Cinderella, Pigs, and Sorcerer's || Reading Notes: English Fairy Tales Part A

• The bad deeds in this first story are so casual and wildly spin out of control.
• One could argue that the daughter is at least partially responsible for her own predicament.
• The King seems especially casual about the whole "I'll cut off your head" bit.
• So the girl successfully uses Tom Tit Tot to produce the skeins
• But then she says his name to avoid becoming his.
• But she never sees him again?
• So how will she survive the next year?
• This could make a fun sort of epilogue story.
• This second story is undeniably dark. 
• Though I like the idea of the daughter reincarnated in the bird.
• Maybe a less dark rewrite?
• The third story I did not think would actually work out in the end. I thought for sure it would just get more and more convoluted until the old woman just ended up giving up or something.
• Though it was interesting seeing the relationship between all the objects and animals that the old woman talks to.
• I think the moral here could be:
• It's sometimes easier to do something yourself than to get others to do it for you.
• Two stories now featuring a murdered family member and some kind of "reincarnation" for either revenge or to name their killer.
• The song-like conversation between the cat and the mouse was very interesting. And that ending was sudden if not unexpected.
• Cap o' Rushes was very Cinderella-esque. 
• Almost like a Cinderella story inside another story
• Like a more convoluted way of getting around to the point where the father realizes that his daughter loved him.
• Though I don't think the statement "I love you as fresh meat loves salt." signifies more love than the other daughters. Even if it's true.
• So the story of the three little pigs may have been about goats originally?
• Also, the man (or men) who gives these pigs the materials for their houses is very generous. I wonder if one could incorporate a character from another story as this man.
• That was a much longer and more detailed version of the three little pigs story than any I've ever read.
• I like the continuing dynamic between the third (and smartest) pig and the wolf who seems not to learn.
• I can definitely see how the last story inspired Disney's Fantasia and the Sorcerer's Apprentice

The Sorcerer's Apprentice from Disney's Fantasia

Bibliography:

Unit: English Fairy Tales

By: Joseph Jacobs

Photo Credits:

The Sorcerer's Apprentice from Disney's Fantasia