The Last Dream of Old Oak

The Last Dream of Old Oak is a seasonal short story by Hans Christian Andersen. You can read it online here or here or listen to it read to you at the bottom of this post. It begins,

In the forest, high up on the steep shore, and not far from the open seacoast, stood a very old oak-tree. It was just three hundred and sixty-five years old, but that long time was to the tree as the same number of days might be to us; we wake by day and sleep by night, and then we have our dreams. It is different with the tree; it is obliged to keep awake through three seasons of the year, and does not get any sleep till winter comes. Winter is its time for rest; its night after the long day of spring, summer, and autumn. On many a warm summer, the Ephemera, the flies that exist for only a day, had fluttered about the old oak, enjoyed life and felt happy and if, for a moment, one of the tiny creatures rested on one of his large fresh leaves, the tree would always say, “Poor little creature! your whole life consists only of a single day. How very short. It must be quite melancholy.”

“Melancholy! what do you mean?” the little creature would always reply. “Everything around me is so wonderfully bright and warm, and beautiful, that it makes me joyous.”

“But only for one day, and then it is all over.”

“Over!” repeated the fly; “what is the meaning of all over? Are you all over too?”

“No; I shall very likely live for thousands of your days, and my day is whole seasons long; indeed it is so long that you could never reckon it out.”

“No? then I don’t understand you. You may have thousands of my days, but I have thousands of moments in which I can be merry and happy. Does all the beauty of the world cease when you die?”

“No,” replied the tree; “it will certainly last much longer,— infinitely longer than I can even think of.” “Well, then,” said the little fly, “we have the same time to live; only we reckon differently.” And the little creature danced and floated in the air, rejoicing in her delicate wings of gauze and velvet, rejoicing in the balmy breezes, laden with the fragrance of clover-fields and wild roses, elder-blossoms and honeysuckle, from the garden hedges, wild thyme, primroses, and mint, and the scent of all these was so strong that the perfume almost intoxicated the little fly. The long and beautiful day had been so full of joy and sweet delights, that when the sun sank low it felt tired of all its happiness and enjoyment. Its wings could sustain it no longer, and gently and slowly it glided down upon the soft waving blades of grass, nodded its little head as well as it could nod, and slept peacefully and sweetly. The fly was dead.

“Poor little Ephemera!” said the oak; “what a terribly short life!” And so, on every summer day the dance was repeated, the same questions asked, and the same answers given. The same thing was continued through many generations of Ephemera; all of them felt equally merry and equally happy.

The oak remained awake through the morning of spring, the noon of summer, and the evening of autumn; its time of rest, its night drew nigh—winter was coming.

...

I was always more a Grimms' Tales fan and never did embrace Hans Christian Andersen to that degree. Andersen does seem to have more winter season-specific tales, though.

Have a cozy cuppa:

and join me at Elizabeth's T Stands for Tuesday blogger gathering.

Little Man

Little Man is a 2015 short story by Michael Cunningham. It is part of a collection of fairy tale re-imaginings. This one is inspired by Rumpelstiltskin. You can read it online here. It begins,

What if you had a child?

If you had a child, your life would be about more than getting through the various holiday rushes, and wondering exactly how insane Mrs. Witters in Accounts Payable is going to be on any given day.

The Elves and the Shoemaker

I can't say I've ever thought of The Elves and the Shoemaker as a Christmas story, but there it is in black and white: "Now it befell that one evening not long before Christmas...". You can read this Grimms brothers tale online, including here and here. It begins,

A shoemaker, by no fault of his own, had become so poor that at last he had nothing left but leather for one pair of shoes. So in the evening, he cut out the shoes which he wished to begin to make the next morning, and as he had a good conscience, he lay down quietly in his bed, commended himself to God, and fell asleep. In the morning, after he had said his prayers, and was just going to sit down to work, the two shoes stood quite finished on his table. He was astounded, and knew not what to say to it. He took the shoes in his hands to observe them closer, and they were so neatly made that there was not one bad stitch in them, just as if they were intended as a masterpiece. Soon after, a buyer came in, and as the shoes pleased him so well, he paid more for them than was customary, and, with the money, the shoemaker was able to purchase leather for two pairs of shoes. He cut them out at night, and next morning was about to set to work with fresh courage; but he had no need to do so, for, when he got up, they were already made, and buyers also were not wanting, who gave him money enough to buy leather for four pairs of shoes. The following morning, too, he found the four pairs made; and so it went on constantly, what he cut out in the evening was finished by the morning, so that he soon had his honest independence again, and at last became a wealthy man. Now it befell that one evening not long before Christmas, when the man had been cutting out, he said to his wife, before going to bed, "What think you if we were to stay up to-night to see who it is that lends us this helping hand?"

Here's the edition of this story I had growing up:

Grimm's Fairy Tales

I love fairy tales and had been wanting to read this translation of the Grimms' stories for some time. The Ralph Manheim translation was published in 1977. My trouble with different translations is that I know how I want them to sound so prefer the translations from my childhood or from the childhood books of my children. This is a good, accurate, readable translation. No pictures, though 😉

from the back of the book:

Here, for readers of all ages, is the first new translation in half a century of the two hundred and ten tales of the Bothers Grimm. Ralph Manheim, highly acclaimed, prize-winning translator of Celine, Gunter Grass, Bertolt Brecht, and others, has rediscovered in the original German editions of the Grimms' works the unadorned, direct rhythm of the oral form in which they were first recorded. He was retained their ageless magic and mythology and restored the extraordinary vitality and wit, the acute perceptions of human strength and frailty mirrored in the facets of these small gems.

Strange Horizons calls it the "more fluid and readable" of the two key 20th century translations.

Beauty and the Beast (1987)

Beauty and the Beast is a 1987 US/Israeli (filmed in Israel) musical adaptation of the classic fairy tale. It stars John Savage and Rebecca De Mornay and is part of the Cannon Movie Tales series. This one is fairly faithful, and I find it delightful as a child's introduction to fairy tale videos. I despise Disney's fairy tale efforts.

You can read the story online.

"BEAUTY AND THE BEAST" (1987) HD720p by MDWCINEMAHD

"The classic fairy tale about seeing with your heart"

The Adventures of Prince Achmed

The Adventures of Prince Achmed is a 1926 film by German director Lotte Reiniger. This is the oldest surviving feature-length animated film. Her last film was released in 1979, and she died in 1981 at the age of 82. This film is one of her best known and is a treasure not to be missed. At just 65 minutes, how can you resist clicking on that little arrow below and watching it right now?

(1926) Lotte Reiniger - 'The Adventures of... by FILMandCLIPS

Open Culture says:

At that time, The Adventures of Prince Achmed did not, of course, even faintly resemble any feature yet made. “No theatre dared show it,” Reiniger writes, “for ‘it was not done.'” And so they did it themselves, screening the film just outside Berlin, which led to a show in Paris, then one in Berlin proper, by which point Prince Achmed and his magic horse were well on their way to a place in the animation history books.

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics score of 100%.

The Tale of the Two Brothers

The 2015 Read Harder challenge has on its list "A book by an author from Africa". In my effort to avoid buying any books for no other reason than needing them for this challenge, I see The Tale of the Two Brothers available online here, or here, or here. It is an ancient Egyptian story -a fairy tale- of two brothers and the woman who comes between them. Wikipedia says,

There are several themes present in the Tale of Two Brothers that are significant to ancient Egyptian culture. One of these is kingship. The second half of the tale deals largely with Egyptian ideas of kingship and the connection between divinity and the pharaoh....There are also several references to the separation of Egypt into two lands. Throughout ancient Egyptian history, even when the country is politically unified and stable, it is acknowledged that there are two areas

BritishMuseum.org calls it "a style of story that became popular in the New Kingdom (1550-1070 BC). Similar to a folk tale, the story is less formal in style than those of the Middle Kingdom (2040-1750 BC). It has very human characters whose relationships are very realistic, though many of the events that take place in the story are pure fantasy."

The story begins

Once upon a time there were two brothers of the same moth er and father. Anubis was the name of the elder and Batan that of the younger. Now Anubis was married and had a house while his younger brother was his servant. He at tended to the clothes, and followed the cattle on the pasture, and did the ploughing and the threshing; in fact he did everything connected with the farm. He was, indeed, an excellent workman and none could be found like him in the whole country. He was, besides, a good brother.

Now for a long time this younger brother was tending the cattle according to his daily wont, returning home every evening, having on his back the herbs of the field that he h:id gathered while on the pasture, and setting them down before his older brother who passed the time with his wife in eating and drinking. Then he lay down to sleep in the stable with his cattle as usual. The next day he would bake loaves of bread on the fire and place them before his older brother and take some loaves to the field. Here he tended his cattle, pasturing them and walking behind them. But they would tell him where there were good herbs growing, and he would listen to all they told him and drive them where they could find the good herbs they loved so much. His cattle, consequently, thrived under his hands and their young multiplied greatly.

Now when the time of ploughing arrived the older brother said to him: "Come, let us take our yoke of oxen and get ready for ploughing: for the soil is beginning to appear (after the inundation) and is now in excellent condition for ploughing. Do yon, therefore, go to the field with seed. Tomorrow we will begin to plough." Thus he said, and his younger brother made all the arrangements with which his older brother had charged him. On the following day they went out on the field with their yoke of oxen and began to plough. They were quite cheerful at their work and not idle for a moment.

Now after a few days they were again at work in the field when the older brother came to the younger and said: "Run and fetch us some seed from the town!" Then he went and found the wife of his older brother sitting in the house and arranging her hair and said to her: "Come, give me some seed, that I may take it to the field; for my older brother has sent me saying: 'Run, and don't be long about it!'" But she answered him: "Oh, go yourself! Open the bin and take as much as you need. I am afraid, lest my tresses fall to the ground." So the young man went to the stable and took a big basket, which he filled with as much seed as he needed and put on his shoulder full of barley and spelt. But when he came back with it, his brother's wife asked him: "How much have you on your shoulder?" He answered: "Of spelt I have three bushels and of barley two, making in all five bushels that I have on my shoulder." That was all he said. But she replied: "You are, indeed, very strong. I have for some time already been admiring your strength." And her heart grew desirous, for she knew his strength.

The Little Mermaid

Not the Hans Christian Andersen story (online here), and certainly not the happy/sappy Disney version, this is a horror story:

via youtube:

and very, very sad.

The Little Mermaid is a short film directed by Nicholas Humphries.

The Secret of Roan Inish

The Secret of Roan Inish is a 1994 John Sayles film about selkies, tragic creatures who live most of their lives as seals but who can shed their skins to appear as humans. It's a sad story -lost children, lost culture, hope delayed and beautifully told.

trailer:

Moria praises the performances. Rolling Stone says, "Alive with beauty, spirit and wit, Roan Inish is pure magic." Spirituality & Practice calls it a "lyrical film" and says, "The delicate and parabolic story speaks volumes about the spiritual longing for home and the deep meanings which can be conveyed by family stories, communication with animals, and a magical connection with a place." Time Out says, "Tales within tales, a subtle sense of economic and social realities, fine landscape photography and strong performances make for an engrossing, unusual fantasy." Empire Online gives it 4 out of 5 stars and says, "Not so much a children's film as an adult film in which the children and animals are graceful presences, this is a charming, genuinely moving gem". EW gives it a B+ and says, "Only when the last seal has looked squarely into the camera do you realize how notably unsentimental and casually magical Inish is". DVD Verdict says, "It is rare to find a movie so simple yet so beautifully complex and one that can be enjoyed by everyone, no matter what generation they come from." Roger Ebert gives it 3 1/2 out of 4 stars and says,

Of course this is a wonderful "family film," if that term has not been corrupted to mean simpleminded and shallow. Children deserve not lesser films but greater ones, because their imaginations can take in larger truths and bigger ideas.... It is also for adults, of course, except for those who think they do not want to see a film about anything so preposterous as a seal-woman, and who will get what they deserve.

Rotten Tomatoes has a critics review of 98%.

Cendrillon

Cendrillon (no English Wikipedia page) is an 1899 short Georges Melies film re-telling the Cinderella story. This is one of the earliest filmed Cinderellas. This film pioneered the first dissolve effect.

It's online at the Internet Archive:


FilmJournal.net has an article.

The Little Match Girl

The Little Match Girl is a 1937 animated cartoon short that is part of the Color Rhapsodies series. Nominated for an Academy Award, it lost to a Disney cartoon.



This film includes the sad ending without sugar-coating the original Hans Christian Andersen tale as so often happens with his work. I remember crying the first time I read this story. It's online on one short page here.

There is a 1977 Japanese animated version at youtube here. It takes place on Christmas Eve rather than New Year's Eve as in the other one. This ending is also true to the original story.

George MacDonald

This is an edited version of last year's post on George MacDonald:


Today is the anniversary of the death in 1905 of Scottish preacher, poet and fantasy writer George MacDonald. He was a powerful influence on G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and recently deceased Madeleine L'Engle.

Phantastes, his first work of fiction, was written in 1858. It can be read online here, among other places. VictorianWeb has a section of their site devoted to the work.

The Light Princess, published in 1864, is one of MacDonald's most popular works. It can be read online here and on a single page here. Other links, including audio versions are linked here. It was well-loved by my children.

The Golden Key (1867) was one we read some when the kids were little. You can read this fairy tale on one page here or here.

The kids didn't like At the Back of the North Wind (1871) nearly as much. It is here, here and other links and an audio version are here. An illustrated version is here.

The Princess and the Goblin (online here) and The Princess and Curdie were read-alouds for us when the kids were little, but, again, these weren't the favorite repeat reads that some other books were. The first of these two was made into a film, which we have not seen, in 1993. Here's part 1 of the movie, with the other parts linked from here:



My favorite of his books is Lilith, maybe because I discovered the legend of Lilith as Adam's first wife about the same time I discovered this book. It is online here.

LOST AND FOUND

by George MacDonald

I missed him when the sun began to bend;
I found him not when I had lost his rim;
With many tears I went in search of him,
Climbing high mountains which did still ascend,
And gave me echoes when I called my friend;
Through cities vast and charnel-houses grim,
And high cathedrals where the light was dim,
Through books and arts and works without an end,
But found him not--the friend whom I had lost.
And yet I found him--as I found the lark,
A sound in fields I heard but could not mark;
I found him nearest when I missed him most;
I found him in my heart, a life in frost,
A light I knew not till my soul was dark.

More information about George MacDonald can be found here, here at VictorianWeb and here. His son Greville wrote a biography in 1924 which is in print. The Columbia Encyclopedia entry is available at Bartleby.com. A short biography, links to related sites and links to online editions of his works are here.

George MacDonald has a Facebook page

The Red Shoes

I almost bought The Red Shoes for the Powell/Pressburger blogathon but ended up not participating in that one. When I saw the Invitation to the Dance movie blogathon I knew I had to watch this film. It's hard to work up enthusiasm for paying Criterion edition prices, but I did it!

I had seen some some parts of it, but The Husband and The Younger Son had never heard of it. I loved it, The Husband liked it and The Younger Son thought the ballet sequence was too slow. We got into a discussion afterwards about the difference between a slow movie and a boring one and argued a bit over which category Barry Lyndon fits into, but that's another subject....

The ballet within the story is based on the Hans Christian Andersen tale.

There are reviews and interviews at the Powell/Pressburger site. Senses of Cinema discusses the film in the context of Powell's and Pressburger's work and has a page devoted specifically to The Red Shoes here. Criterion Contraption's review is here. The British Film Institute has a page here.

FilmReference.com has a list of references and a commentary which includes this on the film's enduring popularity:

The Red Shoes went on to critical acclaim and, less predictably, to sustained popularity with the public. The lushness of its colour-drenched images and its passion-drenched depiction of the characters were not, in themselves, the factors that determined the initial appeal. It was the dancing, the very thing that had made those executives so leery of the film's viability with something approaching mass audience.

Roger Ebert begins his review saying,

There is tension between two kinds of stories in "The Red Shoes," and that tension helps make it the most popular movie ever made about the ballet and one of the most enigmatic movies about anything.

Films de France ends their review with this statement:

Since its initial release, the film’s reputation has steadily increased and today it is recognised as one of the true great masterpieces of British cinema.

trailer:


the ballet sequence from the movie:


The picture at the top of the post is from wikipedia.

5/30/2010: Criterion Confessions has an article.

Snow White

Snow White is a 1916 silent film directed by J. Searle Dawley, who also directed the 1910 Edison Frankenstein.



This version has a couple of plot elements from the Cinderella story early on that let Snow White get to know, fall in love with and become engaged to her prince before the Wicked Queen starts trying to kill her.

The fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm can be read online here.

Corpse Bride

Corpse Bride is Tim Burton's 2005 re-telling of the old folk tale. It is voiced by Johnny Depp (Edward Scissorhands, Don Juan DeMarco, Once Upon a Time in Mexico, Pirates 1&2, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory), Helena Bonham Carter (Hamlet, Howard's End, Big Fish, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and as Bellatrix in the Harry Potter movies), Albert Finney (Scrooge, Big Fish) and Christopher Lee (Hamlet, The Curse of Frankenstein, A Tale of Two Cities, Dracula and a series of other horror films, The Last Unicorn, the LOTR trilogy, Star Wars 3: Revenge of the Sith, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, The Man With the Golden Gun). What a cast!

This is easily recognizable as having come from Tim Burton and Danny Elfman.

trailer:


10/10/2008:
The Husband, The Daughter, The Younger Son and I watched this tonight during Friday pizza. (The Elder Son is at Theatre Memphis rehearsing Sweeney Todd.)

George MacDonald

Today is the anniversary of the death in 1905 of Scottish preacher, poet and fantasy writer George MacDonald. He was a powerful influence on G. K. Chesterton, J. R. R. Tolkien, C. S. Lewis and recently deceased Madeleine L'Engle.

Phantastes, his first work of fiction, was written in 1858. It can be read online here, among other places. VictorianWeb has a section of their site devoted to the work.

The Light Princess, published in 1864, is one of MacDonald's most popular works. It can be read online here and on a single page here. Other links, including audio versions are linked here. It was well-loved by my children.

The Golden Key (1867) was one we read some when the kids were little. You can read this fairy tale on one page here or here.

The kids didn't like At the Back of the North Wind (1871) nearly as much. It is here, here and other links and an audio version are here. An illustrated version is here.

The Princess and the Goblin (online here) and The Princess and Curdie were read-alouds for us when the kids were little, but, again, these weren't the favorite repeat reads that some other books were. The first of these two was made into a film, which we have not seen, in 1993. Here's a clip from the movie:



My favorite of his books is Lilith, maybe because I discovered the legend of Lilith as Adam's first wife about the same time I discovered this book. It is online here.

LOST AND FOUND

by George MacDonald

I missed him when the sun began to bend;
I found him not when I had lost his rim;
With many tears I went in search of him,
Climbing high mountains which did still ascend,
And gave me echoes when I called my friend;
Through cities vast and charnel-houses grim,
And high cathedrals where the light was dim,
Through books and arts and works without an end,
But found him not--the friend whom I had lost.
And yet I found him--as I found the lark,
A sound in fields I heard but could not mark;
I found him nearest when I missed him most;
I found him in my heart, a life in frost,
A light I knew not till my soul was dark.

More information about George MacDonald can be found here, here at VictorianWeb and here. His son Greville wrote a biography in 1924 which is in print. The Columbia Encyclopedia entry is available at Bartleby.com. A short biography, links to related sites and links to online editions of his works are here.

SFF/Horror at Project Gutenberg

Project Gutenberg, that wonderful home for books no longer under copyright, has a shelf dedicated to science fiction. There are a fair number of real treasures there all in one place.

Precursors of the genre, separated by age, have a different place here. There's a separate bookshelf for the fantasy here. Horror, which sometimes is hard to tell from fantasy depending on who is doing the categorizing, is here. There's a bookshelf for Children's Fairy Tales here, but I don't see the Brothers Grimm on that page, which seems odd to me. Maybe I just missed them.

12 Books to Read

before you are 12 (from The Telegraph via sfsignal):

Freak the Mighty, by Rodman Philbrick
Cloud Busting, by Malorie Blackman
Dream On, by Bali Rai
Evil Inventions (Horrible Science), by Nick Arnold
Framed, by Frank Cottrell Boyce
A Dog Called Grk, by Joshua Doder
I, Coriander, by Sally Gardner Coriander
Journey to the River Sea, by Eva Ibbotson
Mortal Engines, by Philip Reeve
The Ring of Words – An Anthology of Poetry, selected by Roger McGough
Saffy’s Angel, by Hilary McKay Saffy
Unbelievable!, by Paul Jennings

Call me an Old Fogey, but the fact that I've never heard of any of these books says something negative about the list as well as revealing the fact that I have no under-12 kiddies.

My attempt at a list of must-reads for the 12 and under crowd:

Peter and Wendy, by J.M. Barrie

The Wizard of Oz, by L. Frank Baum

Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking Glass and What Alice Found There, by Lewis Carroll

Robinson Crusoe, by Daniel Defoe

Household Tales, by the Brothers Grimm

Moomintroll books, by Tove Jansson

The Phantom Tollbooth, by Norton Juster

The Merry Adventures of Robin Hood and The Story of King Arthur and His Knights, by Howard Pyle

Treasure Island, by Robert Louis Stevenson

The Hobbit, by J.R.R. Tolkien

Adventures of Tom Sawyer, by Mark Twain

and at least 1 book on Greek/Roman and Norse mythology, such as Bulfinch's Age of Fable and Asbjørnsen and Moe's Norwegian Folktales.

Betty Boop as Cinderella

HT: Bibi VideoBlog

Betty Boop also starred in this jazzy version of Snow White:

The Selfish Giant

You can read The Selfish Giant, by Oscar Wilde, here, here, here and here. You can listen to the story online as narrated by Frederick March here. In the early 1970's there was an animated version.

It is such a beautiful story of love, a picture of St. Francis of Assisi's prayer:

for it is in giving that we receive,
it is in pardoning that we are pardoned,
and it is in dying that we are born to Eternal Life.