Hi everyone! I hope you’re all well. Today is Wednesday, meaning it’s time for another post in the Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge hosted by Long and Short Reviews. If you’d like to participate in the challenge, you can find the list of topics for 2023 here. If you want to read other people’s responses to this week’s topic, you can find them here.

Favourite Fairytale or Legend and Why?

I have two favourite fairytales that I remember my parents reading to me as a child: Hansel and Gretel and The Little Mermaid. Both are fantastic stories, and both are enthralling not only to children but to grown adults, too (at least to this adult).

Hansel and Gretel
Myriad versions of this story exist in numerous places, all differing in various elements, except the central premise, which is always the same: a brother and sister lost in the woods happen upon a house made of gingerbread. Hungry, they start snapping off bits of the house to eat until they are discovered by the old witch who lives there. The witch ends up locking Hansel in a cage and proceeds to fatten him up enough so she can eat him while she treats Gretel like a servant. When she can wait no longer to have a bite of Hansel, she preheats her oven, asking Gretel at one point to see if it’s hot enough. Gretel asks the witch to show her how, and when she does, she throws her into the oven and locks the door, saving her brother and killing the witch.

I still really enjoy the story of Hansel and Gretel, even as a thirty-seven-year-old man, because it still gives me the creeps. It also holds a nostalgic place in my heart.

My dad was a great storyteller, and he would often do the voices of the characters from the stories he’d read us at bedtime; his wicked witch still sticks in my mind as one of the most creepy, awful and yet wonderfully performed characters I’ve encountered.

The version of the story I just read to refresh my memory for this post is relatively tame for being in a Grimm Brothers collection. I know there are different Grimm collections – some edited to a more child-friendly level than others by modern standards – so perhaps I have one of the milder versions. Or, maybe my dad’s retelling is so indelibly etched on my brain that others can’t compare. Either way, Hansel and Gretel is a classic and is undoubtedly one that can be read over and over without becoming tiresome.

The Little Mermaid
I first encountered The Little Mermaid when I was around three years old. Someone bought me a large book of Hans Christian Andersen fairytales with a dark blue cover and an image of a blonde mermaid with a silver tail. I was transfixed instantly.

I have an intensely vivid memory of my Nanna sitting me on her lap and reading through the stories as I waited, with eager interest for the one about the lady on the cover. When she got to The Little Mermaid, I was not disappointed. The story is, by far, in my opinion, one of Andersen’s most evocative stories. I love how he describes the world under the water: the flowers, the way the sun looks beneath the surface and how he describes the Sea King’s palace.

The year I got the Hans Christian Andersen book was the same year Disney’s animated version came out, and once I saw that, the cartoon game changed in my house. Tom and Jerry and Bugs Bunny were (temporarily) sidelined in favour of the wildly vivid undersea world of The Little Mermaid. As some of you who read my posts regularly may already know, The Little Mermaid started a lifelong obsession with mermaids, which led me to fantastic movies like Splash! and Miranda and its (slightly) less funny sequel, Mad About Men.

What I love about fairytales is their ability to lead you into a world of magic, mystery and adventure on a first reading and keep you there, at least in a tiny way, forever. Every fairytale I have ever read is still in my head somewhere and still means something to me all these years later. They had such a profound impact on my life that they are even part of my motivation for becoming a writer.

Well, I think that’s enough outta me for now.

Post 37 is over and done! How are we this far into the year already? I know I say that a lot, but it’s because I’m always surprised by how quickly time seems to pass lately.

Anyway, I am very intrigued to find out what some of your answers to this week’s topic will be, and I’m looking forward to reading them!

Thank you, as ever, for spending some time with me today. It really means the world.

Until next time,

George

© 2023 GLT

Categories: life, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge

Tags: blog, fairytale, fairytales, Hans Christian Andersen, Hansel and Gretel, The Little Mermaid, Wednesday, Wednesday Weekly Blogging Challenge