Fairy Tale Friday

Last week we skipped fairy tales as we had something else to do for school during that time but this week we have finished the last three tales in the book.

#6. Cinderella - one of the longer tales in the book. This telling is pretty much the standard version I've always known. The only difference to me was that the ball was actually held two nights in a row. The first night Cinderella caught the eye of everyone and the second night the prince paid attention to her before she ran off at midnight. Cinderella was also called 'Cinderbottom' by her meanest stepsister and 'Cinderella' by her not-quite-so-mean sister.

#7. Rickety Topknot - This one was new to me. A queen gives birth to the most ugliest baby ever who has a little bit of hair on the top of his head. A fairy comes along and says that although he will be ugly, he will also be one of the smartest people around. Seven years later, a neighboring queen gives birth to two daughters, one is extremely ugly and the other is extremely stupid. The same fairy comes along and grants the ugly one intelligence and the stupid one beauty, in fact she will be the most beautiful woman in the land. Once they've grown up, Rickety falls in love with the beauty, and eventually she returns the favour. Essentially, this tale shows that when we are in love we don't notice the other's faults, hence, love is blind.

#8. Hop o' my Thumb - This was the longest tale in the book and bares a striking resemblance to Hansel and Gretel. A woodcutter and his wife have seven sons but they are very poor and one day they decided, regretfully, that they must take the sons into the forest and leave them there because they cannot stand to watch them starve to death. Hop o' my Thumb, an unusually tiny boy, leaves a trail of stones behind and manages to lead the brothers back home. They are taken back to the forest and this time a bread crumb tale has been eaten by all the birds. The brothers eventually stumble upon a house in the forest but it is the home of an ogre who eats children. This one ends up having a very gruesome paragraph as some persons have their throats slit which I edited a bit when reading. Perrault certainly enjoyed describing bloodshed! I think this was my favourite of the book and ds certainly enjoyed it, too.

My next post will gather all these Friday posts into one place. Next Friday we will be returning to Geraldine McCaughrean as we read The Silver Treasure: Myths and Legends of the World.