How Janet Fought Against the Queen of Elves -- A Fairy Tale from Scotland (R))
This fairy tale is found in an anthology entitled
Celtic Tales
retold by Elena Chmelová. It features Janet, a sweet, young, inexperienced maiden who meets Tam, a human being who has been reduced to an elf by an evil troll’s spell. Janet is emboldened to rescue him from the clutches of the elf-queen and her entourage of elves. Janet demonstrates courageous resolve when holding onto Tam while he transforms from an elf to a lizard to a snake to a glowing coal and finally to a handsome young man. She effectively breaks the spell of the elf-queen, falls in love with Tam and they go on to live in happiness and contentment.
In an effort to focus on the inner transformation of Janet rather than the outward transformation of Tam, I will ask my students to consider the following questions: What is Janet’s challenge? How is she different at the story’s ending from what she was at the beginning? Which character traits affected the manner in which she solved her problem? Making a diamond fold as demonstrated on page 10 of Dea Paoletta Auray and Barbara Mariconda’s book,
Easy Art Activities that Spark Super Writing
, students will draw a “before” and “after” version of Janet, focusing on her expression, manner and tasks. They will have to use their imaginations, as there are few illustrations included in this story.
Starlight Princess -- A Fairy Tale from India (R))
This fairy tale is found in an anthology of princess stories entitled
The Starlight Princess and Other Princess Stories
retold by Annie Dalton. It is a beautifully told royal romance whose main characters each have a special gift. Magically emanating from the princess are silvery rays (thus her name, Starlight Princess) which she uses to light up her father’s kingdom at night. Although her parents tried to shelter her, she very firmly makes it clear that her light is meant to be shared with everyone.
The Rajah’s son possesses the gift of understanding the language of every wild creature on the earth. These two young people fall immediately in love upon meeting. Of course, the princess’s father resists their request to marry and demands that the Rajah’s son accomplish three difficult tasks. With the help of some wild creatures that he has helped, the Rajah’s son completes the tasks and wins the hand of the very willing princess.
The princess actually assists the Rajah’s son with his third feat using a strand of her silky hair to help split a tree. Like Janet, this princess is very proactive, confident and knows what she wants. Then again, so does the prince. In this tale the prince takes a magic carpet ride when he first goes to meet the princess. I plan to use this element of the story as a model for the writing of a main event in a narrative. Well-written main events balance action, description and dialogue. Auray and Mariconda, in their aforementioned book, offer some strategies for planning the writing of one’s adventure on a magic carpet (p. 72-75). Lesson Plan I will provide the necessary details.
The Egg Prince -- A Fairy Tale from Africa (R))
In this fairy tale taken from the aforementioned anthology, it is clearly Lebou, the princess, who is the strong, well-developed character in the story. Lebou is as strong and cunning as she is pretty and she uses these traits to gain for herself a husband both handsome and loyal to her. She is the one who has to spend endless hours nurturing him from egg to man using magic ointment and herbs to help him grow healthy and strong. Highly resourceful, Lebou even provides him with his royal garb so that he is rendered presentable to the people of his village. She does not consider herself trapped in any marriage agreement that her father has made on her behalf and threatens more than once to run away if Prince Egg doesn’t turn out to suit her. In fact, the story’s ending has Lebou saving the eggshells that could land the prince right back in the egg, just in case the marriage doesn’t work out. Lebou is another example of a very capable princess undeterred by obstacles and resolved to bend events to her advantage.
This tale lends itself to a retelling through Readers Theatre. After listening to the tale, students will be asked for write a play that tells the story of the egg prince. They will be shown other simple scripts used in Readers Theatre that they can pattern their play after. One good resource for this is Suzanne I. Barchers’s
Multicultural Folktales: Readers Theatre for Elementary Students.
The students will be given ample time to rehearse before presenting the play to the whole class. It is through the readers’ expressive readings that meaning will be conveyed rather than through actions, costumes or props. The primary aim of Readers Theatre after all is to promote reading.
I also plan to use a venn diagram to compare and contrast the princesses in these selected fairy tales with ones found in traditional tales such as Sleeping Beauty, Rapunzel and Snow White. Written descriptions of these princesses would serve two purposes: 1) students would gain practice in describing a story character in specific ways that differentiate one from another; and 2) it will give students ideas about what kind of princess they will use in their written fairy tales.
Neem the Half Boy -- A Fairy Tale from Persia (R))
This fairy tale is in picture book format and is written by Idries Shah. The illustrations are filled with Islamic architecture and ancient Persian dress. Even the fairies are dressed in such attire! It is a wiseman, Arif, who aids the young prince, Neem, in his quest to become a whole boy. He is only a half-boy now because his mother, the queen, did not heed Arif’s words to eat the whole magic apple given to her. Neem sets out courageously to confront Taneen, a fire-breathing dragon and get the special medicine found in his cave that will cause him to become whole. At first, Taneen seems an insurmountable challenge but as they converse (in a very civilized manner) Neem discovers that all the dragon wants is a stove on which to cook his food. He would then be more than willing to give up his fire-breathing ways and live quietly in his cave. Neem’s magical transformation to a whole boy not only brings him great satisfaction, but it also influences the well-being of the whole kingdom. This tale, by the way, could just as easily fit in the next section about dragons.
This fairy tale provides a springboard for further exploration of the traditions, dress and architecture of this ancient culture. I envision students pairing up to do simple research in the library on different aspects of Persian culture.
The Princess on the Glass Hill - A Fairy Tale from Norway (T)
This story is one of seven tales found in Virginia Haviland’s
Favorite Fairy Tales told in Norway.
This tale’s hero is Cinderlad, the youngest of three sons, who, through both courage and cunning, is able to tame and befriend 3 different magical horses. These horses later help him climb the glass hill and win the hand of the fair princess. The villains are his two older brothers, who, jealous of his success, try at every turn to hinder him.
One activity very appropriate for this tale involves having the students compare and contrast Cinderlad with Cinderella. Both, for example, slept in the ashes and were continuously ridiculed by their older siblings. Such a comparison would also reveal differences such as the fact that Cinderella won the prince through the aid of a fairy godmother whereas Cinderlad had to rely on his own wits. As part of this post-reading activity I would have my students sketch pictures of both characters and then encircle the pictures with specific character traits that each possessed. Using a graphic organizer, the individual traits would be listed in separate boxes on one side of the sheet and quotes from the tales that depict each trait would be written in boxes directly across from them. Having gotten a sense for the characters’ personalities, the students would then be asked to take on the point of view of Cinderella and Cinderlad and write a journal entry that they imagine could be written by each.
Frog Princess -- A Fairy Tale from Italy (T)..
This fairy tale is found in a collection of Italian tales retold by Michael J. Caduto entitled
the Crimson Elf: Italian Tales of Wisdom.
In this story a very level-headed princess, turned into a frog by an evil curse, aids Pietro, the youngest of three sons, in the successful completion of two tasks asked of him and his brothers by their father, the king. Pietro, with success at hand, asks her to be his wife and instantly the frog transforms into the radiant Queen Isabella and together they reign over his father’s kingdom.
This story lends itself well to the teaching of skills in writing a vivid description of an object. In this tale each prospective princess is asked by the king to produce finely woven cloth and to care for a puppy put in their charge. One of the fabrics is described as “smooth as the fur of a newborn fawn” (p. 31). I would demonstrate through such examples how similes can help vividly describe something. Students would be asked to choose between one of these objects from the story to further describe, initially in list form and later in prose form, using lots of sensory details. I would pattern my lesson after the ones given on pages 40-48 of Auray’s and Mariconda’s aforementioned book. See Lesson Plan II for more details.
