Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales, Part B

In the story, "Johnny-Cake," a mother and father live with their young son. The mother puts a Johnny-cake in the oven to bake and tells her son to watch it while she and his father hoe potatoes. The little boy, however, does not watch the oven and hears a noise before seeing the oven door pop open. The Johnny-cake jumps out of the oven and rolls out of the house, down the stairs, and into the street. The little boy tries chasing after the Johnny-cake and his parents hear him yelling and join in the chase too. They all run out of breath and have to sit down. The Johnny-cake keeps running and finds two well-diggers. They ask him where he is going and he replies that he has outrun an old man, an old woman, and a young boy, and can outrun them too. They take on the challenge, but cannot keep up and have to sit down. The Johnny-cake finds to ditch-diggers and the exact same thing happens. He then comes upon a bear who asks him where he is going, and he says he has outrun an old man, an old woman, a young boy, two well-diggers, and two ditch-diggers and he can outrun the bear too. He loses the bear and comes upon a wolf, where the same scene unfolds. The Johnny-cake finds a fox that is laying down in the corner of a fence. The fox asks where he is going and the Johnny-cake gives the same response. The fox tells Johnny-cake he cannot hear him and asks him to come closer. Johnny-cake yells louder and goes closer, but the fox says he still cannot hear him. Johnny-cake gets even closer and finishes the same reply with his typical "I can outrun you, too-o-o!" The fox replies, "You can, can you?" before eating Johnny-cake.

Gingerbread from Artsybee

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

Comments

Week 11 Story: How Flower Stole Sunlight

Long ago, when only plants lived on earth, Redwoods were the only ones who had sunlight. All the other plants wanted sunlight too, but Redwoods were taller than everyone else. They stole the sunlight before it could reached any of the other plants. The other plants lived in darkness and fear but Redwoods refused to share sunlight with anyone else. The other plants decided to hold a council to discuss the growing worry they had about living in darkness. Meanwhile, Redwoods held their own council in the light. They set up guards to protect themselves from having other plants try to come take sunlight from them. But Flower had taken root near where the Redwoods were having their meeting before the guards set up. While the Redwoods had their meeting, a small bit of sunlight crept towards Flower. Flower hid a little bit of sunlight in its petals and slowly started moving back towards the other plants' meeting. Before Flower could escape, however, the Redwoods no...

Reading Notes: South African Folktales, Part B

In the story "Jackal, Dove, and Heron," Dove lives on top of a rock. Jackal asks Dove for one of her children, and she says no. Jackal says he will fly up if she does not give him one of her little ones. She throws one down, and Jackal returns day after day to take more of Dove's children. Heron sees that Dove is sad and asks her what is wrong. She tells Heron than she must give Jackal her children or else he will fly up and take them. Heron calls Dove foolish and tells her that Jackal cannot fly. When Jackal returns the next day and asks Dove to throw one of her little ones down to him, she tells him no and tells him that Heron has told her that Jackal cannot fly to take them. Jackal finds Heron at the water. Jackal asks Heron how he stands in different situations, and when Heron bends his neck down, Jackal hit him on the neck and broke it in the middle. This is why the Heron's neck is bent. This story is almost entirely written in dialogue, and each line of dialo...

Reading Notes: Adam and Eve, Part B

The stories "They Die a First Time" and "Suicide and the Salvation" take place after Adam and Eve have eaten the fruit in the garden and have been punished by God. Both stories are written from a third person perspective. In my story, I could write from one the character's perspectives. In the stories, it is difficult to understand what Adam and Eve are thinking when it comes to their actions; telling a story from their perspective would be give some insight into why they do what they do. Telling the story from God's perspective would also be interesting. Like the reader, God watches Adam and Eve, but telling the story from his point of view might make the audience feel closer to the story. There are many recurring themes throughout these two stories. The first that stood out to me was death. There are several instances in which Adam and Eve die, come close to dying, look like they are dying, or think they are dying. The fear of dying is also very preva...

Shea's Myth-Folk Blog

Search This Blog