Reading Notes (B): Brothers Grimm

The Queen Bee

This was a fun little story about two king's sons who go off in search of their fortune and life dreams. While away, they end up falling into a foolish life that prohibits them from going home. The third son, a dwarf, finds them and joins them on their journey through the world. Along the way, the two older brothers want to kill the ants, ducks, and bees they pass. However, the dwarf brother stops them from doing so. Eventually they arrive at a castle where an old man feeds them and allows them to sleep in his castle. The next day, the older brother is assigned to a task that holds the fate of  a lot of people in his hands. He fails, however, as does the second oldest brother. The dwarf brother, though, succeeds in completing the first task with the help of the ants he had saved from his older two brothers. He also completes the second and third tasks with the help of the ducks and bees he also saved from his brothers. The dwarf brother ends up marrying the best princess due to his heroic feat, while the other two brothers marry her two sisters. I thought this story was awesome because there were so many tasks to complete. I could use elements of this story for my story this week and create a fun little game show or something of the sort. I could also tell the story from the perspective of the old man who lives at the castle, which I think would be interesting to figure out.

The Twelve Huntsmen

I liked the idea of the all-knowing lion who kept telling the king that the huntsmen were actually girls. Everytime he tried to expose the girls, the servant would inform the girls of the upcoming task and they would fool the king deftly. I enjoyed the ending of the story because the king was finally reunited with his beloved first wife, whom he had only left because the previous king, his father, had asked him to marry another princess. This would also be an awesome story to expand or retell.

The King and his lion; HathiTrust

Bibliography

Grimm (LibriVox) from Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

Reading Notes (A): Brothers Grimm

The Frog Prince

This was a story about a princess who lost her golden ball in a spring. She was so sad and upset she had lost it that she vowed to give up all her riches and clothes if she could get it back. A frog from inside the spring heard the princess wailing and offered to retrieve the golden ball for her on one condition: she would bring him to her house and let him eat from her plate and sleep on her bed. The princess was naturally wary of this frog, but she agreed to what he had said. However, once he had retrieved the golden ball, she was so overcome with relief and joy that she forgot all about the frog and ran off back home. The frog ended up showing up at the princess's house later that night and her father, the king, advised her to keep her word. So the frog ate from the princess's plate and slept in her bed on the same pillow she slept on for three days straight. On the third day, the princess was shocked to find that the frog has turned into a handsome prince! He explained how he had been cursed by a witch and now that he was normal again, he wanted to take the princess back to his kingdom and marry her. I thought this was a great story to build off of because I'm already familiar with it. There's so many modifications I could make to either make it more modern or to just continue the story.

Rapunzel

This story is one that I'm very familiar with and it brings back a lot of childhood memories. This could be a great basis for another story this week. I read a story by another student last week that built off of this one and it was one of the best stories I've read all semester so I'm excited to see what I could do with this story!

Rapunzel; Un-Textbook

Bibliography

Grimm (LibriVox) from Fairy Tales by the Brothers Grimm

Week 13 Storytelling: Mouse Escapes

"What do I do now?" thought Mouse as he spiraled down Cat's esophagus and into his stomach. He bounced a few times upon landing before finally coming to a stop. It was dark and moist inside Cat's stomach and there was also a strong, putrid acidic smell emanating from all sides.

Mouse was upset that he had been foolish enough to believe Cat's false stories. He should have known that Cat was leaving the house to eat all the food they had stored up for the winter. Cat wasn't even his real friend, now that he had tried to eat Mouse. Not only did Mouse not have any food for the winter, he was basically almost dead! He was lucky that Cat had swallowed him in a hurry instead of taking the time to properly chew him up. Now he had to find a way out before the digestive juices in Cat's stomach located him and tried to break him down! There was surely no way to combat the acid without suffering severe burns. He decided the only way out was to continue moving downstream through Cat's digestive system. Down Mouse went, through the stomach to the small and large intestines, and finally near the bladder where he knew he could exit.

In the bladder, Mouse was met with another rotten smell. This time he knew exactly what it smelled like even though he tried his hardest not to think about it. All he knew was that he had to escape before Cat's body did something to him that would lead to a slow, painful death. He plunged into Cat's bladder and made quite some progress before he was met with a dead-end. 

"Now what?" thought Mouse as he became more and more exasperated. He had to find a genius way to escape from the depths of Cat's digestive system, but the only thing he could think of was to chew his way out from inside Cat's body. He was a mouse after all, and mice are fortunate to have sharp teeth that can gnaw their way through many different things. It was a long shot, but he had to try: his life depended on it. So Mouse did the only thing he could: he bit into the insides of Cat and started to gnaw his way through to the outside. It wasn't an easy or clean task (I'll save you all the gory details), but with a little time and patience, Mouse burst through Cat and landed outside, back in the real world.

At the same time, Cat felt a sudden sharp pain in his lower stomach as Mouse burst out and fell to the ground. Cat was astonished! He had never seen anything like this. But Cat didn't have time to be surprised. He had a hole in his stomach and was bleeding out!

"Help me!" Cat yelled to Mouse in obvious pain.

Mouse took one quick glance at Cat and sped off. Who did Cat think he was to take advantage of Mouse, steal their food, and eat him with the intent to kill and then still try and ask for help? Mouse chuckled and went off to search for food and shelter in order to survive the winter season.

Tom and Jerry; Flickr

Author's Note

The original story, called Cat and Mouse in Partnership, is about a cat and mouse who decide to live with each other through the winter season. Together, they round up some food to save for winter and then store it inside a church so that no one dares to steal it. The next day, Cat makes up an excuse that he is to be a godfather and has to leave the house all day. In reality, Cat actually sneaks off to the church and eats the pot of fat that they foraged for and stored for the winter. When winter finally arrives and they're no longer able to find food outside, they head to the church to retrieve the pot of fat. Of course, Cat has eaten it all and Mouse becomes extremely angry when he pieces it together and realizes what had happened. However, before Mouse can say anything, it's already too late: Cat leans down and swallows Mouse whole. This is where the story leaves off in the original text. I wanted to write about what happens after to the Mouse. I didn't think it was sufficient for the Mouse to die so pathetically, so I decided to add an epic escape from inside Cat. I also wanted karma to come around and get Cat for being cruel, so that's why I decided to have Mouse just take off after he escaped. The original story also reminds me of the show Tom and Jerry, so that's why I included the image that I did.

Bibliography

Brothers Grimm from Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales by Dan Ashliman

Reading Notes (EC): Brothers Grimm

Cat and Mouse in Partnership

This was an entertaining story about a cat and a mouse who decide to live with each other through the winter season. Mouse is good at heart, while Cat seems to be a little suspicious. Together, they both find a pot of fat that they hide in the church so that no one will dare steal. When winter comes and there's no food left to find outside, they will have plenty stored up in the form of that pot of fat. However, Cat is sneaky and everyday he leaves the house to go to the church and eat from the pot of fat. By the time winter comes around, the pot of fat is gone and the mouse ends up getting eaten by the cat too. I think this would be a great story to add onto or even modify. I liked how the Cat left the house saying he was to be a godfather, and when he came back he would say the name of the kitten was "Half-gone" or "All-gone", referring to how much of the fat was left after eating for the day. It was a very clever plan!

The Wolf and Seven Young Kids

This story was similar to the one about the wolf blowing down the houses of little piggies. However, there were a few major differences. Instead of blowing the houses down, the wolf decided to deceive the little piggies by changing aspects of his appearance. Eventually, this fooled the piggies and he swallowed them one by one. The mother found out and went looking for the wolf. When she found him, she cut his stomach open and all her kids were still miraculously alive in there. She refilled the wolf's stomach with stones and sewed him back up. When the wolf woke up, he was thirsty and went to the well for a drink. When we leaned over, the weight of the stones pulled him in and drowned him. I like the idea for this story because it's one about deceit and about the way "people really are". I could build off this story or rewrite it so it's more modern.

The cat deceives the mouse; Project Gutenberg

Bibliography

Brothers Grimm from Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales by Dan Ashliman

Reading Notes (B): Celtic Fairy Tales

King O'Toole and His Goose

King O'Toole was an active old man whose health eventually began to fail him. In order to make himself feel better, he got himself a goose that helped him do all his usual active daily tasks. This was all good and well until the goose itself got old and worn out from being so active. King O'Toole was once again sad and angry at his miserable old age. One day, a man approaches the King, who happens to be Saint Kavin. Saint Kavin offers the King to make his old goose new again, which makes the King extremely happy and excited. Before healing the goose, Saint Kavin asks for the land that the goose flies over and the King agrees to give it to him He stays true to his word, and after the goose is flying like new again, he tells the Saint that the last acre of land he has is his. This is when Saint Kavin reveals himself and blesses the King until both the King and the goose die. I think this story would be great to base my own story off of because I like the idea of deception for a good cause. I could definitely change it up to make it more modern, but I like the background of this story. I could make a more modern story of a undercover cop fooling an upstanding citizen or something of the sort. I'm not sure how I would incorporate a goose into a modern story, but maybe I could use another animal or object to take place of the goose. I could also throw in a big twist in the original story and have King O'Toole go back on his word and write about the consequences of that decision. I think that would be an interest side of the story to include. Overall, there are many ways for me to expand upon this story that I'm excited to see how it turns out.

King O'Toole's goose; Wikipedia

Bibliography

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Reading Notes (A): Celtic Fairy Tales

Connla and the Fairy Maiden

Connla is approached by a fairy maiden from the Plains of the Ever Living. She describes this place as one of neither death nor sin, where there is always joy and never any problems. This maiden sounds great, right? Well unfortunately, Connla was the only one who could see the maiden, as his father Conn the King, was perplexed by his son's behavior of speaking to himself. The fairy maiden replies that she is in love with Connla and had come to take him back to where she lives. The King is worried about what he hears, even though he cannot see her, and seeks help. Coran performs a spell in the general direction of the unseen maiden and she disappears, but not before she throws an apple towards Connla. It was an apple that regenerated every time he was hungry. He ate nothing for a month except for that apple. At the end of the month, the maiden returns and successfully woos Connla to come with her. I think this would be an interesting story to build off of for my storytelling assignment this week, especially the part about where she comes from.

The Field of Boliauns 

Tom Fitzpatrick comes across what seems to be a leprechaun with a bottle of beer in the bushes. The beer is made of heath according to the leprechaun, which makes Tom keen to try it. Unfortunately, the leprechaun refuses and Tom gets angry and demands money from the leprechaun. The leprechaun becomes frightened and agrees to take Tom to it. The money is buried under a boliaun, but Tom doesn't have a shovel so he takes a chance and runs back to his house to grab one. Upon returning, he realized that the Leprechaun tricked him and that there were too many boliauns to dig under all of them. This is a great trick that I could write my story about this week. I may associate this trick with modern day times in order to make it more relatable to everyone.

Leprechaun; Wikimedia

Bibliography

Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs