English Fairy Tales
Part A:
Tom Tit Tot
This was one of my favorites! Ever since I joined the Once Upon a Time fandom, I've been utterly obsessed with all things to do with Rumplestiltskin. This story was very similar to the traditional Rumplestiltskin story. A mother is singing about the gluttony of her daughter who has eaten five pies in one day. A passing king overhears the mother speaking of this and, embarrassed, lies and says she was singing about how her daughter could spin skeins (which, according to Google, is like a bundle of yarn.) The king decides he would like to marry this young lady who can spin skeins and tells the mother this, but warns her that if her daughter is unable to do what the mother has promised, he will kill the daughter. The mother agrees to this thinking that after awhile the king will have forgotten about this stipulation. He, however, does not and the time comes when he puts the daughter in a room and demands she spin five skeins every night for the next month or he will kill her. Just as the daughter is sure she will die, a magical imp appears to her and promises to do her spinning for her every night, but she must guess his name by the end of the month or else he will make her his slave. The daughter guesses every name she can think of, but it isn't until she hears from her husband, the king, that he has seen an imp dancing around and singing his name, Tom Tit Tot, that she is able to outsmart the imp. The imp vanishes not to be seen again. I liked this story and found it very amusing, but it left me to wonder what the daughter would do the next time the king demanded she spin skeins - she never did learn!
The Rose Tree
I found this story a little bit more macabre than the light-hearted first story. The story begins with two half siblings, a boy and a girl. The sibling are very good friends, but the mother of the boy hates the little girl for her beauty and charm. The stepmother plots to get rid of the beautiful girl and one day tricks the girl into lying her head in the lap of the stepmother who proceeds to cut the girl's head off. The evil stepmother cooks up the poor girl and feeds it to her clueless husband but the girl's brother refuses to eat what he is given and instead finds the remains of his poor sister and buries her beneath a rose tree. One day, a white bird emerges from the rose tree - it is the girl and she sings about the brutal murder she has suffered. She entrances several people with her song into giving her items. She drops two of the items, a pair of red shoes and a gold watch as gifts for her father and brother, and when the stepmother comes out to see what gift she will receive from the sky, the bird drops a stone on her head. I like that, even with a brutal murder, the story had a sort of happy ending. That is - at least the stepmother got what was coming to her. I also liked the irony of the stepmother's greed and jealousy being the thing that killed her daughter and the thing that killed her.
The Old Woman and Her Pig
This is what is known as a cumulative story and it reminded me a lot of the song "I Know an Old Woman Who Swallowed a Fly." A woman is trying to get her pig over a stile which it is too afraid to cross. So (starting at the end) she gives a cow a bundle of hay so that the cow will giver a saucer of milk to give to a cat so that the cat will kill a rat so that the rat would gnaw a piece of rope so that the rope wouldn't hang a butcher so that the butcher would be able to kill an ox so that he ox would drink water so that the water could quench a fire so that the fire would burn a stick making the stick beat a dog so that the dog would bit the pig to make the pig jump over the stile *deep breath* I enjoyed this story a lot despite the fact that there were some parts that made no sense (if a fire is quenched, how could it burn?) but I think that added an element of silliness that made this story a lot of fun to read.
Mouse and Mouser
An extremely unusual story, this was, and I don't necessarily understand the point of it. Basically, a mouse goes to visit a cat - it makes it seem as though the two are friends. Then transpires an exchange between the two in which they both speak in short verse with the mouse speaking first and the cat responding. The cat's responses seem to get more and more sinister until she eventually pounces on and kills the unsuspecting mouse. This ending was quite unexpected and abrupt; I wasn't sure how I felt about it. But nonetheless, I liked the back and forth between the cat and mouse which is why I included it.
Cap o' Rushes
This was a version of a Cinderella story. Cap o' Rushes is the name given to one of the three beautiful daughters of a rich gentleman after he turns the girl out for saying that she loves him like salt loves fresh meat (he is unimpressed by the simile). She disguises herself by making herself a cloak with a hood out of rushes and becomes a maid for another rich family. One night, there is a great dance and all the servants are allowed to go, but Cap o' Rushes says that she is too tired to go. Once everyone leaves, she sheds her disguise and attends the dance dressed in finery, capturing the heart of her own master's son. She does not reveal her true identity to anyone and leaves the party so she can het home before everyone else. She does this every time there is a dance and the poor master's son gives her a ring, but when he cannot find the mysterious woman, he becomes so heartsick that he has to take to his bed. Cap o' Rushes offers to make gruel for the sick man and places the ring at the bottom of the bowl. He quickly figures out who she is and they get married at once. She requests, though, that at their wedding banquet, all the food be prepared without salt. When her father (who is invited to the feast) tastes the unsalted food, he weeps thinking of his daughter and how now he understood how she loved him. Cap o' Rushes reveals herself to her father and soon everyone is happy. I loved the cleverness and creativity of Cap o' Rushes when she decides to reveal herself. I think it is a way of making those around her be truly appreciative of her.
The Three Little Pigs
This was basically the classic story of the Three Little Pigs that I am familiar with. The only difference really was that the Big Bad Wolf seemed a bit more tenacious. Instead of giving up once he is unable to blow down the third pig's house of brick, the Wolf continues to try to trick the Pig into leaving his house so that the Wolf can eat him. The Wolf keeps inviting the Pig to go places at a certain time, but the Wolf keeps arriving at the discussed time to find that the Pig has already gone without him. Eventually the Wolf becomes so frustrated that he decides to simply go down the Pig's chimney. The clever Pig, however, places a pot over the fire and the Wolf falls in so the Pig cooks and eats the Wolf. What a surprising twist!
Part B:
Molly Whuppie
The story begins in a very Hansel and Gretel-like way. A man takes his 3 youngest children to the woods because he has too many children to feed them all. They wander the woods for awhile before coming upon a house. They ask to be let in and given something to eat. The woman inside allows them in but warns them not to be around when her husband, a giant, returns. However, they are too late to leave and the giant comes. One of the children Molly Whuppie, tricks the giant into killing his own children instead of her and her siblings. They get away from the giant's house and end up at a castle where they tell the king of their recent adventures. The king is impressed but says he will be more so if she goes back two more times to steal from the giant. If she does so, he will marry her sisters to his sons. After she is successful, the king asks Molly to go back one more time and if she comes back, he would give his youngest son in marriage. This time when she goes back the giant is ready for her and he catches her and asks her what she would do if she was in his position. She tells him she would put him in a sack with a dog, a cat, a needle, and thread, and shears and then she would beat the bag with a stick. He plans to do just this and once she is in the bag he goes to find a stick. While in the bag, Molly tricks the giant's wife into getting into the bag herself and her husband beats the bag, unable to hear her cries over the sounds of the cat and dog. So Molly goes back and marries her prince.
Mr. Fox
This story was like something straight out of a horror movie! Lady Mary is beautiful and all the men around her want to marry her, but she only likes Mr. Fox and they decide that they will get married. Once betrothed, Mary begins to think how strange it is that Mr. Fox has never let her see where he lives so she sets out to find his castle. She finds it and to her horror discovers a room filled with the skeletons and bodies of dead women. Mr. Fox returns suddenly, dragging with him another young lady. She is wearing a ring and Mr. Fox cannot get the ring off of her so he chops off her hand which lands right in the lap of Lady Mary, who is hiding. She runs back to her home. The next time she sees Mr. Fox, she claims that she has had a bad dream in which she saw all the horrors that his home held. Mr. Fox denies that any such thing could occur at his home but Lady Mary reveals the hand of the maiden he had dragged off the day before. At once, everyone present jumps up to kill Mr. Fox. I can't imagine being told this story as a child as a bedtime story. It is positively horrifying! But at the same time, it is somewhat intriguing - just like a horror movie.
Johnny-cake
A variation of the story of the Gingerbread Man. Instead of gingerbread, this little man is a Johnny-cake that runs away from a little boy and his parents, two well diggers, two ditch diggers, a bear, and a wolf taunting each as he passes. Then when he comes upon a fox, he passes by bragging that he can outrun the fox just as he has everyone else, but the fox pretends not to hear Johnny-cake. When Johnny-cake goes closer to the fox to make himself heard the fox eats him. To me this is a classic tale of pride coming before the fall. Boasting literally was Johnny-cakes demise.
Mr. Miacca
I can imagine my mother telling me this story in order to dissuade me from misbehaving. It is pretty scary from a child's perspective. Mr. Miacca in this story, serves as the punisher of little boys who do not obey. Tommy Grimes' mother warns him not to go around the corner alone or else Mr. Miacca will get him. Indeed, one day when Tommy decides not to listen to his mother, Mr. Miacca grabs Tommy and takes him home to eat him. While Mr. Miacca is gathering herbs to cook with poor Tommy, Tommy manages to trick Mrs. Miacca into letting him go home in order to get a pudding for her. Tommy escapes but has clearly not learned his lesson as he goes off around the corner by himself and is once again snatched by Mr. Miacca. This time, Tommy is made to sit under the sofa so he doesn't escape but he once again outsmarts Mr. Miacca by sticking out a leg of the sofa to be chopped off instead of his own and then making a break for it. Finally Tommy has learned his lesson
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