What Makes a Successful Fairy Tale?

In my last Blog Post I mentioned The Fisherman's Wife, which is one of the lesser-known Grimm Brothers' fairy tales. I became curious about why it has not achieved the status held by Red Riding Hood and Cinderella. Certain elements such as the appeal of a strong female character separate these tales. In Red Riding Hood and Cinderella, the female character is prominently featured, but takes on a more innocent role. In Red Riding Hood, the the character of Red Riding Hood is a sweet girl who made a very human mistake while taking sweets to her grandmother.  Her only flaw stems from talking to a stranger, and while the stranger was no ordinary passerby (rather a giant talking wolf), Red Riding Hood is seen as an innocent girl who didn't follow directions. In Cinderella, the character of Cinderella is as pure as one can be. She goes to her mother's grave every day and weeps under the tree she grew with her TEARS. (Because "Cry Me a River" is too mainstream.) Cinderella is a picture of innocence in her story

A French Rapunzel

When I was browsing the internet I ran across an alternate telling of Rapunzel that had French origins. Now anyone that has read Rapunzel will easily be able to see the similarities between these two stories.

Here is a link to the French version - http://talesoffaerie.blogspot.com/2012/04/french-rapunzel.html

A few differences that stand out from even a quick look are

-The husband takes a side role in place of the wife
-The wife makes a deal with a faerie, rather than a witch
-The faerie seems rather generous compared to the witch
-The faerie punished Rapunzel because of her constant lies
-There really wasn't a happy ending

I found it an interesting read, as it shows how a few simple changes to a story can give the story a completely different viewpoint to the reader. Because this version of Rapunzel paints the faerie in a kinder light than that of the witch, in our book. This also seems to be one of those stories that is meant to teach a person that they should not tell lies to their parent figure, in this case the godmother faerie.

Last Thoughts of the Powerful Merlin

Merlin will always be one of the very first "famous" people I think of when I hear the word magic. I know that Harry Potter has changed this greatly for our generation, but everyone always thought of Merlin when they first heard the word magic. This crazy old wackjob throughout the ages has defined magic for years and years.
Merlin is seriously a just a celebrity of the pre-Harry Potter era. It's clear that Harry has taken his lime light but in comparison of the two, Merlin is more powerful. Even though the origin of Merlin's power is forgotten about, let's not forget that both Satan and God game this single human unlimited power (Prose Merlin). Well it was more like Satan's plan backfired, but Merlin was given the power to know the past, present, and future (like the three Fates of Greek Mythology). The "past" part of the deal came from Satan, while the other two were given to Merlin from God. With these powers, he was solely able to choose his own path in life. If he was only given the powers from Satan, there is no doubt that we would all know Merlin for the horrible things rather than the great things. God gave Merlin the chance of freewill, giving him a chance to find a happy median between the two.
Despite what we've read in class, I will always see Merlin as the cooky old man from Disney's version of the The Sword and the Stone. That movie is seriously one of my favorites! After reading the excerpt from The Once and Future King, I can applaud Disney for their accuracy. I'm quite impressed. While I was reading, I could see the movie playing in my head. The Merlin in the story and the movie were very much alike. He wasn't a crazed selfish man who obsessed over nuts in the forest. He was a wise mentor and a friend to Arthur. A very different Merlin than the one in Prose Merlin.
Ultimately, even though I am team Harry Potter, I will always think of Merlin when it comes to magic. He was the wizard celebrity of the ages before the time of the boy who lived.

Shakespeare: The Tempest

So in class we talked about what powers does Prospero really have? When reading the first two scenes of The Tempest, it doesn't seem like Prospero is as powerful as we all thought he was in class. After looking back at the play, it seems like Prospero's power mostly comes from Ariel. The storm that wrecked the boat was conjured up by Ariel it seems, and so far that is the only real power we have seen. Yes he does have a sleep spell of some sort, but that does not seem to be that powerful as Miranda woke up from it kind of quickly it seemed like. And this "power over Ariel" is not magic at all. Or at least no magic that he showed. When Ariel complains and Prospero threatens her, he simply states that she should be grateful that he rescued her from that tree, and if she is not then he would put her back in the tree. But who is to say he didn't just take an ax to the tree? Like I can say I will put you in a tree, but that doesn't mean I actually have the power to do it. Maybe he would have forced Caliban to put her in the tree, they don't really talk about if Caliban has any magic powers, but if he was the son of a witch he has to be somewhat magical right? Which leads back to Prospero's magic over Caliban. It says Prospero took Caliban in when he was young since his mother (The witch Sycorax) died. But it doesnt say he uses magic to keep Caliban as a slave, just that he is Prospero's slave. To me it just seems that Prospero is all talk and very little show. But this may change as we read further into the play, or it may not. As we should all remember this is a play and back then they didnt have special effects to show the magic, so Shakespeare very well may have just made Prospero all talk and no show to fit what a play could show.