Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Crane), Part B

· Hmmm this story starts off so sad:(. What if the king had refused the old woman? What if his wife wasn’t dead? Also, how on earth did he conceal from his wife that he had children? That can’t exactly have been a secret beforehand? What if I tweaked this story so that she turned them into a different type of animal?

· I fell like there are rather a lot of tales that involve evil stepmothers turning some or all of their stepchildren into swans.

· How do they already know how the swan curse works when they’ve been under it for like a day?

· I hate that she gets absolutely no say in marrying the king. Also, why can’t she write to people? Isn’t that an easy way to communicate without breaking the deal?

· Wow, it’s really gross that she smeared blood on her mouth.

· I don’t understand why she didn’t somehow mess things up when she cried out in excitement when she saw her brothers flying towards her when she was about to be killed. What if that had ruined everything? I could write about that.

· Although I suppose that if crying out was against the rules, giving birth would have been particularly difficult.

· I enjoy the fact that this was written with some rhyming. That would be a fun thing to incorporate.

· I feel bad for the beggar man. What if he didn’t want to marry her? She doesn’t seem like a pleasant person to be married to.

· Wait why on earth did he still want to marry her? Literally her only good quality was that she was beautiful. I’m annoyed. What if I changed this story so that she learned her lesson, and then lived happily ever after as a beggar, content? She still didn’t seem content, even if she was humbled.

· Why would he say that she would never again touch a spinning wheel if one of the things that he liked about her was her industry?

(Illustration by Walter Crane)

Bibliography:  Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, by Lucy and Walter Crane

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Crane), Part A

· So I feel like the main theme so far in The Fisherman and His Wife has had to do with the idea of someone convincing someone else to do something that they really ought not to. For some reason, a detail that really stood out to me was the fact that the fish bled, and that the sea turned a different color. That may be significant enough that I can use it in some way.

· The other theme is the consuming nature of greed. It’s never satisfied; it wants a little more, and a little more, and a little more. That’s something I could easily use in a story about a small child (or anyone I suppose).

· I don’t yet know how this story will end, but it all seems so foreboding that perhaps I could have the man wake up at some point and discover that it was only a bad dream, then he goes and catches fish and none of them talk and he is relieved.

· Great quote: “she was as far as ever form being contented.”

· So it ends with them being in the exact same position, except that she is less content than ever (I assume).

· I like that the story starts off with giving her mother personality.

· Why lentils in ashes? Like, why is that a theme?

· I like the fact that this is like one of the original heroine singing to small animals for help tales.

· Wow, the prince is a tad creepy. What if she didn’t want quite such undivided attention? Maybe I could rewrite this so she gets kind of annoyed and freaked out.

· Also, I’m super annoyed that the prince didn’t recognize her when she put her rags back on. Maybe if she had been wearing a mask or something…

· Eww I wouldn’t ever want to touch that shoe again.

· Wait so does the father not really love Aschenputtel in this (the original) version?

· Wow, man. These stories are vindictive.

(Illustration by Walter Crane)

Bibliography:  Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm, by Lucy and Walter Crane.

Reading Notes: King Arthur, Part B

· Wow, a lot happens in this first bit of story. So, Galahad is the only man who can bear the special shield, he expels the fiend from the graveyard, he knights the squire but the squire is eventually wounded, he frees the maidens, and he fights Lancelot and Percivale. I think that it stands out to me that people are saying that he’s the only one worthy of various honors, and that he’s the best knight in the world. It seems like it could lead to some tension amongst the knights of the table.

· Lancelot is Galahad’s father?!?

· I’m confused. If the Knight that Lancelot saw in his dreams was so righteous, why did he steal from Lancelot? That’s not cool. I could write about him getting in trouble for that eventually . . .

· The poor yeomanL. Now his hackney is gone too. I could write about his perspective, but it would be sad and not well resolved, and he might die in the end. Percivale didn’t really help at all, and then he was gone.

· I could take the tale of Sir Lancelot being beaten in battle when he takes the side of the black knights against the white ones, but change it to another situation where someone is usually the champion at something, but is bested because of their wrongdoing.

· Once again, I could write about someone who is foiled in their pursuit of something they want because of their own wrongdoing.

· So how long has Sir Bors gone without eating? Did I misunderstand that? And, I could write a tale about how he and his brother came to be in danger of unknowingly slaying one another.

· I want to know more about how and why Sir Percivale’s sister died! I suppose I could write that story.

(Sir Mordred, by H. J. Ford)

Bibliography:  King Arthur: Tales of the Round Table, by Andrew Lang