Stories to tell -- no books required.

[capri0mni]

During my visit with that guy, Mike, earlier this month, the conversation got around to fairytales, and how most of the ones we think we know are actually prettified Victorian versions.

"For example," said I, "in the Grimms' version of 'The Frog Prince,' the princess doesn't kiss the frog, she picks him and throws him against the wall -- hard. Because what was really needed to break the spell was for the prince to get into the princess's bed."

(This kinda shook the mother up a wee bit, but anyway...)


So, naturally, I had to back that up, and tell the story of how that happened. I hadn't actually read it in years; I knew which book it was in, and where on the shelf it was. But, of course, I wasn't home. So I was going to have to tell the whole thing from memory. I started out strong -- a confident "Once upon a time," and all that. But after the frog got the gold ball back, I had to stop and think for a minute about what happened next.

That's when my inner critic kicked in: "You're hemming! You're hawwing! You're not being polished and eloguent!"

Lucky for me, the sane part of my brain shot back: "So what?! I'm not doing a concert recital, here! I'm having a conversation at someone's kitchen table, with a plate of pizza in front of me..."

So I forgot all about clever wording, poetic language, and all that. And just made simple, declaritive sentances about What Happened Next. And lo, and behold! I got to the end of the story, and had my audience laughing in places, too.

Yesterday, I got to thinking about the stories that (probably) most British and American adults know well enough to tell from memory, as long as they don't worry too much about telling them perfectly (hemming, hawing, short and "Disney" versions allowed). And I came up with a list of an even dozen that I'd be surprised if someone didn't know.

They are (in no particular order):

1. The Three Little Pigs
2. Little Red Riding Hood
3. The Tortoise and the Hare
4. The Three Billy Goats Gruff
5. Cinderella
6. Jack and the Beanstalk
7. Goldilocks and the Three Bears
8. The Ants and the Grasshopper
9. Sleeping Beauty
10. The Boy who Cried "Wolf!"
11. The Little Red Hen (though you may have to remind the person that that's the one where the chicken bakes bread.)
12. Chicken Little ("The Sky is Falling!")

Can you think of any more?

Comments

[brassfire.livejournal.com]

I don't know 8 or 11, actually.

[brassfire.livejournal.com]

Actually, what about that one where the nice sister gets water from the well for an old woman, and her two sisters refuse to get water for an old beggar lady...

To add to your list: pelstiltskin. Rapunzel. The Little Matchgirl.

And for Disney: Snow White. Beauty and the Beast. The Little Mermaid (although the Disney version is just plain wrong... lol)

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

That first story rings faint bells, but I don't think I'd be able to answer the question: "What happens next?" for most of it... The same is true for The Little Matchgirl... Though that may just be because my memory wants to put more in the story than actually happens.

I thought about adding Rapunzel, but then decided that what most people remember is the "Let down your hair" part in the middle, and they'd likely forget the beginning and end (I know I was totally surprised by the story when I read it the first time).

Rumpelstilskin is a good one -- I missed that! Snow White, too... Beauty and the Beast is almost close to What's-Her-Name's (French noblewoman from the 18th [?] Century) version. But the Disney writers had to put in an evil bad guy for the Beast/Prince to kill...

[indefatigable42.livejournal.com]

On that first story... I wrote up my favourite variation and posted it here, and it was loooooong. I'm trying to find it online.

That's a really common theme, I think... I have some books of international fairy tales, and it keeps coming up.

The mean siblings pass by someone who needs help because they're in a hurry, or they need their money/clothes/food for themselves. The nice sibling (who is usually the youngest, for some reason) stops to help. The person who needed help turns out to be someone very powerful (e.g. rich, magical, or of royal blood) who then rewards the good deed.

Sometimes the nice sibling is the first on the scene, and the mean siblings hear about the reward and try to be nice when they meet the person... but it backfires on them, because they're doing it out of greed, not out of a desire to help anyone.

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

Yes, it's a common motif, but a motif, in and of itself does not a story make. It's the differing details (what kind of rewards, what kind of tests, what kind of magic, what kind of punishments) that make one story unique from another...

And about why it's often the youngest child, I remember reading somewhere (though I forget where), that that comes from the ancient times, when many northern European cultures were (more) matriliniar -- in those societies, the first ranked heir is the youngest, rather than the oldest. It's that way in many wild primate species, like chimps and Rhesus monkeys, aiui. Makes sense, when you think about it, since the youngest is the one most likely to still need support, should the mother die suddenly -- all the older siblings would have been weaned, grown, and started families of their own...

In one Grimm's tale, The Twelve Brothers (http://www.germanic.info/ashliman/mirror/grimm009.html), even opens with:

Once upon a time there were a king and a queen. They lived happily together and had twelve children, all boys. One day the king said to his wife, "If our thirteenth child, which you are soon going to bring into the world, is a girl, then the twelve others shall die, so that her wealth may be great, and so that she alone may inherit the kingdom."

[capriuni.livejournal.com]

I won't take up space typing out the whole stories here, but you can find 8 here: The Ant and the Grasshopper (http://www.pacificnet.net/~johnr/cgi/aesop1.cgi?1&TheAntandtheGrasshopper&&antgrass2.ram), and 11 here The Little Red Hen (http://www.ongoing-tales.com/SERIALS/oldtime/FAIRYTALES/littleredhen.html) (Warning! Good simple retelling, but annoying music in the background just came up).