This week I read the
Ashliman Grimm Brothers Unit. Story source:
The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman (1998-2013).
For Part A, my favorite stories were the story of
Seven Ravens and the story of
Old Sultan.
I thought the ending of the Seven Ravens story was really sweet. I was shocked when the parents at the beginning decided it was okay that their seven sons turned into ravens, as long as they had their one daughter. Also it seemed so strange to wish your seven sons to turn into ravens, of all things. I understand being upset when you think your daughter is about to die and your sons have disappeared, but deciding to curse them as ravens seems a bit extreme, then to actually be okay with it after they do become birds and just decide to never mention them again was weird. So, while I wasn't very keen on the parents, the daughter was very brave and selfless when she learned that her brothers had been turned into ravens. I loved that she traveled across the earth to try and find her brothers and change them back. When she finally learned about them she could have just decided that they were gone and didn't matter anymore, as her parents had. But instead, she went to save these seven brothers she had never met.
The story old Sultan was also a good story with a nice, happy ending. So many traditional fairy tales end very unhappily so I was so glad that both of these ended well for the characters. I felt so bad for the dog, Old Sultan, when his master decided to kill him since he was old. This has been the beginning of quite a few folk and fairy tales that involve old dogs that I have read in this class. I thought that Old Sultan handled the dilemma the very cleverly with the wolf. I love that they plotted to have the wolf steal the master's child so Old Sultan could rescue him and be the hero. I was worried that after the master would still decide to kill him, so I'm very glad that didn't happen. I wasn't surprised when the wolf wanted something in return from Old Sultan. Him helping the old dog seemed a bit too good. In the end I'm glad they made their peace. Although I was expecting the wolf to lash out after he showed so much fear. But I'm glad the ending was happy.
For Part B my favorite stories were
The Peasant and the Devil and
Death's Messenger.
I liked the Peasant and the Devil because of the cleverness of the farmer. I would have thought that after the first time the farmer tricked the devil, I would have thought that the devil would have realized the farmer could change crops and give him nothing again. I thought it was pretty stupid of him to just switch the deal when anything else could be planted. However, the farmer was so smart by making the deal. He got everything. All the crops and the gold and silver of the devil. In so many stories the devil as written as a crafty trickster but he was the complete opposite in this story. I was expecting him to try to get our of the deal to give the gold and silver to the farmer at the end. I was surprised the devil didn't at least try to trick the farmer out of it.
The story of Death's Messenger reminded me a lot of the story of the Deathly Hallows in Harry Potter. I thought this was a very clever story. I love that the messenger ends up being the sickness and disease itself. It is very true to life, especially back when this was written. I also love the idea of death approaching people as he did, which is what reminded me of the Deathly Hallows story, as well as the man going willingly with death at the end. This may have been my favorite story of the unit, although there were quite a few good ones.
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