Gah! I'm just so punny. This is a post about fairy tales. But yeah, it'll be grim, no kidding.
I'm a sucker for fairy tales. I'll just get that out of the way. The myth and romance and all that old world charm. Knights, princesses, wolves and witches. I love fairy tales. Although Hans Christian Andersen was a writing genius, I infinitely prefer the Grimm Brothers' collections of the folklore that they gathered throughout their lives.
Andersen's mind birthed The Little Mermaid, Thumbelina, and The Ugly Duckling while Grimm unearthed Cinderella, Snow White, Sleeping Beauty, The Frog Prince, and Hanzel and Gretle, all of which have been adapted and readapted into television shows and movies, whether dramatic, as the recent Snow White and the Huntsman or mellowed down into Disney flicks for children, as well as translated into hundreds of languages. Of course, patterns in folklore can be redundant, and varieties on some of the Grimm brother's tales can be discovered if one looks hard enough on nearly every continent.
Folklore or fairy tales were nearly always dark, and somber, designed entirely to frighten children into behaving a certain way or to make them aware of some basic moral; 'Don't lie', as in The Little Boy Who Cried 'Wolf', or to be weary of secluded forests, and strangers, courtesy of Little Red Riding Hood, or true love.
However, the modern enterpretations end with '...happily ever after.' or scarcely envolve death, not the case in the original tales. An example... Cinderella. Her step-sisters cut off parts of their feet to fit into the slipper, as per request of their mother, and they are discovered as blood seeps out of the glass slipper.
I've been a bit obsessed with a local author from Atlanta, Jackson Pearce. I'm not sure if I've told you about her Sam, but she's really great. Apart from a book As You Wish, accuratley about a djinn who falls in love with the girl, Viola, whose servant he has temporarily become, and Purity, a YA romance novel, he has also started a series of fairy tales set in modern times, which include Sisters Red, a modern retelling of Little Red Riding Hood, about sister werewolf or Fenris hunters in Atlanta, Sweetly, a Hanzel and Gretle tale, and Fathomless, a varient of The Little Mermaid, following Hans Christian Andersen's original story, significantly more closely than Disney, which has yet to be released, and unfortunatley does not have it's former's amazing cover art. Too bad. But really, they're great interpretations and really readable and entertaining.
As if that wasn't enough of fairy tales, that was barely scratching the surface. Few of the folkloric stories became a part of our pop culture. And hundreds of thousands were left behind, some of which I think have just as much charm, if not more.
I'm going to tell you about The True Sweethearts.
A poor girl lost her mother at a young age and has been under the custody of the stereotypical evil step-mother. She really wants nothing more than to gain the wicked woman's love, however her step-mother is constantly giving her ridiculous tasks, that seem laughable if not impossible, and a mysterious woman (who I take to be a fairy godmother) comes to her aid at the presence of her tears, and completes the impossible tasks for her in order to save her from beatings.
Eventually the girl recieves a task to build a fully furnished castle in a day, or face dire consequences, but the girl is incappable of carrying a single one of the designated stones, and cries for the fairy godmother, who comes to her aid and builds it, the large stones flying into place and furnishes it with rich woods, velvet upholstery, exotic birds in gilt cages, wardrobes full of jewels and beautiful dresses and enchanted pots, pans, brooms, and feather dusters, keeping it tidy and preparing dinner. Not to mention a secret trap door that becomes her step-mother's untimely demise, to the poor girl's dismay. However one cannot mourne a total beotch for too long, because there are parties to attend and suitors to turn away. A woman in possesion of such an enchanted castle is bound to have suitors, right?
I think that's a bit unconventional, a girl is the one with the money and power, with no one to sell her away and without some foolhardy prince to save her from her poverty.
Regardless, eventually the local prince does pay her a visit and they fall madly in love. Eventually the prince decides to embark on a few hour voyage to his castle to announce their bethrotal to his family, and the girl tells him she will wait for his return beneath the beautiful lime tree in her yard.
But hours turn into days as she wakes early each morning to ventur out to the tree and return late each evening to sleep.
Eventually packing three of her most gorgeous dresses and some jewels she leaves her enchanted castle in search of her true love, a task that undertaking meant a year of traveling, degrading herself to the life of a cow-herd, and eventually discovering that her beloved prince was marrying another a few days after the town's three-day festival.
So she dresses up in her jewels and gorgeous dresses and attends the festival intending to steal back her sweetheart.
It's strange, because it has elements of other fairy tales, but, I don't know her position, and the humor that transcends time just makes it great, and if you add little details, like he was enchanted, and the castle was the castle of her dreams, it adds a little something to re-reading the story. So that's The True Sweetheart, and my freaking long Jackson Pearce and Brothers Grimm blog post.
~Sara
P.S. I am dying to read The Fault In Our Stars. Swap, maybe? And still on fairy tales, what's your favorite fairy tale? And if it's pretty unknown you should summarize it! I know you have a similar fairy tale fanaticism, so discuss! Bye!
