Folk Tales and Fairy Tales

Folktales and Fairy Tales

These are three Cinderella tales.  Tattercoats is from the Jewish tradition and was collected by Joseph Jacobs in the early 1900s.  Tattercoats is the granddaughter of a very rich man whose daughter has died in childbirth.  He refuses to see her and tells his servants to shun her.  The old man then spends his days crying over the loss of his daughter. 

Tattercoats wears rags, hence her name, and begs for scraps of food.  She is befriended by the local gooseheard and spends her days with him and his flock.

The invitation for the ball arrives and the old man comes out of his misery to go.  Tattercoats asks to go and he throws her out.  She goes to her beloved Gooseheard for comfort.  He listens and plays his flute to comfort her.  The music stops a caravan en route to the palace.  The prince is struck by Tattercoats’ kindness and beauty and dances with her to the music.  Her falls in love with her and asks for her hand, which she refuses. He brings Tattercoats to the ball in her rags and introduces her to all there.  The music transforms their hard hearts as well.  Her rags become a gown and the geese become her pages.  They marry and live happily ever after.  The old man is still in misery as he has sworn never to speak to her.  He lives out his life alone and in sorrow.

The pictures are very simple, using only a few colors and wispy pencil lines.  This adds to the simplicity of the story.  There is nothing but the author’s note to indicate that this story comes form the Jewish tradition.  It is presented in such a way that it could be anywhere in the world in any tradition.  The old man is disturbing as he throws away his life and happiness to sorrow because of something he can no longer have.  So much so that his hair and beard grow so long they tie him to his chair!

The Way Meat Loves Salt is also from the Jewish tradition and is presented as such.  The story takes place in Poland and is told using many Yiddish words and phrases.  These are explained in the text.  Reyzeleh, Khaveleh, and Mireleh live with their parents in a small town.  Their father, a rabbi, wants to know how much the girls love him and asks.  The eldest two reply by saying more than diamonds and more than silver.  Mireleh’s answer is “more than meat loves salt.”  The rabbi is furious with this and banishes Mireleh.  She wanders and is frightened when a stranger comes to her. He comforts her and gives her a gift of a magic stick.  With it Mireleh can wish for whatever she needs.  The old man directs her to the next town and the rabbi there.  She lives with the rabbi, and his wife and son.  She sleeps in the attic and acts as a servant.  The family goes to Cracow (sic) to a wedding feast and leaves Mireleh behind.  She too wants to go and uses the stick to get a dress, shoes and a way to get there.

Everyone is taken with her even though she doesn’t utter a sound.  The rabbi’s son dances only with her and falls in love with her, even in her silence.  He tricks her and gets one of Mireleh’s shoes.  He vows to marry only the person who fits the shoe.  The story follows the traditional Cinderella here until the son refuses to marry Mireleh once he sees she is the mystery maiden.  The same old man comes to his parents in a dream to say the son must keep his word.  The son comes to this decision after getting to know Mireleh better.  They marry and her family comes to the wedding not knowing the bride is their daughter. 

Mireleh has all the food for the feast made without salt and her father complains of the taste.  She asks what is wrong and her realizes who she is and the error he has made.  Mireleh forgives them.  The old man appears again to bless the couple and Mireleh realizes that he is Elijah the Prophet.  He blesses them and disappears.  Mireleh has two daughters and breaks the magic stick to give each a piece because good fortune should always be shared.  The story ends by saying that the stick is long gone, but the “blessings of Elijah can stay with us always, as long as we care for each other, from one generation to the next with kind and loving hearts.”

I love that the author uses Yiddish throughout the story.  It places the tale firmly in Poland and gives the feel of the time setting.  The pictures are watercolor with soft lines placed within and around the text.  The colors and clothes represent the time well and let the reader know that the story is of another time.  I love that Elijah is the magic role and watches over Mireleh throughout the tale.  The moral, while told outright is also beautiful.

The Turkey Girl is from the Zuni Native American tradition.  The author is of English and Native American background and makes note of how different the versions are.  The Turkey Girl lives in a small village and is so poor that she herds the villagers’ turkeys for a living.  Her clothes are rags and her shoes are of worn yucca fibers.  The wealthy villagers take care of her by paying her with corn or cast off clothes.

The Turkey Girl takes good care of the flock and talks to them as she brings them out at dawn and back at duck each day.  They care for her, though they never say a word to her.

There is a dance to be held in the next village and all the people are invited.  The Turkey Girl wants to go but cannot.  She goes to her friends the turkeys and cries to them.  They speak and tell her that they will help her.  They clean and care for her, make her beautiful clothes and jewels.  This is a true Native American story because nothing is wasted.  The turkeys use her old clothes and breathe new life into them.  They clean her with their tails, and her jewels are from pieces that careless people have lost and the turkeys have found.

The Turkey Girl thanks them and promises that she will abide by their one request:  that she not forget her turkey brothers and will return before the sun sets.  If she forgets them they will know she is mean of spirit and deserves the hard life she has.

The Turkey Girl goes to the dance, meets a handsome brave and they dance.  The brave falls in love with the girl as they dance all day.  She tries to leave several times and is persuaded to stay by the brave.  By the time the girl comes to her senses, the sun is setting.  She returns too late; the turkeys are all gone and her clothes have become rags once more.  The girl realizes that the turkeys are gone forever and she is returned to her hard life.  The moral is that the turkeys will always live apart from their tall brothers because they were forgotten by the girl.

The pictures are dark and wispy, not very detailed.  They enhance the darkness of the story even when things go well for the girl.  There is a lot of description of the way of life of the Native American people in this book and the feel of the pictures adds to this.  The colors are very earthy and soft.

I found it interesting that this tale does not end well, but shows the punishment the girl brings upon herself, even though she regrets her actions before the changes occur.