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Author
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Comment
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(11/29/05 6:17 pm)
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Kipling
Not strictly fairy tale, but this is driving me mad-- did Kipling write a short story about a child's swing, made of an old whale jawbone, which suddenly started telling the story of its life? I was so sure it was Kipling...
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bielie
Unregistered User
(11/30/05 3:25 pm)
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Kipling
Only whale story I can think of is "How the whale got its throat" in Just so Stories
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kristiw
Unregistered User
(12/8/05 2:41 am)
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:-\
Sorry to point up my own thread... I was sure I could track this down myself but I am not having any luck! It must not be Kipling, but I distinctly remember a story about a child's swing made of a whale jawbone, which told the story of its life, then stopped. I'm trying to find it so I can cite it as a reference...
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Writerpatrick
Registered
User
(12/8/05 10:03 am)
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Re: :-\
I'm assuming this was a short story, but do you have an idea of where or when you read it? It's possible that it was published in a literary publication which wouldn't have been widely read.
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Valusa Zagnol
Registered
User
(12/27/05 1:43 pm)
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Re: Kipling
Mahler wrote a piece called "Das klagende Lied" (meaning "song of lament"), which has a theme related to this. If I recall correctly, a girl is killed and her hair is used to string a harp (or perhaps her breastbone is used to hold the strings). When the harp is played, it sings the story of the murder.
Looking up Mahler, I found this on Wikipedia:
"Mahler began to write the text of Das klagende Lied (presumably basing it on the fairy tale of the same name by Ludwig Bechstein and/or Der singende Knochen (The Singing Bones) by Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm) during the early part of his final year in the Vienna Conservatory, where he was a student between 1875 and 1878."
So I guess that the theme of an object made from the bones of a victim, speaking the tale of the crime, is within the compass of fairy tales.
BTW, "Das klagende Lied" is an absolutely lovely piece--with a haunting melody befitting its haunting tale--and I do not know why it is not much more widely known and performed.
Steve/Stacey
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Rosemary Lake
Registered
User
(12/27/05 6:22 pm)
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bones of victim
There are quite a few fairytales with the theme of the remains of a murder victim's body telling the story of the murder, often as a song. The ones I recall have a family member as the murderer. There's one about a girl drowned by her sister in a miller's pool, some about boys. "The Juniper Tree" is close, as the bird/spirit comes from near a tree connected with some of the remains.
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