Tales of the Brothers Grimm Week 10: European Fairy Tales - Assignments - Reading - Resources - Images

Reflections Essay

Choose one of the essay topics for this week. You will find the topics listed down at the bottom of this page; scroll down to find them. If you want to write on a different topic, contact the instructor first (make sure you do that at least one day before the deadline so that you can receive an answer back in time).

Links to stories. You need to provide a link back to each of the specific stories that you discuss in your essay.

Image. You are required to include at least one image with the story, along with a link to the webpage where you found the image, plus information about the image. You are free to re-use the images you find at the course website, or you can choose some other image to use that you find on the internet. Remember: even if you are re-using an image from the course website, you need to provide image information about it.

Title. You need to include the words "Essay for Week ___" in the title you give to the post, along with a title for your actual story (for example, "Essay for Week 2: Dangerous Magic in Egyptian Legends")

Length. Your Storytelling post needs to be a minimum of 300 words long (maximum 1000 words). Make sure you do a spellcheck and a word count, and that you proofread your post by reading it out loud.

When you are done, complete the Gradebook Declaration.

The "Bad Guys." Most stories contain a "bad guy," an enemy who has to be defeated or an antagonist who has to be overcome. Who were the "bad guys" in this week's stories? What did these antagonists have in common? What made them act the way that they did? Were you ever sympathetic to the "bad guys"? What happened to the "bad guys" at the end of each story? How were the heroes/heroines able to escape from or defeat their opponents? Do any of the "bad guys" learn their lesson or turn out not to be so bad in the end? Make sure you make specific references to at least three different stories in your essay.

Our Fears. Many myths and folktales are "scary" stories that play with things that we are afraid of. Did any of this week's stories qualify as "scary" stories? What are the fears that these stories used in their plots? What were the sources of fear in these stories? How did the characters in the story react to these frightening situations? Why do you think people like reading stories on topics that are frightening? Do these stories somehow calm our fears, or exploit them and make them worse? Make sure you make specific references to at least three different stories in your essay.

An Image. Take a look at the images from this unit that are listed below. Pick one image that you really like and talk about it in detail. Make sure that you connect it with a specific story. What part of the story does it illustrate? Does it match the version of the story we read for class? What do you see in this image at first? What details emerge after you study it more carefully? Does the image fit with your own imaginings about the stories, or does the image surprise you, contradicting what you expected? Make sure you include the URL of the image page in your answer. Choose from one of these images (click on the image for more information):

Recurring Motifs. Folktales and myths are built up of "motifs" - common elements of plot and character that can be used and re-used over and over again, combined and recombined in different ways in order to create variants on existing stories. Did you see some motifs that recurred more than once in this week's stories? Some character types that repeated over and over again? Events in the plots that were similar between one story and another? Other things that repeated from story to story? Discuss these recurring motifs, and explain how these motifs are useful in creating a story. Make sure you make specific references to at least three different stories in your essay.

Parents and Children / Brothers and Sisters. Many myths and folktales are about the relations between parents and their children, or between brothers, or brothers and sisters. What impression did you have of the parents (mothers, fathers) and siblings (brothers, sisters) from this week's readings? Do you think that these parent-child or sibling relationships were an important theme for the stories? Were there some specific family behaviors that were being promoted by the stories? Some specific family behaviors that were being discouraged? Make sure you make specific references to at least three different stories in your essay.

Women's Roles. Many storytelling traditions are male-oriented, with the female characters appearing in clearly subordinate roles. Sometimes the stories are explicitly misogynistic, treating women with contempt, suspicion or fear. In other storytelling traditions, women (or girls) emerge as the central characters, and they are represented in a more positive light. What did you think about the way women and girls were represented in the stories that you read this week? Make sure you make specific references to at least three different stories in your essay.

Resources. Each reading unit has a Resources page, listing websites where you can learn more about the topic. Listed below are some websites chosen from that page. Take a look at these websites, and choose the three sites you find the most interesting. Write a brief paragraph about each site. For each site, include a link to the site and give a brief description of the contents. Explain what you think are the main strengths and weaknesses of each of the sites. How does this information contained in these sites help you in understanding more about the stories from this week's readings?

• Brothers Grimm Home Page by Dan Ashliman
• Teutonic Mythology by Grimm
• German-English parallel texts of some Brothers Grimm fairy tales
• English translation of the Brothers Grimm's Fairy Tales
• Sur La Lune Fairy Tales
• National Geographic: Brothers Grimm
• grimmfairytales.com
• Grimm's Fairy Tales by the Hanky Pank Players

Children's Stories. Do the stories you read this week seem like "children's stories"? In general, what kinds of stories do you think that children like? What kinds of stories are "good" for children to read? What aspects of this week's stories would be really appealing to children? Do you think the language is appropriate for children? Did you read any of these stories when you were a child? What can you remember about your experience of these stories from your childhood? Make sure you make specific references to at least three different stories in your essay.