Kell Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 I know that many people regard fairy tales as being just for the kids, but I'll freely confess I have a soft spot for those stories told in my childhood. Then again, my parents would tuck me into bed, open a heavy tome of The Complete Brothers Grimm to an appropriate page, and read the dark and twisted tales night after night. Looking at how stories have been watered down for the very young (take a look at Disney's Cinderella - there's no mention of the step-sisters cutting off their toes and heels so they could fit into the tiny slipper. And Snow White - nobody makes the wicked queen dance in red hot iron shoes till she falls down dead!). However, there is one story that I have always loved above all the others - an old Russian folk tale called Vasilissa Most Lovely. It's the usual fare of a beautiful young girl with a jealous step-mother and cruel step-sisters who try to get rid of the fair young maid by sending her off into the forest to beg a light from the evil Baba Yaga, who has lighted human skulls on her fence posts. It's an incredibly dark and terrifying story but I've always adored it. I wondered if anyone else here was a fan of fairytales? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
KW Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 Definitely! My mother read them to me faithfully. I love Grimm's. There seemed to be a moral to the stories that are harder ( if they even exist ) to find in the books, childrens or teens, of today. And so vivid and descriptive! Part of the joy was the illustrations. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Oblomov Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 I don't recall that particular story, but like many Indian kids, I grew up on a diet of Russian Fairy tales. We used to get translated editions at subsidised rates and they were more affordable than the mainstream Grimm or Andersen tales. Russian folk tales are generally darker than the usual German ones, but often with a moralistic ending. Baba Yaga - the witch with a switch - is a common interloper in Russain fairy tales, as is Ivan the Fool. My favourite is Chesnut Grey. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Icecream Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 A fan? Fairytales were the only thing that kept me alive as a child. Real life wasn't worth thinking about! I loved Brothers Grimm and other such books that I had. Maybe that is why I love fantasy so much. From fairytales to Enid Blyton and Roald Dahl to Tolkien and Harry Potter.. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Echo Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 I love fairy tales! I have a really pretty edition of Grimm's fairy tales, plus some random ones all over. I have Peter Beresford Ellis's Celtic Myths and Legends which was outstanding, plus I have Folktales from India which I have yet to read. I also have this really interesting book called The Red-Haired Girl from the Bog by Patricia Monaghan, in which she travels to Ireland and tells local myths from the places she visits, and also gives her own experiences. If you can't tell, I'm Irish, so I'm really interested in learning about where that part of my family came from, and what the literary traditions are. It's one of the strange things about being an American. My family is Irish, English, Welsh, Scottish, German, and Italian, so I feel a connection to places all over Europe. I would love to know all of the fairy tales and folk legends from all of those countries. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kylie Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 I don't recall being read traditional fairy tales as a kid, but I know I had a big book with bedtime stories for every day of the year, and it's very likely there were a lot of fairy tales in there. Several years ago I bought The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm and worked my way through it slowly. There are so many stories and they start to get a bit repetitive, but I enjoyed reading them and seeing the differences between the Disney 'censored' versions and the original 'uncut' versions. I also recall my Mum reading Roald Dahl poetry to my brother and I. She was wonderful at it Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
aromaannie Posted September 4, 2007 Share Posted September 4, 2007 I don't recall being read traditional fairy tales as a kid, but I know I had a big book with bedtime stories for every day of the year, and it's very likely there were a lot of fairy tales in there. I had one too and as soon as I started to read this thread I remebered it. Mine was a collection of poems and stories - 1 for each day. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Princess Orchid Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 When my parents first left China, my mum barely spoke any English - but she was worried I'd have problems learning the language when I started school, so she bought a book of fairy tales and fables to read to me. In English. She painstakingly sounded out the words phonetically. The first stories I remembered hearing were something about a shoemaker and some helpful elves, and a farmer with a giant turnip. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kitty_kitty Posted September 5, 2007 Share Posted September 5, 2007 I loved them as kids and still do now the more gruesome the better. I love the imagination that goes in fairy stories the world would be a duller place with out them Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted September 5, 2007 Author Share Posted September 5, 2007 The first stories I remembered hearing were something about a shoemaker and some helpful elves, and a farmer with a giant turnip. That would be The Elves and the Shoemaker and The Enormous Turnip - both old favourites when I was a tot! I loved them as kids and still do now the more gruesome the better.I was exactly the same - I loved it when the baddies got ripped to pieces by wild animals or some such thing. I also adored the wickedness of the nasty characters... Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Michelle Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I've never read the originals. Kell, what's the book called.. or are there variations? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest ii Posted September 6, 2007 Share Posted September 6, 2007 I do like fairy tales and traditional stories. Finland has a great epic collection of stories called "Kalevala". It's been translated to several languages, so if you find it, do check it out. But when I was a kid I wasn't really read fairy tales as much as "real life" stories. I mean stories that could have been about reality. No elves and talking horses, you know. My nanny read me Pippi Longstockings which I adored. For solid six months I got dressed every morning the way Pippi would have, with mismatching socks and all, and every single morning my mom sent me back to my room to change. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Kell Posted September 6, 2007 Author Share Posted September 6, 2007 I've never read the originals. Kell, what's the book called.. or are there variations? If you can get hold of a complete works of the Grimm brothers, the stories tend to be pretty much the same with only negligible differences due to varying translations. I got mine as a birthday present when I was just a nipper and the binding is starting to fall apart a little, but you can pick up various collections from most major book shops. Actually, I'm thinking of getting THIS hardback version from Amazon to replace it. It's a bit of a bargain at Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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