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 Post subject: Fairytales
 Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 12:17 am 
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I was reading the lastest Spellcraft magazine and it had quite an interesting article on fairytales.

Basically it said that fairytales were initially written in order to pass on pagan information and teachings to younger children and those who are learing during the witchcraft persicusion (burning) times. I thought they were just made up stories, but aparently they aren't. I'll put in some examples in the next couple of days so you can understand what they have written.

I just thought it was an interesting point of view.


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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 9:10 am 
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It really is interesting! :D Very cool. :)

I have heard this about some nursery rhymes as well, things like Mother Goose Rhymes having old Pagan traditions dispersed within.

It is really interesting. :) I am looking forward to what you find out! :D


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 Post Posted: Wed Jan 02, 2008 11:45 pm 
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I also am looking forward to reading more on this, very interesting indeed!

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 2:53 am 
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Ooh, that is brilliant! I'd love to hear more about it as well!

Now it makes me want to dig out the fairytale book I've had since I was little, think I will anyway :D


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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 9:40 am 
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There was a movie made long ago about the Grim brothers. They supposedly got their stories from an old woman (witch?) who would not tell her stories to adults but would welcome children.

The stories go back longer than being written. Many were oral stories that became written down later on. Some have been modified to make them nice for children. In the original, Cinderella wore a fur slipper, not glass. The translation was stuffed up because in the old German, the words for fur and glass were very close. In the original also, one step sister chopped her toe off to fit the shoe and the other chopped her heal off. Those bits were taken out of course!


Many nursery rhymes are actually made up by children to talk about events going on in their lives. Ring a rosy is about the plague experience in the 1600s. The ring of roses was what the plague postules looked like on the body, pocket full of posies referred to the small bags of herbs and spices (nosegays) the wealthy carried around to sniff, believing the fresh smell would prevent infection - and the 'all fall down' referred to people falling down dead.

Hickory Dickory Dock refers to the mouse and rat plagues in Europe just prior to the out break of plague.

Humpty dumpty is quite an interesting one. The origins are so unknown, no-one actually knows what this one is about.

If you seriously want to learn more about stories, I highly recommend 'The women who run with the wolves' by Clarissa Pinkola Estes Its a big book and takes a lot to get through, but its fascinating. she talks about how fairystories are the 'barebones' of ancient practices and how to pick through those bones to find the origins.

Michelle

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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 12:11 pm 
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I read that article too Sharklady and found it very interesting.
Indigo


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 Post Posted: Thu Jan 03, 2008 10:15 pm 
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Michelle Abrahmz wrote:


Ring a rosy is about the plague experience in the 1600s. The ring of roses was what the plague postules looked like on the body, pocket full of posies referred to the small bags of herbs and spices (nosegays) the wealthy carried around to sniff, believing the fresh smell would prevent infection - and the 'all fall down' referred to people falling down dead.



Oh wow, I will never be the same now :lol: I'd never heard about all that. How interesting!


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 Post Posted: Fri Jan 04, 2008 7:41 am 
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Found some interesting links for more on the history of fairy stories.

This first one goes gives some insight into the history of Cinderella. Don't know that I'll read the story the same way again.
http://www.geocities.com/WallStreet/Floor/2391/essays/essay22.htm

This one is an online book that explores fairy stories in quite some detail. Chapter four is the history of fairy stories.
http://www.sacred-texts.com/etc/sft/sft04.htm

This one called 'the dna of fairy tales' has an indepth look at them.
http://www.theosophy-nw.org/theosnw/world/general/ge-rhall.htm

This one just has a list of links to other places with fairy stories online, including encyclopedia mythica.
http://www.cerritos.edu/fquaas/resources/English100/fairytalelinks.htm

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 Post Posted: Mon Feb 25, 2008 3:01 am 
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These links are great thank you so much for sharing them.


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 Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:52 am 
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i heard that humpty dumpty was about one of the kings of england, i think. not really sure it was years ago in grade school when i had a teacher who taught us the meanings of nursery rhymes. may not be england, but someone in history who went crazy after coming into a position of power, (as if that would narrow it down).

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 Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:07 pm 
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Like Sage White, I have read and been taught about the Grim brothers in my Children's Literature class a while back. Most fairytales never had happy endings and actually ended quite gruesomely. Of course they were changed to be suitable for children. I would be very interested to read the 'original' versions. However, they can't really be called original because no one knows how they originated, it was all heresay and second hand information.

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 Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:18 pm 
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araawhon wrote:
i heard that humpty dumpty was about one of the kings of england, i think. not really sure it was years ago in grade school when i had a teacher who taught us the meanings of nursery rhymes. may not be england, but someone in history who went crazy after coming into a position of power, (as if that would narrow it down).


I know "Georgy Porgy pudding and pie, kissed the girls and made them cry." Was about one of the Prince's of Wales. And I wouldn't wonder if Humpty Dumpty wasn't about the same man when he became King! Most of the rhymes were about political subjects and scandal. And I agree the orginal stories of Brother's Grim were very nasty indeed. In one, Cinderella, the ugly sisters' were forced to wear hot iron shoes and made to dance to death. In anthropology, we studied the fact that every culture has it's own sort of Cinderella story, and some like the west had many Cinderella stories. Most would not be suitable for todays children.


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 Post subject: My thoughts
 Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 1:28 pm 
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I agree that many of the fairy tales and nursery rhymes were passing on information to a younger generation.

But I cannot agree that the mix up between fur and glass is that the words are similar in German. Fur is Pelz and glass is glas.

I am going to look at some of these links. I am inteerested.

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 Post Posted: Fri Apr 25, 2008 5:35 pm 
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last year i read a book about fairytales most were in what is assumed to be the original form. there is a whole series of them i cant remember the name. but they are titled something like the red fairy book, green, blue and so on. i will try to find them and post here.

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 Post Posted: Wed Apr 30, 2008 2:56 am 
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jsupanich wrote:
Like Sage White, I have read and been taught about the Grim brothers in my Children's Literature class a while back. Most fairytales never had happy endings and actually ended quite gruesomely. Of course they were changed to be suitable for children. I would be very interested to read the 'original' versions. However, they can't really be called original because no one knows how they originated, it was all heresay and second hand information.


I wonder if that's how our word grim came into being...from Grimm's fairy tales with unhappy, and often gruesome endings? Just like 'scaring the Dickens out of someone'-referring to Charles Dickens, A Christmas Carol, perhaps?

BB,

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