Week 11 Reading Diary: Celtic Fairytales

This week I decided to read the unit Celtic Fairy Tales.  Below are my notes on my favorite tales:

The Horned Women:
This story was quite interesting, and I could not imagine having twelve horned witches just waltz into my home.  I believe the rich woman was very brave, but also quite fortunate that the well spirit had reached out to her.  A question that I have, that the story does not necessarily clarify, is why would the twelve witches come into the home to card and prepare the wool the rich woman was working on?  After reading this story I began to notice the reoccurring theme of someone having to use a sieve in order to fetch some water, and in order to do so they must find a way to plug up the holes. My favorite part of the story was when the well spirit gave her the advice on how to keep the witches out when they returned.

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The Sprightly Tailor:
I enjoyed this story and applaud the tailor for being able to accomplish his task and receive his reward.  I am sort of a scardy-cat so I can only imagine his fear as he is trying to finish the trousers (as this random demon things is slowly coming out of the ground).  I almost wonder if there was something that was holding the monster in the ground, and that is what made him emerge so slowly, or was it him trying to play with the Tailor then lucked out.

Gold-Tree and Silver Tree:
Who doesn't love a princes story?  What I found interesting was that the Prince decided to keep both queens around, and that there was no dispute.  I like that this time the evil stepmother was able to be done off with and her schemes put to an end.  I do think that it is a little amusing that instead of a magic mirror, Silver-Tree was talking to a magical trout in the river.  I wonder if their names have any significance to the region the story originates from.

Beth Gellert:

Oh the age of technology!  I have actually read a version of this story where a mother kills the dog then finds a dead snake nearby.  This story is very sad for the loyal hound, but at least he was remembered and put in a place of honor upon his death.  

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Brewery of Eggshells:

I really liked how short and sweet this story was, but at the same time it kept me anticipating what was going to happen next.  Maybe it's just the mother in me, but I wanted to find out what had happened to the twins.  It was relieving when it's disclosed that they went back home with their mother, but I am left wondering what were the goblins intentions by switching out the children?  This could be possible inspiration for my storytelling this week.