Fairy Tale Friday--Old French Fairy Tales

This week I'd like to tout this whole book, because all the illustrations are gorgeous!  I'm including some of the color plates here, but don't miss the black-and-white ones in the book.

Old French Fairy Tales

by Sophie Segur

Illustrations by Virginia Frances Sterrett

Fairy Tale Friday--The Month of March

For the last Friday in March, I would like to feature the story The Month of March on page 42 of Italian Fairy Tales by Georgene Faulkner.  This is the first fairy tale I've read that features personified months; seasons, sure, but not months.

It also includes the very common theme of two people (in this case a rich brother and a poor brother) getting a completely different results from an encounter with the same supernatural being(s).

Fairy Tale Friday--Aino Folk-tales

The Ainu are an indigenous Japanese people.  This collection of tales aimed at academics hasn't got any illustrations, so I've added one from a Dover clip art collection.


Aino Folk-tales by Basil Hall Chamberlain

The story I would like to feature is The Man who was changed into a Fox on page 25.  Foxes appear frequently in Japanese folklore. They generally disguise themselves as women, or possess the souls of women,  so that makes this story an interesting exception.

Fairy Tale Friday--Urashima

Japanese Fairy Tales  By Teresa Peirce Williston has lots of color illustrations.  I'd like to tout the story Urashima.  It's a Japanese version of Rip Van Winkle.

Not from the book

Fairy Tale Friday--Prince Hat Underground

This title caught my eye because I love hats.  The tale, as told starting on page 187 of the collection Swedish fairy tales. Translated by Tyra Engdahl and Jessie Rew., never explains why he is Prince Hat.  Does he favor hats over crowns?  Is his head particularly important?

Another interesting element is the "singing leaves," which the good daughter (pictured above) asks her father to bring her.  Of course, her request for this weird gift gets her away from her father into the realm of Prince Hat Underground.  She has to live with him without seeing him, but (as in the story of Cupid and Psyche) she sneaks a look at him while he's sleeping, which makes him leave.  Then she has to go through a lot of rigamarole to get him back.

It's a very long, complicated story with many motifs.

Fairy Tale Friday--a New Series

I love fairy tales, and thanks to an army of 19th C tale-collectors Google Books has lots of copyright-free ones.   In honor of Open Access Week, I'm going to search out ones that interest me and feature them here on Fridays.

 

The first one is from Old Norse Fairy Tales: Gathered from the Swedish Folk. 

The Princess Sigorra

This tale includes several common folklore motifs:  A father is fooled into giving his child to a supernatural being (pictured above) (Thompson S241)*;  the child (in this case a son) is trapped in the SB's realm and is set, by said SB, several impossible tasks (Thompson H900), which the son accomplishes with directions from a woman (Princess Sigorra) (Thompson K1848); The son is finally able to flee with the aid of PS;  The son returns home, and, because he does not follow her instructions, he forgets PS.(Thompson D2003); The son's family arranges for him to get marries, and SB has to resort to complicated tricks to get to him and refresh his memory.


* Thompson, Stith, Motif-Index of Folk-Literature

Easter Without Eggs

My neighbor and I went to the MFA to see the Quilts and Color exhibit.  Fortunately, Easter-related activities kept the crowds elsewhere, so we could see the quilts easily.  I bought the catalogue for this exhibit.

Next, after a lovely meal at Cafe Jaffa, Rosemary and I strolled to the Marathon finish line to check stuff out.

On Patriots' Day I am back at work, since Harvard is not patriotic enough to give us the day off.  Chris has used rubber bands to make love beads.

Finally We Get a Nice Day!

Tipping Point

JB's boxes of CDs are dangerously unstable.

All Books Contain Mistakes..

..but some mistakes are better than others.  We were talking about this last week, so I decided to scan the title page of the Library of America volume 24  that misspelled "Melville."

The publisher offered to replace the volume, but Jon Lanham decided to keep it.

The Results Are In!

Back in November I decided to get my DNA done and contribute the results to the National Geographic's project to trace various peoples' movements over the globe.  The following represents my forebears 6 generations back.


40% Northern European

37% Mediterranean

16% Southwest Asian

6% Native American

Then we go way back, when my early ancestors were screwing around with other hominids:

My hominid ancestry  2.1% Neanderthal and 1.5% Denisovan

Neanderthal left; modernish human right

Snow is Pretty

All these pictures were taken indoors.  The first two were taken from inside the 69 bus.

Policy Change

"Photography by students, faculty, staff and guests (such as visitors to parents’ weekends) using hand-held, self-contained cameras is permitted so long as it respects the privacy of library patrons, does not disrupt or interfere with the scholarly environment, the work of library users or staff or the safety of the collections and abides by copyright law. Personal photographers should not record any library patron without prior consent, and photography cannot be used for commercial purposes."

Since I have to open the Widener desk on Wednesdays, I took a bunch of shots before opening.

Loker Reading Room with the barrel vault ceiling.

The reference room (Atkins) with my back to the windows.

The lounge outside Loker and Atkins.

Stairs leading up to level 2.

Entrance to Loker.

Ancient suggestion box.