Sorry! I forgot to put this post up. Also, it's a really long post, so you can skip/skim the descriptions. Because the stories are so similar, you'd be fine just reading one of the story descriptions.
Is it story time, Noble
Nomads?
For today, we shall learn
the four similar stories of “Bluebeard,” by Charles Perrault,
“The Robber Bridegroom,” by the Brothers Grimm, “Fitcher's
Bird,” also by the Brothers Grimm, and “Mr. Fox,” by Joseph
Jacobs.
Before I post about them, I
should explain what the stories are about, and how they are
different.
If you want to read the
entire stories, here are links:
In any case, I shall indeed
give my Friends with no time summaries.
Bluebeard: Bluebeard was an
incredibly rich man with a blue beard. His blue beard made ladies
terrified of him. Finally, a young woman was persuaded to marry
Bluebeard. Soon, Bluebeard left on business and gave all the keys of
the house to his wife. He forbid her from going into a specific room,
but she was too curious, and opened the door, where she found blood
everywhere and the bodies of Bluebeard's previous wives. She was so
scared she dropped the key, which got stained with blood. The stain
would not come off, and once Bluebeard got home and asked for the
keys, he demanded she die. She asked for time to pray before she
died, which he granted. Once she got up to her room, she asked her
sister to see if her brothers were coming. After a long, stressful,
time, her brothers were coming, and Bluebeard demanded his wife come
down to be killed. Right before Bluebeard was about to kill her, her
brothers came and stabbed him. She and her sister lived happily ever
after.
The Robber Bridegroom: A
girl was engaged to a man she didn't like, and eventually she had to
go to his house. He lived in the wood, and once she came to his
house, it was completely empty except for an old woman. The old woman
told her the girl's “fiance” really was a murderer and cannibal
and was going to kill and eat her. The woman hid the girl behind a
barrel, and the gang of robbers came in carrying another girl. They
cut her up, salted her, and were about to throw her in the cooking
pot when they noticed a ring on the girl's finger. They couldn't get
the ring off, so they cut the whole finger off. It landed in the
bride-to-be's lap. The old lady and the girl escaped. When they were
celebrating the wedding the next day, everyone was supposed to tell a
story, and the bride told her “dream.” She disguised everything
that happened at the bridegroom's house in a dream. At the end, she
pulled the girl's finger out of her pocket, and the town realized the
“dream” was true. They executed the robber gang.
Fitcher's Bird: A sorcerer,
Fitcher, disguised himself as a beggar, and went around kidnapping
women. He kidnapped a woman, and told her she would be his wife if
she obeyed him. Presently, he had to leave, and gave her the keys to
the rooms and and an egg. He told her to always keep the egg with
her, and forbid her from going in a certain room. She was too
curious, looked in, saw a giant bloody basin filled with dead women,
and dropped the egg. The egg got stained red, and would not get clean
again. Once Fitcher asked for the egg, he realized what the woman had
done and cut her up and added her to the basin. He got the sister of
the first woman, but the same thing happened to her. He got the
youngest sister of the women, and once she got the keys and egg, she
put the egg in a safe place and entered the forbidden room. There,
she assembled the parts of her sisters and they came back to life.
Fitcher got home, inspected the egg, and said she would be his wife.
Now, he had to do everything she asked him. She asked him to take a
basket of gold on his back to her parents, but she put her sisters in
instead of gold. She asked her sisters to send help for her. Then,
she invited all Fitcher's friends to the wedding, made a skull look
like her in an upstairs window, and covered herself in feathers so
she looked like a bird. Fitcher got back, and after that, the people
sent to rescue her locked Fitcher and his friends in, and set fire to
the house. They all burned.
Mr. Fox: Lady Mary was
engaged to Mr. Fox. She decided unexpectedly to visit Mr. Fox's house
for the first time. There, she found the bodies and skeletons of
women stained with blood everywhere. She was about to leave, but Mr.
Fox came dragging a girl. Lady Mary hid, and Mr. Fox noticed a ring
on the finger of the girl. He couldn't get it off, so he cut her hand
off. The hand landed in Lady Mary's lap. Lady Mary ran back home, and
when she saw Mr. Fox again, she told him everything she had seen but
presented it as if it were a dream. At the end, she took the hand out
of her pocket, and her brothers cut Mr. Fox up.
These fairytales are
wonderful, and you could write an entire book about them, analyzing
them, etc. However, I am going to focus on only one question: What do
you think the purpose of all the blood is?
Is it to show the dark side
of human nature? Is it to warn women about terrible men? What other
reasons could there be?
Spruce Nogard
Attributions:
The
first book, A Tale Dark and Grimm,
is about Hansel and Gretel, siblings, and has a strange and wonderful
narrator who occasionally jumps in, wondering about the characters'
actions, or warning you when something gory is about to happen. As
Adam Gidwitz (the narrator) says:
This
book is the tale of two such children: a boy named Jack, and a girl
named Jill. . . Their story is terrifying. It is revolting. It is
horrible.
Bluebeard: Bluebeard was an
incredibly rich man with a blue beard. His blue beard made ladies
terrified of him. Finally, a young woman was persuaded to marry
Bluebeard. Soon, Bluebeard left on business and gave all the keys of
the house to his wife. He forbid her from going into a specific room,
but she was too curious, and opened the door, where she found blood
everywhere and the bodies of Bluebeard's previous wives. She was so
scared she dropped the key, which got stained with blood. The stain
would not come off, and once Bluebeard got home and asked for the
keys, he demanded she die. She asked for time to pray before she
died, which he granted. Once she got up to her room, she asked her
sister to see if her brothers were coming. After a long, stressful,
time, her brothers were coming, and Bluebeard demanded his wife come
down to be killed. Right before Bluebeard was about to kill her, her
brothers came and stabbed him. She and her sister lived happily ever
after.
The Robber Bridegroom: A
girl was engaged to a man she didn't like, and eventually she had to
go to his house. He lived in the wood, and once she came to his
house, it was completely empty except for an old woman. The old woman
told her the girl's “fiance” really was a murderer and cannibal
and was going to kill and eat her. The woman hid the girl behind a
barrel, and the gang of robbers came in carrying another girl. They
cut her up, salted her, and were about to throw her in the cooking
pot when they noticed a ring on the girl's finger. They couldn't get
the ring off, so they cut the whole finger off. It landed in the
bride-to-be's lap. The old lady and the girl escaped. When they were
celebrating the wedding the next day, everyone was supposed to tell a
story, and the bride told her “dream.” She disguised everything
that happened at the bridegroom's house in a dream. At the end, she
pulled the girl's finger out of her pocket, and the town realized the
“dream” was true. They executed the robber gang.
The
Temptations: There are three temptations: Wealth, Beautiful People,
and Giving Up. Odysseus isn't really tempted by wealth, but he is
tempted by beautiful women on Circe's island and on Calypso’s
island. He and his men are tempted to give up by eating the Lotus
flowers. Luke is tempted over and over to give up and join the Dark
side.
