Friday, August 6, 2010

Fairy Tale Fridays: A Danish Tale

Special Thanks to my Personal Faery Friend for the Button Art: Ye Olde Faery Shoppe 

For those that have not yet caught on to the theme this week, I thought I would throw out a little reminder that we are in the midst (and about to wrap-up!) Once Upon A Week hosted by Today's Adventure!  I have post a couple of fun fairy tale articles, and have one more absolutely fun one coming up tomorrow.  I have had such a blast, but the week would simply not be complete with a little review of a fairy tale . . . enter in my weekly feature of Fairy Tale Fridays!!

This week, I decided to visit a Danish Fairy Tale, The Twin Brothers.  Unfortunately, I was not able to find a link to this story (which may be a tad bit longer than many of the tales that we have read in the past), but I would highly recommend that you swing by your local library or bookstore to see if you can find a copy of this one for yourself!

The Twin Brothers opens with us meeting a poor childless couple that "were getting on in years."  Despite storms and working on a Holy Day, the father braved the odds to meet his family's basic needs.  From the water that sustained much of his living, a fish becomes his fate . . . 
"That very moment, however, the fish began to talk.  'Please don't despise me.  I'm a better catch than you imagine,' it said; 'take me home and you will not regret it.'"
From this piece of advice, the man and his wife were blessed with twin sons.  As they got older, the fish then provided them with additional resources, companions of a horse, hound, and hawk each, as well as powerful weapons.  Once they are young men, they set out to explore the world, even going their own separate ways.  Adventures are had, including knights, princesses, mermans, and hags, ending with a happily ever after.

As I mentioned above, The Twin Brothers is a longer tale, but it was one that I thoroughly enjoyed.  It was filled with adventure, mystical creatures, and of course, romance!  However, I do have a very large complaint.  Once the brothers defeat the hag, I wish the story would have immediately skipped to the happy ending.  The turn the tale makes involving the betrayal of brothers ruined the ending for me.  To make up for it, I think I am just going to pretend that the portion of the story I am speaking of does not exist!  With that portion now deleted thanks to my imagination, I would rank this as one of my favorite tales thus far!!

What Danish tale did you read this week?

UPCOMING TALES:  Please note the direction FTF will be taking after next week!  I've decided to spice things up a bit with a longer tale read-a-thon (you may want to begin reading ahead on this one) as well as viewing the role of fairy tales in film.  Be watching for special posts to come with details!
Friday, August 13th: Chunda's Wisdom Quest (Tales from Tibet)
Friday, August 20th:  Choose Your Own Tale
Friday, August 27th:  Alice's Adventures in Wonderland by Lewis Carroll
Friday, September 3rd:  Fairy Tale Flick (special post to come for details!) 

8 comments:

  1. so cool you do this! I'm going to join in next week :)

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  2. FICTION STATE OF MIND . . . Yippee!! I can't wait to have you join in!!! :)

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  3. I couldn't find a link to this one, either and was too slow to get it from the library. My planning has been far from par this summer.

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  4. carolsnotebook . . . No worries!! I completely understand! And, I really enjoyed your pick anyways!! :)

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  5. Interesting about the brothers. Even though you didn't like that part, would you say them turning on each other fit? Or was it unnecessarily thrown in?

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  6. J. Kaye . . . I really felt like it was unnecessarily thrown in! With some tales, I'm okay with the gruesome or gory endings (even though they are "weird" when comparing them to what I remember from my childhood). This one just didn't work for me!

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  7. Tif, I understand then. No matter the story, I really dislike when an element is thrown in like that. I am glad it didn't ruin the story for you though. It might have for me as I tend to get a little emo about things like that...lol. ;)

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  8. J. Kaye . . . I was originally a bit taken back by it, but then I decided I would just pretend that it wasn't there and the love came back!! One of the perks to an overactive imagination!! :)

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