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Gretel Breadcrumbs
Unregistered User
(12/14/05 3:18 am)
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Favorite Fairytale & Why
This sounds a bit jeuvenille, but I was wondering what all of your favorite fairytales are and why, because you all have strong opinions and it would be interesting.
My favorite fairytale is Hansel and Gretel, hence my user name :) I like it because not only is the heroine a girl, but she is young. She doesn't let age stop her and doesn't need an axeman, prince nor fairy godmother either. Plus the gingerbread house is awesome :)
Please feel free to go into more detail-I'd love to hear yours!
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coinilius
Registered
User
(12/14/05 9:10 am)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
Some fairytales that I've always enjoyed are 'East of the Sun, West of the Moon' and the 'Donkeyskin' variations - particularly Kattie Woodencloack, with it's forests of Gold, Silver and Brass.
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avalondeb
Registered
User
(12/14/05 4:57 pm)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
Beauty and the Beast
I love it because the girl saves the prince, not the other way around. Also, I love the whole flawed hero theme; I think it is the fantasy of many women to "change" a man for the better.
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princessterribel
Registered
User
(12/15/05 4:28 am)
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hehe
oooh, this is fun!
I LOVE all fairytales in general I find them profoundly interesting and relevant to society and its makeup. Howevr, my favourite would have to be Cinderella. However, i did have a favourite Iraqi fairytale as a child that I used to make my dad tell me over and over again. Apparantly it is to teach children to listen to their parents, and also to be resourseful if they do not listen It was about a species of monster called the Damiya who lived in caves. One day a little boy called hudaydan and his sister lived in a remote village with their family. Huadaydan wanted to go for a picnic with his sister and to collect some mushrooms that grow underground (which are delishious aparantly). The made thier picnic and were preparing to go but their mother told them that they must come back before it gets dark, becasue it got dangerous after dark. The ran through the medows collecting flowers but it began to get dark and the children had walked much further away than they were supposed to. Hudaydan's sister wanted to go back home but Hudaydan wanted to stay and play. The area was surrounded by wild beasts that looked like monkeys but could talk like men and these were called the Damiya. One of these monkeys, captured the children and took them to her cave. The damiya wanted to eat the children whilst they slept so she tried to lull them off to sleep. Each time the Damiya came to check on the children, Hudaydan made up one excuse after another to stop the damiya form eating them.
She came to check and Hudaydan said that they cannot sleep until they have had their dinner. So Damiya went away and cooked them some dinner and fed them.
She came to check again and asked the children why they were not sleeping. Hudaydan said that they wanted a drink of water, but not just any water. It had to be water collected from the river and collected in a seive. So damiya walked all the way to the river and tried over and over to collect the water. Soon she became angry and stalked back to the cave.
In the meantime Hudaydan and his sister took the Damiya's daughter and dressed her in their clothes. The put her in the bed where they were supposed to be sleeping. Then Hudaydan collected some thorns and placed them all around the trunk of a tree up which he and his sister climbed. When the Damiya came back she said that she would eat the girl first, so she killed and cooked the child in the bed. She began to eat her. Then when she went back to the bed to eat Hudaydan she found no one there! She followed the footprints out of the cave. Hudaydan began to tease her, singing a song:
Sharanta baranta
akalat binta
(This means the one who ate her daughter - or something like that)
So then the Damiya say Hudaydan's siter saw the little girl up the tree and walked back to her cave and realised what she had done...she died of misery.
Hudaydan eventually cam down form the tree and he and his sister ran back towards the viallage. The villagers had been out hunting for them and they were happily reunited with their family.
A very controversial story one might say but for some reason I used to love hearing it before I went to bed!
The damiya was an ape like race that were hunted by humans. If a female damiya who was without a male came accross a human male she would take him and keep him as her male partner. To prevent him from running away she would lick the souls of his feet which would make his skin very thin and it would be impossible for him to walk due to the pain of standing.
They had short legs and bulky bodies...like gorilla's I guess, although they are presented more as a species of deformed humans.
Apparantly in the Qu'ran Allah/God would transform ancient sinners/non believers into monkey's and Pigs. I haven't actually read this but I could be one of the sources for the story.
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Undine15
Registered User
(12/15/05 2:54 pm)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
My favorite would have to be 'The Little Mermaid' because it moves me like no other. The idea of this young girl sacrificing everything for love is just beautiful. I actually read the original version as a child before ever seeing the Disney movie, and I remember being entranced with the tale even back then. Also, I love the illustrated books! Mermaids look stunning in art.
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Mirjana1
Registered
User
(12/15/05 3:44 pm)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
My favourite is probably Andersen's story about a soldier who somehow gets this magic device - and this is when I can't translate, as I know the story in Serbian - what do you call the thing people used to start a fire in olden times - so whenever he is in trouble, he uses it and a dog comes, and each time it is a bigger dog that solves his problem. Great story, the book was nicely illustrated, I was fascinated with the old witch, and then how the soldier took the princess and someone marked his door, but the dog marked all the doors in the town so they couldn’t find him.
Does anyone know the name of this story in English?
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dlee10
Registered
User
(12/15/05 4:55 pm)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
That story is called the Tinderbox. It was also my favorite as a child. I loved the description of the dog with the eyes as big as saucers.
My least favorite was the Little Match Girl. That one actually gave me nightmares. Even as a child I understood that she froze to death.
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Mirjana1
Registered
User
(12/15/05 8:49 pm)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
"Tinderbox"- I would've never guest! Thanks.
Yes, the Girl with the Matches was my least favourite one too, as I also knew she died. I didn't see her death as a departure to heaven, religion was never a part of my upbringing, so it was disturbing for me someone can be so poor to freeze to death.
I also hated the witch in Hansel and Gretel, how she wanted to eat Hansel. And I felt so sorry for the wolf in the Red Ridinghood, how they cut open his stomach and put rocks into it - that was just wrong! :-)
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Gretal Breadcrumbs
Unregistered User
(12/16/05 9:17 pm)
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Wolf/link
Oh yeah, I always felt bad for the wolf too. I was a very sensitive
kid, and always felt bad for animals :) I just recently read a screenplay
that was about Little Red actually falling in love with the wolf,
and when he died she killed herself. It was sad but beautiful. There
are fairytale poems like this on this site-www.endicott-studio.com/
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gigi
Unregistered User
(12/18/05 4:06 pm)
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favorite fairy tales
I loved the twelve dancing princesses. It always seemed like fun to have so many sisters and go out and dance in a magical kingdom.
The imagery is the best with the forests of silver and jewels, the piles of slippers and the enchanted lake.
The soldier who came and solved the secret of the slippers was cool too. I thought he always married the ringleader, the eldest. So when she moves out the others couldn't go dancing.
I know different versions say that he marries the youngest but I always figured unless there was a lot of twins and triplets then the oldest would be Really old.
(this was all before I learned that you can have half sisters and things like that .)
But yes I loved the Dancing Princesses. I also loved Beauty and the Beast. Until of course Disney made the movie. Then I thought the Beast was an angry woman beater. Very violent and nasty. I did not like how they potrayed him at all.
In the traditional tale isn't he a kind almost pathetically hopeful person? Doesn't he beg Beauty to marry him? They got him all wrong and it's a shame as the illustration is Really good. :(
ps I didnt like the Hans Andersen tales at all. They are all so sad. except the ugly duckling and the seven Swans. But the mermaid and the match girl and the Little Fir tree always made me cry.
gigi
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Northerner4me
Registered
User
(12/18/05 4:41 pm)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
My favourite is probably going to be whatever I am working on for a storytelling! If I like a story enough to internalise it (learn it for a telling) then I'm living in the world of that story and it has meaning for me. I'm currently learning "Death in a Nut" and "The Hunchback and the Swan". The Hunchback Story is a particularly moving and beautiful one. "Death in a Nut" also has a profound meaning inside it - and is funny too!
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NightOwl
Unregistered User
(12/18/05 7:20 pm)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
When I was younger my favorite fairytale would be Cinderella. The whole rags to riches thing got to me. Especially wjen I watched the Disney movies. The story made me look at the different versions from different cultures (like The Eygptian Cinderella, Yeh-Shen, Aschenputtel and the Rough Faced Girl.) The Rough Faced Girl is my other favorite tale. The girl got her happy ending, not by her looks (which were flawed by her wicked sisters) but by her spirituality.
But now it seems Snow White is my fav. Snow White having to deal with her mother's death and then her Stepmother being envious of her. Then sending her off in the woods to be killed, then trying to kill her three times after she found out she was still living.
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lianne
Unregistered User
(12/19/05 8:51 am)
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Re: Favorite Fairytale & Why
As a child, I always liked The White Cat and Beauty and the Beast. Not just because I liked animals (although I'm sure that was part of it- it's always a little disappointing to realize how shallow I could be as a child), but also, I think, because of the portrayal of love as something based on getting to know each other and genuinely like each other's company, which is lacking in many fairytales. Also, the beast in my favourite book of fairytales was so beautifully illustrated - wild and beautiful in the way a dangerous animal is, nothing like the cuddly-clumsy Disney version.
Although I wouldn't say it's a favourite exactly, Snow White seems to me one of the most striking tales. Blood on snow, the idea of cutting out a heart to eat, the mirror, the poisoned apple... so dark and so beautiful. And the wicked queen is an unforgettable character, genuinely threatening. Does anyone have a candidate to compete with this story for sheer... well, not sure what to call it other than strikingness, so there we go.
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Gretel Breadcrumbs
Unregistered User
(12/19/05 1:01 pm)
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Striking
Yes, I totally agree with you-Snow White is very complex. I love the Disney movie-I think the animation is fantastic in it. Although of course, they took out a lot of the violence. Um, I can't really think of any other story that has the same complex premise, but there is one that I forgot to mention as one of my favorites that is complex. Snow White and Rose Red is an extremely underrated fairytale. I think it's about sisters with an obsessive relationship, they live with no one else and are threatened I think when the Bear invades their world. The Little Mermaid is about obsessive love as well, so is Rapunzel. But yes, Snow White stands out in the fairytales, and has a fascinating storyline. :)
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Gretel Breadcrumbs
Unregistered User
(12/19/05 4:48 pm)
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Fairytale?
Is there any way to read the fairytales that you mentioned online? They sound very intriguing.
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Mirjana1
Registered
User
(12/19/05 4:59 pm)
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Re: Fairytale?
Although there is a link on this we site for Hans Cristian Andersen, I found this one that has far more stories. The one I mentioned, The Tinder-Box, is the first one on the list.
hca.gilead.org.il/#list
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Gretel Breadcrumbs
Unregistered User
(12/19/05 6:19 pm)
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Re:Re Fairytales
Wow, thanks! There's a whole cache of fairytales there! :eek
I just finished The Tinderbox and Anne Lisbeth-both were very good. Thanks again!
Grace (aka Gretel)
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Rosemary Lake
Registered
User
(12/19/05 11:39 pm)
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Mother Holle, Dancing Princesses
I've always loved "Mother Holle" -- that magic peaceful land underground with nothing in it but apple trees and cows and bread in ovens standing out in the middle of nowhere. And Mother Holle herself is very nice.
I also loved "The Dancing Princesses", and the beautiful forests underground, tho I didn't like the man spying on them and ruining their fun.
"Snow White" is beautiful literature. She may look dumb for trusting the 'old woman' three times, but SW is an orphan really and misses her own mother, and look what the 'old woman' offers her: food, grooming, clothing -- mother stuff. "You'll be laced properly for once." I can imagine SW being unable to resist a little 'mothering', and thinking "If EVERY old woman wants to kill me, I might as well die."
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darklingthrush
Registered
User
(12/20/05 9:50 am)
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more favorite tales
It's so hard to choose just a few. I will try though to at least give some perennial favorites: East of the Sun, West of the Moon is one of my particular favorites. It has a lot of the same themes as B & the B, but the heroine seems more human and certainly more proactive. And the prince as this beautiful white bear...I love the imagery.
I do like Snow White and Rose Red (although I hadn't really thought about the obsessiveness of the sisters --great insight!) I'm just particularly interested in stories about sisters as I am the younger sister. It is really one of the few stories where the sisters (besides the 12 Dancing Princesses) work in conjunction with each other, not at odds as in Diamonds and Toads variants.
I have also loved Cap O Rushes, a version of Donkeyskin. In fact I still love to tell my dad with a laugh that I love him as meat does salt.
And I love the Seven Swans in just about any version I have read, even of course the tragic Children of Lir. There is something admirable about the noble sister, who never gives up trying even when she must have secretly despaired.
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lianne
Unregistered User
(12/21/05 2:46 pm)
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re: more favorite tales
Funny, I've also always liked the sibling thing, and I'm a younger sister too. In some ways, I think it's a more formative relationship than with either parent, I guess because an older sibling is more similar, more like a friend, and yet still very much part of the family structure which you are born into. A kind of mediator between parent and child, almost. For an older sibling, I wouldn't think that would be as true, b/c the younger sibling isn't there from the start, but comes on scene later as a (grudgingly welcomed?) intruder. This seems to follow through in life for me, as I think for my sister, her relationships with our parents are the more important and complex ones. I wonder if this holds true for other people in their fairytale preferences and/or life?
I also like the Seven Swans. Like you, it's the sheer steadfastness of the sister that gets me. And the bizarre, funny-tragic bit of the poor brother stuck with one wing.
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Gretel Breadcrumbs
Unregistered User
(12/22/05 11:53 pm)
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That's Cool :)
That's cool that you are a younger sibling too! I am the youngest by eight minutes; my sister and I are twins. We both liked the story of Rose Red and Snow White because my sister is like Rose Red and I am like Snow White. Actually, I am writing a screenplay based on the story, which we'll be filming soon. It's just with my own cheap camera and stuff, but it will be fun :) Yeah, I always liked Seven Swans. The first version of it that I read was Celtic. There's a modern rewriting of it called Ironwing or something like that that I really want to read. Have you read it?
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