Reading Notes: Czech Folktales Part B

Nine at a Blow was a good read. It kept me interested the whole time and completely caught me by surprise at the end. Sneaky little tailor! I don't know what I would do with this story but it is one of my favorites this unit.

A Clever Lass was awesome! I'd love to make this a modern story about a couple getting into an argument. I think it would be fun to switch the roles, like have the male take the female with him. I think there is a lot of potential here.

Image Info: farm girl by fourswords

Bibliography: The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis; Mythfolkore Untextbook

Reading Notes: Czech Folktales Part A

I like the story of Silly Jura. I love underdog stories almost as much as I like fairy tales. There is just something about watching someone, who is expected to fail, succeed. If I adapted this story I would probably elaborate on the time spent with the cat/lady more. I would want to go deeper into their relationship than just the mere surface the original provides.

The Bear, the Eagle, and the Fish was an interesting story. I like the use of animals in the stories I have read this semester. After reading so many, you'd think I would be used to enchanted twists, but I was still a bit surprised. I think it would be interesting to tell the story from either the perspective of one of the daughters or of the brother.

Kojata reminded me of a few different stories that I read this semester. Having to pick her out of a line up and turning into different objects were both plots of different stories I have previously read. i don't know what I would do with this story, I just thought that was super cool!

The Three Roses was kind of disappointing. I love Beauty and the Beast so I was really looking forward to this one. It was just bizarre. I liked that it was a single mother instead of a father because you don't see that very often. However, it was very scarce on details and felt like it was being hurried along. Plus the ending was really out of place in my opinion. I think it would be interesting to adapt this story into a dream because the last line reminded me of something dream like.


Bibliography: The Key of Gold by Josef Baudis; Mythfolklore Untextbook

Image 1: My Dream of You by Filmchild; Pinterest
Image 2: Three Roses by Steve Lohmueller; Steve Lohmueller Photography

Portfolio Index

The Three Lovers: A modern-day love story of a girl who must choose between three stand-up guys, the toll the decision takes on her, and the way she is able to come to a decision.

The Fish-Peri: A tale of a fairy whose longing for a less lonely life leads her on a journey to finding true love and the obstacles she and her love must face to ensure their happily ever after.

The Stonecutter's Wife: A story of a woman who becomes dissatisfied with her life and wishes for more. However, in searching for happiness in material objects, she finds that she has lost touch with the source of her true happiness and longs for it to be restored. Will she get her wish?

The Fairy Bride: A tale of a young Indian Princess who has always wanted to live a magical life. However, her mother had other plans. With an impending arranged marriage, will Neen-i-zu give up on her dream? Or will she get her happily ever after?

Briar Rose: A bedtime story about a sleeping girl, her kingdom, and the brave boy who was able to wake her up. He broke the spell and the two fell in love. This story couldn't possibly get any better, or could it?

~~~I had a blast recreating these stories and putting them into a portfolio. I was thrilled to be able to keep the theme of love throughout each of my stories and am so happy with how they turned out. I love each of these stories, but my favorite of this bunch is probably Briar Rose. It's just so endearing and I loved that I was able to end my portfolio with a bedtime story. I thought it was the perfect way to wrap it up. I hope you enjoy reading them as much as I enjoyed writing them!~~~

Storytelling: Briar Rose

"Daddy, will you tell us the story again? Please?!" The two little brown-haired, green-eyed girls squealed as they clambered into bed.

"OK, I'll tell you the story. Settle down now," Prince Phillip chuckled as he tucked the giggling princesses into bed. "Here we go....."

~Once upon a time there lived a king and queen who ruled a land where fairies still resided. They had plenty of material things, but they had been married many years and were still childless. This made them very sad.

One day the queen was walking in her garden next to the river when she saw a poor fish that had thrown itself out of the water. The queen felt sorry for the fish and threw it back into the water. The fish was grateful to the kind queen and told her that soon her wish to have a child would be fulfilled.

The fish's promise soon came true and the queen gave birth to a beautiful daughter named Briar Rose. The king was so filled with joy that he decided to hold a magnificent feast to celebrate. He invited all of the citizens of his land.

The queen decided to invite the fairies as well. There were thirteen fairies in their kingdom, but they only had enough room for twelve. So, they had to leave out one of the fairies. The twelve fairies that were invited came to the joyful event and took turns blessing Briar Rose with lovely gifts. One gave her a kind heart, one gave her beauty, and so on until she had everything good in the world.

The eleventh fairy had just finished blessing Briar Rose, when a noise echoed through the ballroom. Whispers quickly started to spread that the thirteenth fairy had arrived. She was not pleasant like the other fairies. She entered the ballroom and scolded the king and queen for not inviting her. She was so mad that she cursed the child to die from a wound inflicted by a spinning wheel on her fifteenth birthday.

The king and queen were heartbroken. The twelfth fairy had not blessed Briar Rose yet and told them that even though the curse had to be fulfilled, she could soften the consequences to a deep slumber of one hundred years instead of death. So, this was the gift she gave to Briar Rose.

The king and queen still hoped they could avoid the curse and ordered that all of the spinning wheels in the kingdom be rounded up and burned. In the meantime, the princess grew up and all of the other gifts were fulfilled. She was so beautiful and kind-hearted and everyone who knew her loved her dearly.

On her fifteenth birthday, her parents were away and she was left alone in the palace. She went exploring and found an old tower with an old door that had a small golden key in the knob. She slowly turned the key and gently pushed the door open. In the middle of the room sat a spinning wheel. She had never seen one before and set to inspecting the strange object. Briar Rose ran her finger across the spindle and pricked her finger. The curse was fulfilled and she fell lifeless to the floor.

~"Oh no!" the girls cried.

"Don't worry," Phillip reassured them. "She's just asleep, remember?"

"Oh yeah!" they said simultaneously. "Keep going, Daddy!"

"Alright," he continued.

~Briar Rose was not the only one who fell asleep. Her entire kingdom had fallen under the spell, including her parents who had arrived home just as the curse was taking place. While the kingdom fell into the deep slumber, a thick hedge of thorns grew around the palace. Every year it grew taller and thicker until the palace was completely hidden from view. However, word spread throughout the lands of the beautiful princess and her sleeping kingdom. Every so often a king's son would try to make his way through the hedge to the palace, but they always got stuck in the thorns and never made it out.

Many years later, a young prince came into the land and an old man told him the story of Briar Rose and the palace hidden amidst the thorns. The man also told the prince of the countless princes who tried in vain to seek her out. This did not frighten the prince. So he set out to try his luck despite the old man's objections.

It just so happened that it had been exactly one hundred years since the curse fell and so when the prince came to the hedge all he saw were beautiful flowering shrubs, which he easily made his way through. Then he made his way to the palace. He entered the palace and saw the sleeping court.
He continued on until he finally reached the tower. He pushed open the door and saw Briar Rose fast asleep on the floor. He was so enchanted by her beauty that he stooped down and gently kissed her.

As soon as the prince kissed her, she opened her eyes and smiled at him. They made their way down from the tower to find the rest of the kingdom waking up as well. The two wed soon after and they lived happily ever after.

~"The end," said Phillip. "Goodnight, girls, I love you."

"Goodnight, Daddy," the little princesses said.

Phillip put out the light and gently shut the girls' door. He made his way to his room where his wife was waiting.

"The same story again, huh?" she asked.

"Yeah, but I never get tired of it. I could tell the story of us a thousand times," Phillip replied.

Briar Rose smiled at him and he smiled at her. They knew the ending to the story was true, they were definitely living happily ever after.

Author's Note: My story is very similar to the original story of Briar Rose. The plot is exactly the same, but retold in my own words. I wanted to keep the original intact, but add a new flare to it. I thought it would be cute to have it being told as a bedtime story. I thought it would be fun to have the prince from the story being the one retelling the story and it made it even sweeter that he was telling it to his daughters. I liked the idea that Briar Rose and Phillip went on to have children and they loved each other so much that they shared their enchanting story with their eager daughters. The girls having such a strong interest in the story makes it even sweeter because they love listening to how their parents met and the fascinating circumstances that led to their encounter. It was a challenge trying to figure out how to flip back and forth between the dialogue of Phillip and the girls and the actual story itself. I wanted to make it clear without having to add a lot to the story. I named the prince Phillip because that was the prince's name from Disney's Sleeping Beauty which is very similar to the story of Briar Rose. The story still has the fairy tale theme of love, it is just much more subtle.

Image Information: "Take the Fair Face of Woman, and Gently Suspending, With Butterflies, Flowers, and Jewels Attending, Thus Your Fairy is Made of Most Beautiful Things" by Sophie Gengembre Anderson (Wikimedia Commons)
-Photo of a Schacht Reeves spinning wheel crafted by the Reeves Family taken from http://heritagespinning.com/wheels/
-"The Council Chamber" from the "Legend of Briar Rose" by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography: Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (LibriVox) Part B

From a Children's Story by Sybil Shearin

I really liked the story of the Queen Bee. I hadn't ever read it before, but I liked that the underdog was the one who ended up saving the day. The other two brothers still got to live seemingly happy lives after, but the younger one got a better deal and all because he was kind and considerate. I don't know how I would adapt it, but I really enjoyed reading it!

The Twelve Huntsman was a good read. I think this would be fun to make into a modern tale. A story about unrelenting love. I like that she went to be near him, but didn't do anything rash or out of character despite her broken heart. In the end their love won out and that was all that mattered.

Jordina and Jorindel would be a fun story to turn into a story resembling a modern day kidnapping. It would be kind of dark, but the original story sets it up nicely.

Bibliography: Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm; Mythology and Folklore UntextbookThe

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (LibriVox) part A

I love the story of The Frog Prince. It has been awhile since I read it. It bothered me a little that the Princess was seemingly mean to the frog and did what she did unwillingly and yet he still wanted to love her and marry her. I think it would be interesting to make the Princess and the Frog build a relationship first and then have her say she loves him and that is what breaks the curse. It seems a little to easy for the Princess to reluctantly put the frog up and then get an awesome reward.

Rapunzel is probably one of my favorite stories. I love that even though she and the prince go through so many obstacles, they still are able to be together in the end. I think it would be fun to make this a modern day story. I haven't quite figured out what details I would use, but the thought intrigues me.

Clever Elsie was definitely an interesting read. She sounds more crazy than clever to me! Ha, but I did find pity on her when her husband tricked her. I don't know how I could adapt this, but it definitely caught my attention.

I think it would be interesting to make a sequel to Briar Rose. It would be fun to see how the Prince helped her and her court adapt to the new world. I mean 100 years have gone by surely things have changed. It would also be fun to tell the story from the Prince's perspective, perhaps as a bed time story to his children.




Bibliography: Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook
Image information: Image 1= The Frog Prince by Paul Friedrich Meyerheim (Wikipedia)
Image 2= The Rose Bower from the "Legend of Briar Rose" series by Sir Edward Burne-Jones (Wikimedia Commons)

Storytelling: Tattercoats

She was beautiful and she didn't even know it.

I still remember the first time I ever saw her. She was dancing down the road with a gooseherd and his geese. It was definitely a sight to see. She had tattered clothes and bare feet. Her sandy blonde hair looked like it hadn't been brushed in ages. Despite her worn down appearance, she was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. Her smile shone brighter than a sky full of stars and her eyes were filled with a joy I had never seen before. It took me all of five seconds to fall in love with her.

I knew this was the girl I had to marry. So, I dismounted my horse and slowly made my way up to her. "Excuse me," I said. "Would you happen to know where the king is staying? I have been invited to a party he is hosting and cannot seem to find my way."

"Why yes I do," this stunning girl replied. "In fact we are headed there ourselves! Why don't you join us on the journey!"

I of course was not going to pass up the opportunity to be near her, so I agreed to walk with them. As we were walking, the gooseherd continued to play his pipe. I don't know if it was the music or just simply being in this girl's presence, but I was falling even more in love with her. I couldn't contain myself any longer.

"Will you marry me?" I blurted out. "I know we just met, but you are the most exquisite being I have ever seen and I would be so honored if you would be my wife."

She looked at me like I had lost my mind and then laughed. "That is quite the joke sir. You would be put to shame if you were to wed me and my low status. Save your proposal for one of the lovely ladies you will see tonight at the king's ball."

I will admit the rejection hurt, but I would not take no for an answer. One way or another I was going to convince her that I wanted her to be my wife. The more we walked and the more the gooseherd played his pipe, the more I fell in love with this girl. She may not have been of a high stature, but she had a heart of pure gold and that was even more valuable. She had a natural elegance and grace that made her even more precious than any gemstone a wealthy man could offer. Despite my best efforts to convince her of this, she did not believe that it was true. Her humility and modesty only made me fall for her more.

"Miss I will do anything to convince you that you are the one for me! Please meet me at the ball at midnight tonight. Come as you are and bring your friend and his geese. Come in your torn dress and bare feet and dance with me in front of the king and his court and allow me to present you as my beloved bride."

"I will consider your request kind sir. I have always wanted to attend a ball. This is where we part ways. For now," she said with a wry smirk.

These words were all I needed to give me hope that she would finally say yes. Waiting at the ball was agonizing. Every second I looked at the clock and then the grand doors and back to the clock and so on.

Finally the clock stuck twelve. I have never been so relieved in my life than when I saw that beautiful woman walk through those doors, gooseherd and flock in tow. The people of the court whispered and laughed, but I didn't care. The only thing that mattered to me was that she was there. I quickly stepped down from beside the throne and kissed her hand. I then turned my attention to the king.

"Father," I began, "I have decided that this is the woman I want to spend the rest of my life with. She is the sweetest and most beautiful girl in all the land and she would make me the happiest man alive."

She was a little surprised that I was actually the prince. However, she was more surprised by what the gooseherd did next, as were we all. As soon as I had finished presenting her to my father, the gooseherd played a few low notes and her raggedy clothes turned into beautiful silk robes with jewels encrusted along the seams. A golden crown appeared upon her sandy blonde hair and the geese transformed into pages that helped hold her long train.

My father rose to greet her and accepted her as his new daughter. The trumpets sounded loudly and the people in the street congratulated me on finding the loveliest girl in all the land. The gooseherd was never heard from again; he seemed to have vanished into thin air.

As for me and the beautiful young woman, we went on to be married and are living happily ever after. To this day she still doesn't know just how truly beautiful she is. For it wasn't her clothes or representation of her wealth that made me fall in love with her, but rather her genuine smile and sparkling eyes and her humble personality. She was beautiful in appearance, but you could tell just by looking at her that there was so much more to her than that. She likes to believe that she is the lucky one of the two of us, but in all reality I am the lucky one to be able to call this one of a kind woman my wife and I will spend the rest of my life showing her just how precious she really is.


Author's Note: My story is based off of the English Fairy Tale Tattercoats from More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs. In the original it gives the back story of how Tattercoats was the granddaughter of an old, rich lord. However, his favorite daughter died giving birth to her so he did not want anything to do with her. Tattercoats' nurse was the one who raised her and provided for her as best she could. One day news traveled through the town that the king was having a ball so that his son could choose a wife. Tattercoats wanted to attend the ball desperately and the old nurse tried to convince her grandfather to take her, but he refused. Tattercoats then relays the sad news to her friend the gooseherd who then convinces her to go to the ball with him just as they are. This is where my story picks up. It is very similar to the original in plot. The main difference is the point of view. I thought it would be cute to tell the story from the Prince's perspective to emphasize what made him fall in love with her. I loved that he fell in love with her despite her ragged appearance and I wanted to make that the most prominent part of the story. I also thought it would be cute to tell the story as a memory. It gives it a nostalgic feeling, but also really shows the Prince's love for her.

Bibliography: More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook

Image information:
-Image 1: Taken from More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs, illustrated by John Dickson Batten
-Image 2: Taken from Fairy Ring by Kate Douglas Wiggen, illustrated by Elizabeth MacKinstry

Reading Notes: More English Fairy Tales Part A

The Golden Ball was an interesting read. The whole time I just wanted to know what was so important about that ball that the girl had to be hung if she lost it. I also wondered how the guy who gave it to her would even know if she lost it. I could write a story that answered one or both of those questions. This story already has a love aspect in it, so I could also incorporate that into my version to keep up with my running theme.

I liked Tattercoats. It reminded me of Cinderella a little bit. I love that the Prince fell in love with her just as she was instead of the dolled up version. I think it would be fun to take this story and make it into a modern day love story. I think I'm leaning towards this one.

Illustration by John Dickson Batten taken from the book More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jaocbs

The Old Witch caught my attention mainly because of the moral. I like that it was a story about treating others how you want to be treated. I'm not really sure how I could adapt this story, but I really enjoyed reading it.

Bibliography: More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook

Storytelling: Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree

 

 My name is Alastrina and I am the second wife of the beloved prince. His first wife, Gold-Tree, died tragically not too long ago. Many say it was at the hands of her own mother, but nothing was ever proven. She was the most beautiful woman in all of the land. It's kind of hard to compete with that. My husband does make an effort to be happy or at least pretend. I can tell that he still misses her and probably always will, but that doesn't keep me from loving him. I would give anything to see him smile again.

     My husband has taken leave on a hunting trip and has left me to my own devices. I have wandered this palace many times and have explored every room. Well, there is actually one room I have never been inside. My husband keeps it locked and always carries the key with him. However, I did not see him wearing it this morning when he departed on his trip. I will find the key and finally see what he has painstakingly been keeping a secret. 

     It has been at least ten minutes since I opened the secret door and I still cannot believe what I am seeing. Lying in the center of the room, on a gorgeous canopied bed, is the most beautiful woman I have ever seen. This must be my beloved husband's first wife. She is even more beautiful than I could have ever imagined. Her hair is as dark as ebony and shines in the sunlight peaking through the window. Her skin is as fair as the snow that covers the mountain peaks in the winter. Her face is peaceful as if she is merely sleeping. No wonder he never buried her, a beauty like this must be preserved, not discarded. 

     I wonder if I could wake her up. I know she is dead, but if I could wake her up I could make my husband the happiest man in the world. There is nothing I wouldn't give to see his eyes light up one more time. Hmmm what is that in her finger? It looks like a stab, that has no place on such a beautiful woman so I'll remove it. Even if I can't wake her up, there is no point in keeping this unsightly splinter in her finger. 

     I still can't comprehend what just happened. As soon as I removed the stab from Gold-Tree's finger she woke up. The stab must have been poisoned or something of that nature. My husband will be so thrilled to have his first love back. I guess this means he will no longer have a use for me, but his happiness is the most important thing to me and I am willing to step aside so they can be together again. He will be home tonight; I will share the wonderful news with him then and inform him of my departure from the palace. 

     I have never seen my husband so happy in all the time that we have been together. His face lit up brighter than the sun or any other star I have ever laid eyes on. It was a magnificent sight to see. I have to admit I was surprised that he asked me to stay, but I am overjoyed to be able to share in the happiness that has now filled the castle. It is nice to see everyone so happy.

     The happiness was short lived I am afraid. Our husband is away on a hunting trip and Silver-Tree, Gold-Tree's mother, is on her way for visit. Gold-Tree is terrified. She keeps saying that her mother will kill her as soon as she gets here. I am not going to let that happen. The prince's happiness as well as Gold-Tree's are the most important thing to me and I will not let anyone take that away from them. When Silver-Tree gets here, we will take care of her once and for all.  

     Silver-Tree thought she was clever, but she was not more clever than I. She tried to trick Gold-Tree into drinking the wine that she had brought as a gift. I knew better than to believe she was being sincere, so I told her that it is customary for the person bearing the drink to take the first sip. When Silver-Tree put the cup to her lip I quickly hit the bottom of it, tilting upward just enough for some of the wine to go down her throat. It was poisoned, just as I had suspected, and Silver-Tree immediately fell dead. Gold-Tree is so relieved and she no longer has to live in fear. Now we are able to live out the remainder of our days peacefully and happily and that is exactly what we are going to do. 

Author's note: My story is based of off the Celtic Fairy tale Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree. My story very closely relates to the original. In the original the story begins by describing how Silver-Tree is jealous of her daughter's beauty and asks her husband to kill Gold-Tree so that she may be the most beautiful in the land. However, the king marries Gold-Tree to a prince in a far off land and lies to his wife about the completion of the task. However, Silver-Tree soon finds out about the lie when she visits the trout and asks if she is the fairest of them all and it tells her that Gold-Tree is still the fairest. Silver-Tree quickly makes arrangements to visit her daughter and despite Gold-Tree's efforts to stay away from her, Silver-Tree is able to jab Gold-Tree in the finger with a poisoned stab, killing her. This is where my story begins. I did however change the perspective of the story. It was my first attempt at writing a story in first person. I wanted to tell the story from her perspective so the audience could get a first hand feel of what she went through and to also emphasize the love she had for her husband and later on Gold-Tree. I also thought that the fact that she was willing to leave so that Gold-Tree and the Prince could live in happiness showed how much she loved the prince and how selfless she was. It goes with my theme of love, but it is a different take on the concept. I got the idea for the name "Alastrina" because I wanted to use a Celtic name since it was a celtic fairy tale and after researching names I chose this one because it means "defend mankind," which I thought was fitting since she wanted her husband to be happy and protected Gold-Tree. 

Bibliography: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook

Image information: 1st image is what I imagined Alastrina to look like. She is pretty, but has a plain nature about her as to not outshine Gold-Tree. The image is called Young Fauna and is by Kawaiibrit. 2nd Image is of Snow White, who is very similar to Gold-Tree. The image is called Snow White and is by Kawaiibrit.

Reading Notes: Celtic Fairy Tales Part A

The Shepard of Myddvai was an interesting read. It starts off like a fairy tale  with the man being able to pick out his love among his sisters. It was frustrating to see him "strike" her three times and ultimately lose the love of his life. I use quotation marks because I don't think what he did constitutes a striking but that's just me. I feel like I could take this story and spin it into a happy ending. I'm still pondering the ways in which I could do this. 

In Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree it's interesting that it is the mother not the step mother that is jealous. I also thought it was interesting that it was the king who was given the task of getting the heart and the liver not a huntsmen. I really enjoyed the fact that it was the prince's second wife who brought Gold-Tree back to life. It showed her selflessness because she seemingly knew that her husband still longed for Gold-Tree and woke her anyway and was even willing to leave so that they may be together. I think I'd like to take this story and write a new one from the perspective of the second wife when she finds Gold-Tree and the events that unfold from that point in time. I think it would be interesting to see what was going through her mind. 

Snow White by Kawaiibrit

Bibliography: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs; Mythology and Folklore Untextbook