Blake's Mythology Blog

Did I mention that Hans the Hedgehog  also rides a rooster?  What a boss. (Source) I had so much enjoyed reading the other Brothers Grimm fairy tales (from Crane's translation) that I really wanted to do another of their stories for the extra reading. The first story is called "Bearskin."  In this story, a brave young soldier has been decommissioned from the army but has nowhere to go.  Disheartened, he sits against a tree, contemplating his future life and what little promise it held.  All of a sudden, the Devil appeared before him and offered him a little deal.  If he would wear the Devil's coat and a bearskin for seven years without shaving, brushing his hair, or washing his face or cutting his nails, then he would be rich for life and the Devil could never have a hold of his soul.  So this he did, in the process becoming betrothed to a beautiful young woman whose older sisters committed suicide after the truth was revealed.  It was an odd...

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...

Source The second part of the reading is all about the story of  Aladdin and his lamp, but in this version (as opposed to the Disney version with which we are all familiar) he has also a magic ring.  I thought it was interesting in the story how the evil magician pretends to be his uncle but only wants to manipulate him.  The story detailed the consequences quite clearly for the evil actions of the African magician, but did not do such a wonderful job with looking at the consequences of Aladdin's acts.  He commits several morally questionable acts, but never seems to face any really consequences for this.  He essentially kidnaps several people, commits robbery and fraud, and many other things, but never seems to face that head on.  Unlike many other stories like this, it does not seem to contain a moral lesson of any kind, rather than simply being an entertaining story. Story source:  The Arabian Nights' Entertainments  by Andrew Lang and il...