|
Author
|
Comment
|
Kerrie
Moderator
(12/19/02 3:32:36 pm)
|
Favorite Winter Tales of Wonder...
I thought I would post asking what everyone's favorite winter/holiday
related fairy tales, folk tales, myths, or tales of wonder. Just
for fun.
Mine include (as if many of you didn't know this first one already):
The Nutcracker and the Mouse King (by ETA Hoffman)
The Little Match Girl/Seller
The Snow Queen
The Life and Adventures of Santa Claus (by L. Frank Baum)
Swan Lake (I think it's all of the white feathers that does it for me.)
And for modern stories, my favorite is The Polar Express.
Ahh, imagination, snow palaces, ice crystals, warm fires- there's something about winter that, despite the cold, make me all warm inside. Maybe the natural glow of a tree after an ice storm, or the sparkle of the snow covered road in the early hours before the plows and sand trucks take over.
Now, your turn!
Sugarplum dreams,
Kerrie
|
DonnaQ
Registered User
(12/20/02 1:08:25 am)
|
Re: Favorite Winter Tales of Wonder...
HTML Comments are not allowed
|
swood
Registered User
(12/20/02 7:10:50 am)
|
Re: Favorite Winter Tales of Wonder...
I love the Christmas Carol, how can you go wrong with Christmas AND Ghosts...
However, most my favorite stories are messianic in nature, due to the home in which I was raised. I love Amahl and the Night Visitors, particularly the opera by Menotti, the Christmas Rose, Van Dyck's Fourth Wiseman, and the idea of Magnum Mysterium, where all the animals speak at Christ's birth.
I love that stories are still being added to the old ones. It is a testament to the ever changing nature of stories and how they touch different people, in different times, in different ways.
Sarah
|
DonnaQ
Registered User
(12/20/02 11:34:31 am)
|
Re: Favorite Winter Tales of Wonder...
Second try...
I guess this is Winter Seaonal stuff, not especially holiday-ish:
A reread of:
McKillip's "Winter Rose"
Tanith Lee's "Wolfland"
Ellen Steiber's "Silvershod" - although that poem never fails to move me no matter when or how often I read it...
|
tlchang37
Registered User
(12/21/02 9:55:23 pm)
|
Re: Favorite Winter Tales of Wonder...
My choices tend to be heavily influenced by the illustrations associated with them. I love the Scott Gustafson version of "The Night Before Christmas", the Carter Goodrich version of "The Nutcracker" (as well as the Maurice Sendak one. But I marginally like Goodrich's better). The Eve Bunting story called "Night Tree" illustrated by Ted Rand - which my kids took to heart. We read the story and then decorated a 'wild' Christmas tree for a number of years.
On the more religious side, I love Victoria Forrester's "Poor Gabriella", illustrated by Susan Seddon Boulet. I also have a lovely picture book version of "The Other Wise Man" - a retelling of the van Dyke story by Pamela Kennedy and illustrated by Robert Barrett. (I noticed it at Barnes and Noble today, so it's been recently re-issued). And about 6 years ago I illustrated a version of one of my favorite carols, "The Friendly Beasts" (It was my first full-fledged book, and though some of the pieces turned out nicely, I cringe a bit at some of the others now. You can see a couple of the less cringe-worthy pages at my website: www.taralarsenchang.com if you are interested).
Tara
|
Elizabeth
Unregistered User
(12/23/02 2:50:13 pm)
|
winter wonderland
Hey,
How about the story of The Twelve Months. The girl who gathers strawberries in winter. I have always loved that story, but I always thought that she should have married one of the guys she met. What do you think?
Elizabeth
|
bielie
Unregistered User
(12/24/02 4:11:01 am)
|
The girl with April in her eyes
There once was a king
who had called for the spring
for his world was still covered in snow.
The spring had not been
for he was wicked and mean
In his winter fields nothing would grow.
When a traveller came seeking help at the door
Asking food and a bed for the night
He ordered his slave to turn her away
She was the girl with April in her eyes.
Ah... On and on she goes
Through the winter night, the wild wind and the snow.
Ah... On and on she flies
Someone help the girl with April in her eyes.
She rode through the night
Till she came to the light
of a humble man's home in the woods.
He brought her inside
By the firelight she died
And he buried her gently and good.
The morning was bright, all the world was snow white
But when he came to the place where she lay
His field was ablaze with flowers on the grave
Of the girl with April in her eyes
Ah... On and on she goes
Through the winter night, the wild wind and the snow.
Ah... On and on she flies
She is gone, the girl with April in her eyes.
Chris de Burgh
|
Nalo
Registered User
(12/24/02 9:21:43 pm)
|
Re: The girl with April in her eyes
The Huron Carol for me, even though I'm not particularly religious, and no longer particularly Christian:
Twas in the snows of winter time,
When all the birds had fled,
When mighty Gitchi Manitou sent angel fires instead.
Before their light the stars grew dim,
And hungry hunters heard the hymn,
"Jesus our king is born, Jesus is born,
"In Excelsis Gloria."
Lovely hymn to sing. As is the Coventry Carol, which is about Herod ordering the killing of all Jewish boy babies under the age of two in an attempt to get rid of Jesus:
Herod the King in his raging,
Charged he hath this day,
His men of might, in his own sight,
All young children to slay.
And while I'm on stories told in hymns, I've always been fond of the Cherry Tree Carol, in which a mischievous virgin Mary and her yet unborn baby teach a grumpy Joseph a lesson or two:
Joseph was an old man, and old man was he,
When he married maiden Mary, the Queen of Galilee.
He married maiden Mary, the Queen of Galilee
|
Ys
Unregistered User
(12/25/02 6:37:05 am)
|
Re: Huron Carol
Hi, Nalo,
As for the Huron Carol, here's what I found about it: I have a CD with the Huron Carol on it and the singer (Heather Dale) says: "I always assumed that the 20th c. English "Twas In the Moon of Wintertime" was a fairly faithful adaptation of the original, but it really doesn't do it justice. This translation by H. Kierans is far more elegant and respectful of Native traditions, in my opinion." She says the lyrics of "Twas in the Moon of Wintertime" are a 20th century invention, not a true translation.
Here are the lyrics she provides on her CD (those by H. Kierans):
Let Christian men take heart today
The devil's rule is done!
Let no man heed the devil more
For Jesus Christ has come
But hear ye all what angels sing:
How Mary maid bore Jesus King
Jesous ahatonhia, Jesus is born
Jesous ahatonhia
Three chieftains saw before Noel
A star as bright as day;
"So fair a sign," the chieftain said,
"Shall lead us on our way."
For Jesu told the chieftains three:
"The star will bring you here to me."
Jesous ahatonhia, Jesus is born
Jesous ahatonhia
If you want to have a look, here is her website:
www.heatherdale.com
and the page featuring the CD I'm talking about:
www.heatherdale.com/TEN-CD.html
Hoping not to be too off topic
Ys
|
|
