So, this is yet another weird little story brought to us by the Brothers Grimm that has managed to hang on and come back through every printed version of Grimm's fairytales. It seems to be very popular but there's an element of this story that has me asking a really important question and it doesn't seem that anyone has really answered it, as yet. But first... the story!
Author: Elizabeth Headrick
Librarian | PhD Candidate | Podcaster | Writer
#FairytaleTuesday: The Tablecloth, the Knapsack, the Cannon Hat, and the Horn
This story centers on three poor brothers from the Black Mountains who decide to set off to seek their fortune. They made their way to Spain, where they came upon a mountain surrounded by silver.
#FairytaleTuesday: The Little Magic Table, The Golden Donkey, and the Club in the Sack
Once upon a time there was a shoemaker who had three sons and a goat. The sons had to help him in his trade, and the goat had to nourish them with her milk. In order for the goat to get good, delicious food every day, the sons took turns and led her out to graze in a meadow.
#FolkloreThursday: Woman Wept
The purpose of the women's existence also varies, depending on the combination of elements that are driving their legend and the time and place in which the story is being told. Some are looking to rescue or replace the children that have been lost to them. Some appear to herald the deaths of others. And some find themselves stuck in a recursive loop, repeating their deaths over and over again, never resting and affecting nothing.
#FairytaleTuesday: The Sparrow and His Four Children
The sons tell their father where they went on their unplanned journeys and what they ate. After each son answers the father will admonish him, telling him of the dangers he could have faced. Each of these dangers centers around men and boys, which is unsurprising given that the nest was damaged by bad boys simply for the sake of causing trouble.
#FolkloreThursday: Demons in the Night
Before we understood the nature of sleep, and how our brain and body interact while we're sleeping, it was believed that this paralysis was caused by a literal demon, or night hag, sitting on the sleeper's chest. These night hags, or night mares, would ride the sleeper, leaving them terrified and exhausted come morning.
#FairytaleTuesday: Hans’s Trina
One time Hans returned home at noon and found Trina sleeping again in their room. So he took his knife and cut off her dress at the knees. Trina awoke and thought: 'It’s time now to go to work.' However, when she went outside to work and saw that the dress was so short she became frightened and wondered whether she really was Trina and said to herself: 'Am I or am I not Trina?'
#FairytaleTuesday: Puss in Boots
The younger brother was surprised that the cat could talk but apparently got over that pretty fast and did what the cat asked. After the cat donned his fancy new boots, he gathered up a burlap sack of wheat and went walking away on his back feet. Using the wheat to trap some fat partridges, the cat then went off in search of a king.
#FairytaleTuesday: Dreams of the Ghost Kingdom
In Spring of 2022 , Shannon Quist, an author and adoptee, wrote her Master's thesis on these gaps in knowledge and the methods that some adoptees have turned to in order to better understand their lives and their stories, including the use of auto-fiction. As you read the following guest post, I ask that you try to look at it through the eyes of someone who didn't know her story and how her journey--and that of other adoptees--has been one of tales and truth and the ways in which she has sought to find the balance between and write her own story.-- Elizabeth
#FairytaleTuesday: Clever Hans
Well, for a nice change of pace we have a maiden that is being sought by a man and when she realizes how thoughtless and rude he is, she sends him packing. This is one of the few stories we've had that shows a fairytale maiden taking charge of her agency and deciding her own fate, though admittedly, it does take a bit.
Bluestocking Writes... 