Reading Diary A: English Fairy Tales

These are some of my favorite stories from the English Fairy Tales unit.

Tom Tit Tot: This story was one of my favorites. It all started with a huge misunderstanding between a girl and her mom. Her mom was baking pies and the crust on the pies got too hard, so she told the girl to sit them aside and they will come back. The girl thought that the mom meant that if she ate them, then the pies would return but the mom meant that the crust will soften once they are left sitting for a while. The girl ate all the pies and the mother was angry. She was singing about how her daughter had eaten all the pies when a king overheard her and asked what she was singing. She didn’t want to be embarrassed and so she told him that her daughter had spun five items. He decided to marry the girl and let her live well for 11 months, then on the 12th month she must spin five items each night. A creature helped her and told her that if she couldn’t guess his name by the end of the month, then she will be his. She was able to guess his name after her husband overheard the creature say it so she did not have to go with him. I just really liked how it all started as a huge misunderstanding but it also left me wondering if the girl would end up dead the next year because no one would be helping her spin.

Spinning wheel by Enfo. Source: Wikimedia Commons

Cap o’ Rushes: I really enjoyed this story because it does have such a happy ending. A father asked his three daughters how much they loved him. When one daughter told him that she loved him as much as fresh meat loves salt, he sends her away thinking that she does not love him. She begins working for some people as a maid. She didn’t want people to know who she was. They just called her Cap o’ Rushes. The people she’s staying with ask her if she wants to go to a dance. She says she doesn’t but dresses up and goes anyways. She does this a couple of times and tells everyone that she is not feeling well and that’s why she does not go. She finally reveals herself to the Prince that had fallen in love with her and they were to get married. Cap o’ Rushes made them make the food with no salt. Her father attended and when he ate the tasteless meat, he realized that she truly did love him. The ending is so sweet and I like how everything worked out for Cap O’ Rushes. I was just never really sure on why she waited so long to let everyone know that it was her that the prince had fallen in love with.