Reading notes: Brothers Grimm tales (Part A)
For this week's reading, I read the first part of a collection of Brothers Grimm tales from Librivox. The first story I read was one I am familiar with, about the Frog Prince: I watched the Disney movie version of this tale not too long ago, and while I think the stories are slightly different, there are common themes.
Since in this story, the frog seems to be a noble amphibian who had a curse put on him, I think it'd be interesting to have the frog NOT be so noble in a retelling. Like, he makes all these promises to the princess, but he has some ulterior motive. It could also be funny to have the princess way more confused about a talking frog than she is in the original tale.
In the story of Rapunzel, I think it'd be a fun retelling to have the husband in the story be much more skeptical of his wife's melodramatic cry that she'd "literally die" if she didn't get to eat the rampion plant. That reminds me of being overly dramatic with my boyfriend about food, and I think it'd be funny if the husband poked fun at the wife for saying she'd surely die if she didn't get to eat the plant. It's just a little over the top, so I think narrowing in on that part would be a funny way to rewrite this story in a way that doesn't just focus on Rapunzel's long hair.
The story about the straw, the bean and the coal was so odd to me that I'm not sure I could come up with a good retelling for it — I'm having to imagine little cartoons of each of the characters just to have the story work in my brain.
I think this week, the story I'd be most excited about retelling would be the Rapunzel one — it could almost be a prequel to the part of the Rapunzel story most people know.
Bibliography: Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, via Librivox. Web source: Class website
Since in this story, the frog seems to be a noble amphibian who had a curse put on him, I think it'd be interesting to have the frog NOT be so noble in a retelling. Like, he makes all these promises to the princess, but he has some ulterior motive. It could also be funny to have the princess way more confused about a talking frog than she is in the original tale.
In the story of Rapunzel, I think it'd be a fun retelling to have the husband in the story be much more skeptical of his wife's melodramatic cry that she'd "literally die" if she didn't get to eat the rampion plant. That reminds me of being overly dramatic with my boyfriend about food, and I think it'd be funny if the husband poked fun at the wife for saying she'd surely die if she didn't get to eat the plant. It's just a little over the top, so I think narrowing in on that part would be a funny way to rewrite this story in a way that doesn't just focus on Rapunzel's long hair.
The story about the straw, the bean and the coal was so odd to me that I'm not sure I could come up with a good retelling for it — I'm having to imagine little cartoons of each of the characters just to have the story work in my brain.
I think this week, the story I'd be most excited about retelling would be the Rapunzel one — it could almost be a prequel to the part of the Rapunzel story most people know.
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| Rapunzel letting down her hair. Web source: Wikimedia Commons |
Bibliography: Fairy Tales from the Brothers Grimm, via Librivox. Web source: Class website
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