Wednesday, April 29, 2020

Reading Notes: Household Stories of the Brother's Grimm B

Source: The Three Spinsters from Household Stories of the Brother's Grimm translated by Lucy Crane and illustrated by Walter Crane

I wanted to do a reading on Snow White, but I feel like it'd be longer than I wanted to do for just notes. I find that the Grimm Brothers are grim, but I like these types of fairy tales. They're fun to read. There's this feeling of dread looming as I do the readings because I feel like they're all going to turn out poorly, which is... interesting? I don't know.

The Three Spinsters starts out with a lazy girl who would not do her spinning. The mother beats her daughter and the girl loudly cries. She cries so loud that the people outside can hear her and one of those people who can hear her is the Queen. She asks why she is doing that and out of embarrassment, she lies that her daughter won't stop spinning and because she's poor, she can't afford to support her habit. The Queen takes her to her castle or whatever and tells the girl to spin the flax. If she can do that, she can marry the Queen's son. The girl doesn't do that and sits alone for three days.

The girl finds three women after the Queen had told her to get to work. She asks the women for help and they make a deal with her. They want to come to her wedding and be listed as cousins. The girl agrees to this and they spin the flax for her. The Queen is delighted to find that the girl has done the job.

At the wedding, the women sit with her. The Queen and his son had no reason to turn down her request. Her groom is appalled by their appearance though. He asks each of them how they got to be... that way and they answer in ways that lead him to believe spinning is the cause of their appearances. He decides that his bride shall never spin again and she is saved from a life of spinning. What an ideal ending for her! I thought that this one was sort of funny and entertaining to read. With that, I'm finished! :)

An illustration of the three spinsters (Wikimedia Commons)

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Reading Notes: Household Stories of the Brother's Grimm B

Source: The Three Spinsters  from  Household Stories of the Brother's Grimm  translated by Lucy Crane and illustrated by Walter Crane ...