J. & W. Grimm Part III

This is a third thin red book that is written in English and Korean on stories by the Brothers Grimm. This book contains the stories of "The Town Musicians of Bremen" and "The Sleeping Beauty". In contrast with the other two red books, there are small drawings in this book that illustrate the stories.

The first story is one that every senior citizen would love. In "The Town Musicians of Bremen" a man had a donkey that served him faithfully by carrying his sacks to the mill, however because the donkey was getting older the donkey's strength began to fail. The man thought that it was time to get rid of it. The donkey was no ass and left one morning before the man got up because he thought his days were numbered. The donkey thought he might become a musician in the town of Bremen or as he thought to himself: it couldn't hurt. After he traveled down the road he met a dog who was in the same position as he was. His master was thinking of killing him because he could not hunt as well as the younger dogs. He joined forces with the donkey to become a musician as he thought he could beat the drums. Then they met a cat who had a mistress who wanted to drown her as she was getting too old to catch mice like she did when she was younger. The donkey and the dog said she could join them and be the singer. Then they walked past a farm and found a cock who was looking at the real possibility of being in the soup that Sunday because he was getting too old to crow in the morning. He joined the group. Off they went to Bremen.

Since they could not reach the town of Bremen in one day, they looked for a place to stay and found a cabin in the middle of the woods that had a bunch of robbers who were sitting down to eat. They decided to sing and the robbers ran from the cabin into the woods. After a while and after the donkey and his friends went in and ate and went to sleep the robbers sneaked back into the house and tried to find out what was going on with the house. The cat scratched them, the dog bit them and the donkey gave them a good sound kick and the cock crowed. The robbers were convinced that the cabin was haunted by a witch and ghosts and left permanently and the musicians found a permanent home and lived there happily ever after.

The second story is "The Sleeping Beauty". Everyone pretty well knows this story of a king and queen who wanted a child and finally got one, a girl. They had only 12 plates of gold so could only invite 12 fairies to the fairy portion of the party following the birth of the princess. The one that was not invited came anyway and said that the princess on her 15th birthday would prick her finger on a spindle and die. Since the last fairy did not get a chance to make her wish, she modified this wish and said that the princess would only fall asleep and the kiss of a prince would awaken her. The king in an effort to make sure this did not happen outlawed all spindles although it was not known what his subjects did for clothes. Maybe they had Walmart Stores. Anyhow, on her 15th birthday, the princess found a spindle in a room that was locked. She had found a key and sure enough it pricked her and everyone fell asleep. This vine with horrible stickers grew all around the castle and another king took over the land for one hundred years. Many other princes heard of the legend of the sleeping beauty but could not get through the stickers and perished. Obviously, there was that darn surplus of princes again. Then one hundred years to the day a prince came by and thought he would try his luck. The vine parted for him and he found the 15 year old princess and kissed her and she woke up. These days he would have been arrested but he got to marry her right away after everyone woke up.
It is unknown whether the king got his kingdom back though.

I think I am more cynical during this re-reading of these fairy tales. In fact, I am sure of it. I see magic being more than some prince marrying someone and they living in some castle forever. I don't think I ever liked that part anyhow. I saw what marriage did to my mother and what it did to the ladies of the neighborhood. It was not such a great job. At least if one lived in a castle one had servants and time to read a book or go to a party ever so often. If one did not like the prince anymore, there were plenty of rooms to move into. That was not possible in a three bedroom ranch house in the suburbs or an apartment in the city. Since men make more money than women and in those days rarely paid child support, times were hard for women if they wanted to live without their princes and that was when I was younger. It is still hard for women now especially men and women running for office wanting to repeal some of women's rights or abolishing the civil rights act. However, these are fairy tales.

Still, we have to be very grateful for the Brothers Grimm for collecting these stories which may have been lost if they did not do this. They inspired others to do it and the tradition is strong and part of our cultural heritage no matter what part of the world each of us are from.

J. & W. Grimm Part II

"Grimm's Fairy Tales" by the Brothers Grimm

This is another one of those thin red books that are written in English and Korean. This book contains the stories "The Elves and the Shoemaker", "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats", "The Frog Prince", Rapunzel" and "Snow-White and Rose-Red".

The first story, "The Elves and the Shoemaker", is about a very poor shoemaker who lived with his wife and was left with just enough leather to make one more pair of shoes. With a sigh, he cut out the shoes at night so he could set to work the next morning and went to bed with his wife. The next morning, he got up and found the shoes were already made and they were excellent and he was able to sell them for a bigger profit than usual. He bought enough leather to make two shoes and cut them up at night to make in the morning and the same thing happened. Again, the quality was so outstanding he made a great profit and he had enough for four pairs and the same thing happened. Soon he found he was making a good living. One night he said to his wife that he wanted to stay up and see who was doing this for him so they both stayed up and found two naked little men coming in at midnight who were making the shoes. The shoemaker and his wife decided to make some clothes for the elves. The shoemaker made small shoes. They stayed up again to see how their gifts would be received and the elves put on the clothes and danced and said they were no longer cobblers and danced out the door. They were never seen again. Ever since then the shoemaker's business prospered as if they left some magic behind.

In "The Wolf and the Seven Little Goats", there was a mother goat who had seven little goats who she loved very much. Since she was going to into the wood to fetch some food for them, she warned them to be on the watch for the wolf who had just moved in the neighborhood. Be careful, she warned them because he will try and get inside this house and eat you up, skin, bones and all. You will recognize him by his hoarse voice and black paws. Soon after their mother left, the wolf showed up and was sent from the door. First he disguised his voice with chalk and then he disguised his paws with flour he got from the baker. Well, this wolf really wanted to eat them and finally got in and swallowed them whole except one who was hiding in the clock-case. When the mother goat came home and saw the mess the house was in she was horrified and found the last surviving baby goat. She found the wolf asleep and saw his sides still moving and sniped his sides open and found her kids still alive. Then she put some stones back inside the wolf and sewed him back up. That wolf must have really been asleep. When he woke up, he felt like he had been under some deep spell and was very thirsty. He went to a stream to drink but fell in instead and drowned.

To me, "The Frog Prince" was very dissatisfying. The King's daughter had a favorite ball she lost and this frog promised he would get it if she would make him, the frog, her friend. She thought the frog as a nothing and readily promised just to get her ball back. He got it for her and while she was eating dinner that night he knocked at the door and said that he wanted to be her friend as she promised. The daughter was horrified when the king made her keep her promise. Now, the princess was the most beautiful woman in the land and figured she did not have to keep her promise to this ugly old frog. The king said otherwise. Finally, as she went to sleep and the frog wanted to be lifted into her bed, she flung him against the wall with all of her might. Instead of killing him he turned into a prince. Later with the King's permission they got married. If I was the prince, I would have thanked the princess and said goodbye and searched for a princess that had a heart.

"Rapunzel" was about a man and his wife who lived next door to a witch who had a wonderful garden. The wife wanted some rampion that grew in the witch's garden and the wife begged her husband to sneak in there and steal some for her. He loved her with all of his might and he was able to get some. His wife was happy with the rampion he got and wanted more. Unfortunately he got caught by the witch. She was going to do him in but he said it was for his wife. The witch said he could have all of the rampion he wanted as long as he gave her their first born child. The man thought he was safe because they had not been able to have a child. Well, as luck would have it they had a daughter soon after this and they had to give it to the witch who promised to raise it as well as any mother would. Witches in those days must have had a lot of power. Anyhow, Rapunzel was the most beautiful child in the world and when she was 12 years old the witch shut her up in a tower in the midst of a wood. The only way up was Rapunzel's long hair which shone like gold. A few years later as it often does, the prince of the land heard Rapunzel singing and saw how the witch got in and he got in too. The prince proposed to her and being a man also showed her a few other things. Rapunzel accidentally let the witch know of the prince and witch cut Rapunzel's hair and waited for the prince. She had banished Rapunzel in a waste and desert place where she lived in great misery as she was pregnant. Then when the prince came up to see Rapunzel, the witch told him that his love was gone and he escaped from the tower with his life by jumping from the tower but he became blinded from the thorns. He wandered but heard her voice and followed it. When they were reunited the tears from Rapunzel gave back his sight. He took Rapunzel and their twin children back to his kingdom where they lived happily ever after.

Out t of this book, "Snow-White and Rose-Red" was my favorite story. Snow-White and Rose-Red were the daughters of a poor widow who lived alone in her hut in the forest. They were very poor but pious, good, industrious and amiable children. Everyone got along well and the girls got along with the animals of the forest as well. They were kind to the animals and even a big black bear who came knocking at their door. The bear wanted to stay the night and although they felt nervous they agreed. The bear stayed with them until he had to leave so he could protect his treasure from the dwarfs. The young ladies later met a very rude dwarf but they were nice to him anyhow. They saved his life many times by snipping his beard and he just got mad at them for doing that. Finally, when they were helping him from being taken away from a large bird he gave them a bad time for ruining his coat by holding on to him so the bird would not take him away for a meal. The girls had gotten used to the dwarf not appreciating their efforts that they were getting reading to walk off when a large bear appeared and the dwarf told the bear he should eat the girls instead of him. The bear hit the dwarf and he fell down dead. The girls were afraid until the bear said that he was the bear that stayed in their house. His coat fell off and he told them that he was under a spell from a witch and could not escape until the dwarf that took his jewels was dead and that was the dwarf. He was a prince and married one of the daughters and his brother married the other. Everyone moved to the castle to lived including the entire hut where the mother could live on the palace grounds as she wished.

With all of these stories of witches, I could see why they were burned at the stake or women who lived by themselves and did not want to get married. As for princes, well they all sound like there were a surplus in those days and they were all looking for brides. If Princess Diana were alive today, she would not be so positive in her remarks about princes. Prince Charles was one stinker. In history, they were not so hot, but these are fairy tales except many women believe them and I have to admit I did to some extent many years ago. I loved this picture of Snow White I found on the Internet. (If you are a prince reading this blog, don't bother to contact me please.)