Essay: Trickster and the Fool in more English Fairy Tales

(The Old Witch)

In this weeks reading, the trickster and fool is one of the girls and the witch from the story The Old Witch. What makes the girl the trickster could of been out of pure luck or because she had a plan. Who knows. In the beginning, the girl leaves home to find good fortune. On her way from leaving her town she encounters some bread that has not been taken out of the oven for seven years. So she takes the bread out. She then meets a cow that has not been milked in seven years as well. So she milks the cow. Finally, she meets a tree that has fruit that has not been picked for seven years. Just like the others, she picks the fruit off the tree. The girl continues on her trek and meets an old witch who allows her to clean for money. The witch has one rule. Never look up the chimney or something bad will fall down. So there girl forgets and looks up the chimney. When she does, a bag of money falls down. The girl then makes a run for it with the witch chasing after her. Luckily for her, the tree, cow, and the oven with which the bread was baked in all helped to hide the girl. She was able to live a successful life with all the money. Honestly, I thought the witch was pretty foolish to think the girl would not look up the chimney. It was even more foolish of the witch to put money up the chimney. Someone was bound to disobey and find the money.

This story is a really good read. I would recommend the English Fairy Tales if you are bored or cannot find a good section to read. If you would like to read, just click in the caption above, and it will take you to this story and its unit.

Week 12 Storytelling: Supernatural

(Sam and Dean Winchestar)

On one Sunday night, Sam and Dean Winchester were driving down I-35 in search of their next hunt. They had just finished putting a vengeful spirit to rest by burning the remains of the deceased so they would not be able to harm anyone again. Hunting supernatural things is what they do, and they are pretty darn good at it.

"Sam, what do we have next?" said Dean, concentrating on driving down the dimly lit road. Sam was about to answer when all of a sudden he got a phone call from their Uncle Bobby, who is also a hunter of supernatural beings.

"What's up, Bobby?" said Sam, wondering why he was calling after they just left his house not long ago.

"Sam, do you remember that awful man Mr. Fox who had the vengeful spirit after him?" said Bobby in a hurry.

"Yes, what about it?" said Sam confused.

"Well, it looks like you boys did not burn the right body because Mr. Fox was found dead just a few hours ago," said Bobby.

Sam then looked at Dean and told him "Dean turn the car around now!" Sam said suddenly, forgetting he was on the phone with Bobby. "Alright, we are heading back. Thanks, Bobby," Sam said.

"Alright, you boys be safe," said Bobby, ending the call. He also knew that Sam and Dean could handle this on their own.

"So what happened?" said Dean.

"Mr. Fox was killed, so Bobby thinks we should go back and check things out," Sam said, contemplating how they could have burned the wrong body. Sam recounted the story behind why they had to burn the vengeful spirit.

The vengeful spirit that was after Mr. Fox was a woman by the name of Lady Mary. She was very rich when she met Mr. Fox. She thought that she and Mr. Fox were in love when he asked her to marry him. However, one thing she had noticed was that she had never been to his home. 

One day, when Mr. Fox was out of town, Lady Mary decided she would go to Mr. Fox's home just to look around. As Lady Mary walked to the door, she saw a sign that said "Beware of walking through this door." She did not know what to make of this, but still walked inside. Lady Mary walked around for a while and did not see anything out of the ordinary. Lady Mary saw Mr. Fox had nothing to hide until she came upon another door that told her to "KEEP OUT!" Lady Mary opened the door, and she was horrified by what she saw next. The room was filled with dead women that Mr. Fox had married and then killed. Lady Mary knew this because each woman had on a wedding dress. 

Lady Mary shut the door and started to take a run for it out of the house. She was going to go tell her brothers what Mr. Fox had done, but she heard a strange sound. Lady Mary went to hide and saw Mr. Fox had come through the door dragging another woman toward the dreadful room. However, greedy Mr. Fox saw that the woman had on a beautiful diamond ring, but he struggled to get it off. Mr. Fox had such a difficult time that finally he decided to just cut her hand off. When he did, the hand flew in Lady Mary's lap. Mr. Fox then continued to drag the poor woman into the room. He planned to find the hand later. 

Lady Mary used this as her chance to run out of the house. The next day, Lady Mary was surprised that Mr. Fox had decided to host a lunch at his home before they were to get married the next day. So she and her brothers went to his home where they had planned to confront and kill Mr. Fox. While they were at the table eating, Lady Mary told Mr. Fox about a dream she had where she recounted everything that happened at his house. Mr. Fox denied everything. Lady Mary then took a sip of her wine, and then held up the hand of the woman whom Mr. Fox killed. However, Lady Mary suddenly dropped the hand and became very dizzy. Lady Mary's brothers went to her side for help, but they were also dizzy until they all dropped dead. Mr. Fox had poisoned them all and took all of their money. 

As Dean and Sam were arriving back in town, Sam realized something. All this time, they had thought that maybe Lady Mary had acted alone in trying to kill Mr. Fox. Lady Mary's brothers could have also tried to help her since Mr. Fox had killed them as well.

"Dean, I think I know who killed Mr. Fox!" said Sam suddenly.

"Who?" said Dean.

"We never stopped to think that her brothers would help her kill him," said Sam.

"Oh, I thought about it, but honestly that man was sick and he deserved everything he got. If we were not wanted in several states, I would have turned him in to the police for killing all those women," said Dean. Sam nodded in agreement.

The boys then found the grave of Lady Mary's brothers and burned their bodies next to where they had burned Lady Mary. Sam then called Bobby to let him know what happened. "I can't believe you idgits didn't think to burn the boys' bodies," Bobby said feigning that he was upset. "Yeah, yeah, Bobby. Mr. Fox had it coming. What case do you have next for us, Bobby?"

Sam and Dean then went cruising once again for their next case.

Bibliography:
 English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1890).

Author's note: I had a lot of fun with writing this storytelling. The original story that I retold is based off a story in the English Fairy tales, titled Mr. Fox. I was also inspired by the show Supernatural and its characters Sam, Dean, and Bobby. When I was reading the story about Mr. Fox, I felt like it could have a supernatural feel to it, so I ran with it. In the original story, Lady Mary is a rich woman who falls for Mr. Fox. Lady Mary and Mr. Fox are going to get married. Lady Mary realizes she has never been to Mr. Fox's castle, so she sneaks inside and finds out that he has been killing women and storing them in a room so he can take their riches. Lady Mary is mortified by her discovery and tries to run out of the house. She realizes, though, that Mr. Fox in in his castle. He is dragging a woman, and he cuts off the woman's hand so that he can get the diamond ring off  of it. The hand lands in Lady Mary's lap, but Mr. Fox does not look hard enough to find  the hand. So Lady Mary leaves the castle to confront Mr. Fox the next day. Mr. Fox denies everything, until Lady Mary pulls out the hand, and then her brothers kill him. For my story, the general theme is still the same except Mr. Fox does not die at first. He poisons Lady Mary and her brothers. They then become vengeful spirits who try to kill him. Sam and Dean had originally thought that only Lady Mary was after Mr. Fox, but her brothers were as well. I changed the ending for my own retelling of the story because I thought it was a bit boring that Mr. Fox just died and that was the end. I also wanted to make the story more fun and add a supernatural feel to the story.

Reading Diary A: More English Fairy Tales

(Red fox.)

For this weeks reading I decided to finish reading the English Fairy tales. I really liked the firs set of stories, so I figured why not. Two of my favorite stories from the first half of the reading were Scrapefoot and The Old Witch. The first story is about the three little bears and a fox names Scrapefoot. There is a big bear, middle bear, and small bear. The three bears live in a castle where Scrapefoot  sneaks in. Just like the classic Three Little Bears, nothing is just right until Scrapefoot gets to whatever belongs to little bear. When the bears catch Scrapefoot sleeping in the little bears bed, they throw him out of the window. 

The second story is about two sisters who go to find their own fortune. When one of the girls is on her way to find money she encounters bread that has been baking, a cow that hasn't been milked, and a tree that has fruit that has not been picked all for seven years. She she helps each of them out. Finally, she meets a witch who allows her to be a servant for money, but tells her to never look up the chimney or something bad will happen. So there girl forgets and looks up the chimney and a bag of money falls down. So the girl leaves, but the witch is right behind looking for the girl. As she is running, the tree, cow, and the oven with which the bread was baked all helped to hide her whenever the witch got close. She eventually ran off with the money and got married and lived happily ever after. However, he sister got greedy and decided to do the same thing her sister did and steal from the witch. But her sister did not take the bread out of the oven, milk the cow, or pick fruit from the tree. So when it became time for her to hide, no one would help her. The witch found her and she was left to walk home empty handed.