Fairytale Tuesday: The Elves and The Shoemaker
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1M ago
It’s been awhile since I posted so here’s a reminder: I’ve been going through the Grimm’s 1812 volume of fairytales, one after the other for a few years. I’ll finish eventually but for now, let’s move on to some cobbler-elf shenanigans This is one of those Grimm multi-part tales, which means multiple Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index classifications: “The Shoemaker for Whom They Did Work,” type 503 (Helpful Elves), also classified as a migratory legend type 7015 (Domestic Spirits), “The Servant Girl Who Stood In as Godmother for Them,” type 476 (A Midwife [or Godmother] for the Elves), also categor ..read more
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#FairytaleTuesday: Mrs. Fox
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
Nota bene: My posts won’t always match up with the hashtag themes because I’m going straight through the Grimm’s 1812 edition, one after the other. Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 65: Mrs. Fox’s Suitors with elements of type 1350/1352 (Stories about Married Couples) and type 1510 (Other Stories About Women) There are no content warnings this week, which we always like to see! So, this is yet another weird little story brought to us by the Brothers Grimm that has managed to hang on and come back through every printed version of Grimm’s fairytales. It seems to be very popular but ther ..read more
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#FairytaleTuesday: The Tablecloth, the Knapsack, the Cannon Hat, and the Horn
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
Nota bene: My posts won’t always match up with the hashtag themes because I’m going straight through the Grimm’s 1812 edition, one after the other. Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 569: The Knapsack, the Hat, and the Horn No content warnings this week but this one is wild and doesn’t appear to have any real moral, which is always fun! It seems to be a relatively well-known story but the only images I can find are the old black and white types so I’ll have to make do. So let’s get started! Walter Crane, 1882 This story centers on three poor brothers from the Black Mountains who decide ..read more
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#FairytaleTuesday: The Little Magic Table, The Golden Donkey, and the Club in the Sack
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
Nota bene: My posts won’t always match up with the hashtag themes because I’m going straight through the Grimm’s 1812 edition, one after the other. Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 563: Three Magic Gifts and type 212: The Lying Goat Looks like we get another week without content warnings! Having said that, we also have another week with one of those weird little stories that involve numerous, seemingly disparate threads. Let’s take a look! So this is one those inexplicable times when the Brothers Grimm chose to include two variations of a story under the same heading. As with many of ..read more
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#FolkloreThursday: Woman Wept
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
[CW: violence against women, murder, suicide, child death, infanticide] Nightmare Before Christmas That’s right! Our High Holy Day is almost upon us so this week’s theme is the folklore of ghosts and the supernatural, which really isn’t a huge surprise. As usual, I put entirely too much thought into what I wanted to write about, and then I decided to go with a classic piece of spooky lore: The Woman in White. These stories are remarkably common and can be found all over the world. All of the stories involve a woman with long, unkempt hair who is wearing a long white dress in various stages of ..read more
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#FairytaleTuesday: The Sparrow and His Four Children
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
Nota bene: My posts won’t always match up with the hashtag themes because I’m going straight through the Grimm’s 1812 edition, one after the other. Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 157: Learning to Fear Men Okay, so no content warnings needed this week, which is always nice. The story is pretty basic and centers on a sparrow-father (sparrow-mom is never mentioned) whose four sparrow-sons are lost when some “bad boys” break the nest. The fledglings are able to escape in a strong wind and the father is left alone. Sunny Gu, 2008 Then their father became sorry that his sons went off in ..read more
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#FolkloreThursday: Demons in the Night
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli (1781) This week’s theme is World’s Scariest Monsters, which leaves a lot to play with but the thing that has always scared me the most is my sleep paralysis, and the demons that come with it, including the Night Hag. The first time I saw The Nightmare, by Henry Fuseli, was when I was in high school and watching the movie Gothic. In short, the movie is about the infamous trip that the Shelley’s took to Lord Byron’s villa in 1816. The movie, and the poster, played on the motif of the painting and absolutely terrified me but I loved it. Gothic, 1986 It wa ..read more
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#FairytaleTuesday: Hans’s Trina
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 1383: A Woman Does Not Know Herself Okay, y’all… this one is very short and very odd but seems to end well for the woman in question so that’s a pleasant twist! And there’s no content warnings this week. When I initially started looking into this story I couldn’t find anything at all. I had been searching by the story title, “Hans’s Trina” which yielded nothing. Searching the ATU Index led me to type 1383: A Woman Does Not Know Herself which felt like the best guess so I went with it. And then, when I was preparing to post this I took another shot and jus ..read more
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#FairytaleTuesday: Puss in Boots
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
Nota bene: My posts won’t always match up with the hashtag themes because I’m going straight through the Grimm’s 1812 edition, one after the other. [CW: discussion of abuse and sexual assault] Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 545B: The Cat as Helper Yes, my friends, we have arrived at the Puss in Boots of it all and I am delighted to tell you that this is one of those rare Grimm tales that doesn’t need a content warning. The content warning is for the discussion following the story. Now, I read Mother Goose and Brothers Grimm stories from an early age so I always knew the story of Pu ..read more
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#FairytaleTuesday: Dreams of the Ghost Kingdom
Bluestocking Writes Blog
by Elizabeth Headrick
1y ago
This week we’re doing something a little different. In past posts, I’ve talked about the nature of fairytales, how they came to be, and the many different interpretations one can find in them. But what about the fairytales we create within our own lives? Because we do do that, quite often, especially those of us who have always been a little different and felt like we didn’t belong. Escaping into a fantasy of a life that should have/would have/could have been helped us to deal with the realities of life, if just for awhile. For adoptees, however, dreams of should have/would have/could have bee ..read more
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