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!