Reading Notes: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales Part B

I am continuing my reading of The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales.

The story about the fox and the cat was interesting to me because for once the fox seemed like he was actually going to do a good deed. While he was still fairly cocky when telling the cat that he had a bag of hundreds of tricks while all the cat could do was climb a tree, the fox did offer to teach the cat. However, I was not surprised when that back fired on the fox and the dogs got to him and not the cat. Sometimes we think we are big and bad when in reality we boast too much and ignore what is going on around us. I didn't like how short this story was because it seemed like there should have been more to it. It did seem to get the main point across though. I may rewrite this using humans.

The story of the little brother fish and the little sister dear broke my heart. It had a lot of common parts from fairy tales about princesses in it. There is a wicked stepmother who abuses and dislikes the children and bewitches them in some way. The cook could be compared to the huntsman or any number of subordinates who don't follow the wish of the evil step mother and do something to help the poor child or children instead. The peasant woman could be compared to the prince who does his best to rescue or save the person in trouble and the wise woman could be similar to a fairy god mother who works her magic to make things right again. I really liked all the parallelism in the story. Stories like this one feel like the recipe for a basic chocolate cake. It has the same common ingredients no matter what and the outcome is always the same except for maybe a few fancy details here and there.

Simeli Mountain was a kind of sad, messed up story. It made me think of Aladdin when he enters the cave and finds all those treasures inside it. The poor man shouldn't have become so greedy or have treated his brother so harshly and he would not have gotten stuck inside the cave. Sometimes we need to learn to appreciate good fortune in our lives. Whether its by a stroke of good luck that we gain immense fortune or just being grateful for what we have, greedy of any kind can corrupt and destroy your life. It could be interesting to create my own story about a tale where greedy nearly ruined a man's life, consuming him completely. I could get really creative with this.

Simeli Mountain

Bibliography:The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013).