SOCIAL NETWEORKING, ACTIVATE!

[yukinoomoni]

Hello everyone!

Over the next couple of days, I will be posting several polls and questions in order to research some stuff for a project I'm working on. Once the questions progress, it will be obvious what my project is, but for now try to answer as honestly as possible, not in the way you think I want you to answer. The polls and the comments will be given an anonymous option, in case you want that.

So, on to the first round! And here is the topic:

QUESTIONS, ROUND ONE: YOUR TOP TEN FAVOURITE FAIRY TALES OF ALL TIME

In the comments below, please list, in order of favourite (the first being the best and the last being the least favourite), the first ten fairy tales that you find your favourites. There is no cultural boundaries, country or continental boundaries. All I ask is, if the tale did not originate in English and I have not heard of it, please provide a link.

It also doesn't matter how obscure or popular the tale is - YOU JUST HAVE TO LIKE IT. If you cannot think of ten, then round it down to five. Any less than five, I can't use.

Details of this project I wish to keep semi-secret for now. A few already know what this is, but for the sake of objective results, keep it shushed!

So, no polls this round. Just lists, in the comments, of (preferably) ten, but five is also... acceptable.

I plan on keeping this venue open for a week, so take your time thinking it all out and commenting. It's really important!

Comments

[ladyhadhafang.livejournal.com]

1. The Little Mermaid

2. Beauty and the Beast

3. Cinderella

4. The Ugly Duckling

5. Snow White

6. Rapunzel

7. Sleeping Beauty

8. Hansel and Gretel

9. Little Red Riding Hood

10. Jack and the Beanstalk

[resonant.livejournal.com]

The Qalupalik!

I got this for my little cousin.

A kid is teased by his friends because his parents were eaten by polar bears, so he has nobody to mend his boots, and his boots are so worn that his toes peep out.

Then a Qalupalik attacks.

The Qalupalik has never seen toes before, and asks what they are for.

The kid says "They are for eating Qalupalit"

The Qalupalik swims away, and the friends stop teasing him about his toes.

http://www.kidsbooks.ca/product.aspx?ProductID=167828&deptid=3705&

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

I need at least four more from you or else I can't use this.

[dungeonwriter.livejournal.com]

1. The Golem http://www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/jsource/Judaism/Golem.html

2. Life and Death in the Tongue http://rabbigarycreditor.blogspot.com/2010/03/life-and-death-is-in-power-of-tongue.html

3. Onias http://www.sacred-texts.com/jud/jftl/jftl19.htm

4. The Snake in the Wall http://www.chabad.org/library/article_cdo/aid/347512/jewish/The-Snake-in-the-Wall.htm

5. Ali Baba and the 40 Thieves

6. King Arthur

7. The Journey of Sinbad

8. Peter and the Wolf

9. The Fisherman and His Wife

10. The Emperor's New Clothes

[agentjayhere.livejournal.com]

I'm really regretting my lack of mythology knowledge here.
The last fairy tale I can remember is...Le Morte d'Arthur (if we stretch the fairy story definition a little), and I didn't even get 1/5th through the prologue.
All the other ones, I can't remember, so they don't count as favorites. That movie version of Jack and the Beanstalk isn't the source material, so it also doesn't count.
Final Fantasy 6 also doesn't count, though I'm sure there's a fairy or two in there.

Sorry, I'm stumped. Can I call a friend, Regis?

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Sorry but I need at least five to take your answer.

[agentjayhere.livejournal.com]

Does it count if I go find some favorites right now?

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

If they are honest.

[agentjayhere.livejournal.com]

The Bamboo-Cutter and the Moon-Child (Kaguya-hime)
Urashima Taro
Momotaro (Peach Boy)
Tawara Toda (My Lord Bag of Rice)
The Sagacious Monkey and the Boar

The version I read was "Japanese Fairy Tales" by Yei Theodora Ozaki.
You can read all these with the same translation I perused at http://www.gutenberg.org/files/4018/4018-h/4018-h.htm , but the illustrations are missing, sadly.

In the case of the last one, what I took from it was "don't get involved in crackpot schemes involving monkeys". I guess you could suppose there was a bit of justice involved, but that the monkey is an accomplice makes the whole thing a bit twisted.
"Your sacrifice shan't be in vain, Mr. Boar!"
"I'M GOING TO HAUNT YOU FOREVER FOR THAT, YOU MONKEY BASTARD"

[agentjayhere.livejournal.com]

How'd it turn out?

[amelia-seyroon.livejournal.com]

1. Alice in Wonderland

2. Little Red Riding Hood

3. Hansel and Gretel

4. Beauty and the Beast

5. Snow White

[mysticjuicer.livejournal.com]

1. The Labours of Hercules
2. The Seven Swans (or The Three Ravens from the Storyteller)
3. The Soldier and Death (also from the Storyteller)
4. The Heartless Giant (also from the Storyteller)
5. Mother Holle

I didn't think it would be so hard to think of awesome fairytales... :P

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

I am actually unsure if tales from a TV show can be used, unless they are a retelling?

[dorknessrising.livejournal.com]

The Little Mermaid
Cinderella
The Steadfast Tin Soldier
The Nutcracker Prince
The Legend of the Bluebonnet (Comanche folktale)
The Snow Queen
Hansel and Gretel
Rapunzel
Jack and the Beanstalk
Beauty and the Beast

[caster13.livejournal.com]

1. Alice in Wonderland.

2. And...

3. Uh...

4. I can't think of any others. Sorry x_x

[yukinoomoni.livejournal.com]

Then I can't use you. Dismissed.

[toomomforyou.livejournal.com]

I like Aladdin :)

[l-bea.livejournal.com]

I'm not even sure if I HAVE 10 favourite fairytales! This sounds like some kind of creative writing exercise? I'll do my best...

The Princess and The Pea, 'cos it has this great imagery: this kind of prologue bit at the start where the young prince who needs to get married travels around, meets a variety of different princesses but none of them are 'quite right', then this mystery princess turning up in a rainstorm and the royal family playing this elaborate prank on her - all those mattresses! Yet it's all so hilariously misguided, extreme fragility isn't a desireable quality for marriage! What is the prince thinking? It's never actually mentioned in the fairytale but I always feel like there's this unwise marriage to an extremely frail princess hanging over the 'happy ending' - the princess is supposed to be desireable 'cos she's so sensitive, (-but she doesn't demonstrate sensitivity towards others, only herself!) The story closes with the princess having had a terrible night's sleep and her inlaws-to-be standing around pleased as punch going "Perfect marriage material!" That's gonna be one weird family.

There's a spooky nordic fairytale that I've always kind of liked, which (I just checked) turns out to be called "White Bear King Valemon"... (There's also a very similar Scottish variation I like, with a bull instead of a bear, called "The Black Bull of Norroway". They both start off a bit like Beauty and the Beast with a girl/enchanted beast marriage, turns into the heroine's quest after a husband who goes missing, which involves welding spiked shoes out of iron to climb a gigantic glass mountain and defeat a witch/troll queen. I like 'em 'cos both variations are sort of hauntingly strange and involve a female rescuing her male lover. There's a moment in the bear version that mirrors the Greek myth of Cupid and Psyche, too, where the curious wife discovers husband's true identity by spying upon his sleeping face with a candle at night. She's rumbled when a drip of hot wax falls on hubby, who wakes and flies away.)

I was recently reminded of the Japanese myth of Amaterasu, in which upset sun goddess, Ameterasu, hides in a cave with a stone rolled over the mouth. The world starts to suffer without the sun, and, in despair, the other gods decide to trick her into coming out by pretending they're having this really great time partying outside the cave and she's missing out. They cajole her, saying that they've got a new favourite goddess they're partying with who shines brighter and is more beautiful than her. Ameterasu storms outside towards the blinding light of this beautiful woman, and finds herself face to face with a mirror that her fellow gods have hung outside the cave ("for who is more beautiful than you?") Her confidence returned, Ameterasu sees anew how beloved she was all along (oh, and the world gets the sun back!)

Bluebeard - 'cos it's a grim, high-gothic tale about secrets, serial killer husbands and torture chambers. The seeds of the modern crime novel are right there, and the all-too-contemporary anxiety underlying the whole story about the ultimate unknowability of others and the inability to foresee a family member turning murderous. In the real world, women are statistically most likely to be killed by their partner - now that's scary. Plus, Angela Carter wrote a badass version of Bluebear in The Bloody Chamber, in which it's the heroine's mother, not her brother, who storms the castle at the last minute to cut off bluebeard's head. Have you read The Bloody Chamber? So. Good. (Also, if you ever come across a copy of feminist fairytale books The Practical Princess or Jack Zipes' Don't Bet On The Prince...you won't regret picking them up! Along with The Bloody Chamber, they are my favourite european-fairytale-related literature and changed the way I think about storytelling.)

long answer is longg