Reading Notes: More English Fairy Tales, Part B
For this assignment, I have continued with "More English Fairy Tales", written by Joseph Jacobs (link above). Part B has a total of 8 single page stories, so I have picked two to write about fro this assignment.
The first story I picked was titled "The Stars in the Sky". This story is about a little girl who only wanted the stars to play with. One day, she set off to try and find the stars herself. She walked until she reached a mill-dam. She asked where she could find the stars, and was told to jump in the water and swim, but she did not find them. She then went on to a brooklet. She asked where the stars where, and she was told to paddle. She paddled, but she did not find them. Next, she found a Good Fold. She asked him about the stars, and was told to dance in the grass, but she still did not find them. Next, she found a horse tied to a tree. She asked the horse about the stars, but was not given an answer. Instead, she told the horse that the Good Folk led her to him, and the horse offered to give her a ride. She carried on meeting animals and people, but never found herself among the stars. Overall, I felt that the story was unnecessarily repetitive, and it could have been much shorter. I feel that it did not need all the extra meetings with people and animals that it had, and the plot just kept repeating itself.
The next story I chose was titled "The King o' the Cats". This story is about the king and his wife, and their cat named Old Tom. The king came in one night asking about a person named Tommy Tildrum. The king went on about his adventure, and how he saw nine black cats with white spots on their chests, just like his cat. The cats were carrying a coffin, with the largest one in the lead. The largest one went up to the king and said to tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Tildrum was dead. When he finished telling his wife the story, they looked over to find their own cat, Old Tom, swelling and staring. Old Tom declared himself the king of the cats, and ran up the chimney, never to be seen again. Overall, I personally do not feel that this story made much sense or even had a real point to it. It feels like it was an excerpt from a larger story that was taken and put on its own, but that it needs more context.
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