Some Lesser-Known Fairytales
Sep. 16th, 2017 07:54 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
flamebyrdI was researching Grimms' Fairy Tales for a certain upcoming Halloween party, hoping inspiration for a costume would strike (no luck yet), and was reminded of some of my favourite bizarre tales, so I am retelling them in short form below. (Links go to Wikipedia.)
The Wonderful Musician (Aarne-Thompson type 151, "music lessons for wild animals")
A fiddler wanders through the woods, looking for someone who will appreciate his music. He attracts the attentions of a wolf, fox and a hare, but is not interested in a harem of adorable animal friends and tricks them into trapping themselves.
Eventually he finds an appreciative woodcutter, the kind of company he was seeking (if you know what I mean), who helpfully protects the fiddler from the escaped and vengeful animals.
The fiddler plays the woodcutter one more song to thank him and wanders on (like a cad).
The Water Nixie (Aarne-Thompson type 313A, "the girl helps the hero flee and revolves about a transformation chase")
A brother and sister fall into a well, where they are captured by a nixie who puts them to work. Fortunately, they're able to escape on Sunday while the nixie is at church.
The nixie.
At church.
She chases them, but luckily they are able to use a collection of ordinary household items which transform into nigh-impassable mountains to escape.
The Devil and his Grandmother (Aarne-Thompson type 812, "the devil's riddle")
Three soldier deserters make a deal with the Devil (who is masquerading as a dragon, because that's cool) to escape execution, who gives them a magic whip and a promise that in 7 years, he would take them to hell unless they could solve his riddle.
Fortunately one of them is able to find the Devil's grandmother, who gives him the solution to the riddle. So they get to keep the whip and escape.
--
In all seriousness, go to Wikipedia and check out the source links for these, because all of the stories have some neat imagery that's worth reading. (And I assume that's the real point of them. They just sound cool.)
The Wonderful Musician (Aarne-Thompson type 151, "music lessons for wild animals")
A fiddler wanders through the woods, looking for someone who will appreciate his music. He attracts the attentions of a wolf, fox and a hare, but is not interested in a harem of adorable animal friends and tricks them into trapping themselves.
Eventually he finds an appreciative woodcutter, the kind of company he was seeking (if you know what I mean), who helpfully protects the fiddler from the escaped and vengeful animals.
The fiddler plays the woodcutter one more song to thank him and wanders on (like a cad).
The Water Nixie (Aarne-Thompson type 313A, "the girl helps the hero flee and revolves about a transformation chase")
A brother and sister fall into a well, where they are captured by a nixie who puts them to work. Fortunately, they're able to escape on Sunday while the nixie is at church.
The nixie.
At church.
She chases them, but luckily they are able to use a collection of ordinary household items which transform into nigh-impassable mountains to escape.
The Devil and his Grandmother (Aarne-Thompson type 812, "the devil's riddle")
Three soldier deserters make a deal with the Devil (who is masquerading as a dragon, because that's cool) to escape execution, who gives them a magic whip and a promise that in 7 years, he would take them to hell unless they could solve his riddle.
Fortunately one of them is able to find the Devil's grandmother, who gives him the solution to the riddle. So they get to keep the whip and escape.
--
In all seriousness, go to Wikipedia and check out the source links for these, because all of the stories have some neat imagery that's worth reading. (And I assume that's the real point of them. They just sound cool.)
no subject
Date: 2017-09-16 03:55 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-16 10:17 pm (UTC)I guess the moral of the story is "be nice to grandmothers".
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Date: 2017-09-16 10:27 pm (UTC)Devil: Nana!!! C'mon, why are you making my life so much harder for me?
Nana: sniffs Well, if you would just call more often, I wouldn't need to.
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Date: 2017-09-16 10:29 pm (UTC)no subject
Date: 2017-09-18 12:48 pm (UTC)I thought that was just a framework that Seanan Mcguire used for her Indexing series... 0_0
[Edit] Huh, it is indeed a real thing. #TIL
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Date: 2017-09-19 09:35 am (UTC)I discovered the Aarne-Thompson index a few years ago while researching some fairy-tale-inspired canon or other, and have been delighted by its existence ever since.
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Date: 2017-09-19 10:07 am (UTC)From the October Daye series, (fae/urban fantasy) to the Velveteen vs series (superheroes, not quite how you'd expect) to the Indexing books (kinda Persons In Black trying to protect the world from fairy tales* running rampant) to the Mira Grant series, Newsflesh (politics and journalism in a post-zombie apocalypse world CW: body horror and zombies) and the Parasitology books (body horror like *whoa*)
Plus there's Sparrow Hill Road, (americana/highway ghost stories), InCryptid (a generational family story about a group of people trying to preserve, protect and study the cryptozoological from people and vice versa, whilst ideally not dying in the process. The Wayward Children books/novellas, which are the 'kid fell into a fairytale world. This is what happens after they come back.)
I blew through book 11 of the October Daye books in roughly 24 hours, (last night/today) and am now sad because I have an entire year to wait for the next one. =(
Seanan writes great stuff, and everyone should give her a try sometime.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Seanan_McGuire
(*) Think much more the pre-Brothers Grimm sanitisation fairy tales that are seriously dark and brutal
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Date: 2017-09-19 10:10 am (UTC)I'm planning to get around to reading Every Heart a Doorway soon, though, I have the book.
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Date: 2017-09-19 10:37 am (UTC)Fortunately, I liked everything else about the world and cast, and so far each of the Price siblings has gotten two books as the point-of-view character.
Haven't had the chance to read books 5&6 yet, but very much looking forward to them, and I adored book 4, even with it being a 'NorAm expert travels to Australia' plot. Seanan actually pulled that one off pretty well, I felt.
Which makes once that this trope hasn't sucked.
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Date: 2017-09-19 10:43 am (UTC)What got to me was that the protagonist spent so much time trying to prove to the supernatural world that she was a Good Ally, but was willing to temporarily overlook the fact that this guy thought her friends weren't people because he was just that sexy.
I just couldn't. XD
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Date: 2017-09-19 10:56 am (UTC)no subject
Date: 2018-03-24 07:57 pm (UTC)The rest of the world was interesting though.
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Date: 2018-03-26 01:54 am (UTC)