Fairy Tales and Fantasy
Here’s the big news, everyone: I’ve started a YouTube channel!
You can watch my first video.
And here’s the link to my channel.
I’ll try doing these videos for a few weeks. Let me know if you like them and I’ll keep making them.
Until next time, word nerds!
Happy 2015! It’s a little hard to believe, isn’t it?
With a new year comes a plethora of resolutions made. And as much as I hate to be cliche, I’ve decided to share some resolutions I’ve made with you, dear readers, so that you can hold me accountable.
First and foremost, I want to edit and polish the manuscript I finished in November. I’m rather proud of that story and think I should get it ready for pitching.
Secondly, I want to publish at least four short stories this year. I have one coming out in February, so that leaves three more!
Thirdly, I want to finish another book manuscript. It might be another NaNoWriMo project, or something I do in my spare time through the whole year, but I need to keep creating content.
Fourth, (I’m not convinced fourthly is a word, so I’m breaking that repetition), I want to commit to a more concrete schedule for this blog. So I will be posting on Tuesdays and Saturdays. Tuesdays will be Tuesday Tales and focus on fairy tales and related subjects. Saturdays…well, you’ll just have to wait until then to see. I’ve got a big surprise in store! (Though I might be willing to share that information to the first five people who like, share, or comment on this post on my Facebook page).
What are some of your goals for the coming year?
Rumplestiltskin is a fairy tale that I often forget about for chunks of time. Then I’ll stumble across some re-imagining of it that reminds me how great the story is. It was written by the Brothers Grimm and published in 1812.
A poor miller, trying to gain some respect, boasts that his beautiful daughter can spin straw into gold. The King hears of this and decides that he wants to see such an incredible feat for himself. The girl is brought to the palace and shut in a room full of straw with a spinning wheel. The girl, who most certainly can’t spin straw into gold, is at a loss, until a little man comes in and offers to do the task for her. He asks for her necklace as payment. The King, pleased with his newly acquired wealth, puts her in a larger room the next night and tells her, again under threat of death, to spin the straw into gold. The little man comes and, for the girl’s ring, spins through the night. The King was once again delighted by the room full of gold. He took the girl to a third room and promised that if she could spin the straw into gold, not only would she live but she would be his queen. The little man came to aid her, but she had nothing else to offer. The man made her promise to give him her firstborn child as payment, should she become queen. The girl agreed, not thinking he would really hold her to the deal. A year later, the girl was indeed queen and with child. After she gave birth, the man appeared to claim the child. She was heartbroken and the man, feeling sympathy for her, offered her an alternative; if she could guess his name in three days, he would leave her, with her child, in peace. The first two days the queen failed to guess his name. On the third day, with the information a messenger gave her, the queen correctly guessed his name as Rumplestiltskin. The queen got to keep her child and Rumplestiltskin disappeared.
The messenger who discovered the little man’s name was traveling through the forest, where he overheard the man singing a song about how clever he was and how the queen would never guess that his name was Rumplestiltskin. Serves him right for being overconfident.
Grimms’ version has Rumplestiltskin throwing a tantrum at the end. He stomps his right foot so hard it gets stuck in the ground. He then pulls his left leg so hard he tears himself in half. Other tellings have him riding off in a ladle or falls into a hole in the ground.
Another Grimm tale, The Three Spinners, is similar to this one. In it, three old women help a young girl spin for a queen. They don’t ask for future payment as children, though.
The main reason I chose this fairy tale is I just finished reading Rumplestiltskin by K.M. Shea. It’s the fourth in her fairy tale series, though all four can be read as stand alone novels. I find them entertaining and each book gives a classic tale a new twist. I’m also a huge fan of how the TV series Once Upon A Time portrays Rumplestiltskin, or Mr. Gold, as he is known in Storybrook.
What are some of your favorite characterizations of the man who can spin straw into gold?
I’m breaking away from the winter theme for a week (because it’s surprisingly hard to find them) to examine Little Red Riding Hood. This week the movie Into the Woods comes out (and I am beyond excited to see it!) and part of the story follows Little Red as she attempts to navigate the woods to her grandmother’s house. Little Red Riding Hood was a story told for years before being published. Charles Perrault wrote the earliest version in 1697. The Grimm Brothers’ version was published in 1812. The Grimms actually based the story off of two separate versions and split the tale into two parts; the original and the sequel. The first part is nearly identical to Perrault’s, so they probably drew inspiration from it.
Perrault’s tale features a young lady travelling to her grandmother’s house. A scheming wolf tricks her into telling him where the grandmother’s home is and he heads there, avoiding the woodcutters in the forest. He eats the grandmother and when Little Red arrives, he tricks her into climbing into the bed where he’s hiding and he eats her as well. That’s it. No happy ending. It’s rather depressing. It was published in a book called Tales and Stories of the Past with Morals. So the moral of Little Red? Don’t talk to strangers. At least, not wolves.
The only change the Grimm Brothers made to the first part of the Red Riding Hood story was the ending. In their tale, a huntsman saves Red and her grandmother when he kills the wolf for it’s skin. The sequel shows Red and her grandmother wiser for the experience; after another run in with a wolf, Red and her grandmother lay elaborate traps for it, eventually killing it.
In the Grimm story, the main character is actually called Little Red-Cap because she wears a red cap, not a red hooded cloak.
As is often the case with fairy tales, the older tales are much more gruesome than the ones we see today. In some of the earliest tellings, the wolf tricked Red into eating parts of her grandmother and tells poor Red to take her clothes and throw them in the fire before getting into bed. In some versions, he eats her. In others, she manages to escape.
Instead of a wolf, some versions feature an ogre or a werewolf.
Like I said, Disney’s Into the Woods comes out on Christmas. It’s a film adaptation of Sondheim’s musical, which I have loved for years. I highly recommend the movie, even though I haven’t seen it yet. What I’ve seen from commercials and teasers looks fantastic! The plot also features fairy tale favorites Cinderella, Jack and his beanstalk, Rapunzel, and of course, Little Red.
Until next time, Merry Christmas!
Hello everyone!
As you may have noticed, I only posted once last week. I’ve decided to cut back on posting during December to spend time with my family and relax while I’m on break. So, for the rest of the month, I’ll only be posting once a week. Don’t worry, I’ll be back on schedule in January, with a special surprise as well! So keep your eyes peeled and enjoy the holiday season!
Best wishes!
Kate
As I was choosing what tale to talk about this week, I was surprised that I hadn’t covered this one sooner. But I haven’t, so today I will! The Snow Queen was written by Han Christian Anderson, first published in 1844 (December 21, 1844, to be exact, almost 170 years ago to the day!). It provided a very vague inspiration for Disney’s Frozen, though there are very few similarities in the story.
The story follows two children, Gerda and her friend Kai (sometimes Kay). The story is broken into 7 parts. The first part tells of a wicked spirit who makes a mirror that reflects only the bad in people, magnifying it until all they can see are the exaggerated bits of ugly and horror. The spirit tries to fly the mirror up to heaven, but drops it. The pieces of shattered mirror are blown around the world and lodge into people’s eyes, distorting their vision, or hearts, making them as hard and cold as ice. The second part of the story begins, introducing Kai and Gerda, friends and neighbors. Kai’s grandmother tells the story of the Snow Queen, who rules over the winter. Kai sees her that night outside his window, beckoning for him to follow her. He doesn’t. Over the next summer, however, a shards of the mirror get lodged into Kai’s heart and eyes. He turns into a cruel and angry person, going so far as to pull up the roses Gerda loves so much. The next winter, he is approached by the Snow Queen, who takes him away in her sleigh. She kisses twice; first to make him numb to cold, and second to make him forget his family and home. Gerda goes after Kai, determined to save him. She travels a great distance to find him, encountering a sorceress, a band of robbers run by a young girl, a river spirit, and women living in the North Pole. When Gerda finally reaches the Snow Queen’s palace, she finds that Kai has been enslaved by the Snow Queen’s power. The power of her love and the warmth of the tears she sheds breaks the spell and the two happily return home.
The roses Kai pulls up are more than just Gerda’s favorite flowers; they are reminders of how much she cares about him. Gerda is actually captured by the sorceress, who traps her with her a beautiful garden. The sorceress causes all the roses to be buried so that Gerda won’t be reminded of Kai.
Everyone assumes that Kai had drowned in the nearby river when he disappeared. When Gerda first set out to find him, she went to the river and offered to make an exchange for Kai. That’s when she finds out that he’s still alive.
The Snow Queen’s power has trapped Kai by giving him an impossible task. She promises that if he can arranged shards of ice in a certain way, she will free him. After Gerda breaks the spell, the two dance and cause the ice pieces to fall into place.
Disney’s Frozen was loosely (and I mean very loosely) based on The Snow Queen. Other than that, I’ve yet to come across adaptations of this story, but I’d love some recommendations if you have!
It’s getting closer and closer to Christmas, so for the next few weeks, I’m going to highlight some tales that are centered around Christmas or winter. To start us off, one of the most classic Christmas stories: The Nutcracker and the Mouse King by E.T.A. Hoffmann. The story, first published in 1816, was turned into a ballet in 1892 by Pyotr Ilyich Tchaikovsky. It soon became world famous.
It’s Christmas Eve. Marie Stahlbaum and her brother Fritz are wondering what their godfather, Drosselmeyer, will bring them for Christmas. He is a clockmaker and an inventor and always makes presents for them. When the children finally receive their gifts, they find a mechanical house full of people that can move. Marie, however, is entranced by a nutcracker soldier. She and Fritz crack nuts with it, until it’s jaw cracks. Marie bandages it and the family goes to bed, but she wants to stay with the nutcracker a little longer. As the clock strikes twelve, the nutcracker comes alive and joins the other now-living toys in fighting against a mouse army that has appeared. The mice are led by a seven-headed king. As the toys begin to be overwhelmed, Marie throws her shoe at the Mouse King. The next day, Marie tells Drosselmeyer what happened, and he tells her the story of Princess Pirlipat and the Mouse Queen.
The Mouse Queen played a cruel trick on Princess Pirlipat’s parents (try saying that five times fast) and the king retaliated by having the court inventor, Drosselmeyer, make traps for them. The Mouse Queen was understandably upset at the death of her children and in turn cursed the Princess, giving her a huge head, a wide (and probably creepy) smile, and a cottony beard. People searched for a cure that, as they often are in fairy tales, was ridiculously complicated. (You can find all the details of it here if you’re curious.) In the end, the poor boy who was trying his hardest to fulfill all the requirements failed and the curse affected him instead of the princess. He turned into a nutcracker and she had him banished because he was ugly.
The next few nights, Marie hears the Mouse King threatening to bite the nutcracker unless she makes a sacrifice to him (her other toys, candy, etc. Nothing too crazy). Finally, the nutcracker fights and defeats him and takes Marie to the doll kingdom. When she tells her parents about it the next day, they tell her to stop talking about her crazy dreams. Marie can’t forget about it, however, and promises the nutcracker that she’s different from Princess Pirlipat and would love him no matter what he looked like. The nutcracker becomes human again and thanks Marie for breaking the curse (it was apparently a lot easier the second time around). He proposes to her and a year and a day later, takes her away to the doll kingdom where they are crowned king and queen.
The boy who tries to break Princess Pirlipat’s curse, and consequently gets turned into a nutcracker, is Drosselmeyer’s nephew.
The seven-headed Mouse King was the son of the Mouse Queen of Drosselmeyer’s story; part of the cure to the nutcracker’s curse was defeating him.
This one isn’t so much fun as it is creepy. Marie was seven when the story took place. Seven. Yeah.
In the ballet, Marie’s name changed to Clara. So no, I wasn’t mixed up. It was originally Marie.
I’m not going to do an “If You’re Interested….” because I’ve never seen any adaptations of this, other than the ballet. Let me know if you have, though!
What winter story should I talk about next week?
Until next time!
I got some exciting news today. A flash fiction piece I wrote has been accepted for publication! I’m pretty stoked for this opportunity.
Some of you might be asking, “What is flash fiction?” It’s a form of writing that’s been gaining popularity over the last few years. It’s called flash fiction because it tells a story in 1,000 words or less.
You would think that writing a short piece would be easy, but it’s actually quite difficult to write a well-rounded story in so few words. You have to be very selective about what you say.
Speaking of things that move quickly, I am getting ready to take finals for the semester. I also turned in my application to graduate in a year. A YEAR! I’m practically done with school and I’ve started thinking about the future. It’s a little intimidating.
So these are essentially the ramblings of a mind worn out from studying. Please excuse them if they don’t make sense.
Until next time, fellow wonderers!
Today I’ll introduce you to yet another Grimm’s fairy tale, The Goose Girl, first published in 1815.
A young princess is being sent to a neighboring kingdom by her widowed mother to marry the prince there. She leaves with her maid and her magical horse, Falada. Along the way, the princess loses the magical handkerchief her mother gave her to protect her. The maid sees and forces the princess to switch places with her, making her promise to never tell under threat of death. The princess agrees and the maid rides Falada to the city wearing the princess’s clothes, leaving the princess to find her own way to the city. When the real princess finally arrives, the king sees her and takes pity on her, giving her a job helping the goose boy, Conrad. The fake princess has Falada killed, worried that the magical horse will reveal her secret. The horse’s head is mounted on the wall. The real princess passes by the head every day on her way to and speaks to it. One day, the king overhears their conversation. He asks the real princess to tell him her troubles, but she says that she can tell no person what has happened. He leaves her, suggesting that she tell her woes to a nearby stove. She does, not realizing that the king was eavesdropping. The king is outraged to find that a maid has been parading as a princess, but instead of exposing her right away, he sets a trap. He asks the fake princess various questions about justice, finally asking what should be done to a woman who pretends to be a princess. She responds that the pretender should be put in barrel, naked, and pulled through the streets by horses until she is killed. Then the king reveals the true princess and sentences the fake princess to the punishment she herself described. The real princess marries the prince and they live happily ever after.
The princess appears to have a talent for speaking to things; she talks to her horse (and the dead horse’s head), the magical handkerchief from her mother, the wind, and a stove. And funnily enough, all but the last thing speak back. Luckily, in fairy tales, we can just call that magic instead of craziness.
I was just rereading the summary, and apparently the princess climbed into the stove to tell it about her problems. Seems like a little bit of an over-reaction.
While being a goose girl, the princess liked to comb her hair. After Conrad, the goose boy, tried to take a few locks of her beautiful hair, she asked the wind to blow his hat away. He ended up chasing his hat for as long as she combed her hair.
Check out Shannon Hale’s The Goose Girl. Magic is a little more prominent, and the idea of a person being able to speak to animals or the wind is a little more normal.
Comment below with any fairy tales you’d like to see me cover here!
Until next time, fellow wonderers!
Guys I did it! I did the thing! You know the one, right? That means that I won the thing! Cause I did all the stuff!
Sorry, but my brain is having trouble wording right now. See, I just finished writing 50,ooo (yes, FIFTY THOUSAND) words in 30 DAYS!
I’m a little bit in shock.
In case you couldn’t tell, I just finished National Novel Writing Month (NaNoWriMo). I wrote every day (some days, like today, more than others.). I honestly didn’t think I was going to make it. But thanks to some encouragement from friends and family, plus a mug of very hot tea, I have done something I have never done before! Well, several things, actually. Here’s a list:
#1: I wrote a book. Like, a full story. Granted, there’s still a lot I need to flesh out. But I wrote that whole dang story (minus the very end, but I have that all planned out). It is officially out of my head and on paper. Well, electronic paper.
#2: I wrote every day for a month straight. I usually do some sort of writing every day, whether for school or myself. But I don’t think I’ve ever written so consistently for a single project before. So I’m quite proud. Plus, the thought of not writing every day now seems rather odd. So yay for new habits!
#3: I made myself write when I didn’t think I had anything to say. Some would call it writer’s block. And this is something I’ve forced myself to do before, but never on such a large scale. There are pages of ramblings I probably won’t use, but they led to some pretty great stuff.
#4: I came to terms with the idea of a first draft. I’ve never considered myself a perfectionist, but I am when it comes to writing. I always want to wait until the story or scene is just right before I put it down in words. But I’ve come to realize that won’t happen unless I put it down in words. It will only get better once I have the chance to edit it. Besides, I often find the best things I write are the unplanned ones. They happen naturally as I’m writing. So don’t be afraid of first drafts. They’re called rough drafts for a reason.
So that’s my big news for the weekend! I hope those of you who celebrated it this last week had a wonderful Thanksgiving. I certainly did, spending time with family and participating in various family holiday traditions.
Until next time, fellow wonderers!
Also, if you want to see some of the steps I took to reach the goal, check out my Facebook page, here.
And look! I got this cool little badge!
Kate G. Jameson