This week I chose to read the English Fairy Tales unit.
In the story of Tom Tit Tot, it made me wonder what would be a normal amount of skeins to spin in one day. Because spinning five skeins, really doesn't sound like that big of a feat.
I thought it was interesting how the girl gets to guess the imps name three times each night for the whole month. In the version I'm used to, I'm pretty sure she only gets three guesses.
Also, why is the king so obsessed with these skeins? What does he even need them for? In the version I'm used to, the girl says she can spin gold. That seems like it would be way more of an asset than just yarn.
The Rose Tree is an awfully gruesome story! The poor little girl loses her head for making a silly mistake! And then the step-mother tries to feed the family the little girl's organs! I can't imagine telling this story to my children.
It also seems funny to run outside to see the thunder. Maybe the author meant that they wanted to see the lightning, but you can't see thunder. I'm glad that the little girl got her revenge on the horrible step-mother.
The story of The Old Woman and Her Pig reminds me of The Old Woman Who Swallowed a Spider. While I understand that the woman wants the water to punish the fire for not burning the stick, if her end goal is to have a hot stick to hit the dog with, then pouring water on it doesn't seem like a very good idea.
I'm glad the cow finally cooperated or who knows how long the story would have been!
In Binnorie, my favorite line is both morbid and amusing: "'Sink on,' cried the cruel princess, 'no hand or glove of mine you'll
touch. Sweet William will be all mine when you are sunk beneath the
bonny millstream of Binnorie.'"
People do the strangest things in these stories. If you found a woman beautiful and were grieved at her death, why on earth would you make a harp from her bones and hair?! That seems very demented.
I did like how the harp called the murderous sister out on her crimes in front of everyone. That was a good ending.
In The Mouse and the Mouser, the way the characters repeated "good body, good body" and "dear lady, dear lady" reminded me of "There's a Hole in My Bucket, dear Liza, Dear Liza."
They certainly have a lot of dances back to back in the Cap o' Rushes story.
I actually liked this version of Cinderella better than the original. The master's son and Cap o' Rushes actually get to know each other over a couple of days. The ring in the porridge makes way more sense than carrying a shoe around the kingdom to have every girl try it on because not everyone has a unique shoe size. And Cap o' Rushes is reunited with her father in the end instead of having him die. I also liked the way the idea of meat and salt was brought up again at the end.
In the story of The Three Little Pigs, I don't understand why the third little pig had the sense not to let the wolf in, but then he risked his safety by leaving his house to pick turnips and apples. It's funny how the pig becomes the predator at the end of the story by making the wolf his prey. That's an interesting twist.
I remember the Disney movie version of The Master and His Pupil. Mickey was making the water go all over the place in great waves.
In the Henny-Penny story, it's funny how the story is moving right along with the hen, the rooster, the duck, the goose, and the turkey, but none of those birds find the fox's interest strange.
In the Molly Whuppie story, it seems like the king is getting the better bargain. He gets swords and riches and his sons get wives. But Molly has to risk her life every single time she goes to the giant's house. I felt bad for the giant in this story. He looses his possessions and he accidentally kills his wife.
I was glad that Lady Mary was smart enough to save herself from a murderous husband. I was worried for a little while that Mr. Fox was going to kill her.
In The Ass, The Table, and The Stick, I was really rooting for Jack until he beat up all those women and stole their money. That seemed really uncalled for because he already had as much money as he could spend.
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