The Steadfast Tin Soldier vs. The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep

While researching some information about Fantasia 2000 for a patron, I rediscovered The Steadfast Tin Soldier by Hans Christian Andersen. While the Disney version (set to Dmitri Shostakovich's Piano Concerto No. 2 in F Major) has a happy ending, the original version did not:

For his birthday, a young boy recieves a set of tin soldiers to play with. The last soldier is misformed and only has one leg. While out of his box, the Soldier sees a paper ballerina with a spangle on her sash. As she is also standing on one leg, the Soldier falls in love with her. That night, a Troll/Jack-in-the-Box challenges the Soldier to no longer look at the Ballerina, but the Soldier ignores him. The next day, the soldier falls from a windowsill and lands in the street. Two boys find the soldier, place him in a paper boat, and set him sailing in the gutter. The boat washes into the sewer, where a rat demands the soldier pay a toll. Sailing past the rat, the boat is washed out to sean where the Soldier is swallowed by a fish. While preparing the fish, the maid discovers the soldier, but he and the ballerina are knocked into the fire by the little boy. The ballerina burns away; the maid later discovers that the Tin Soldier has melted into the shape of a heart.

By contrast, The Shepherdess and the Chimney Sweep (Also by H. C. Andersen) is a story about two porcelain figures who live on a side table in a drawing room. They're in love, but a porcelain Satyr on a cabinet lusts after the Shepherdess and wants to marry her. He sends a porcelain chinaman (claiming to be her grandfather) to the table to force the Sheperdess to marry the Satyr. The couple escapes down a table leg and hide in a child's puppet theater. The lovers then climb with great difficulty up through a stovepipe, following the light of a star. When they finally reach the roof, the Shepherdess is frightened by the size of the world that she sees and immediately wants to return to the safety of the drawing room. The chimney sweep tries to dissuade her, but he finally agrees and guides her back to the table top. When they return, the learn that the Chinaman was damaged beyond repair and cannot force the Shepherdess to marry the Satyr. The lovers are safe at last.

Alas! There isn't any good clip art of of Shepherdess! So, as I need a vacation really, really, REALLY badly (and am not going on one until December) here's my longing for Disney:

Befana/Babushka

Wow, I can't believe it's been nearly a week since I've posted. Things have been a little crazy for me this week (I've been hunting down Australian Folklore for work), but more of that later.

I finally had a chance to sit down a read a couple variations on the Befana story and I found some Russian variations where the witch is referred to as "Babushka" (Russian for grandmother). Also, the Russian variants don't emphasis the character as a witch; she's a peasant woman only. The versions I was able to read were The Story of Befana by Ilse Plume, Babushka by Charles Mikolaycak, and Baboushka: A Christmas Folktale from Russia by Arthur Scholey. I also have Tomie De Paolo's The Legend of Old Befana on hold at the library, so when that comes in, I may edit this post to include information from it.

Befana

The folktale of both Befana and Babushka are similar: A woman, who lives alone, meets the three wise men on their way to visit the Baby Jesus. The woman's home is fanatically clean and in some versions the three wise men stay the night with her. They tell her of Jesus and offer to take her with them to meet him, but she feels she cannot leave her house for whatever reason. (i.e. chores, cleaning, no gift to give, etc.) After they leave she regrets her decision and sets out to find the baby Jesus herself. She may or may not take repaired toys with her that were left over from a child that had died. She travels far and wide and cannot find him, but leave presents or candy for children along her way. The Italian version claims that she also sweeps up the houses that she visits and that children who see her will only get a whack from her broom. Bad children are given coal and onions instead of presents, candy, or apples, oranges, and nuts.

Another version of the story that I found online is much darker. In it, Befana had a child who died; because of this death, she went mad and set out to kidnap the Baby Jesus as her own. When she found him, he blessed her, cured her madness, and made her the mother of all the children of the world. Therefore she leaves presents for them on the Epiphany.

It's a cute story; I can't wait to see what else I pick up from it.

Baba Yaga

This past weekend I took home three versions of Baba Yaga's story: Vasilissa the Beautiful by Elizabeth Winthrop, The Flying Witch by Jane Yolen, and Baba Yaga and Vasilisa the Brave by Marianna Mayer.


I loved reading these stories because I've always been enchanted by the idea of Baba Yaga; I think the fascination comes from not knowing how Baba Yaga will be portrayed in the story. In some tales, she's a good character, in others she's a neutral observer, and in others she's the antagonist. I can't think of many folktale characters that have that kind of depth and range. Anansi is one and the wolf from the three little pigs/little red riding hood has been rewritten as a sympathetic character in modern adaptations. But are there many more? This is something I'm going to have to think about for a while.


So in honor of Baba Yaga (and my new-found skills at modifying clip art in Microsoft word), I created my own clip-art Baba Yaga. Hopefully I can use her on my proposed "Did you know" signs for the Folktales section at the library.

Baba Yaga

I wanted to reflect her flexible role in various stories, so although she looks a little surly, she wouldn't be immediately frightening. I was able to create her from a clip art version of Befana, the Italian epiphany witch. Befana is similar to St. Nicholas; she brings candy to good children and coal to the bad ones. The interesting part about her legend is that if you see Befana, all you'll get from her is a whack from her broom, regardless if you're good or bad. Isn't that a great way to keep kids in bed!

Here's the image of Befana I used to create Baba Yaga:

As you can see, the have the same body type, but Baba Yaga is paler, a little meaner looking, and has fly-away hair and a babushka. I also changed the color scheme of her dress; every image I've ever seen of Baba Yaga has here wearing red in some way and most feature purple too.

While modifying the Befana image, I was able to do a little research on her. It's an interesting story and one that I'll be blogging about later!

Bluebeard

So of course after rereading Bluebeard's Daughter yesterday, I had to go back and read Perrault's Bluebeard again. I first encountered this story a few months ago as I was going through a retired Librarian's things and came across her box of scary stories. I read her hand-copied version of the story, not realizing that this was one of Perrault's or anything about the story.

Bluebeard is an interesting story. From what I've read about it, it may have been based off of the story of the serial killer, Gilles de Rais. Here is the except from Bluebeard's entry in the encyclopedia Brittanica (my apologies for not citing properly):

"...murderous husband in a story, “La Barbe bleue,” in Charles Perrault’s collection of fairy tales, Contes de ma mère l’oye (1697; Tales of Mother Goose). Similar stories exist in European, African, and Eastern folklore; the essentials are the locked and forbidden room, the wife’s curiosity, and her 11th-hour rescue. Perrault’s version probably derived from Brittany and may have been based on the career of the 15th-century marshal of France Gilles de Rais and that of Comorre the Cursed, a 6th-century Breton chief, each of whom committed crimes similar to those in the Bluebeard stories."

While researching the history of this bit of folklore, I also frequently came across this terrifying illustration of Bluebeard by Gustave Doré from 1867.


I also realized that Neil Gaiman included a Bluebeard-themed poem in his 2006 book Fragile Things entitled "The Hidden Room." So Bluebeard is a more prevalent story than I initially thought!

One thing still bothers me though: If you look logically at the story, you are forced to wonder what great crime Bluebeard's first wife committed that resulted in her being murdered and left to rot on the walls of the hidden chamber. Perhaps there's another story locked in Bluebeard's tale besides Gaiman's and Townsend Warner's.

On a completely unrelated note, I DID beat my personal best yesterday and scored 91 in my first game! Our time ran out during our second, but as of the 6th round, I had scored 68. I consider myself now a master bowler. :)

Bluebeard's Daughter

I just finished rereading Bluebeard's Daughter (1940) by Sylvia Townsend Warner. It's a strange little short story that moves Perrault's Bluebeard story from France to the Middle East and continues the story based on assumption that Bluebeard only killed his insufferable wives and had a daughter by his third. She, it seems, died in childbirth. The girl moves with the last bride to the city, becomes a ward of Bluebeard's solicitor, and eventually returns to his castle when she marries. From there, she and her new husband both become obsessed with learning what's behind "the fifth closet" of the secret rooms and this obsession nearly drives them apart. Luckily, after falling over a cliff in their coach and each abandoning the other (or so they think) with an elderly shepherdess, they individually return to the castle where the husband breaks down the door, breaks his collarbone, and they make up. Then they become astronomers. Seriously, I couldn't make this one up if I tried.

Joking aside, it's a strange little tale. My interpretation rereading it the second time through is that it's one of those stories that skirt the line of satire so closely, it sometimes bobbles over the line into just plain weird.

Perhaps after reading more of Ms. Townsend's work, my opinion will be altered. More to come later, but first I need to head out to a join birthday party at a bowling alley. Hopefully I can beat my personal best score of 75!

The Rumplestiltskin Problem

I just finished reading a really funny little book this week called The Rumpelstiltskin Problem by Vivian Vande Velde. The book is composed of six short stories that each try to make sense of the Rumpelstiltskin fairy tale. Looking back on it, I suppose there are several oddities about the tale (i.e. Accepting a gold ring as payment for demonstrating the ability to create gold out of common farmyard items) that I've never really considered. The book itself is a great read; the stories are all humorous and show off several different interpretations of the characters. This was a great story for 9-12 year olds, although the cover art and tone seem to lean more towards girls than boys. It's a shame because the troll version of Rumpelstiltskin is funny and gross enough to hold a boy's attention.

Well, it held mine at least.

Besides this, I've also ordered a few books via Amazon today to help me out while searching for obscure titles at work. I picked up the Complete Grimms', the Complete H. C. Anderson, the Complete Perrault, and the fairy books by Andrew Lang. All I need now is to grab a copy of The Complete Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales and The Oxford Treasury of Fairy Tales, and I'll have a great collection. And yes, Mom, that was a hint. After all, you're the only one who read this. :)

Tonight I plan on going through my book of Modern Fairy Tales again and rereading a couple more. Also, I want to brainstorm a little more about my "Did you know" idea concerning signs at the library. Hopefully it will work out!

Cinderellas go marching two by two, hurrah, hurrah

As I mentioned in my last post, I was able to make a really nice sign highlighting the Cinderella stories at the library. Granted, we really don't need one, but as I was able to play with clip art, I thought I'd give it a go. Here are two of the princesses that I modified:

Here's Vasilisa from Vasilisa the Beautiful

And Little Gold Star from Little Gold Star

I thought they both turned out really well. Using these and generic Microsoft clip art, I was able to make a really nice little sign:
Besides Vasilisa and Little Gold Star, the sign also features Tremble from Small, Brown, and Trembling, Yeh-Shen from Yeh-Shen, Nyasha from Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters, and Cenduri from The Enchanted Anklet.

Looking at how well this turned out, I'm thinking about creating a rotating sign of along the lines of "Did you know?" that would talk about different folktales.

Prince Amilec

Last night I reread parts of my copy of The Oxford Book of Modern Fairy Tales (ed. Alison Lurie) because I had a craving for one of the stories in there. The story was Prince Amilec by Tanith Lee, a British author who seems to span various genres. The story follows a young prince as he attempts to court a rude and cruel princess. To win her hand in marriage, the prince must perform various impossible tasks, which he can only do with the help of a witch. The witch in the story is very attractive and kind, as as a result of her help he eventually realizes that he wants to marry the witch and not the princess. All seems to be happy though as the rude princess eventually sets out to see the world and falls in love with an equally obnoxious prince. To win his hand, she needs to seek out a wizard in a situation that mirrors that of our hero, Prince Amilec.

I loved the flow of this story and the dialog that occurs between Amilec and the witch. The story itself would make a great picture book; I wonder why no one has ever approached Ms. Lee into doing it or if she has refused offers in the past. Whatever the case may be, it's a wonderful story. I would give it a full 5 out of 5 stars.

In library news, I finished creating a new sign to highlight the Cinderella books in the Folktales collection. Granted, we really don't need one, but I found some great clip art princesses from Microsoft that I've been dying to use. Also, the one good thing I'll say about Vista is that you can now edit clip art, so I was able to customize some of the princesses. On the sign, I had Cinderella characters from Ireland (Trembling from Fair, Brown & Trembling), China (Yeh-Shen from Yeh-Shen: The Chinese Cinderella), Mexico (Little Gold Star from Little Gold Star), Africa (Nyasha from Mufaro's Beautiful Daughters), Russia (Vasilisa from Vasilisa the Beautiful), and India (Cinduri from The Enchanted Anklet).

In doing this, I found out that the library currently does not have any copies of an Indian variant of Cinderella. They probably used to, but the copies may have been weeded out or stolen as the years have gone by. Luckily, I was able to get our amazing Children's Selector on it, and I'm positive she'll be able to locate something soon. Yay productive work day!

Let's see how long this one lasts...

Hello. My name is Christopher Brown and I'm a librarian for a large urban library in Pennsylvania. I've recently relocated to a new location within the city and one of my new duties involves classifying the Folktales as they come into the Children's Department. I really jumped at the chance to take on this job, as I've always loved reading about folk and fairy tales; I've enjoyed it so much so that I'm considering going back for a Master's in folklore and mythology. More on that later. For now, I've just thought I'd most my thoughts on various tales and hopefully use this blog as a form of memory aid down the line. That's all for now.