Reading Notes: More English fairy tales, Unit B
The Children in the Wood
This story and the prose it's told in are interesting, and the tale just kept getting darker and darker as I read. I like the rhyme scheme the original sticks to, but I don't think I could maintain something like this in a retelling. Maybe I could rewrite it from the perspective of the uncle, who's telling his story to another prisoner after being taken in for the neglect and killing of his niece and nephew.
Rushen Coatie
This story was another sweet Cinderlla-esque tale. I especially enjoyed the addition of the little red calf over the fairy godmother — he was a delightful character. One thing I've never quite understood in the Cinderella/Rushen Coatie tale is just why the step sisters/mother hate her so much. I think these characters need more motivation — maybe Rushen Coatie is still to receive all of her father's inheritance though he remarried?
Maybe they all wish to be accepted by Rushen Coatie's father
but he truly loves only his daughter?
The King o' the Cats
This is such a whimsical story! I love the picture it paints of the solemn little cat funeral with the cat coffin. I think I would retell it from Old Tom's perspective, to watch his growing frustration as he hears his owners discuss him and his friends, but is unable to do anything. The story is relatively short, and I think it could be more fun to get inside the cat's head.
Bibliography: More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1894).
This story and the prose it's told in are interesting, and the tale just kept getting darker and darker as I read. I like the rhyme scheme the original sticks to, but I don't think I could maintain something like this in a retelling. Maybe I could rewrite it from the perspective of the uncle, who's telling his story to another prisoner after being taken in for the neglect and killing of his niece and nephew.
Rushen Coatie
This story was another sweet Cinderlla-esque tale. I especially enjoyed the addition of the little red calf over the fairy godmother — he was a delightful character. One thing I've never quite understood in the Cinderella/Rushen Coatie tale is just why the step sisters/mother hate her so much. I think these characters need more motivation — maybe Rushen Coatie is still to receive all of her father's inheritance though he remarried?
Maybe they all wish to be accepted by Rushen Coatie's father
but he truly loves only his daughter?
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| Black cat. Source: Flickr. |
The King o' the Cats
This is such a whimsical story! I love the picture it paints of the solemn little cat funeral with the cat coffin. I think I would retell it from Old Tom's perspective, to watch his growing frustration as he hears his owners discuss him and his friends, but is unable to do anything. The story is relatively short, and I think it could be more fun to get inside the cat's head.
Bibliography: More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1894).
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