Tales From Long Ago

The Gift of the Magi is one of those old but beautiful stories with emotional weight...

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Here we have another classic tale that has been told and re-told for longer than I can remember. I did my due diligence and found what looks like the original version of this story!

I'm happy to say that very little has changed in this case. You can never be too sure with some tales, but this is one that my younger boys (those who love to run run run as fast as they can) really enjoy as told from any decade.

I will say that the items used to decorate gingerbread cookies seem to have changed over time. This story tells the use of currants, which are basically raisins. In my family when I was growing up, we used red hots and homemade frosting, and these days we just frost them! I'm curious what the norm actually is these days...

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December is here and the hunt begins for stories from around the globe that match the season. I've found some great ones, but until I can win the copyright game (where the only winning move is not to play), I found these three stories from the Grimm brothers that are focused on elves.

The Elves and the Shoemaker is one of the most popular and not quite what I remember from my childhood. Beware, by the way, the little men are NAKED, but it's mentioned only briefly. There may also be a lesson here about how to successfully run a business so you're not living on the margin of your profits and free labor, but that is for you to share. (At one point it sounds like the wrong word, but I promise I'm reading it as the story was published, as confirmed by TWO different sources!)

The other two stories are brief and just touch-and-go, but I think it's interesting to hear them in light of stories from Asia I've heard that sound quite similar. I love thinking about the history of these tales and from where they might originate.

There isn't anything especially harmful in the lesser-known tales, as long as you don't linger on the repercussions of the second story.

I hope you enjoy them all the same!

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Here we have the conclusion to the Bird of Truth story, a folktale that hails from Spain. This half is much more interesting, in my opinion, and it's always fun to hear the silly things a witch tries to do to punish errant children.

It's got a happy ending, a brief mentioning of beheadings, and then everything is sunshine and roses once more.

And for those that wonder, there is a habit I picked up from the Hitchhiker's Guide series where anytime there is a king I give him the voice of Elvis. It's one of my many little "in" jokes that are just for me and those who are sufficiently eccentric to figure it out. There are other things I do like that, but I don't think I'll reveal what those are just yet.

I hope you enjoy the story!

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This is a Spanish folk tale and, if I do say so myself, feels like a lot of filler cobbling many elements together into one, but it also has some interesting twists near the end too. Nothing outrageous, but certainly something I didn't see coming.

If your child is into birds, then there is a lot to enjoy here. I apologize for my poor bird-voice repertoire!

Part 2, the stunning conclusion is coming next week!

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While hunting for some good stories for November, I came across a huge treasure trove of Native American folk tales! I read through a couple and it's obvious how many similarities there are that even seem to cross the oceans!

I never cease to be amazed, either, by the casual approach to violence in old tales. People were made of tougher stuff way back then, I suppose! There is a brief mention of "beating brains out" in this story, but I try to move past it reasonably quickly.

And there was a new vocabulary word in this one! It was "verdure" which means "greenery." A bit tricky to pronounce too!

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Wait a minute, did the original story have NO CANDY HOUSE? No gingerbread, no candy canes, just bread and cakes? What happened?!

It's things like this that have always made me so interested in learning about the origin of stories. Things change and are updated in ways that deviate so drastically from the original that most of the time we just never know about the original at all! It helps you appreciate how things are to know their past, as well as keeping you from the assumptions that things have always been as they are now.

The witch is killed in this one, but it's not too overdone. I do think it's funny the Grimm Brothers decided to call her a "godless witch," as if being a witch were not bad enough! There is also a throwaway line about how the mother died, no preamble or fanfare, just "oh yeah, she's dead" in case you were wondering and the story doesn't even skip a beat bringing it up.

I hope you enjoyed hearing the original version of the tale!

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Hansel and Gretel?! The story about the two kids who get lost in the woods and find a candy house? What a great Halloween story!

Well, welcome to part one of the story. Fair warning, this is not a happy part. All the happy stuff happens in part two, but Samwise Gamgee would remind us that it's events like part one that make part 2 that much better.

The woman here is a real piece of work, too. She is called "woman" and "his wife" and she says "your children," so we're never given reason to believe she is the biological mother. It's an interesting theme I've seen in stories from around the world, too.

So be warned about cruelty towards children (deceiving, abandoning, not feeding, insulting), but otherwise the story is fine.

Oh, the "God-fearing" theme in the Grimm tales is quite present here, too. I always wonder what lessons are being taught to children and, before you object too strenuously, the moral here seems to be "pray for help from God, trust that he will help you, but still do your best," which I have to say seems like an interesting balance between the two perspectives.

Part 2 next week!

Thanks for listening!

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When it comes to American Tall Tales, there are a handful that are rather well-known. Paul Bunyan, Pecos Bill, and the like.

While I was looking through old American stories I came across a series of tall tales I've never heard of, which effectively boil down to "Pirate Paul Bunyan."

There is some mention of being very drunk, but other than that the story is fairly harmless.

Thanks for listening!

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We recently celebrated a birthday and my oldest son was quite keen to light the candles for his brother. He was quite impatient and I told him to be patient. "You can bring fire in a minute, Prometheus."

Then it struck me that we haven't done any Greek mythology yet!

The stories of Prometheus are probably the first I can clearly remember hearings as a kid. They tend to vary in just how much Prometheus ought to be praised for his efforts and Zeus' response, but they're still pretty cool.

Thanks for listening!

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