Reading Notes: Lang's European Fairy Tales, Part B

Wow, so Peter Bull was just really sad, if you care about animals. I can't believe that clerk got away with killing that couple's cow that they loved so much. Like, yeah, it was weird that they thought of the cow like a son and tried to have it taught how to speak, but still. They were just peasants, and they didn't know any better, and the clerk didn't face any consequences. At least the merchant went along with it, even if only for the money, so their hearts weren't broken. That story just sucked. I don't even want to rewrite it because thinking about it makes me sad.

I liked the Master and Pupil, but I don't know that I have any interest in rewriting it. I don't think there's anything I'm just burning to change, so I guess I'll leave it alone.

The Cottager and His Cat was also a cute little story. It could be interesting to rewrite it where the young man doesn't take heed of his dream, but I think I like this story too much to make it sad.

I thought Andras Baive was pretty cool, and it could be a really interesting story to tell from the perspective of the bailiff or a townsperson, maybe a little kid. Since Andras Baive was a legend, a kid in town presumably would have been really excited to watch him get into a contest with the bailiff. I haven't really written from a child's perspective before, so it would definitely be a challenge. I would start with the kid rambling about how amazing Andras Baive is and then have him be present for the bailiff's challenge and give him a first row seat to the action, with maybe a little hint that the bailiff isn't all that he seems.

Image: Cat.

Bibliography: Lang's European Fairy Tales, by Andrew Lang. Source.

Reading Notes: Lang's European Fairy Tales II, Part A

This week I read some of Lang's European Fairy Tales. In this first half there were actually only a few stories, most of them broken into two parts. That's nice because then there's more room for detail, but it's also harder to figure out what part of the story to rewrite, since most two-parters are too long to rewrite the whole thing.

I didn't like the first two stories very much. Half-chick was mostly annoying, though it was kind of funny to think about him hopping everywhere on one leg. His comeuppance just seemed way too harsh. He was rude, not a murderer or anything. If I rewrote his story, I think I'd probably try to either make him less of an asshole or change his punishment so that it wasn't permanent, even though the point of the original story is that it explains why there's a rooster on weathervanes. I just think he should have more of a chance to grow as a character, I guess.

Clever Maria didn't make any sense to me. It was like whoever came up with it kept forgetting what they had said before? So Maria's dad gives her and her sisters plants but after her sister's plants die that's just never mentioned again? It's so freaking weird. I didn't at all understand why she ended up with the king. If I were rewriting this I don't think I would even know where to begin, so I'm striking it off the list.

I think my best possibility for rewriting would be the Seven-Headed Serpent. It would be kind of fun to try writing a fight scene, since the main story entirely skips it. Not that it's an actual fight, just the hero chopping the serpent's heads off one by one, but it could be cool to narrate.

Image: Seven Headed Serpent.

Bibliography: The Yellow Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, illustrated by H. J. Ford (1894).