Grimm's Fairy Tale Pt. 2

I know my last post was dogging on sequels but hopefully this one will be better than the first tier list. Last time I ranked the 1st 20 fairy tales and this time I will rank tales 21-30 (Because I feel like 20 would make this post really long). I’ll write a brief description of the tale and write a sentence or two on my initial thoughts on the story. 

Starting off strong we have a classic, Cinderella.

Cinderella wants to go to the ball but her stepmother does not allow her to go with her two step sisters. With the help of birds, Cinderella is able to get 3 beautiful gowns for each night of the ball and the prince is infatuated by her. All three nights she escapes before the prince can catch her but on the 3rd night her shoe got stuck on the staircase covered in pitch. The prince is trying to find the girl who can wear the shoe. The 2 step sisters try to fit into the shoe by cutting off their big toe and heel but the birds tell the prince. Cinderella fits the shoe perfectly and she and the prince are wed. The step-sister’s eyes get pecked out by birds.

Basically, the birds are the true MVPs of this story. It’s a solid fairy tale with a nice sense of justice and satisfaction. A 

The Riddle

A King’s son went traveling with his faithful servant. They stay at a house for the night and in the house, lives a woman who practices dark arts and her step daughter. The woman tries to kill the King’s son with a drink but it breaks and kills the horse instead. A raven starts to eat the horse so the servant takes the raven and goes to an inn with the King’s son. The servant gives the innkeeper the raven to prepare for dinner and 12 murderers come, intending to kill and rob. They all die upon eating the soup with the raven. Later the youth comes across a princess who says she will marry someone who tells her a riddle she cannot solve in 3 days but will kill if she can. The King’s son asks her “One slew none, and yet slew twelve.” The daughter couldn’t think of the answer and tried to sneak into the king’s son's bedroom to ask for the answer in his sleep but was chased away the first 2 nights by the servant. On the third night she is able to ask and get the answer but the son kept the mantle (a cloak of sorts) she wore as proof that she stole the answer from him. They were wed.

Interesting story. That servant is kind of stupid but smart at the same time which is a little endearing. I’m not a huge fan of the princess and the prince kind of does nothing the whole story but overall I think it’s fine. B

The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage

A bird, mouse and sausage live together. The bird gets wood for fire, the mouse gets water, lights the fire, and lays the table, and the sausage cooks. In the forest, the bird meets another bird and they tell him that he works way too hard compared to the mouse and the sausage so the next day they switch tasks. The sausage got wood, the mouse cooked, and the bird got water. After being out for too long, the bird went to go find the sausage and found out that a dog ate it. He went home to tell the mouse and the mouse tried to season the food like the sausage did, by mixing itself with the food. The mouse dies. The bird tries to find the mouse and throws the wood around, everything catches on fire, the bucket of water drops into the well with the bird and the bird drowns.

This is what I’m talking about. This kind of tale really tells an important lesson on being content with the nice life you have. I was quite shocked after reading it. The Sausage is a character, the sausage. What does sausage start with, that’s right S

Mother Holle

A widow had 2 daughters, a pretty and industrious one, and a ulgy and lazy one. The widow liked the ugly one more because she was her own and the stepdaughter had to work all day and spin by the will. One day the shuttle (a thing used to carry thread) was bloody so the girl had to wash it in the well and it fell. The step mother told her to fetch the shuttle so the girl jumped into the well out of sorrow in her heart. She awoke in a meadow and took bread out of an oven, shook ripe apples off a tree, and worked for a old lady named Mother Holle. After some time, the daughter felt homesick and went home after Mother Holle rained gold on her. The stepmother and ugly daughter wanted gold rain as well so the ugly daughter went into the well. She didn’t take bread out the oven or shake the apple tree. She worked for Mother Holle for one day and then became lazy. Mother Holle told her to leave and rained pitch on her, which stuck for the rest of her life. 

The daughter jumping into the well is actually pretty dark when you think about it. A fairy tale trope I’m seeing here is where one person does this and that and gets rewarded and another person tries to get rewarded as well but epicly fails. It’s an eh story, not spectacular but not bad. B

The Seven Ravens

A man had seven sons and wished for a daughter and when his wife had one, everyone was very happy. But she was small and sickly so she had to be baptized privately and so the boys went to the spring to get water. They all wanted to fill it first and the jug fell into the well. None of them dared to return  and the father got angry and thought they were playing a game and forgot. He wished the boys turned to ravens out of anger and the 7 raven sons flew away. The daughter grew up not knowing about her brothers until she overheard people talking about them and her parents confirmed it. She went out far to go find her brothers. The Sun was hot and ate children so she ran. The moon was cold and also evil so she ran. The stars were kind and gave her a chicken drumstick to open the Glass mountain where her brothers are. However she lost the drumstick and cut her finger off to open the mountain. She saw seven plates and glasses and ate and drank a bit from all of them and dropped a ring in the last. The ravens came back and saw the ring and wished their sister were here to set them free. The sister came out to see them and the ravens became humans again and went home.

The story is kind of wholesome but a bit messed up with the finger bit. The parents weren’t evil or anything, they were very sad their sons turned into ravens and didn’t blame the daughter or anything which is a nice change of pace. A

Little Red-Cap

Little Red-Cap was on her way to her grandma’s house to give her cake and wine when a wolf stopped her and asked her where she was going. He then asked where her grandma’s house was and encouraged her to pick some flowers to buy him time. He then ate the grandma and waited for Little Red-Cap to come. Little Red-Cap came and felt something was off and that grandma be lookin kinda different and she was eaten. The wolf then fell asleep and his snores were heard by a huntsman and went into the house to see grandma. He saw the wolf and cut open his stomach to free Little Red-Cap and grandma. They then filled the wolves stomach with stones and when he tried to run, he fell and died. In another outing, a different wolf tried to stray Little Red-Cap from her path but she went straight to grandma’s house and told her what happened. The wolf came by and claimed to be Little Red-Cap but they stayed in the house. Grandma knew the wolf was going to eat Little Red-Cap on her way home so they told her to put water in which she boiled sausage into the trough. The wolf smelled the sausage water and fell into the trough and drowned.

Basically the normal little red riding hood story with a sequel. Honestly I didn’t care much for it but it’s funny how wolves always get their stomachs filled with rocks. I mean so far it only happened twice but that’s still weird. C

The Bremen Town-Musicians

An old donkey plans to go to the town of Bremen to become a town-musician. On his way there, he meets an old dog, an old cat, and an old cock and they go together to become town-musicians. They were going to sleep by a tree but the cock saw sparks of a house so they decide to go there. The donkey looks into the house and sees a table with food and robbers eating it. The animals decide to scare the robbers away by stacking on top of each other and playing their music which was basically just them screaming whatever animal sound they produced. The robbers ran away and the animals ate and fell asleep. The robbers sent one messenger to check out the house and the cat scratches him, the dog bit him, the donkey kicked him, and the cock screamed “cock a doodle doo” so the robber skidaddles out of there. And the animals stay there. Forever. The end.

I like the idea of old “useless” animals banding together and chasing their dreams of making music. It’s very inspirational. A

The Singing Bone

A boar was causing havoc, trampling plants, killing cattle, and killing people. The king set up a reward for whoever could kill the boar, the reward being his daughter’s hand in marriage. Two brothers decided to try to kill the boar, the older was evil and the younger was good. They started on opposite sides of the forest. A little man gave the younger brother a spear because he was good and the man told the brother that the spear would not let the boar harm him. The younger brother killed the boar and was on his way to bring it back to the king. The older brother saw him and invited him to drink. When it was dark, the older brother killed the younger brother, buried him under a bridge, and took the boar to the king. Years later, a shepherd saw a white bone under the bridge and made a horn which sung the truth of the matter. I don’t know why but the shepherd thought “wow this is so cool, I’m gonna give it to the king.” The King understood it and drowned the elder brother and gave the younger brother’s remains a proper burial.

This story made me sadder than the rest for whatever reason. Maybe because of the bittersweet ending. I kind of expected the younger guy to resurrect but that’d be too easy. But I liked the story nevertheless. S

The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs

This one’s a bit long. A boy is born with a caul (a membrane thing around a fetus) which means he will marry the king’s daughter when he’s 14. The king heard about this and was like “nuh uh” and took the baby and but him in a box and threw it into the river. The box didn’t sink and a mill boy took the baby to the mill’s owner and wife. The king figured out that this kid was that baby he threw so he sent the boy to the queen with a letter telling her to kill him immediately when he arrives. The boy gets lost and goes to a house where an old women lives. The house turns out to be a robbers den but the boy doesn’t give a crap and just sleeps there anyway. The robbers come back and read the letter and take pity on the kid and swapped the letter with one saying to marry him to the King’s daughter. So they get married and the King is pretty pissed and asks him to get three golden hairs from the devil. On the way, the boy encounters a fountain that won’t flow wine, a tree that won’t bare golden apples, and a ferryman who has to row forever. He promises to answer the people’s woes on his way back and meets the Devil’s grandmother. The Devil’s grandmother turns the boy into an ant to protect him from the Devil and plucks his hair. The Devil understandably is pretty pissed and is like “Why are you plucking my hair grandma” and the grandma says “Oh man I had this bad dream that this fountain doesn’t flow wine anymore” rinse and repeat three times. The Devil answers all three questions and the Grandmother gives the hairs to the boy and he goes home. On the way he tells the ferryman to give the oar to someone else, the people to kill a mouse that is gnawing the root of the gold appl tree, and the other people that a toad is clogging the wine fountain. He is rewarded the 4 asses (donkeys) strewn in gold and when the king sees him he’s like “Whoaa, can I get some gold too?” And the boy is like “yeah just go to the ferryman and he’ll take you to the shore of gold.” The king gets handed the oar and now he just rows around forever.

This tale is much more complex than the previous one but I really really really like it. The robbers were my favorite. They didn’t kill the dude, how kind of them. But yeah I physically “awed” at that it was pretty nice.  S

The Louse and the Flea

The little louse and little flea are brewing some beer and the louse falls in and burns herself, causing the flea to scream. The door is like “why are you screaming.” And the flear says “because the louse burnt herself.” So the door starts creaking and the broom asks the door “why are you creaking” and the door says “do I have no reason to creak? The louse burnt herself and the flea is weeping” and the broom starts sweeping. Then the cart asks the broom why its sweeping and the broom repeats everything before. This happens over and over again with a burning ash-heap, a shaking tree, a girl who breaks her water-pitcher, and finally the flowing spring who just flows and flows and drowns everyone. 

I think this story is trying to teach about pointlessness or something like that. That’s what I’m getting because this story is pretty pointless. But it’s kind of funny. Really repetitive though like other fairy tales are. C

S - The Devil with the Three Golden Hairs, The Mouse, the Bird, and the Sausage, The Singing Bone

A - The Bremen Town-Musicians, Cinderella, The Seven Ravens

B - The Riddle, Mother Holle

C - Little Red-Cap, The Louse and the Flea

Seeya

By Maggie Li