Folk Tales

A place to discuss and poke fun at folk tales.

Ooh, I love folk tales.

Couple wants kids. Couple can get kids using a special method or with help of someone else. BUT, THEY MUST NOT DO A PARTICULAR THING.

THEY DO THE THING.

Kid or kids born as monster(s).

Like how I told my wife not to drink Irn Bru while pregnant but she did and now our daughter is ginger...

Are you sure you don't have a ginger great-grandparent somewhere?

On a related note, do you know of any parents in folk tales whose children have traits that make them living reminders ?

I have auburn hair myself.

edited 16th Nov '14 2:36:25 PM by ElectricalLass

Heh. We both have ginger cousins, so it was obviously lurking. The number of times we've had to explain 'recessive genes' to people...

As to the stories...I'm sure I do, but can't call it to mind just now.

edited 16th Nov '14 1:53:27 PM by InverurieJones

Have you some in mind now ?

edited 16th Nov '14 2:42:17 PM by ElectricalLass

Italian Folk tales are FUN.

Tell us some, then, our sister!

Are you going to share some Italian folk tales, then?

In the entire history of folk tales, is there any animal who doesn't fit some sort of Animal Stereotype?

I get the feeling that a lot of modern animal stereotypes are derived from folk tales and such... plus, the allegorical folk tales will tend towards using stereotypes because they're the usual symbols. I don't doubt there are stories that break the mold, though, either because they're just different or because they're from a culture with more unusual animal stereotypes.

Also, "some sort" makes your question vague enough that any story could be disqualified. :P

edited 17th Nov '14 5:26:29 PM by YamiiDenryuu

Alternately, one of the more common animal stereotypes.

I'm readng Grimm's Tales in the original German (Ich bin eine Deutsch Schulerin!) I can understand enough of some of them to recognize a basic plot.

And I learned what Igel means from recognizing pieces of the plot of one such story. ( Thank you, Jim Henson!)

edited 18th Nov '14 1:07:10 PM by ElectricalLass

Where is everybody?

When you say Folk Tales, do you mean like old myths and legends that you tell to kids and stuff? Because I have like a billion Irish ones. My favourite is the Children of Lir

Ja.

Well it's practically illegal to tell any traditional irish story though text, they are really meant to be told orally, they kinda lose all the magic. But I'll give you the rough outline of The children of Lir if you want.

Basically a king called Lir has 4 kids called Fionnuala(girl), Aed(boy), Conn(boy) and Fiacra(Boy). Their mother died at Fiacras birth and Lir eventually remarried about 4 years later. Turns out Aoife, the new wife, was a jealous ass witch who hated the kids for being from Lirs first wife.

She was taking them on a trip one day and stopped off at Lough Derravaragh and told then all to bathe in the water. She cursed them to turn into white swans. Aoife felt a bit bad and decided that they won't be immortal swans forever but instead swans for 900 years. 300, to be spent here, 300 in the Sea of Moyle(The sea between Ireland and Scotland) and the final 300 in the Atlantic Ocean. And for some reason Aoife decided to throw in a wee spell that made their singing console all who hear it.

Anyway they spend ages being sad, father visits them very year getting older and older, eventually dies sitting in the water next to them while they sing to them. Then the fly over to the sea of Moyle and have a terrible time because it's stormy. 300 years later they fly over Ireland to get to the Atlantic and see that the whole places looks different, an that people only worship one god now. A priest called Mochaomhog heard them singing by the Atlantic and decided to build a church on a wee outcrop called Inis Glora. They decide to live with the hermit and they have a pretty nice time.

Word spreads that some priest found the Children of Lir and a queen asked for them as a wedding present, when the king went to get them he broke this chain that was around the swans necks that I forgot to mention, and they turned into old people straight away an died.

Happy ending right? What's the moral of that story? Don't marry a witch bitch?

Shaggy Swan Story: The Folk Tale

A lesson Raymond and Doug should have obeyed.

The Thompson Motif Index in itself is unintentionally hilarious.

http://www.ualberta.ca/~urban/Projects/English/Motif_Index.htm

Lots of gems in there, like B217.4. †B217.4. Animal languages learned from carrying churchyard mould in hat.

The Motifs of Tabu section is full of strange punishments and bizarre offenses.

Is anyone here?

Here's a loose summary Korean folk tale that I was told as a child. There were once two brothers, Heungbu and Nolbu. Nolbu is the older brother, who's a Complete Monster, while his younger brother Heungbu is Incorruptible Pure Pureness. Heungbu and his family fall on hard times, and he asks Nolbu (who's also filthy rich) if he can stay in his mansion. Nolbu of course refuses, and Heungbul, his wife and his children are forced to live in a small hut in the middle of nowhere with only a small plot of land to grow food. One day, though, Heungbu finds an injured swallow, and nurses it back to health. In return for its gratitude, the swallow comes back to him and gives him some gourd seeds, and when Heungbu grows them and tries to open them, he finds that there were huge amounts of gold, a beautiful mansion, and willing servants inside of them. Meanwhile, Nolbu hears about this, and tries injuring a swallow himself and nursing it to see if the bird would give him rewards too. The bird does come back with gourd seeds, but of course, when he tries opening it, it turns out they're full of demons who destroy his house, take away all his riches, and basically leaves him in the dirt. Finally, Nolbu has a Face–Heel Turn, and when he goes to Heungbu to apologise for what he did, Heungbu takes him in and they live Happily Ever After.

edited 26th Nov '14 8:40:36 PM by SantosLHalper

Don't try to injure a Nemodean Lion.

Never force a Swan-maiden / Selkie / Mara / whatever into marriage.

The moment they get their skin back/the hole in the wall unplugged/whater they are gone for good, no matter how much they have come to love you, they will emidiately dissapear. And even if nothing like that happens or it was an marriage out of love, they can oftenonly be with you a few years before they die...