Week 11: Celtic Fairy Tales Reading Diary

This week I read the Celtic Fairy Tales reading unit. Story source: Celtic Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs with illustrations by John D. Batten (1892).

For Part A my favorite stories were The Shepherd of Myddvai and Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree.

The story of the  Shepherd of Myddvai surprised me. I had heard some similar stories before, but the endings were never like this one. Other stories I had heard that were like this one started the same, where a man won over a mystical woman and she said she would be a good wife to him if he didn't hurt her. In the other stories I had read, they usually ended with the man beating her and she either left and took the children and everything they owned back to her mystical land or she killed him. But this one, I felt sorry for the man. When she said that when he tapped on her shoulder, he had  "struck her without cause" it surprised me. All of the times she said he "struck her" were innocent gestures. It almost seemed like she was trying to find any excuse to leave. I was also surprised that she left her children behind, and only visited them once more when they became adults.

The second story that I liked in the first half of the readings was Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree, which was a version of Snow White. One thing I liked about this telling of the tale was that Gold-Tree (the Snow White of the story) married the prince before she was poisoned by her mother, Silver-Tree. I also found it interesting that while the father knew his wife wanted to murder their daughter he found her a ship to go and see her on, believing she only wanted to visit, even after she asked the father to kill Gold-Tree and serve the mother her heart and liver. I also thought that it was interesting how after Gold-Tree was poisoned by her mother, the prince didn't think to remove the poisoned stab from her finger before locking her in a separate room.  It took him to remarry and the second wife to resurrect Gold-Tree, and then both wives being okay with both staying.

For Part B my two favorites were the story of Beth Gellert and the Tale of Ivan. 

The Story of Beth Gellert was very sad. I felt awful for the father and the dog. I could definitely see how the father would make the mistake he did by believing his beloved dog had killed his son. I was thinking it as well while reading the story. As soon as the father heard the baby cry I realized what had happened. This reminded me a lot of the scene in Lady and the Tramp when Tramp is taken to the pound because they think he attacked the baby but he was actually saving the child from the rat. In the end it was an honest mistake on the man's part, and it showed how awful he felt for killing the dog. Still, the poor dog must have been so confused and hurt and scared by his master's reaction when the dog had been just protected the baby. 

The last story I'm going to talk about is the Tale of Ivan. This story left me very curious about the master who Ivan worked for for three years. It seems that somehow, the master knew what was going to happen, and withheld the wages to make Ivan pay attention. I was very confused about why Ivan would agree for three years to give up his salary for one piece of advice, but I guess its a good thing he did because head he not he would have gotten robbed, framed for murder, and not had a job when he returned home. I liked that the ending had Ivan's three years wages which he thought he gave up for advice cooked into the cake. Overall I thought this was a clever story.