Introduction


Image result for Basilisk
My name is John McEachern and I am writing this blog as a part of Dr. Esa's class on folk and fairy tales at McDaniel college. Although I am taking this class mainly to fulfill an honors elective requirement, I chose this class specifically because I have always had an interest in myths, legends, and folk tales. When I was younger, I had a particular fascination with stories of mythical creatures and I have a lot of great memories looking for them in the woods during by older brother's baseball games. I don't really believe in these kinds things anymore, but I still love to read stories about ghosts, magic, and monsters and think that their is an inherent value in the sense of thrill, mystery, and wonder at the world that such stories impart.

In this class, I am looking forward (first of all) to reading fairy and folk tales every week and feeling these emotions as I do so. I am also looking forward to learning how to view fairy tales from a literary perspective and learning about the relationship between tales from different cultures. Whether the similarities between them are the result of tales originating in one place and spreading around the globe or some fundamental, shared feature of our humanity, I think that it is fascinating and kind of beautiful that we all share a heritage in the form of these stories.


My Favorite Fairy Tale:
Image result for tough gnomePicking my favorite fairy tale is a bit difficult, but I think that if I had to choose, I would have to go with The Gnome. I first read this story towards the end of my sophomore year of high school as a part of a French project in which I had to make a short movie version of a fairy tale. It is about a king whose daughter is kidnapped by a dragon. The king sends three huntsmen to try and rescue her, but they keep running into a gnome in the woods. The gnome asks the two younger huntsmen for a piece of bread, but whenever they give it to him, he drops it and asks for another one. Finally, they refuse to give him anymore bread, so the gnome beats them senseless and takes the whole loaf. Eventually, the oldest huntsmen comes across the gnome (and his unconscious companions) and accuses him of trying to steal their bread. He then forces the gnome to take them to where the dragon is. I'm not really sure what the meaning of this story is (I'm hoping to maybe get into that in class at some point), nor does it really give me the feeling of wonder I described above - I just think its really funny.

My reasons for loving my favorite adaption of a fairy tale - Stephen Sondheim and James Lapine's musical Into the Woods - are a little more series. Not only does the show flesh out the motivations of several classical fairy tale characters in some really interesting ways, but it also has a very important, well delivered, yet simple message about the power our words and actions have to effect the lives of others and what this means for our obligations in ethics and story telling.

Picture Credits:
https://hekint.org/2017/02/01/the-basilisk-a-cause-of-sudden-death/
https://www.pinterest.com/pin/848506386014130286/






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