Thursday's Tales - Week 2

Carol at Carol's Notebook has this Thursday feature called Thursday's Tales that I have decided to adopt.

Jorinda and Jorindel

This is the story about an evil fairy and two young lovers. It is a typical fairy tale in that the woman is captured, turned into a nightingale in this instance, and the male character has to come to her rescue after being let go by the evil fairy. When I was a child I never really paid attention to the 'Damsel in Distress' idea, but now that I am older I obviously notice it a lot more. It's sad that fairy tales can't be a bit more empowering. And, it is too bad that so many people read these stories and believe in the knight in shining armour.

The Travelling Musicians

This was a cute story. A donkey, dog, cat, and cock have reached their older years and their owners have decided they have out-lived their usefulness. The animals decide that they are going to have to set out on their own to avoid terrible fates. It starts with the donkey wanting to go to town to become a musician and he encounters the other animals on his journey. Things do not quite play out exactly how they plan, but they end up with a happy ending.

Thursday's Tales - Week 1

Carol at Carol's Notebook has this Thursday feature called Thursday's Tales that I have decided to adopt. I actually had a similar feature a few years ago called Fairy Tale Friday. I really wanted to read the complete edition of Grimms' Fairy Tales and a few others. I never managed to keep it up, though. Well, actually, maybe I never did it at all in the end. I can't seem to find the posts I think should exist. Moving on... I decided to retry reading Grimms' Fairy Tales just to start it off. I also have a few other collections and there are some that came with my e-reader.

THE GOLDEN BIRD

A trait that often appears in fairy tales is the idea of things happening in three. For this particular story, there are three brothers that first attempt to catch the thief stealing apples from the king's tree. The first two brothers fail, but the third finds out that there is a Golden Bird stealing them. This launches an adventure where each brother attempts to find the Golden Bird. The first two brothers even are advised by a fox what to do, but they still fail. The third brother is ultimately successful, but not without a few problems along the way. He knows to listen to the fox, but he doesn't always do so. It doesn't matter, though, because he wins in the end. I liked this story better than one where the first two brothers don't listen at all, but when the third brother comes along he does everything perfect. This put a bit of a different twist on things.

HANS IN LUCK

This story is just silly. The main character is not the sharpest tool in the shed, let me tell you. The story starts off with him going home and being paid with a piece of silver the size of his head. It is very heavy, though, and he quickly finds someone willing to trade for it. This continues until he is once again carrying a heavy stone. This time it is just a regular rock that he loses in the water and discovers just how lucky he is that he doesn't have to carry it the rest of the way home. So, all the people he has traded with wind up with treasures and he is excited to get home and tell his mother just how lucky he is. He doesn't seem to care that he is going home empty-handed. It doesn't say, but it makes you wonder just how happy his mother was about the whole story...