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Reading Week 14: Russian Fairy Tales, Part A

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Sadko by Ilya Repin on  Wikipedia For this week, I read the Russian Fairy Tales unit. I chose this unit because I have enjoyed all of the other fairy tales that I have read in this class this semester, and I did not know much about Russia’s storytelling. Some of these stories were pretty short with common themes, such as a greedy man who gets what is coming to him. Other stories are longer with more bizarre plots. I also learned from this unit that the days of the week are embodied as supernatural characters. One shorter tale about a greedy priest had a disturbing yet foreseeable ending. In The Treasure , an old, poor man must bury his dead wife. No one will help him dig a grave because he is poor, not even the priest. The priest is actually the rudest of all and declares that the old man cannot show his face to him again without money. The old man begins to dig a grave for his wife himself and hits a pot of gold. He uses the gold to bury his wife and pro
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Week 13 Storytelling: Rhymes & Crimes

Proverbs Those who see others with their hearts, not their eyes Must after all be very wise. Those who judge others only on looks Will end up no better than the most vile crooks! One who is rude unto another Shall get no pudding for supper! Tales Jenny took her little puppy dog out for a walk When suddenly she heard overhead a loud squawk. Looking up above her head poor Jenny did see A large bird, and her dog it was trying to thieve! Jenny picked up a rock and with one good chuck Knocked the bird in its head, ‘twas the puppy dog’s luck! One book, two book, three book, four. Little Fiona goes to the library every-day! She likes to read and do nothing more, And her dear mother tells her to go out and play. Fiona does not like scraping her knees outside Or especially getting burns from the sun. Instead, she will state with such pride, “Mother dear, reading is simply the most fun!” O Debt! my Debt! our fearful trip is done, This degre
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Week 13 Reading: English Nursery Rhymes, Part B

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Image on  Wikimedia This is a continuation of my English Nursery Rhyme unit notes. I decided to read these poems because I had a large book with many of the same works when I was younger, and I thought that it would be nice to revisit some of them and to read ones that I had never heard of before. This second section of the unit is separated into categories such as Love and Marriage, Jingles, Natural History, Relics, etc. I like this format because the book that I had did not separate them, so it is nice to compare and contrast poems within the same category in this way. In the Jingles section, I came across Hey Diddle Diddle, but the version that I found in this unit was slightly different than the one that I am used to. I clearly remember it being, “And the dish ran away with the spoon,” but this version has it as, “And the dish ran after the spoon,” accompanied by a menacing-looking dish and a frightened spoon. Here, I like my version more because
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Week 13 Reading: English Nursery Rhymes, Part A

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Image on  Wikimedia This week, I read the English Nursery Rhymes unit. I chose these tales because I knew that I would find poems from my childhood that I wished to revisit as well as poems that I had never read before. Many of these poems were smaller than the size of a normal paragraph, and some were as little as two lines long. The unit is separated into sections like Tales, Proverbs, Riddles, Paradoxes, Games, etc. I like this format, because the large book of nursery rhymes that I had when I was a child just threw everything together. The Tales section were more bizarre stories about anything, commonplace or not. Here, you will find tales about three men going to sea in a bowl, two little children perishing in a wood, and even more famous poems such as The Man in the Moon and Simple Simon . I liked revisiting the poem There Was a Crooked Man because I realized that a song that I love by Charlotte Gainsbourg called “Greenwich Mean Time” uses lines from it.
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Week 12 Story: The Vengefulness of Fairies

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Image on  Public Domain Pictures When Anwyn was a little girl in the Welsh countryside, she was often bullied at school for being small. Most nights, she went home at night and cried alone in her bed. One night, she heard what sounded like faint footsteps next to her. When she looked at the ground, she saw a number of little fairies dancing in a circle. When Anwyn spotted them, the queen fairy flew up to her and wiped a tear off of her cheek. “Now, why are you crying, love? We were out in the garden dancing among the mushrooms and we heard your wailing.” Anwyn had heard tales of fairies, but was s urprised that they would bother coming to comfort her. “Well, ma’am, I’ve been picked on a lot at school. The other girls say I’m small, and sometimes they push me down for fun because I’m weak.” The queen fairy’s eyes gleamed. “Ah, I see. Well, you won’t need to worry about that anymore. I’m sure that you will grow into a big, strong girl and
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Week 12 Reading: Welsh (Emerson), Part B

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Image on  Wikipedia This is a continuation of my Welsh (Emerson) unit notes. I was not as thrilled to read some of these stories as I was the last section from this unit as some of the stories refer to women as “females” who are treated as property by men. It greatly bothers me when women are called “females” because this is essentially taking away a woman’s humanity. We never hear of men referred to as “males.” I don’t care if these tales were written in 1892, this is still sexist. One of these tales was a disturbing story called The Pellings . In this tale, a man kidnaps a fairy and takes her to his house. Instead of trying to flee, she stays because he is “nice” to her. Of course, she is referred to as his “female” and acts as the perfect housewife and gives him two children. This just sounds like a case of Stockholm syndrome to me. Another tale that referred to a woman as her husband’s “female” was The Long-Lived Ancestors . I was honestly so annoye
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Week 12 Reading: Welsh (Emerson), Part A

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Image on  Flickr For this week, I read the Welsh (Emerson) unit. I chose this unit because I have always wanted to travel Europe, and I know that I have some Celtic ancestry. Many of these tales were about fairies, and I realized that fairies were much more vengeful mythological creatures than I had thought. In the tale The Fairies of Caragonan , the main character is the queen fairy, although there are many important characters. Something that I liked about this tale was that it displays how fairies can use their powers for good or for revenge. Also, the story was very detailed. For example, we learn a little about the lives of two men that the fairies have helped, as well as one of their sons. The rest of the story then becomes about how this son helps the fairies kill an evil witch (who they casually chuck into a ditch and burn) and how the son is then rewarded with a beautiful wife. It’s a “happily ever after” tale. I also liked Three Short T
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