Ask MetaFilter questions tagged with fairytales

Creepy children's book question -- probably Russian/slavic or Middle Eastern

icarus — Sun, 28 Sep 2008 10:07:22 -0800

Need help finding a book. I think it was a short stories collection. One of the stories was about a king that left his new bride alone when he had to go somewhere on business. He gave her a keychain with keys to all the rooms and an egg he told her to carry around... She was allowed to use the keys to open all the doors except one that was specified by the king as forbidden. The king left, she spent days walking around and opening doors and finally, of course, decided to open the forbidden door. She did, saw that it was full of dead bodies (the king's ex brides that ventured into the room?) and blood was all over the floor. She was so horrified that she dropped the egg/keychain and they were covered in the blood now.

All I remember from there is that she spent days trying to wash the blood out of the keychain/(and egg?) so that the king wouldn't find out she was in the room.

Anyone? Any ideas? Am I the only one that read messed up books in my childhood?

If I could remember more about the book, I coudl find it myself.

not that girl — Sat, 01 Dec 2007 20:31:10 -0800

Fairies; fur-lined cloak. Find me the book. I remember so little about this book from my childhood that I'm sure I'm throwing away this week's question, but I would be so happy to find it again. I've been looking off and on ever since we moved in the fourth grade and the library at my new school didn't have it.

Here's what I remember: there's a women. She encounters fairies, perhaps during some sort of midwinter festival. She ends up living for some time in a subterranean fairy kingdom, a network of caves, as I remember; she wears a fur-lined cloak or dress to keep warm. Eventually, of course, her sojourn with the fairies ends.

Set in some sort of non-specific (at least in my memory) "olden days," I think.

I'm perfectly prepared to read my way through some books with fairies in the coming weeks in the hopes of chancing upon it. Anybody? Anybody? Hello?

Fairytales for grownups

orange swan — Wed, 11 Apr 2007 20:52:47 -0800

I loved fairy tales as a child, and now that I am (nominally) a grownup, I love the "retellings" of fairytales — the fleshed-out versions which, for example, feature actual character development instead of lines like "she was as beautiful as she was good". I love Robin McKinley's retellings of "Donkeyskin", "Sleeping Beauty" and "Beauty and the Beast" (which she did twice for good measure), and Gregory Maguire's surprisingly political Wicked: The Life and Times of the Wicked Witch of the West. What other good grown-up fairytales are out there?

neither a borrower nor a lender be.

changeling — Tue, 29 Aug 2006 21:27:31 -0800

The neighbor girl borrowed my fairy tale book fifteen years ago. Help me get it back. Things seem larger when you're little. I remember it as a huge, hardcover book, perhaps 250 full-color pages. Each story was illustrated by a different artist, and its creative eclecticism had much to do with my desire to be an artist and a writer.

The dust jacket, I believe, was tan in color, and had an illustration from a story in which a bear in a trench coat? and his animal acquaintances thought the fragmented moon had fallen in the lake. Only a reflection, of course.

Other stories I remember: A spin on the Monkey's Paw, in which a cartoonish couple received three wishes, the second resulting in a sausage dangling from Hubby's nose. A version of Anderson's Wild Swans, a girl weaving sweaters of nettles for her brothers, realistic illustrations. A Chinese tale, involving a boy in a palace, a giant goblin rat, painted cat-guards and the mysterious maxim, "Avoid large places. Keep to small."

Ring a bell? Anyone? I've searched Amazon and Alibris over the years, but the term "Fairy Tales" is a bit broad. Thanks!

Children's stories

peep — Fri, 05 May 2006 21:07:30 -0800

Can you help me identify two children's stories/books? They aren't related, just two stories from my childhood that I can't quite remember. I hope it isn't cheating to get two askme answers at once!

The first is a story about a boat/ship that gets shipwrecked at night - it runs aground somewhere with (exotic?) animals, and it turns out (SPOILER!) that it's a zoo not far from where the boat launched.

The second is a rather twisted fairy tale-type story that may have been in some type of treasury or collection. A young woman is in a kitchen cooking or baking something, and her cat keeps asking her for a taste of what she's preparing, or maybe some milk. She keeps refusing. A man comes to the door to kidnap her and she appeals to the cat for help. The cat refuses, the woman is taken, and the cat helps itself to whatever it wanted from the kitchen.

I would guess that I read these in the early- to mid-80s, but I have no idea when they would have been written.

After the Nutcracker, I promised her the Firebird

sagwalla — Thu, 15 Dec 2005 11:51:26 -0800

I'm looking for a good collection of Russian Fairy Tales for my four year old. There are several available on UK Amazon. Can anyone recommend one book in preference to the others?

Grimm's tales: stepmothers or real mothers?

i_am_joe's_spleen — Sat, 16 Jul 2005 01:12:49 -0800

Stepmothers in Grimm's fairy tales. Some claim that the Grimms altered mothers to step mothers lest the bourgeois reader be shocked. I was told this at university, and I've since found several references online, but nothing that strikes me as authoritative or trustworthy. And I have an original Grimms Maerchen at home, and it's step-mothers all the way. I was about to "enlighten" someone, but now I'm worried I'm just perpetuating an untruth.

Is this story of the Grimms' redaction true, or just wishful thinking for step-parents?

Nasty Fairy Tales

stoneegg21 — Fri, 14 Jan 2005 02:24:36 -0800

I need to find nasty fairy-tales. For an example, in the first Sleeping Beauty, the prince rapes her sleeping body and she wakes up when she gives birth to twins and one sucks the splinter out of her finger. Also, fairy-tales that go back to the original belief that elves and fairies were nasty creatures would be useful. Either the original nasty fairy-tales or new written ones would be good.