Week 12 Reading: English Fairy Tales Part B

Today, I read Part B of the English Tales reading. Below are the notes I took on stories that I found interesting and, possibly, wanted to retell this week's story

(Image Information: Fox with Almost Eyes Closed 

Tambako the Jaguar Source: Flickr)

Henny-Penny

• This story makes the fox out to be the evil character, which is always assumed since foxes are sly
• It would be a great way to retell this story where the fox is innocent and another animal is masked as "evil"
• I have never heard this tale before, but this was an interesting read 

Molly Whuppie

• In this story, we never really know what happened to the giant's wife
• If I were to retell this story, I would extend the plot line and talk about what happens to the giant's wife 
• I also might include a different ending that involves Molly Whuppie and all three sisters getting married because at the end of this story, they just say that she marries the youngest son after getting the king the giant's ring 

Johnny-Cake

• It seems that the fox is used in many English tales to serve as the sly character, as it was in this story as well
• We never are really told the meaning behind Johnny-Cake or why it was named that way so if I retell the story, I would want to include background information or somewhere in the story get the information in there 
• It would also be a good story to make more 21st century type of story 

Mr. Miacca

• I like how this story develops the boy to be clever, and how he got away
• I would want to retell this story from the boy's first-person perspective
• We only see the boy's mother once in this story warning about Mr. Miacca so it would be nice to include her more and her role in explaining the background story about this myth regarding Mr. Miacca

Fairy Ointment

• The language in this story was very peculiar, and it helped to have the notes before the story that talked about how certain words like squinny or poll to mean squinty or head, respectively 
• This would be a fun story to tell from a 21st-century perspective 
• Dame Goody is the main character in this story, so it would also be a good way to give her more of character development and talk more about her background story when introducing her to the story. 

Bibliography: Joseph Jacob's English Fairy Tales Reading Guide Part B