Home » Discussion Forums » Talk » Favorite Obscure Fairytale
| Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1531] |
Fri, 17 October 2008 22:42  |
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 Laura
Messages: 196
Registered: October 2008
Location: Midwestern USA |
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I was thinking about Robin's fairytale retellings, which sort of have become almost a trademark, because I've never read any author do it better. One of my favorites is Deerskin, which we all know was based off of Perrault's Donkeyskin, but I had never heard of it prior to reading Robin's version. And then I started wondering how many other interesting fairytales are out there that I've never heard of because Disney hasn't gotten to them yet. (Hey, I love aspects of Disney for the childlike nostalgia, but...)
My family is of Danish extraction, so I'm pretty familiar with Hans Christian Andersen's work.
I recommend everyone take a look at Andersen's The Wild Swans.
This is the illustrated edition that my family owns, and here is a link to wikipedia, which has a pretty accurate description of the story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Swans
Or, for those who have time, a long translation that fits my memory of it fairly well, here: http://www.portitude.org/literature/andersen/ft-wild_swans.p hp
Why do I like it? Because she has to knit in order to save her brothers. The heroine is also fairly active here, as her brothers do their best to protect her in their swan forms, while she works her fingers off to make them shirts of nettles, having to venture into horrible haunted graveyards to find more nettles, and risking burning at the stake to save them rather then speak and save herself.
OK, your turn. Share your favorite "obscure" fairytales! (Please. Make my first new topic a success  )
Edited for spelling...
[Updated on: Sat, 18 October 2008 14:56]
Known on both Ravelry and LibraryThing as thelorelei.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1535 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Fri, 17 October 2008 23:13  |
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Akai
Messages: 76
Registered: October 2008
Location: Seattle, WA |
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The Wild Swans's my favorite obscure fairy tale as well! There's an awesome version by Juliet Marillier called Daughter of Sevenwaters. If you haven't read it, I recommend it very strongly. (By the way, a new book in that series is coming out in November, Heir to Sevenwaters, for anyone who liked them.)
[Updated on: Fri, 17 October 2008 23:15]
self respect: the secure feeling that no one, as yet, is suspicious.
--H.L. Mencken
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1539 is a reply to message #1534 ] |
Fri, 17 October 2008 23:41 |
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Yes, the Firebird is a traditional Russian fairytale. There's also a ballet by Stravinsky about it. I used to go to sleep to a version of it that has a lovely narration (Still do when I'm feeling bad)
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1541 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Fri, 17 October 2008 23:49 |
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Hrmm... I don't think I can pick just one! I grew up reading all the colored fairy books (we had a full set), and there's an awful lot of obscure ones in those. I love seeing how all these similarish tales popped up all over.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1547 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 03:37 |
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| Laura wrote on Fri, 17 October 2008 22:42 |
I was thinking about Robin's fairytale retellings, which sort of have become almost a trademark, because I've never read any author do it better. One of my favorites is Deerskin, which we all know was based off of Perault's Donkeyskin, but I had never heard of it prior to reading Robin's version. And then I started wondering how many other interesting fairytales are out there that I've never heard of because Disney hasn't gotten to them yet. (Hey, I love aspects of Disney for the childlike nostalgia, but...)
My family is of Danish extraction, so I'm pretty familiar with Hans Christian Andersen's work.
I recommend everyone take a look at Andersen's The Wild Swans.
This is the illustrated edition that my family owns, and here is a link to wikipedia, which has a pretty accurate description of the story. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Wild_Swans
Or, for those who have time, a long translation that fits my memory of it fairly well, here: http://www.portitude.org/literature/andersen/ft-wild_swans.p hp
Why do I like it? Because she has to knit in order to save her brothers. The heroine is also fairly active here, as her brothers do their best to protect her in their swan forms, while she works her fingers off to make them shirts of nettles, having to venture into horrible haunted graveyards to find more nettles, and risking burning at the stake to save them rather then speak and save herself.
OK, your turn. Share your favorite "obscure" fairytales! (Please. Make my first new topic a success )
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Sister! The Wild Swans is my favorite obscure fairy tale too (until Snow White and Rose Red is obscure? Not really, I guess), and that is one of my most beloved picture books! I'm thrilled that it's back in print (with a new cover--that threw me off) because my copy went missing.
And while they may not really be fairy tales (depending on how you define it, I guess--they certainly have the flavor of fairy tales, at least, and borrow elements from classic fairy tales left and right), I'm very attached to the stories in Howard Pyle's The Wonder Clock, including "Bearskin".
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1554 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 08:33 |
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L.R.K.
Messages: 1090
Registered: October 2008
Location: Sweden |
Senior Member |
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I love "The Wild Swans" and "East of the Sun, West of the Moon"! And "Snow White and Rose Red", too. I love fairy tales. 
My favourite obscure fairy tale is "Prince Hat Underground", which is a Swedish fairy tale, and has similarities with "East of the Sun, West of the Moon". The version that I read is in "Svenska folksagor", Swedish fairy tales retold by Fridtjuv Berg, with lovely illustrations by artists like Elsa Beskow and others; actually I like that whole collection. I don't seem to be able to find the book just now (slight panic attack! - where is it?!), and it's a rather long story, but basically a princess has to marry prince Hat who lives underground, but can never see his face, he comes to her only at night in darkness, they have three children; when she visits her relations her stepmother (I think) persuades her that she should sneak a look at him - well, as I said it is a long story, but it turns out he is cursed by a witch and the princess must ultimately find him and break the curse/spell.
Talking of picture books and fairy tales, there is a picture book version of Edith Nesbit's fairy tale "Melisande" with illustrations by P J Lynch which is absolutely lovely!
Why, I feel all thin, sort of stretched, if you know what I mean, like butter that has been scraped over too much bread.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1565 is a reply to message #1547 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 11:50 |
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Laura
Messages: 196
Registered: October 2008
Location: Midwestern USA |
Senior Member |
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| Charismitaine wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 03:37 |
Sister! The Wild Swans is my favorite obscure fairy tale too (until Snow White and Rose Red is obscure? Not really, I guess), and that is one of my most beloved picture books! I'm thrilled that it's back in print (with a new cover--that threw me off) because my copy went missing.
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Seems like maybe The Wild Swans isn't so obscure after all! Although I'm not so sure that this particular edition is back in print; I just googled images until I found a picture online of the book that I remembered from childhood.
Also, one could argue that Snow White and Rose Red is obscure compared to the more well known Snow White and the Seven Dwarves. I had to wikipedia the former just to remember the tale.
I love all these re-telling recommendations, too! I'll have to check out both Firebird, (although Mercedes Lackey is hit-or-miss for me) and Daughter of Sevenwaters.
It's interesting to me how many fairytales have a sort of Cupid and Psyche thing going on. I wonder what that is supposed to represent. I took a fairytales class in college that explored the psychological meanings of common events in fairytales, (for example, the step-mother represents the fear of separation from or abandonment by the maternal figure, not a literal step-mother). Unfortunately I had to withdraw from the class due to schedule overload so I didn't get much farther than that...
I just remembered another good one: George MacDonald's Little Daylight, wherein the set-up starts much like Sleeping Beauty. The princess is cursed to only be awake at night, and she will wax and wane with the moon. I always thought that was a cool concept. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Little_Daylight
Known on both Ravelry and LibraryThing as thelorelei.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1586 is a reply to message #1569 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 14:51 |
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Like your tagline, Angelia. Sounds vaguely familiar...;-}
Another fairy tale that has Cupid and Psyche leanings is another Perrault (sp) story called "Green Snake." You can find it in Big Golden Book--The Fairy Tale Book. The book has some of the most amazing illustrations ever. It's my all time favorite. And it contains the fairy tales as is--no dumbing down for the kiddies. I'll try and post a link to it--it's wonderful.
Anything with Cupid and Psyche leanings always gets me. For a book, try Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. It was his last and best book, in my opinion.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1594 is a reply to message #1591 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 15:15 |
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| Laura wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 15:08 |
| Mori-neko wrote on Fri, 17 October 2008 23:49 |
Hrmm... I don't think I can pick just one! I grew up reading all the colored fairy books (we had a full set), and there's an awful lot of obscure ones in those. I love seeing how all these similarish tales popped up all over.
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Mori-Neko, can you tell me more about these colored fairy books? I've never heard of them.
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Thank you for asking! It got me searching for a pages with a better description than I had off the top of my head, and apparently they're available full-text online! Here: http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/
Basically, it's a set of a dozen books, each with a different color in it's name (eg, the Red Fairy Book). They're full of fairy tales from all over the world, collected by Andrew Lang.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1597 is a reply to message #1595 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 15:26 |
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| Laura wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 15:19 |
Oh heavens, I think I am in trouble with these. I should turn off my computer and run away...but instead I think I have discovered how I'm going to waste my Saturday.
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*evil cackle*
Though, I've probably stepped in the same trap myself. I LOVE these books... and now I'm trying to figure out how to spirit them away from my parent's house next time I'm down visiting them!
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1600 is a reply to message #1596 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 16:00 |
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| livvispatula wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 13:20 |
| ssshunt wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 14:51 |
Anything with Cupid and Psyche leanings always gets me. For a book, try Till We Have Faces by C.S. Lewis. It was his last and best book, in my opinion.
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Till We Have Faces is tied with Sunshine for My Favorite Book Ever.
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Yay!
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1608 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 18:15 |
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Susan from Athens
Messages: 817
Registered: October 2008
Location: Athens, Greece |
Senior Member |
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I was the lucky recipient of dozens of illustrated fairy tale books as a child (and borrowed from friends and libraries ones I didn't have) so I guess I don't regard any of these as particularly obscure. I think I'd read three versions of Wild Swans before I was ten. My favourite is one whose name I don't know, as it was in a Greek book owned by one of my neighbours and was based on an Arabian story, set in Baghdad, with a Sultan whose two sons and a daughter are, Moses, like put in the river, and he is told they died in childbirth, until he turns away from his beloved wife and marries the plotting handmaiden who did away with his children. But the children, of course, are rescued by a loving childless couple living further down the river, and after many adventures, where they anonymously prove their worth and courage, they are recognised by their father and reunited with their mother. The illustrations were fabulous, based on Persian paintings, all delicate and faintly reminiscent of the illustrations in CS Lewis' The horse and his boy.
I also have a soft spot for a whole raft of nasty Greek myths, full of tragedy and self-sacrifice (the most common kind). Cyparissus was one of my absolute faves. So no fairies... But they so rarey appealed. Magic is an entirely different matter!
“I have always imagined heaven to be a kind of library.” –Jorge Luis Borges
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1620 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 20:39 |
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I really need to read Till We Have Faces some time when I'm not sick-to-death and lying on the bed doing nothing... People always talk about it and I think "I've read it twice, how do I not remember any of the details?" Is it incredibly vague and dream-like for anyone else or is it because of how very sick I was both times I attempted it?
"The center of every man's existence is a dream. Death, disease, insanity, are merely material accidents, like a toothache or a twisted ankle. That these brutal forces always besiege and often capture the citadel does not prove that they are the citadel."
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1628 is a reply to message #1594 ] |
Sat, 18 October 2008 22:17 |
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Melissa Mead
Messages: 996
Registered: October 2008
Location: Albany, NY, USA |
Senior Member |
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| Mori-neko wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 15:15 |
| Laura wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 15:08 |
| Mori-neko wrote on Fri, 17 October 2008 23:49 |
Hrmm... I don't think I can pick just one! I grew up reading all the colored fairy books (we had a full set), and there's an awful lot of obscure ones in those. I love seeing how all these similarish tales popped up all over.
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Mori-Neko, can you tell me more about these colored fairy books? I've never heard of them.
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Thank you for asking! It got me searching for a pages with a better description than I had off the top of my head, and apparently they're available full-text online! Here: http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/
Basically, it's a set of a dozen books, each with a different color in it's name (eg, the Red Fairy Book). They're full of fairy tales from all over the world, collected by Andrew Lang.
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You can get them for free online? I spent AGES tracking them down on e-Bay. D'oh!
Member of Carpe Libris: http://carpelibris.wordpress.com/
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1692 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Sun, 19 October 2008 19:12 |
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I adore Till We Have Faces...but at the same time, it's one of those books (like Deerskin) that I love, but can't read very often. It's too intense--and difficult, in a way. With Till We Have Faces, especially, I see too much of Orual's negative qualities in myself.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1697 is a reply to message #1628 ] |
Sun, 19 October 2008 19:32 |
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| Melissa Mead wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 22:17 |
| Mori-neko wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 15:15 |
| Laura wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 15:08 |
| Mori-neko wrote on Fri, 17 October 2008 23:49 |
Hrmm... I don't think I can pick just one! I grew up reading all the colored fairy books (we had a full set), and there's an awful lot of obscure ones in those. I love seeing how all these similarish tales popped up all over.
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Mori-Neko, can you tell me more about these colored fairy books? I've never heard of them.
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Thank you for asking! It got me searching for a pages with a better description than I had off the top of my head, and apparently they're available full-text online! Here: http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/
Basically, it's a set of a dozen books, each with a different color in it's name (eg, the Red Fairy Book). They're full of fairy tales from all over the world, collected by Andrew Lang.
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You can get them for free online? I spent AGES tracking them down on e-Bay. D'oh!
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Well, you can also find them on amazon etc. I was looking at the first edition covers... SO gorgeous. And while they -are- available online, I'd just as soon have actual copies. Much easier to curl up in bed with.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1713 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Mon, 20 October 2008 00:57 |
librarykat
Messages: 572
Registered: October 2008
Location: Redneck Riviera |
Senior Member |
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One of my baby gifts was a volume of Hans Christian Andersen fairy tales, with illustrations. The book is long gone, so I don't know what edition it was, or who the artist was. I just remember looking at the pictures a lot when I was very young. Some of them were pretty gruesome. One story that stuck with me, and I did read it when I was old enough to do so, was The Marsh King's Daughter. The only thing I remembered was that the princess turned into a frog at night, and the picture I remember is the princess, in frog form, weeping and digging a grave for a young murdered man. I just went online last night to read the tale after almost 50 years, and the details I remember are there, but it's such a different story from my memory of it. I guess that's what happens when one is so young at the time. I wouldn't necessarily call it a favorite obscure fairy tale, but it was memorable in some part, enough that I remembered the illustration and the title of the tale over all these years.
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1719 is a reply to message #1565 ] |
Mon, 20 October 2008 02:24 |
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danceswithpahis
Messages: 382
Registered: October 2008 |
Senior Member |
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| Laura wrote on Sat, 18 October 2008 11:50 |
It's interesting to me how many fairytales have a sort of Cupid and Psyche thing going on. I wonder what that is supposed to represent. I took a fairytales class in college that explored the psychological meanings of common events in fairytales, (for example, the step-mother represents the fear of separation from or abandonment by the maternal figure, not a literal step-mother). Unfortunately I had to withdraw from the class due to schedule overload so I didn't get much farther than that...
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I've heard theories like that. I can't say that there's nothing to them (certainly a story that has resonated with people so deeply over centuries and throughout different cultures to the point where it's stuck around as long as some fairy tales is going to have some psychological meaning that is significant for us), but I feel sometimes like they're reading too much into the tale. The wicked stepmothers, for example, may represent fear of separation. However, they may just plain represent the reality of an age when women died often in childbirth, men would remarry (I don't know how often, but I'm guessing it was a fairly regular happening), and the stepmother wouldn't be very thrilled about raising someone else's child. Good stepmother/stepchild relationships can happen, but they can be tough.
(Not to split hairs or anything... This just happens to be something I've thought about a lot [since I actually have a stepmother] and have definite opinions on].)
"Oh good! My dog found the chainsaw!"
-- Lilo ("Lilo and Stitch")
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1721 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Mon, 20 October 2008 03:12 |
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Julia
Messages: 532
Registered: October 2008
Location: Library School |
Senior Member |
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I just recently discovered, and quite like,"The Golden Key", simply because it is unfinished. sort-of. Which is both frustrating and wonderful...
And Anne Sexton's answer to it, which comes in the form of the opening poem in Transformations, is fun as well. "The Gold Key":
The Gold Key
The speaker in this case
is a middle-aged witch, me --
tangled on my two great arms,
my face in a book
and my mouth wide,
ready to tell you a story or two.
I have come to remind you,
all of you:
Alice, Samuel, Kurt, Eleanor,
Jane, Brian, Maryel,
all of you draw near.
Alice,
at fifty-six do you remember?
Do you remember when you
were read to as a child?
Samuel,
at twenty-two have you forgotten?
Forgotten the ten P.M. dreams
where the wicked king
went up in smoke?
Are you comatose?
Are you undersea?
Attention,
my dears,
let me present to you this boy.
He is sixteen and he wants some answers.
He is each of us.
I mean you.
I mean me.
It is not enough to read Hesse
and drink clam chowder
we must know the answers.
The boy has found a gold key
and he is looking for what it will open.
This boy!
Upon finding a nickel
he would look for a wallet.
This boy!
Upon finding a string
he would look for a harp.
Therefore he holds the key tightly.
Its secrets whimper
like a dog in heat.
He turns the key.
Presto!
It opens this book of odd tales
which transform the Brothers Grimm.
Transform?
As if an enlarged paper clip
could be a piece of sculpture.
(And it could.)
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| Re: Favorite Obscure Fairytale [message #1827 is a reply to message #1531 ] |
Tue, 21 October 2008 21:09 |
Maya
Messages: 30
Registered: October 2008
Location: Michigan |
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I got started on twisted/revised fairytales so early that I'm having a hard time picking a favorite old-fashioned fairytale! (I'm sure I'm not the only one here who's read The Ordinary Princess by M.M. Kaye. I read it in third grade and have been hooked ever since.) I know when I was really little I used to love the story of the Snow Queen, but I hardly remember it anymore; more clear is the memory of making my parents check out The Six Dancing Princesses (Fairytale Theater's version of the Twelve Dancing Princesses) every time we went to the video store when I was slightly older. So I guess I'd have to go with that one, although it's not particularly obscure.
Cupid and Psyche (commonly, as far as I've read, accepted as the original form of Beauty and the Beast) isn't the only story with lots of similar offshoots. The story of the Wild Swans is almost identical to one called The Seven Ravens (I think), and there's a Grimm tale called Bruederchen und Swesterchen (Brother and Sister, auf Deutsch) that is also similar; I'm sure there are others as well. Folklorists have a whole classification system set up, at least sort of, with stepmother stories and virtuous girl stories and more (and more official-sounding names). I don't know much about it, but anyone who reads a lot of fairy tales can't help noticing similarities.
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