Hmmm. I shall have to add a rule to the appropriate section.
However, it's "do not mix up fairytales with tales about fairies." (Yes, the name is confusing. It's also ineradicable.)
All right, there's *some* overlap. "Kate Crackernuts" brushes on the folklore that fairies danced TB victims to death by making them dance all night. But it's very rare in fairy tales for food to be dangerous.
Though "Do not violate the prohibition" is an integral part of the Search for the Lost Husband and the Quest For the Lost Wife. The thing is, in a fairy tale, the prohibition breaker must work very hard to do it, but can win the other back in the end.
Indeed, the ideal thing in a tale is to *give back* the stolen feather cloak, or sealskin one. It makes her grateful.
If we can include Japanese and Chinese fairy tales, you can add something about not making a lot of noise if you notice her reflection in water or a mirror isn't of a human but of a fox.
She's not a princess. She's a snow-maiden -- a little girl made out of snow who came to life -- and one night she got lost in the woods and climbed a tree. A bear offered to lead her home, and a wolf, but she refused them. A fox offered, in return for a hen. She agreed, and her parents were delighted to have her back, but tried to cheat the fox.
She ran away into the forest again because they didn't love her enough to pay a fat hen. And I've read a variant where she melts. Others where she goes back to Father Frost.
Thank you. That's one of many fairy tales that I never read, or just plain forgot. One I alone seem to remember involves a young boy without fear who spends the night in a haunted mill where he meets three horrible ghostly dogs with gigantic eyes, who can't hurt him because he doesn't fear them. Something like that, anyway.
Never, ever, ever, ever eat anything in fairyland. Or Hades.
Hmmm. I shall have to add a rule to the appropriate section.
However, it's "do not mix up fairytales with tales about fairies." (Yes, the name is confusing. It's also ineradicable.)
All right, there's *some* overlap. "Kate Crackernuts" brushes on the folklore that fairies danced TB victims to death by making them dance all night. But it's very rare in fairy tales for food to be dangerous.
Not unknown, of course, but be wary of peddlers.
And never hit our selkie wives … or get out of that boat after you’ve been gone a hundred years … but that’s edging on fairies and fairyland as well.
Very true!
Though "Do not violate the prohibition" is an integral part of the Search for the Lost Husband and the Quest For the Lost Wife. The thing is, in a fairy tale, the prohibition breaker must work very hard to do it, but can win the other back in the end.
Indeed, the ideal thing in a tale is to *give back* the stolen feather cloak, or sealskin one. It makes her grateful.
If we can include Japanese and Chinese fairy tales, you can add something about not making a lot of noise if you notice her reflection in water or a mirror isn't of a human but of a fox.
Yup, that sounds typical.
This is a great read. But what is the fairy tale about the princess lead home by the fox?
She's not a princess. She's a snow-maiden -- a little girl made out of snow who came to life -- and one night she got lost in the woods and climbed a tree. A bear offered to lead her home, and a wolf, but she refused them. A fox offered, in return for a hen. She agreed, and her parents were delighted to have her back, but tried to cheat the fox.
She ran away into the forest again because they didn't love her enough to pay a fat hen. And I've read a variant where she melts. Others where she goes back to Father Frost.
Thank you. That's one of many fairy tales that I never read, or just plain forgot. One I alone seem to remember involves a young boy without fear who spends the night in a haunted mill where he meets three horrible ghostly dogs with gigantic eyes, who can't hurt him because he doesn't fear them. Something like that, anyway.
Oh, that's *The Tale of a Youth Who Set Out to Learn What Fear Was*. It's from Brothers Grimm. Or a variant of that, at any rate.
Here's a translation. Is this it?
https://surlalunefairytales.com/book.php?id=8&tale=358
That's kind of like it. I think. I last read the story about first grade or so and beyond the three giant dogs I remember very little about it.
Quite possibly a variant, then
Fun read. Thanks!
Glad you like it.
If everyone did what they were supposed to do, there'd be no stories to tell.
True, but the hero of the story benefits from learning from the experience of others. Let your brothers be rude to the little old man by the roadside.
I romped with this in *The Princess Seeks Her Fortune*. You can read about what I did here
https://writingandreflections.substack.com/p/fairy-tale-free-for-all
and of course in the book itself.