Main > Product Info > Cores > P 3/4 > Fairy Tale Complaints
Letter from customer and Amy's response:
/Dear Sonlight, /
/Several months ago, I bought the P3/4 package, and for the most part, I absolutely love it, and am so glad that I bought what I did. I’ve had a hard time finding sensible stories that had appropriate morals or ethics, and most of what I bought, I really love, and have recommended the titles to other parents. /
/However, the fairy tale books make me a little uncomfortable, especially the Hans Christian Anderson’s Fairy Tales (marked FA31 in my catalog)./
/I wonder if perhaps I am simply missing the point of these stories, if there is some aspect where my ‘liberal’ upbringing is unable to grasp the value of. I found the stories... horrifying in the morals that they were demonstrating. Would you please provide some perspective on these that will help me see their value? /
/The first two stories, “The Wild Swans//, and “Dan the Dunce”, were particularly hard for me to get through. Here is my perspective. In Dan the Dunce, there is a princess who wants to get married, and a Count’s family whose sons want to marry her. Two of the sons work really hard to be as prepared as possible – they study law, comedy, Latin, politics... and the third, Dan, lazily takes a nap in the back yard. It’s time for the sons to go court the princess, and they ride off, Dan follows along, on a goat, sloppy, not taking the expedition seriously. And the two studious brothers then fail miserably to impress the princess. Dan goes and takes a dead bird and a muddy shoe that he found on the roadside as gifts for princess, and voila, the princess is impressed, and marries Dan. /
/(It seems so far from modern zeitgeist that I just don’t get it... the guys who did their best, tried their hardest, are outstripped by some flippant dunce?)/
/That story, strange as it is to me, isn’t nearly as weird as The Wild Swans. In which the Princess, cast out of her father the king’s good graces by Wicked Stepmother, is tasked with rescuing her brothers. Before she can rescue them, however, she’s taken captive by another King, where everyone thinks she’s pretty except for the wicked minister, who tells the King that the girl is a witch. And the king seems to take his word for it, and goes to burn her at the stake. Luckily, Princess was able to finish her task of rescuing her brothers, and they turn from swans into princes... just as she was being tied up. Everyone is happy, and she marries the King. /
/Besides the fact that she’s marrying the person who was perfectly willing to BURN HER ALIVE a moment earlier for being a witch... isn’t turning 12 swans into young men after all, the sort of thing she was accused of that got her on her way to the stake in the first place? (King was going to kill her because she was a witch, and after doing something that provided evidence that she was, in fact, a witch (which was apparently a burnable offense), he then marries her?) /
/I’m not opposed to the idea of witches and fairies and magic in fictional tales, which these definitely are – that’s really not my issue with the story. /
/I read through the rest of the stories, and didn’t find any that I’d be willing to share with my son. They were all full of ‘icky’ morality, and I can’t find anything redeeming about them./
/So this is where I am, confused and wondering if there’s something I’m just totally missing about these stories, this book in particular. /
/Best regards, /
Tara Cobbs
AND THE RESPONSE:
Hi, Tara,
I am glad that P3/4 has been going well for you. Those are many of our favorite books here at the Lykosh house.
Here is my perspective on the two stories you mentioned. In /Dan the Dunce/, I read it as two stuck-up, privileged, favored sons who study topics that will make themselves look good (as opposed to studies that will serve the greater good or even be of interest to the princess). Off they ride in their pride, and they are embarrassed when they have nothing to say in front of the very important people. Dan (who, admittedly, would not be my ideal for a husband), on the other hand, is certainly different, entirely himself, entirely original, entirely unconcerned with what other people think of him, and comfortable around all people, from the least to the greatest. So I read this more as a pride goes before a fall and be yourself story.
In the Wild Swans, you bring up a good point (why would Eliza want to marry a man who, moments before, was trying to burn her at the stake?!?). I like this story, though, because she is willing to sacrifice to save her brothers: first her own comfort (stinging nettles on her hands), her own happiness (she could have easily married the king who loved her), and in the end her own life. Thats a fierce love!
And in fairy tales in general, I dont think you can look too hard at whats required (why did Sleeping Beauty have to sleep 100 years? Why did the bakers wife have to figure out Rumplestiltskins name in three days?). It is sort of like looking at the rules of a sport (why do you run back and forth to get a ball in a basket or a goal? Why swim back and forth down a lane in the fastest time possible?). At some point, you just accept it and move on. Thats the way I see Elizas spinning of the shirts: it was the requirement that the fairy tale named, and has to do with witchcraft only in the sense of breaking a spell, not casting it. Its only witchcraft as much as any fairy tale has it.
I read the Anderson fairy tales as mostly being about strong love (The Nightingale, The Tin Soldier) and being comfortable in your own skin (Ugly Duckling).
Thank you for the chance to share why I like these stories. J
Amy