The Fairy Tales - Book Two of Two
Fairy Tales main
Book One
The tales upon which these retellings are based are linked to at the bottom of each tale's page, beneath the link to the for-Print version of the retelling (for those inclined not to read off a monitor). The commentaries may be helpful to those unfamiliar with the original tales, or for whom they're a dim memory, in that the more obvious differences between these retellings and the tales on which they're based are mentioned there. They are called "Grain of Salt" commentaries because those differences sometimes necessitate my offering my perspective on the tales. In addition, I give a little more about an impetus for my concocting these retellings in the Etcetera area of the website. |
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Rapunzel
A tale that recalls the Old Testament Samson, a sun hero who, his locks shorn, is devested of his strength and blinded. Only here, it is a girl who is locked in a high tower, and has the golden ladder of her hair shorn by Dame Gothel...who grew the finest radishes around.
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The steadfast tin soldier
A one-legged tin soldier falls in love with a paper dancer. Throughout his troubles that follow he remains fiercely stoic, so that no one might accuse him of not being steadfast, even though no one is watching.
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Beauty and the beast
Belle's sisters could have been just plain mean, each believing herself to be the most beautiful girl in town, and angry this wasn't appropriately recognized by their peers, or, indeed, a mother and father who had the ill-judgment to favor one daughter over the others with a name such as Belle. I'd be kind of ticked too if my parents named me "Good Looking But Has Big Ankles" while naming my younger sister "Beautiful", then tried to pass it off as having nothing to do with a value judgment on appearances, saying instead that Belle was just a recognizably beautiful spirit from the get-go.
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The shoes that were danced to pieces
Twelve princesses are locked in their room every night, yet each morning their shoes are worn to pieces, and everyone who attempts to investigate the reason why falls into a deep, unending sleep.
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The knapsack, the hat and the horn
The individual in this tale procures a tablecloth which, as with stories of certain magic grails and cauldrons, always supplies him with food.
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The spirit in the bottle
Lifting the glass bottle to the sunlight, he saw the bottle was filled with what looked like pond water, which began to turn reddish. In it was a creature shaped like a frog that was springing up and down. "Let me out, let me out!" the creature cried.
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The legend of knockgrafton
A curious tale in which a hunchback comes upon some fairies, delights them, and has his hump removed.
fairy tale : commentary |
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The master cat
A cat helps his master to marry a princess, through outwitting a rich, shape-shifting giant ogre who has control over much of the land.
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The child who came from an egg
A woman in a war-torn country is promised a child by a supernatural being, but first she must tend a child born from an egg.
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Tom Thumb
Fairyland grants a couple a diminutive, magickal child who undergoes great adventures. I read that in Hinduism the soul was once believed to be the size of a thumb, and that one's heartbeat was the soul dancing in one's heart, and that this passed into European folklore.
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The Tontlawald
A young girl is accepted into fairy land in order to escape her abusive home. As an adult, she is told she must return to her own world...
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Wise folks
A woman makes a very foolish deal in selling three cows. Her infuriated husband says that he shall go out and see if he can meet any who are more stupid than she, and if he does then she will pass without reprimand.
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The young man who would have his eyes opened
Concerning a seeker of knowledge who is told that to obtain the secrets of the night he must go to the place where, once in seven years, the serpent-king gives a great feast to his whole court. Before him rests a golden chalice filled with milk, in which he must dip a piece of bread and eat of it.
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Copyright © j. kearns
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