book of beings
Jun. 30th, 2016 11:00 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliGrew up on a fair number of Ruth Manning-Sanders fairy tale collections. Nicely told for children with good illustrations. Started to re-read:
A Book Of Dwarfs
Includes a wide variety of very short characters, including the wished-for child of small size. A dwarf that hid as a cat until his master gets some news; three little men in wood for kind and unkind girls; Snow White but no other widely known tale. Includes the country sources but no more.
A Book of Witches
A variety of tales, with only one with a good witch (and that one, "Tatterhood", has a number of evil witches too). I noticed it tends toward the idiomatic in translation. Includes "Rapunzel" and "Hansel and Gretel" but a number of others: kind and unkind girls are hired by a witch; a woman and her granddaughter mess up their protections; a girl is abducted over plums and meets the witch's son, and more. Includes the country sources but no more.
A Book Of Princes and Princesses
Not all the tale have both a prince and a princess. One even features one of the two good stepsisters in fairy tales I have seen. And there are none of the best known tales. So you have a girl rescuing a prince from a haunted room; a frog princess; a prince rescuing his sister from an ogre. One, "Rags and Tatters" struck me as weak, but I think that's because I've read a better retelling. Includes the country sources but no more.
A Book Of Dwarfs
Includes a wide variety of very short characters, including the wished-for child of small size. A dwarf that hid as a cat until his master gets some news; three little men in wood for kind and unkind girls; Snow White but no other widely known tale. Includes the country sources but no more.
A Book of Witches
A variety of tales, with only one with a good witch (and that one, "Tatterhood", has a number of evil witches too). I noticed it tends toward the idiomatic in translation. Includes "Rapunzel" and "Hansel and Gretel" but a number of others: kind and unkind girls are hired by a witch; a woman and her granddaughter mess up their protections; a girl is abducted over plums and meets the witch's son, and more. Includes the country sources but no more.
A Book Of Princes and Princesses
Not all the tale have both a prince and a princess. One even features one of the two good stepsisters in fairy tales I have seen. And there are none of the best known tales. So you have a girl rescuing a prince from a haunted room; a frog princess; a prince rescuing his sister from an ogre. One, "Rags and Tatters" struck me as weak, but I think that's because I've read a better retelling. Includes the country sources but no more.