Week 13 Storytelling: The Princess and the Pea

Once upon a time there was a prince. He really wanted to marry a true princess, but it was hard to find out if the princess was really a princess, or if she was a fake princess. He traveled all of the lands in search of a real princess with no luck. Every one that he ran into was not a real princess. He had almost given up hope but then his mother came up with a great idea.

She said that only a true princess could eat one thousand peas. The prince knew that this was a great idea so he decided to hold a contest and invite all of the princesses from all around the land. He sent out invitations to over fifty princesses in order to get as many as possible as he could. The contest would be held on a cool spring day.  

The day was finally here, and over forty of the fifty princesses that he invited showed up. They were all talking trash to each other saying who was going to win the contest, because they all wanted to marry this prince. He was the most handsome and noble prince from miles around, and this was there only opportunity to marry him. The contest began and all of the princesses were stuffing their faces with peas. One by one, they began quitting the competitions until only five of the princesses remained. They had all eaten over five hundred peas, which was halfway through the challenge. By the end, of course, only one princess claimed the crown. She was so happy to have completed the challenge.

A picture of peas similar to those the princesses ate. Web source: Wikipedia

The prince immediately asked the winning princess to marry him, and she of course obliged. They went off to get married in the most beautiful mountain in the world. After the ceremony, they returned to rule their kingdom as king and queen. The princess would go on to tell the story of how she ate one thousand peas to become the queen. She was the best princess there ever was, and they both lived to be happily ever after. All of the other princesses that were in the contest never went on to be married, for now all other princes knew that they were all not real princesses. Although this is sad for those that failed the competition, it was the only way to truly tell who was real, and who was a phony.

Author's Note:

This story is based off of the original: The Princess and the Pea. In the original story, the prince was still searching for a real princess. He searched everywhere and couldn't find one. So the queen stacked up twenty mattresses on top of a pea, and had the princess sleep on it without knowing that the pea was there. After the night of sleep, the queen asked how she slept. The princess said that she slept horribly because she felt something hard in her bed. This is how they knew she was a true princess. Instead of telling this original story, I decided for all of the princesses to have a pea eating contest instead. I thought this would make the story a little funier, and a little more interesting. 

The original story can be found here:  Fairy Tales and Stories by Hans Christian Andersen, translated by H. P. Paull (1872).

Extra Reading Diary: Anderson

The Little Mermaid 

The second part of this unit was all about the little mermaid. I had never read the original story of the little mermaid but I thought it was pretty good. I liked that this was more of a sad story. It definitely reminded me of the little mermaid movie that Disney made. I have always appreciated that movie and it was great to be able to read about the original. It was a very sad story though. This was by far my favorite story in the whole unit, although it was very lengthy. Sometimes it is hard to keep my attention in long stories like this, but I was definitely interested throughout the entire story. The mermaid was definitely my favorite character. It was sad all of the hardships and lies she had to go through, but it still made me happy at the end. 

A statue of a mermaid. Web source: Wikipedia

Sometimes I wish that mermaids are real, so it was cool to think that this was real story, even though it wasn’t. All of the stories throughout this unit were very well written and that is why I liked it so much. I think that this was the best story I have read all semester. I wish that there was more stories by this same person so that I could have the possibility to read more. I will probably look up more on this author and read more in the future.

Reading Diary A: Anderson

The Princess and the Pea: This is about a prince who wants to marry a princess, but it has to be a real princess.  The queen laid a pea at the bottom of twenty mattresses and twenty eider-down beds. The princess slept on them all night then was asked how she slept. She said she slept horribly because she felt something rock-hard in her bed. Since she had felt the pea, the prince knew that she was a real princess and so he married her. I really liked this story, but I thought it was kind of farfetched. It would have been nearly impossible for her to climb up on that many mattresses. Overall I really enjoyed this story.

A princess laying on a bunch of mattresses. Web source: Wikipedia

The Wicked Prince: I really enjoyed the overall flow of this story. I thought it had a lot of good detail throughout the whole thing, which is why I enjoyed it so much. I liked the wicked prince in this story even though he did many bad things. I thought he made the story a lot more interesting because people like there to be evil in the story sometimes. I liked the ending of the story the best. It really tied the whole thing together and made it a great overall story.

The Little Match-Seller: I thought this was a really great story. It was hard to pick my favorites in this unit because I truly enjoyed every story that was written in it. The little match-seller was a great character in this story. I was interested in what was going to happen next throughout the whole thing. I think that the way these stories were written were some of the best written ones in the whole class. This was one of my favorite stories, but I think I liked The Princess and the Pea better.

Week 12 Storytelling: For Want of a Nail

There once was a king named Billy. More than anything, Billy wanted to find a nail. He decided that since he wanted one so bad, he would go on a journey to find him. So he began on his journey. He was walking through the woods thinking that perhaps he might be able to find what he was looking for. While he was walking, he stepped into a big pile of quicksand and lost his shoe in it. He couldn’t believe that he lost his shoe like that, but he decided to continue on. He knew he had to find a shoe though, so he would be searching for that as well as a nail.

“FOR want of a nail, the shoe was lost”

Since he didn’t have his shoe, he found a horse to ride. He rode the horse for a long time, but then in the forest ran into a wolf. This spooked the horse and the horse ran off.

“For want of the shoe, the horse was lost”

He was starting to get flustered with all of his misfortunes, so he began wandering on foot again. Before he knew it, it became dark. Billy was now lost in the forest with no clue where he was at.

“For want of the horse, the rider was lost”

While the king was lost in the forest, his kingdom was attacked. He had no way of knowing this was going to happen, and no way of leading an army. Since he was lost in the forest, he had lost the battle at his kingdom.

“For want of the rider, the battle was lost”

After the attackers won this battle, they brought their whole army to take over the kingdom. Since the king had no army to fight them, he ended up losing his whole kingdom over the matter.

“For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost”

He couldn’t believe that because he was out searching for a nail, all of this had happened. He thought that maybe if he would have just sent someone else to do this deed for him, maybe he would still be ruler of the kingdom today. Now the king lives in this forest in which he was originally searching for the nail. Still to this day, he has not found the nail that he was looking for.

“And all from the want of a horseshoe nail”

Image of a horse. Possibly its on the run. Web source: Wikipedia

Author's Note:

I based this off a nursery rhyme titled For Want of a Nail. Here is the original rhyme. 

FOR want of a nail, the shoe was lost;
For want of the shoe, the horse was lost;
For want of the horse, the rider was lost;
For want of the rider, the battle was lost;
For want of the battle, the kingdom was lost;
And all from the want of a horseshoe nail.

I decided to add more of a story to the rhyme. In the original rhyme it doesn't really go into a lot of different details, so I did. I thought it would makes since for him to be a king, since in the original rhyme it talks about him losing a kingdom. 

Extra Reading Diary: Nursery Rhymes

Continued are more nursery rhymes. Once again I found three that really stuck out to me, so brief explanations will follow.

Jack Be Nimble: Once again, I believe that this is a nursery rhyme that almost every knows.  Jack be nimble, jack be quick, jack jump over a candlestick. Such a simple rhyme, but almost everyone has heard of it. I think just the simplicity of this one is what interests me. It is so simple but has become such a popular nursery rhyme.

Jack jumping over a candlestick. Web source: Wikipedia

To Market, To Market: I liked this rhyme a lot. It talked about going to the market to buy a pig, then going to the market to buy a hog. I liked that this rhyme had a lot of nonsense in it. It really had no reason, but still made a great rhyme.

Georgie Porgie: Kind of like the last one, I really liked this rhyme because it didn’t make a whole lot of sense. I also liked the name Georgie Porgie. I thought it had a funny story behind it. He kissed the girls and made them cry, but when they came out to play, he ran away.

Reading Diary A: Nursery Rhymes

This week I read the category Nursery Rhymes. They are all fairly short, but there were about three of them that really stuck out to me, so I will briefly talk about them.

Tom, Tom, The Piper's Son: This is about a boy named Tom stealing a pig and running away with it. There is no exact reason why I really liked this nursery rhyme, but I just liked it for some reason. The imagery it created while I read it is why I liked it.

For Want of a Nail: I liked this one because it reminded me of the lady that swallowed a fly. A story from when I was a kid. This nursery rhyme talked about someone wanting a nail, and they kept losing other things in the search of the nail (or so I assume).

Little Bo-Peep: This is a story that I think everyone knows. It is about little Bo-Peep who has lost her sheep. It is a good nursery rhyme and was good to hear it again. Sometimes I think that the classics are the beset ones to read. I believe this is the one I will used to write a story this week. 

A picture of little Bo-Peep. Web source: Wikipedia

Week 11 Storytelling: The Old Man and the Fairies

There once was an old man that very much enjoyed fairs. He traveled from town to town visiting all of the different fairs in the land. At these fairs, he liked to buy different small items, and them take them to the next towns fair and sell them. He made decent money doing this, but not quite enough to support his huge family. The old man had four kids, and eight grand kids to take care of, as well as his wife. He had been looking for a way to make more money to help support his family, so when traveling around from fair to fair, he was also looking for work. 

            There was a group of mountains that he normally traveled through that were known for being infested with fairies. Fairies were known as being very mischievous characters and were very rarely seen. Some people compared them to ghosts because they had never seen them.  One day the old man decided to take a nap in the mountains. While he was asleep, the fairies came and picked him up and took him to a far off land. 

            The old man awoke in a land full of gold and diamonds. The fairies had taken him to a magical place, where money was not an issue. They told him to take all that he wanted with him, but to never mention how he received his wealth, not even to his family. The old man swiftly agreed to what the fairies had told him, and was quickly on his way with more gold and diamonds than anyone would ever need. 

Gold Bars. Web source: Wikipedia

            Once he was back on the mountain where he had dozed off earlier, he hurried home to show his family the wealth he had acquired. His wife, of course, was very curious of how he had gotten all of that gold and diamonds. The old man told her harshly that he could not tell her where he got it, and never could. His wife threatened to leave him forever if he didn’t tell her, so of course the old man told his wife where he got it. To his surprise, all of the gold still remained even after he told his wife. Had the fairies tricked him? The old man went to bed, with all of his happy family under the same roof. He awoke the next morning to find out that all of his gold and diamonds were gone, because like the fairies had warned him, he told his wife how he had received the goods.

Author’s Note:

The story I wrote was based off of the original story The Old Man and the Fairies. I kept the main storyline the exact same. In the original story, it is still about a man that travels to fairs and receives gold from fairies. The man takes the gold home to his family and tells his wife how he got it. Then when he awoke the next day all of the gold was gone. What I didn't like about the original story is that it didn't give very many details, so it left me kind of confused at the end. In my story, I added a lot of details so the story made more sense. I added why the old man was traveling from fair to fair, and why all of the gold disappeared in the end. I thought adding more detail to the story made it a lot more fun to read, and did leave you feeling so empty at the end. The original story can be found here: Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).