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Author
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Comment
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aj
Unregistered User
(4/1/04 1:01 pm)
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can anyone help me pick a topic?
i have to write a term paper for my german folk and fairy tale class; i'm having trouble deciding on a subject, can anyone help me? and also does anyone know of someplace where i can find the sources of the grimm tales?
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ARTSFAN
(4/1/04 7:13 pm)
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Re: can anyone help me pick a topic?
How about certain Fairy Tale "staples" and what they represent?
The Forest: "Little Red Riding Hood", "Snow White", "Hansel and Gretel" - The forest is a scary place, but does it have a deeper, hidden meaning?
Slippers: "Cinderella", "Snow White" - More than just a fashion statement!
Spinning Wheel/Spindle: "Rumplestiltskin", "Sleeping Beauty" - A contraption used to turn flax into thread for clothes-making. What is the spinning wheel/spindle's purpose in Fairy Tales?
If you have any further questions, feel free to ask. I hope my suggestions
help!
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aj
Unregistered User
(4/2/04 11:48 am)
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re: artsfan
i have to relate one or more of the stories we've read (anything by the grimms, "eckbert the fair", "undine", "the fairy tale", "honest casper and fair annie" and anything from the collection The Queen's Mirror) to a contemporary tale or tales; we've already discussed the forest theme and spinning wheel thing pretty thouroughly in class--so that's out; what was the importance of a slipper in snow white? i remember stay laces and a comb but their purpose doesn't really have much to do with the purpose of the slipper in cinderella
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ARTSFAN
(4/2/04 8:07 pm)
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Re: re: artsfan
At Snow White's wedding, the Queen was forced to wear a pair of red-hot iron slippers and dance to death. The slipper's relevance in these two Fairy Tales are very different: In "Cinderella", the slipper Cinderella lost helps the Prince seek out his lost love, but in "Snow White", the slipper brings the cruel Queen to her death. You could go as far as including shoes and boots as well. In "Sleeping Beauty", a dwarf wears a pair of seven league boots with which to reach the Good Fairy to inform her that the princess pricked her finger, and that she is under a spell. And what of the slippers that are danced through in "The Twelve Dancing Princesses"?
P.S. Sorry that the suggestions I gave weren't of use to your research
for your paper.
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aj
Unregistered User
(4/3/04 10:21 pm)
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re
of course, the queens death, i can't believe i forgot about that; come to think of it i do know a contemporary fairy tale with shoes (red boots) playing a key role in it, a woman's cursed to wear shoes that force her constantly dance until she can overcome her vanity and let someone beat her in dancing contest (dancing to death in red shoes, sound familiar?)
i also had this idea when i was doing my class readings yesterday; what if i focoused on stories that have the main character undergo some sort of dramatic change brought on by marriage like "Undine" or "Hans my Hedgehog" and maybe "The Fox Wife" wife for my contemporary version
i dont know, what do you think?
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ARTSFAN
(4/4/04 8:10 pm)
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Re: re
It sounds like the marriage angle would definetely be a good idea. But what are all the stories that you have read in class, and does your paper have to be centered around only stories that you have read in class? There are some excellent contemporary re-tellings out there; Donna Jo Napoli, Gregory Maguire, Francesca Lia Block, Robin McKinley, etc. Still, focusing solely on the marriage aspect of Fairy Tales and their contemporary counterparts should make for an interesting paper.
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Erica
Carlson
Registered User
(4/5/04 7:10 pm)
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Re: dangerous slippers
And don't forget Cinderella's stepsister who cut off her toe (in some versions, her heel) in order to get into the slipper. Kind of makes the torture of high heels seem mild. Pity that the women in fairy tales so often have to deal with painful footwear instead of playing with 1000 league boots!
Erica
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janeyolen
Registered User
(4/9/04 6:48 am)
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Another Red Shoes
The Red Shoes by Hans Christian Andersen is a direct progenitor of your story, because in it the child wears red shoes to church though warned against it by her mother. The clearly now Satanic shoes dance her out of the church and down the road and finally a woodcutter at her behest cuts off her feet so she can stop dancing and the feet and the red shoes go dancing off on their own. (Pretty gruesome and moralistic tale.) And that is only the beginning of her winning her soul back!
Jane
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aka
Greensleeves
(4/9/04 9:32 am)
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Re: Another Red Shoes
What about "The Shoes that were Danced to Pieces?" (aka "The Twelve Dancing Princesses") In that story the shoes are only a symbol of the greater dilemma, but it's definitely up there with the other shoe tales!
Edited by: aka Greensleeves at: 4/9/04 9:32 am
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Jess
Unregistered User
(4/9/04 11:06 am)
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The girl that trod on a loaf
Was also concerned with her shoes and was condemned for her vanity. I don't know a modern corollary though.
Jess
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Veronica
Schanoes
Registered User
(4/9/04 2:56 pm)
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Re: The girl that trod on a loaf
For a modern take on this story--indeed, many modern takes--may
I recommend Kathryn Davis's complex and fascinating novel called,
well, The Girl Who Trod on a Loaf. It's brilliantly written.
(And thanks to Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow, in whose wonderful
bibliographies I found this book!)
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katemcc
Unregistered User
(4/11/04 3:34 pm)
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Slipper in Cinderella
aj,
I'm in a similar German fairy tales class right now.
On the slipper theme, one interpretation that we've discussed (and this relates to Basile's version and not the Grimms specifically) is that the slipper represents a "test" to prove that Cinderella belongs in the noble class. A glass slipper would, at the time, be obscenely expensive and therefore only the rich could afford to prance around in such a thing. The story, then, is not as much about true love as it is about marrying well and living a comfortable life. The prince has the ball simply to find a wife, and it was important to aristocrats at the time (Basile's audience) that one marry at or above one's station. Therefore, it was necessary for the prince to make sure that Cinderella was an appropriate match.
So, in short, you could look at class tensions as a way to start off your paper. How do the authors and their stories act to glorify one class or to oppress another? Or even certain ethnicities, which the Grimms (and/or their sources) were certainly "guilty" of.
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aj
Unregistered User
(4/15/04 9:48 am)
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re
well, i've already gotton approval to do my project on the marriage/transformation theme but thanks for the shoe suggestions; does anyone know of any tales that have the protaginist change dramaticaly after marriage?
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janeyolen
Registered User
(4/15/04 5:00 pm)
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changed after marriage
Check out the Grimm's story Fitcher's Bird and other Bluebeard variants.
Jane
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