Week 12 Story Planning: Tom-Tit-Tot

(Image Information: Rumplestiltskin-Crane

Project Gutenberg Source: Wikipedia)

I decided to write a story planning post for the story I want to retell from the readings I read this week. Below are my detailed notes and some research I did regarding the story "Tom-Tit-Tot".

Notes:

• There is some really old English language in the beginning with the mother and daughter conversating. They talk back and forth about the pies not being ready to eat, but it turns out the daughter ate them. I think I would want to change up the language here to a more modern approach maybe use texting and insert a custom-made text message graphic with the two conversating, even though they're in the same house! 
• Then the king walks by and hears the mother talking about how her daughter ate the pies, and she changed it to where the daughter had made five skins. In my story, I was thinking to have the mother go to text her friend but ended up selecting the king's number. She types that her daughter ate all the pies, but AUTOCORRECT comes in the way and says that her daughter made something else. I am not sure what she would say here that would entice in the king in this modern tale.
• The king will read the text message and end up texting the daughter that he has liked her for a long time and would like to take her on a date. She agrees, and when the king comes to pick her up, he has a conversation with the daughter's mother about how if he asks her to marry him she has to make the items she had previously stated she had made (still not sure what I would do here).
• When the daughter is locked up for a month, I would make it to where the king lived in a hi-tech house so that when the king comes to see the girl, he must use a fingerprint scan to open the door and see that she is making what he wanted. 
• I will make Tom-Tit-Tot have the power to teleport, so he would randomly arrive. This is where I would connect the mother back into the story. I want the mother to be friends with Tom-Tit-Tot and send him to help the daughter since she's been keeping track of the months and knows that the daughter would be making items like the king had requested. 

Research:

I realized through Googling Tom-Tit-Tot that this is an English variant on the famous Rumplestiltskin tale. So, since the stories were similar, I decided to look up a critical analysis of this story to learn more about the themes in this story. On a website (click here), I found that there were multiple themes in this story: the law of two's (two characters being involved in each scene), greed, and power. In my retelling of this story, I will still have the law of two's, greed, and power present. 

Bibliography: Joseph Jacob's English Fairy Tales Reading Guide

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

Week 12 Reading: English Fairy Tales Part A

(Three Little Pigs - Third Pig Builds a House

Leonard Leslie Brooke Source: Wikipedia)

I found myself engaged in Part A of the English Fairytales, and below are the notes I took while reading some of the stories:


Tom Tit Tot

• I really enjoyed this story, however, it's so interesting that this English fairy tale resembled Rumplestiltskin, which I believe is a German fairy tale. It was interesting to read another version 
• The main characters end up being the daughter and Tom Tit Tot - I think it would be interesting to retell this story from a futuristic point of view with updated technology, etc.

The Rose Tree

• This story was not what I had expected at all
• The little girl ends up being a bird that becomes the main character of this story
• If I were to retell this story, I would make it where the girl is not killed but that her hair is chopped off. I was thinking to take a more modern approach and have the girl in pain due to lack of self-confidence, but soon she is discovered by a model agency in which she becomes a famous model. 
• She can then be asked to travel the world and can bring her family with her on this journey with her career and she chooses to take her dad and brother, only. 
• I'm not sure where the girl's birthmother ever played a role in this story as they never really develop her character. It would also be interesting to retell the same story, but also include the girl's birthmother and her role in the story. 

The Old Woman and Her Pig

• This story was like telephone in that there were a chain of events that had to occur to achieve the result desired 
• Just to get the pig over the stile so the woman could get home, all of these events occurred 
• It would be fun to retell this story and completely change the chain of events 

Mouse and Mouser

• This story seemed more like a nursery rhyme 
• I'm not sure how I would retell this story, but the style of writing in this story was very unique
• The two main characters banter back and forth with witty remarks - so it might be fun to just completely retell this story with my own made up remarks 

The Story of the Three Little Pigs

• The ending on this story is completely different from the way I was ever told this story
• It's interesting to see how across different cultures that the same nursery rhymes or fairy tales are tweaked
• If I were to retell this story I would try to make the ending more modern and different from the one I have heard of before, and this one in this story

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