Yesterday morning we read the most horrifying of all of the tales yet: The Juniper Tree.
We only partly read the story, but it was longer than most of the tales, and so we had to do a continued until tomorrow ....
Mary said that she felt like googling the story at work and learning what the ending was so she wouldn't have to wait until the next day.
After we finished the story we listed some all of the evil step mothers, and mothers-in-law that are found in literature:
Snow White
Briar Rose
Cinderella
Hansel and Gretel
Try adding to the list and you will see children's stories give a horrifying picture of step mohers. We are sure the stepmother in "The Juniper Tree" beats all of the others we have seen so far. She trumps the worst imaginable type.
I like to watch Xavier's face for I can tell a few sentences ahead, when the penny drops for him and he can tell what horrifying incident is going to happen next. He gasps, then his eyes open wide and finally his jaw drops and he is motionless.
Don't read "The Juniper Tree" unless you work up to it.
To continue to warn you, even more vehemently, look at the refrain that gets said over and over again:
My mother, she killed me,Grimms: not for the faint of heart.
My father, he ate me,
My sister Marlene,
Gathered all my bones,
Tied them in a silken scarf,
Laid them beneath the juniper tree,
Tweet, tweet, what a beautiful bird am I.
If you want to see a pencil sketch of Marlene laying the bones under the juniper tree is Flikr
I tried to copy it, but all rights are reserved. You can find it on utube as adapted by Prywes and Mitnick. Phillip Wood also does a small adaptation with evil pictures. Start at about 1 minute where the real horror scene begins.
As I said, not for the faint of heart.
Arta
Hello Bonnie,
ReplyDeleteI asked Naomi why it is she is not afraid when I read those terrible stories. She told me that they are just stories. She knows the difference between stories and what is real. I asked her for examples of real stories that are frightening. She said, "Black Beauty is real.
And it is not scary. It is sad."
This discussion took place because she woke up with a bad dream about her brother being on a ship, the ship exploding, and him dying. I am glad that the trajectory of the plot of the dream did not mirror the terror of the fairy tales we have been reading.
Lovely! I checked out the picture. Where is the picture of the Dad eating the person?
ReplyDeleteYou can find the animation of the story as done by Prywes and Mitnick. I fixed the link in the post, so ... enjoy.
ReplyDelete