#GRIMMread2019 Challenge Week 2

Week 2 of #GRIMMread2019 is in the bag! I’m not behind anymore. If anything I’m ahead because I read two stories last week that weren’t on the list. This week I read all of the tales listed below:

• Our Lady’s Child (aka Mary’s Child)
• The Youth Who Could Not Shiver and Shake
• The Wolf and the Seven Kids
• The Strange Musician
• The Good Bargain
• Faithful John

Our Lady's Child

The premise behind Our Lady's Child is a woodcutter gives his only child to the Virgin Mary rather than have her starve to death.

Right at that point I was left wondering…Is this a coping method? I found myself caught and arrested wondering, did a woodcutter lose his daughter? Is this, quite possibly, the story that people told among themselves to explain what happened to themselves? Was there a famine and quite a few people lost children and this story helped them through it? The history of why a story begins is often as interesting as the story itself.

​Back to the story, the child lives in heaven and all is well until she disobeys Mary and opens the 13th door. When the girl lies about having opened the door, she is returned to earth without recourse. Years pass until a king finds her and takes her away to his kingdom. Each year she bares him a child and loses it within the first night because she will not confess her sin.

​As she is tied to a stake to burn, she finally feels the “ice of pride crack” and confesses. Her children are immediately returned to her and they all live happily ever after.

Wow. Just wow. This blew my mind.

I would give my life for my children. Confession seems minor in comparison. Even my pride would not stop me from confessing, heck lying, to save my kids.

​Outside of my strange reactions to the story, this is one of the more fully developed tales. Interestingly though, despite how developed it is, we are never told anyone’s name other than the Virgin Mary. How bizarre is that? An entire story where only one character has an actual name!

The Youth Who Could Not Shiver and Shake

This one is a perfect scary story just waiting to give you nightmares. Bones coming out of coffins in a haunted—literally haunted—castle. I want to rewrite this one so badly!

​But…I totally hated the main guy. How could anyone be so bumbling and clueless? I’m glad he made it through. I was totally rooting for him. I just didn’t see him grow at all through the experiences, which was rather annoying.

​The Wolf and the Seven Kids

First, when telling this story to a child, be prepared to explain what a “kid” is because mine were initially a bit freaked out.

Overall, they loved the story though. The wolf comes to eat the “kids” three times—quite typical of tales and fables. He is finally successful and all but one of the “kids” is eaten. Mama goat comes home and saves the eaten “kids” from the wolf, filling his stomach with stones.

Ok. My children did not believe that at all. They wanted to know how the wolf slept through mama goat cutting him open, putting stones in him, and then stitching him closed. That’s a seriously good question. I’m pretty sure that anyone getting their stomach cut open would feel it enough to wake up.

​Outside of that central issue that none of us could really get past, it was a cute story. Kind of.

​The Strange Musician

I hated the message of The Strange Musician. Never mind that the message is quite accurate, I still hate it. The message is...

...people who do mean things and hurt people/animals are not always punished. Sometimes they are protected and even rewarded.

I sincerely really hated, to the very depths of my soul, telling my children that such things truly do happen. It was physically painful. I didn’t lie about it though. I told them that I thought it was wrong. I can only hope they realize that just because something happens doesn’t mean that we have to like or accept it.

​The Good Bargain

​The Good Bargain is a stupid person making a fool of themselves until they figure out how to fix the mess they created. Throwing money at frogs for croaking and then getting upset about it when the frogs don’t return the money! Literally! See with the exclamations, it’s like I’m behaving in the same way as that stupid person.

Let’s move on. Please. Because I kind of saved the worst for last. Kind of...

Faithful John

Faithful John, the last story of the week. A young, naive king tricks and kidnaps a princess because he’s in love with her. He is aided in his endeavors by Faithful John. Talk about the extreme version of a wing man!

​John does all kinds of things to ensure the king gets to marry and live with the princess, who is totally cool with being kidnapped for love. John ends up turned to stone. Not turned into a stone. More like he becomes made of stone. A Faithful John statue. That's where the tale should end; and yet it does not...

Years pass. The king has two children. He willingly kills his kids one day while his wife attends church—which means, ladies, never leave your husbands at home with the kids while you go to church—to get Faithful John back.

Since this is a fairytale, of course it works and all is well. Faithful John is back and so are the kids. They all live happily ever after.

Or do they????

​If you want to read a completely unique take on the kids’ view of having been killed by their father, check out this book by Adam Gidwitz. Honestly, if you want to read a truly uniqued way of linking Faithful John to Hansel and Gretel, try out Adam's book, A Tale Dark & Grimm. It is lots of fun. Just don't plan to read it to young kids (even if it is in the Middle Grade or Young Adult section).

Other weeks are listed below.
#GRIMMread2019 Week 1
#GRIMMread2019 Week 3

Thanks for stopping by. Circle back around next week (Week 3) for an update on the next four Grimm’s tales:

• The Twelve Brothers
• The Pack of Ragamuffins
• Little Brother and Little Sister
• Rapunzel

And remember to check out everyone else who's participating in the #GRIMMread2019 Challenge by clicking a link below.