darchildre | Entries tagged with fairy tales

The thing about the internet is that there is so much of it that, if you want a specific thing, it's hard to tell if you just can't find it or if it actually doesn't exist.

For instance! Today, I thought to myself, "I love fairy tales and legends and myths, and I love listening to people tell me stories. Maybe there is a podcast or something out there of people telling fairy tales." And maybe there is! But I cannot find it. I can find lots of people reading fairy tales, and lots of storytelling podcasts of people telling true-or-realistic stories, and lots of resources for telling stories myself, which is all lovely but not what I'm looking for. It is very frustrating.

I don't suppose any of you know of anywhere on the internet I can listen to people telling fairy tales?

Current Mood: annoyed
Crossposts: http://darchildre.livejournal.com/2025216.html

Today, I was a bit between books and was working in the children's library, so I decided to check out one of the Andrew Lang Rainbow Fairy books, because fairy tales are always a good time, right? So I took The Grey Fairy Book, somewhat at random. The first story in it was Donkeyskin, which is a story I usually enjoy, so that was cool.

I think this is the first time I've read any version of Donkeyskin/Catskin/Cap o' Rushes/Sapsorrow etc where the girl isn't the king's daughter by blood. I mean, she's still his adopted daughter, so it still seems icky to me, but I guess to fairytale bowlderizers, it seems better that she's not a blood relation. Weird.

There are no balls in this version, either, so she doesn't have anywhere to wear all her pretty dresses except in her little room when she wants to feel pretty, so the prince has to catch a glimpse of her through a keyhole instead of dancing with her. Also weird.

Later in the book, there is a lady who rides a tiger (different story), so that cool.

Current Mood: sleepy
Crossposts: http://darchildre.livejournal.com/1979543.html

The Better Myths blog did a fairytale today - the Armless Maiden - that I knew a variant of, so I decided to look it up on wikipedia to see if I could find the one that I read as a child. Alas, I did not. However, pretty much every fairytale page on wikipedia contains at least a synopsis of the fairy tale and at least four links to other, related fairy tales.

I have now read several Armless Maiden stories, about 16 different versions of Catskin/Cap o' Rushes/Allerleirauh, five Snow White variants, and have now ended up in a clump of those stories where the woman is pregnant, her husband goes to war, she gives birth and sends him a message but the message is intercepted and changed so he thinks she's given birth to a monster, so she and her child end up living at the bottom of a well or something. I keep thinking, "Okay, one more story and then I'm going to stop and go to bed," but there are links and links at the end of the pages and every page ends with five or so new tabs open and I am so very easy for fairytales.

It's kind of a problem.

Current Mood: enthralled
Crossposts: http://darchildre.livejournal.com/1751773.html

So, for posterity:

The woman-made-of-cake story.

(Note: the actual woman-made-of-cake does not appear till the end. Also, this is a Bluebeard variant so, y'know, violence, gore, and domestic abuse. Standard fairytale stuff.)

Current Mood: silly

Today, a woman came into the children's library, returned a book, and proceeded to complain about it. It was a book of fairy tales and nursery rhymes and she wanted to let us know that she would not have checked it out if she had known that the stories were so violent. She specifically cited Red Riding Hood which, in that book, is the Red-and-granny-eaten-whole, woodsman-kills-wolf, Red-and-granny-emerge-unscathed variety*. She was all, "This is terribly violent!", as though she'd never heard the story before.

And certainly, patrons have a right to dislike whatever they want and there's now law that says you have to read fairytales as a child. But, man, it was something of a surprise nonetheless. How do you grow up in this culture and not know at least one version of Red Riding Hood?** It's kinda boggling.

Also, yes, fairytales are violent. Fortunately, this collection didn't contain Bluebeard or The Juniper Tree.

*I don't like that version either, but then I don't care at all for the version with the woodsman. I either like Red to get eaten or to trick the wolf herself.

**I will admit that I am assuming, from her race and accent, that she grew up in this country. That may, of course, be a wholly inaccurate assumption on my part.

Current Mood: confused

I am now going to tell you about one of my more ridiculous pet peeves.

It is encapsulated in this book - A Field Guide to Monsters by Johan Olander. I have nothing against the premise, though it's not really my thing. There's nothing wrong with silly made-up monsters and kids like that sort of thing.

My pet peeve comes into play because, in the library, that book is filed in 398.2, which is the Fairy Tales and Folklore section. This is not a fairy tale and it is definitely not folkloric. I mean, make up your own monsters, knock yourself out - but don't put them in the folklore section if they're not actually folklore.

I would have been so pissed if I'd found this book as a kid. I loved folkloric catalogs of monsters and fairies and hidden folk - they gave my world greater texture. I felt like I was learning secrets, important things. That's one of the reasons I read fairy tales too. But this - I would have felt cheated, like I was being condescended to. They're monsters, sure, but they're not real. Every time I see the damned book, that's what I think - how can you give kids a book about monsters that aren't real?

I am wholly aware that this reaction is ridiculous. It's much like my reaction to all the books about fairies in the folklore section that are all pink and sparkly. I feel we do our children a disservice by not teaching them about monsters and fairies as they really are.

And that is my ridiculous pet peeve.

Current Mood: irritated

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