It's the birthday of Jacob Grimm, born in Hanau, Germany (1785), one of the men responsible for collecting fairy tales like "Little Red Riding Hood," "Rumpelstiltskin," "Snow White," "Rapunzel," and "Hansel and Grethel." He and his younger brother, Wilhelm, collected more than 200 German folk tales and published Grimm's Fairy Tales in 1812.
Lots of people thought the stories weren't appropriate for children. There was violence, grief, an old woman who ate kids, abandoned children, and young women chopping off pieces of their feet to fit in slippers. But the book was still a big success, and it changed the way scholars collected folklore — trying to present straightforward narratives as people told them, instead of taking the basic story and turning it into a sophisticated literary piece.
In "Hansel and Grethel," Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm wrote: "The old woman had only pretended to be so kind; she was in reality a wicked witch, who lay in wait for children, and had only built the little house of bread in order to entice them there. When a child fell into her power, she killed it, cooked and ate it, and that was a feast day with her."
this citation is legally stolen from the Writers Almanac, hosted and written by G. Keeler. And the pictures were robbed from the world wide web. I don't have the uhmpf to write my own thoughts today, they would be somewhat bleak and apprehensive - so why bother. The New Year started OahKai though, no dramatic changes, unless you want to take in consideration cabin fever, Gaza strip, painting the studio, jobless days, too much booze, - put those items in a blender and add crushed ice then serve it as a cocktail... with two Pinto olives please.
A good thing, I got my USB microphone working all right in the mista of Vista. Took me a while though. The whole idea is to be able to collaborate and add to songs over the net via multiple track recordings. My brother Pete is in it, so is a surfboard maker in the South Americas who plays ... gosh I don't even know what.
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7 comments:
Hi Hanzel, as you have gone before your sister(s), 'they' will come to your rescue (somehow).
Greetings, the wicked witch.
It is amazing how many of their stories have survived and evolved. Sleeping Beauty has always been my favorite.
Have a warm and nice Sunday.
I always loved fairy stories as a child. Where would the world be without the Brothers Grimm ... nowhere to (mentally) escape to when the harsh realities of life kick in. Gaza for example. There was always a Happy ever after with all problems resolved by the end of the story.
My first exposure to fairytales was a Harvard Classics edition containing all the Brothers Grimm, Hans Christain Andersen and Aesop's Fables. I thought they were perfectly appropriate for children since they were moral lessons about how to behave in the world. Disneyfying them wasn't always helpful.
your bleak and apprehensive/Gaza/painting the studio/too much booze/ cabin fever martini sounds pretty typical of a northern winter. are you sure you aren't secretly blogging from Alaska or Baffin Island? i've always maintained that the long winters were the reason there were so many artists and musicians in the Yukon when i lived there. Creativity is necessary for survival and sanity in the long dark. that and lots of parties with friends.
i've always loved the bros Grimm and HC Anderson. oddly, when i found the old books i used to read as a child, in a box in my parents' basement many years ago, i was astonished to find that the illustrations were few, and all simple b &W line drawings. i remembered them as plentiful and in full color. Such is the generous imagination of a child. i think kids are losing out these days, with everything in movie/cartoon/full color format. there's so little left to the imagination.
I have always loved the Brothers Grimm. I loved them all and they are great stories to read as an adult too, so much to learn from them.
I hope the year gets better for you, Zee... We need to get through the winter, which seems already too long for me :)
Did you get my pictures from Canada?
My mother loved fairy tales and poetry. She read both to me as I grew up and we would talk about them.
When I had my children, two sons, someone said it is never to early to start reading to them. So the womb it was, and till they were in their early teens. It was a family time just before bed. (We often didn't have a TV by choice)
I read all the Grimm's tales to them. When I started that book, they were 4 and 6. I came to the tale of the witch who cut off the young girls feet, put iron shoe on the stubs and made her walk around the world 7 times to retrieve the love of her life. As I was reading this I thought, Oh, I can't read that to them, it will give them night mares. So I started making something up.
My oldest son, sat up in bed, and said, "Mom, your making that up. Read it right!" "It's scary." I said, "That's OK, we can talk about it." he said. And we did. We talked about love, hardship, sacrifice for a good cause. Who doesn't want their kids to learn these things. I found myself repeating the very thing my mom and I used to do. We talked.
Yes, the fairy tales are moral lessons, but they also teach kids to hone their intuition, to see and watch out for the predators in the world.
That may not always keep them safe...but it's a good start.
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