Skip to main content

EC Reading Notes "Italian Popular Tales"

Angiola and the Prince (Source)
The first story is called “Zelinda and the Monster” and is the retelling of “Beauty and the Beast.” It follows the exact same storyline, although set in Italy, apparently, there is no evil man that is also competing for the beautiful young woman’s attention.
The next is titled “The Fair Angiola.”  We may be more familiar with it as the story of Rapunzel, for it follows the exact same storyline, essentially.  Angiola seems to be a very good girl though, while her mother and her sisters all bring about the problems on their own, simply because they wanted jujube fruit.  I researched them, and they do not sound good, so I don’t know what their problem was.  Luckily, everyone lived happily ever after.
The next story was a delightful tale of the devil, who decides that it is high time he should marry a young woman.  He builds a wonderful house on top of a portal to Hell, and through his trickery, convinces two of three sisters to fall down into it.  He then marries the third sister as well, but she is even cleverer than he is.  She ends up freeing her two sisters and escapes herself, while the devil is tricked and humiliated.  Interestingly, the protagonist is a woman, who through her independence and cleverness wins the day.
Another story was a confusing tale about another set of three sisters, again, the youngest is the cleverest and wins the best husband.  Surprise.

The last story had to do with water and salt.  Once again, there were a set of three sisters, who all loved the king very dearly.  Once, he asked how much they loved him, and the first two all cried out that they loved him with all their hearts.  The third girl, trying to be clever and facetious, said that she loved him as much as water and salt.  The king, enraged by her dumb answer, decided that an annoying daughter like that would not be worth having, and ordered her to die.  Kind of harsh.  Long story short, she escaped death and eventually showed the king that water and salt are really important and she really did love him.

Story Source: Italian Popular Tales, by Thomas Crane
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Comment Wall

My Project website is here ! A picture I took while in Peru of a tiny pueblo  in the Andes
17 comments
Read more

Storytelling "Hans the Hedgehog"

Hans riding his rooster (Source) This is the story of how Hans the Hedgehog became engaged to a princess.  Hans was a very special little creature.  His parents had tried for so long to have a child, but when Hans was born, they were horrified to see that their little baby had the head and torso of a hedgehog but the legs of a boy.  Although they did their best to love him, from an early age Hans could tell that they were horrified and ashamed of their child.  He grew very depressed and spent most of his time in the barn with the other animals, like the pigs, donkeys, and his best friend of all, the rooster. Since he was half hedgehog, Hans stopped growing very quickly and remained quite small.  Although this surely disappointed his father, it was perfect, for Hans was able to ride around on top of the rooster as if it were a colorful horse.  He rode the rooster everywhere, even flying up around the trees that lined his father’s fields.  From th...
1 comment
Read more

Storytelling "The Sun and the Wind"

There once was a very happy traveler who had just gone to visit his parents in a far-off province.  He had spent about a week there, a happy time, and was cheerfully returning to his wife and children who were awaiting him at home.  To further bolster his spirits, the weather looked absolutely beautiful.  The sun was shining, but not too harsh, and with the slightly chilly air he felt completely comfortable with his jacket wrapped around his shoulders. While he walked, he marveled at the beautiful scenery around him and listened to the humming of the insects and the sweet singing of the birds.  Before he had departed, his dear mother had given him a heavy travelling coat that she said would be sure to protect him from the rain, cold, and anything else he encountered.  He thanked her at the time but now it looked like her gift would not be required.  He carried on walking, whistling as he went. The harder the wind blew, the tighter the man wrapped his ...
1 comment
Read more