've ever heard a guy say that about a woman. Maybe I'm just not talking to the right guys.

Whatever the reason for the king's fixation, once Penta had her hands cut off, her brother threw her out to sea. Can you imagine how much it must have hurt when salt water got in the wounds on her wrists? This poor woman goes through all kinds of suffering because her brother wants to commit incest.

This story, like many other fairy tales, can be seen as two women pitted against each other. Nuccia is convinced that her husband is going to cheat on her with this beautiful, handless woman. Because of this initial distrust, Nuccia goes on to try to get Penta killed, even after Penta is married to someone else far away from the fisherman. Penta, of course, doesn't know that she got a false message from her husband, or that Nuccia was the one who sent it, so it's not a very fair contest. Fortunately for Penta, she is good and pretty so she wins out in the end.

Throughout this story, the only good woman is dead or maimed. Penta, obviously, is good. The king's first wife, who ordered her husband to marry this strange woman without hands, was good. All the better for the story because she died, I suppose. Otherwise, Penta couldn't have been a queen. Nuccia is the only woman we see who is physically whole and she is unnecessarily vicious.

The moral of this story would have to be either to be able to learn to do everything with your feet after you've had to order your own hands cut off, or to have your brother's mental health checked regularly.

How the Monkey Got a Drink When He was Thristy

Devious little critter.

Hello, reader. This week, we go to Brazil for our story. How the Monkey Got a Drink When He was Thirsty is a tale with a very descriptive title.

Of course we all know that monkeys can play the guitar, but I had not realized that monkeys were tricksters as well. This monkey gets in trouble for a pretty silly reason. Obviously, his guitar wouldn't sound right if there were tiger bones inside of it, so his song was fake. I am surprised the tiger got so angry about the monkey's song the first time, but the monkey did keep repeating it. Poor tiger. It makes me wonder why the monkey was so set on bothering the tiger, even after the tiger grabbed him. I think this monkey may have some issues.

The monkey's resin disguise was brilliant. I am a little surprised that the tiger never caught on, but I am more surprised that the tiger stayed at the watering place for so long. He must have been very sensitive about his bones. He also must have gotten very hungry unless he picked off animals who were coming to get a drink. I feel like that behavior is worse than the monkey's little song. I think a parliament of owls would have put the tiger on trial for such behavior. After all, what else is a parliament of owls for?

As for the moral of this story: If you're going to deeply annoy someone dangerous, make sure you're more clever than they are.

The Firebird

Get back here, thief!

This week, we turn to Slavik folklore for The Firebird. In this story, the Firebird and Prince Ivan's stupidity are the driving forces.

Firstly, I need to address the family dynamics in Ivan's house. I understand that he and his brothers might be competitive about catching the thief and then finding the firebird. However, that is no excuse for his brothers to kill Ivan and leave his body for the crows, taking his ill-gotten gains with them. Even their father isn't too grieved about his sons' deaths because Ivan is marrying a pretty girl. What a family.

Next we have the long-suffering gray wolf. While it is true that he killed Ivan's horse, the wolf more than makes up for this theft by helping Ivan commit three more thefts, even though Ivan can't follow directions. I could understand that the first time, Ivan could be tempted by the Firebird's cage. He might have even been worried about being able to carry off the bird without it escaping. However, when he didn't listen about the horse's bridle either, I gave up on Ivan. I also think the wolf was the reason everyone was asleep and it would have been so easy to steal their greatest treasure. The wolf tirelessly works to get Ivan what he wants, even though Ivan seems incapable of helping himself. The wolf is the only hero in this story.

Then we have Ivan himself. This is an unscrupulous, greedy man. He agreed to steal a Firebird, horse, and princess with no second thoughts. He was driven into these thefts, so they are understandable. However, once Ivan has these precious items and the princess, he doesn't want to give them up. The long-suffering gray wolf tricks the tsars so Ivan can keep what, and who, he stole.

The princess, Helen, is essentially an object. Princess Helen is beautiful and walks more slowly than her attendants and her father's name is Dalmat. We know nothing else about her. It's entirely possible she wanted to marry Ivan's brothers more than Ivan. Or even the wolf! We've seen that happen before in fairy tales, and he is the most noble character. The point being that Helen is passed around as easily as the horse or firebird. No one asks her opinion and she never seems to have one. I realize this is part of the time this fairy tale was told, but Ivan is still greedy for treating this beautiful woman like she is another precious thing to be stolen, instead of a person.

The moral of this tale is that if you choose to sacrifice your horse, you will gain an incredibly loyal friend who works to make your whims real, no matter how stupid you are.

I wonder what would have happened if Ivan had gone straight at that pillar instead.