Oh my God! I can’t believe I made it to part IV! Excuse me while I do my happy dance. Okay, now that I’m done with that, lets get started. I got seven more horrible tales to tell you all about. I hope you guys enjoy these as much as you have enjoyed the others. I’ve been enjoying all your comments and how much you guys are liking the original tales more than the “fluffy” versions.
Our first tale for this evening is Bearskin. Now, when I read this tale, I found it mild compared to other tales that I’ve read such as The Juniper Tree, the original Hansel and Gretel, and a few others. Well it starts out with a soldier coming back from war. His parents are dead, so he goes to his brothers and asks them if he can live with him. They tell him they have no use for a useless guy like him and send him on his way. The solider having no place to go wanders around. He eventually takes a rest and ponders about what he is going to do. Then out of nowhere, the devil comes out behind some trees. The devil talks to the soldier, and asks him how brave he is. The soldier replies that he is very brave. The devil points to a bear, and tells the soldier to shoot it. The soldier shoots it, and kills the bear. The devil decides to make a bet with the soldier, him getting the soldier’s soul if he wins (no surprise there. Isn’t that always what the devil wants?). The solider agrees to the bet. What did the devil offer this soldier that he would risk is own soul for? Unlimited gold of course. Personally I think these type of people are stupid, but it’s in human nature to be greedy. The bet they made was, the soldier could not bathe, comb, or pray to God for seven years. The only thing the guy could wears is a coat full of coins that would never empty, and the bear skin that the devil just took off the dead bear. The devil tells the soldier his new name is now Bearskin. The devil disappears, and the soldier wanders off to a nearby town. Four years have past and this guy looks like a bear, and of course smells really bad. Bearskin ends up having a really hard finding an inn to stay in; most innkeepers won’t let him stay. One eventually does, but he has to stay in the outhouse out back. On his way, he finds a guy weeping. Talking to the guy, he finds out that this guy is in a huge debt and will be sent to jail if he doesn’t pay it back soon. Since Bearskin has unlimited money in his pocket, he gives the guy the amount of money he needs. The guy tells Bearskin as a reward, he can marry one of his daughter. Bearskin goes home with the guy and meets the three daughters. The first two practically tell Bearskin he is ugly, and they would rather gouge their own eyes out than marry him (not really, but they said something that cruel). The third, and of course, the youngest agrees to marry him. Bearskin is happy that the girl has agreed to be his wife. He takes a ring and splits it in half. He writes his name on one half and gives it to his young bride; on the other, he writes her name. He tells his bride that if he does not return in three years, then she is free, for he will be dead. After Bearskin leaves, the girl dresses in complete black everyday, and her sisters ridicule her about having a monster for a bridegroom. This goes on for three years. The seven years are finally up, and Bearskin goes to the same spot he met the devil. The devil shows up and is not happy. Bearskin, being smug, tells the devil that he has won the bet, and to groom him. The devil grooms Bearskin, and he is now more handsome than he was before. Bearskin goes into town and buys new clothes, and takes a carriage pulled by white horses to his bride’s house. When Bearskin shows up, nobody recognizes him. The two older sisters began to flirt with him, while the youngest is still waiting for her bridegroom. Bearskin says that he is looking for a bride, and the two oldest sisters rush off to change their clothes. While they are changing, Bearskin slips his half of the ring into a wineglass. He pours wine into the glass and gives it to his bride. When his bride drinks the wine, and sees the ring, she is surprised and overjoyed. They kiss, happy to finally be reunited. The two older sisters come back into the room and run out of the house in rage about the fact that Bearskin chose their younger sister. One throws herself into the well drowning herself; the other hangs herself from a tree.
The next tale is The Enchanted Snake. This is a strange tail; it really is one of the weirdest ones I’ve read. It starts off with a woman who wants a child. She never does have her own child, but her husband brings home a snake that they end up adopting. I don’t know why you would want a snake for a son, but I guess if you’re that desperate for a child, you’ll accept anything. Well, they snake tells his “father” and “mother” that he wants to marry the princess. The father, being an idiot, goes to the king and tells him his serpent son wants to marry his daughter. The king laughs and says that he will give his “son” his daughter’s hand, if he can turn the entire castle into ivory, inlaid with gold and silver by noon tomorrow. The father goes home and tells the snake what the king has told him. The snake tells his father to got into the woods, gather all the herbs he can find, and rub them together at the palace tomorrow. The next day, the father does what the snake tells him and viola, the entire castle is turned into ivory, inlaid with gold and silver. The king is dumbstruck, but refuses to hand his daughter over to a serpent. He gives another task for the snake to do. He must turn the castle’s pathways into pure gold by noon tomorrow. The father goes home and tells the snake what his new task is. The snake tells his father that he must gather all the trash he can find and throw it on the pathways. The next day, the father does as he is told, and the pathways are turned into gold. Again, the king is astonished by what has happened; but again he breaks his promise. A third task is given; the snake must now turn all the fruits in the garden into precious gems by noon tomorrow. Again, the father tells the snake the task. The snake tells his father that he must gather seeds from different fruits and scatter them in the garden. The next day, the father does as he is told, and all the fruits in the garden are turned into precious gems. This time the king does as he is promised and gives his daughter to the snake. The snake arrives in a horse drawn carriage a few days later to get his bride. He takes his bride into a room, where he throws off the snake skin to reveal that he is a handsome young prince. Now, the king and queen were peeping through the keyhole and didn’t see the part where the prince had thrown off the snake skin. All they saw was this handsome guy, and what they thought was the dead snake. They rushed into the room and threw the snake skin into the fire. Suddenly the prince turns into a bird and flies through the glass of a window. The princess gets pissed at her parents, and decides to look for her love. On the way, a random fox joins her. I don’t know why, but he just joins for some reason. When they stop to rest, the fox makes the remark what the birds are saying. The princess wants to know, and the fox eventually tells her. They are actually talking about the prince that she his looking for, and how badly injured he is. The only way to save him, is to use their blood. The princess asks the fox if he could kill the birds and obtain their blood for her. He does as she asks, and kills the birds. It turns out though, she needs his blood as well. The fox plans on escaping, but the princess tricks him. She ends up killing him and mixing his blood with the blood of the birds. Then she travels some more, and eventually finds out where her prince is. She disguises herself as a servant and sneaks into the palace. She meets the prince’s real parents and tells them that she can save their son. She takes the blood and rubs it on the prince’s wounds; which by the way, is totally gross. The prince’s wounds heal, and asks the girl what she wants as a reward, not knowing it’s his ladylove. The princess says that she wants him to marry him. The prince rejects the request, saying that he already has someone he loves. The princess his overjoyed by his loyalty, and throws off her disguise. The prince and princess get married and you know the rest.
The next tale is The Rose, though I’m not sure if I can really call it a tale. This was written by the Brothers Grimm. It’s only a paragraph long; but that one paragraph was quite horrifying. It’s about a poor woman with only two children. She sends her daughter into the woods to get firewood. The daughter sees some wood, but is not strong enough to pick it up. A beautiful child appears, and he is quite strong. He helps the girl carry it back home. When the girl tries to thank him, he is gone. The girl tells her mother about the beautiful child, but the mother did not believe it. Some time later, the girl comes home with a rose, and tells her mother that the beautiful child gave it to her. The beautiful child said that when the rose fully blooms, he will return. The mother puts the rose in some water; but this would be something she would regret later. One day, her daughter won’t get out of bed. The mother tries to wake her child, only to find her dead with a happy smile on her face. On that same morning, the rose had fully bloomed.
The next story is The Robber Bridegroom. This is a pretty twisted tale too. It has to do with cannibalism, which I’ve noticed, is in a lot of fairy tales. The story start out with a man, who wants to find his daughter a husband. He does, and he finds nothing wrong with the guy, but the daughter doesn’t like her new bridegroom. The bridegroom complains about his bride never coming to visit him. The girl tells him she doesn’t know where he lives. The bridegroom tells her he will leave a trail of ashes to his house. So, the bride follows the trail of ashes, dropping peas and lentils along the way. She eventually comes upon a house. She goes inside, but nobody is there. A bird tells her to turn back, otherwise, she will be killed and eaten. The girl decides to explore the house instead, and goes down to the cellar. There she meets an old woman, who tells the girl she is in a murderer’s house and she will be killed and eaten if she is found. The old woman hides the girl behind a large barrel as a band of robbers come into the house. They are carrying a girl, who is screaming and sobbing for her life. The robbers give the girl white, red, and yellow whine. The whine causes her heart to stop beating. When she is dead, the robbers begin to chop her up. One robber notices a gold ring on her finger, and cuts off the finger, since the ring won’t come off it. The finger ends up flying and landing on the bride’s lap. The robbers decide to look for it later, since it won’t be running off on it’s own. The old woman drugs the robbers’ whine and puts them to sleep; then she helps the girl escape. By this time the ashes have already blown away, but the peas and lentils have already sprouted. On the day of the wedding she tells all the guests about a dream she had. She tells them about the bird, the old woman, the robbers, and the finger with the golden ring. When she is finished, she pulls out the finger, and shows it to everyone. The bridegroom and his band are captured and put to death.
The next tale is called The Maiden with the Rose on her Forehead. There is a prince who loves his rose garden; he is the only one allowed to enter it. When he has to go off to war, his sister offers to take care of his garden. The prince agrees and leaves the garden in his sister’s hand. The princess stays in the garden all night and all day. The princess ends up getting pregnant, don’t know how, but she does, and gives birth to a beautiful girl with a rose on her forehead. The princess is ashamed, and when the child is older, the princess tells the child to not tell anyone who she is; if she does, then she will be killed. What type of mother threatens her child? The princess sends the girl to school, reminding her to keep it a secret who she really is. The prince finally comes back from war and visits the school the girl (unknown to him is his niece) goes to. He asks the girl to make him a shirt, and the girl accepts. The princess tells her daughter to make the shirt, but not to let the prince figure out who she is, or else she will be killed. The girl makes the shirt in one day, and gives it to the prince the next day. He’s amazed by how quickly it was sewn and how beautiful it was. A few days later the prince brings cherries to the school, and the girls start throwing the cherries at each other. One of the pits gets stuck in the girl with the rose on her forehead’s hair. While the princess is brushing her daughter’s hair, she finds the pit. Thinking that the people have found out who she is, the princess strikes the girl on the head and kills her. She hides the body away in a trunk. The princess ends up regretting what she did and dies later because of that guilt. She gives her brother the key to the trunk, but tells him not to open it. The brother is confused, but tells his sister he will not open the trunk. He gets married some time later; his new bride and mother-in-law move into the palace. The prince gives his wife the key that his sister gave to him. He told her the same thing that his sister told him. When the prince goes off one day, the mother-in-law convinces her daughter to open the chest. When they do, they find a young girl sewing, and she has a star on her forehead. The mother-in-law gets mad, and takes a hot iron poker to the girl; she burns her all over. When the prince comes back, the wife tells him that she has a new mulatto slave. The prince doesn’t really think much of the girl when he first sees her. Later there is some sort of festival that the prince is going to; he asks his wife, if she would like something. The wife tells him no, but to get something for her mulatto slave girl. The prince pesters the girl to tell him what she wants. The girl tells the prince that she wants a talisman. The prince gets the talisman, but follows the girl up to her room to see why she wanted it. He hides under her bed and listens as she confesses her entire past to the talisman. The prince is thrilled and shocked as he listens. He reveals himself and hugs his niece. Angered about what his wife and mother-in-law did to his niece, he asks her what he should do to them. The girl tells him that they should suffer like she did. So, the prince takes an iron poker and burns the mother-in-law and his wife; then casts them out of the palace. The prince and his niece live happily in the palace for the rest of their days.
Well, the next tale I have for you all is called, Brother and Sister. This is about a brother and sister, kind of obvious, that are badly abused by their stepmother; who is, of course, a witch. Well, they decide to run away, thinking that the big bad world is better than staying with their stepmother. The stepmother follows them and puts a curse on a nearby spring. The brother goes to drink from it, but the sister hears the spring say, “Who ever drinks from me will turn into a tiger.” The sister stops her brother and tells him that if he drinks from the spring, then he will tear her to pieces. The brother decides to drink from the next spring they come to, which is also cursed. Again the sister hears the spring say, “Who ever drinks from me will turn into a wolf.” The sister warns the brother, saying he will devour her if he drinks from the spring. Then they come to another spring. The sister hears the spring say, “Who ever drinks from the spring will turn into a deer.” Before the sister could warn her brother, he drinks from the spring and turns into a deer. The sister cries, for her brother is now a deer. She makes a collar for her brother from her girdle, and a leash from flowers…I think. They wander deep into the forest and come upon an abandoned cottage; these kids sure are lucky aren’t they. They peacefully in the cottage for a while, until one day the king was hunting. The brother could hear the horns and calls of the huntsmen. The brother asked his sister if he could leave and join in the hunt; technically asking her if he can let the men hunt him. He begs until his sister finally gives in; when he comes home though, he has to tell her, “Dear sister let me in.” Daredevil deer away! Well the huntsmen see him, and begin the chase. They can’t catch him, and by the end of the day he comes home safe. The next day, the huntsmen come again; the brother begs the sister if he can go. She reluctantly agrees. This time, the brother is injured in the foot, and one of the king’s men follows him to the cottage. On the third day, when the brother goes out again, the king and his men chase him, but do not harm him. When the brother returns to the cottage, the king follows him and sees the sister. You guys know what happens next. The king thinks she is the most beautiful maiden he has ever seen and whisks her away to be his queen. Now, the stepmother hears about the brother and sister, and is very envious of them. She then thinks of a plan to make her daughter queen; yeah because no witch has ever thought of that before. So, as the days go on, the queen has a son; the king is out hunting during this time. The witch takes this opportunity to get rid of the queen. She deguises her and her daughter as maids, and tell the queen that she needs to take a bath. When she is in the bath, they lock the door, and the queen is suffocated by the fire that is lit. The witch disguises her daughter as the queen, so that she is now queen. When night falls, the nurse is awake and is in the nursery with the baby. The real queens ghost comes, takes the baby out of the cradle, and nurses it. This goes on for a few days, and the queen doesn’t say a word. Then one night she says, “I will come two more times, and never again.” The nurse tells the king this and he comes on the second night. The queen’s ghost comes, and says, “I will come one more time, and never again.” On the third and final night, the king waits for the queen to come. The queen says, “This is my last night, and I shall never come again.” The king know now that this is his real wife. The queen suddenly becomes flesh again, and tells the king what happened to her. The witch and her daughter are punished for their crimes; the daughter is sent to the forest, where she is torn to pieces by wild animals, and the witch is burned at the stake. When the witch dies, the brother is turned back to normal, and they all live happily ever after.
The last story for this article is Buttercup or Butterball; either way, it’s going to be the name of the main character in the story. I’m going to go with Buttercup because it’s funnier, since the main character is a fat boy; which is why he is called Buttercup. Well, one day a mother is baking, and the dog starts barking. She tells her son, Buttercup, to see what the dog is barking at. Buttercup tells his mother that it is a witch with a sack on her back. The mother tells Buttercup to hide. The witch comes and is looking for Buttercup. She says she has a silver knife for him; the idiot comes out of his hiding place just for a silver knife. The witch tells him, she can’t get it out of sack, so he needs to get it. The moron actually crawls into the bag! The witch closes the sack and leaves with Buttercup in it. On the way, the witch asks how much longer until they get to their destination; Buttercup replies that they still have half of a mile to go. Now this part confused me because how would he know how much longer they have to go? So, the witch sets the bag down, and goes to sleep in the forest. Buttercup makes a hole in the sack and puts a fir tree root in it; then goes home to his mother. The next day, the witch comes again. Buttercup hides, and the idiot comes out of his hiding place and climbs into the sack again, this time for a silver spoon. But it’s a repeat, with the half mile thing, and Buttercup escapes replacing himself with a rock. The next day the witch comes again and the idiot falls for the same trap again, this time for a silver fork. The only person who seems to learn from their mistakes, is the witch. This times she doesn’t rest, and goes directly home. When she then has to leave, since it is Sunday, and she has to go to church; I didn’t even know witches went to church. She tells her daughter to boil Buttercup while she is gone. Now, there is actually a bigger idiot than Buttercup; the witch’s daughter. The daughter doesn’t know how to boil Buttercup, so he tells her he’ll show her how. Buttercup tells the daughter to lay her head down on the chopping block. When daughter does what he says, Buttercup takes an ax and chops off her head. He puts the head in the bed, and puts the body into the pot. Then he takes the fir tree root, and the rock up to the roof. Well, the witch and her husband come home from church. They see the head in the bed, and think their daughter is sleeping; they try the soup, and talk about Buttercup broth. Buttercup, who is up on the roof, shouts down the chimney about Daughter broth. The witch and her husband go outside to see who is making the noise; when they come out, Buttercup throws the fir root and rock on their heads. They are killed, Buttercup takes their silver and gold, and goes home to his mother.
Yay!!!! I’m down with Part IV. Well, I’m hope you all enjoyed these seven fairy tales. Now, will their be a Part V, I wonder? The answer to that is…maybe. It all depends on if I can find seven more tales to write about.
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