Mighty Mikko
This week I read Mighty Mikko: A Book of Finnish Fairy Tales and Folk TalesMighty Mikko: A Book of Finnish Fairy Tales and Folk Tales, which is a really fantastic collection of Finnish fairy and folk tales.
The stories were ...I use the term "polished", which is where the author/transcriber/translator takes the old tales and edits them to a greater or lesser extent. We often scoff that the Victorians took all the grit out of the fairy tales, and that's true, but more often "polishing" just makes the stories into a better read.
The brothers Grimm didn't polish anything, and...have you read Grimm's? It's either very violent, or just very weird.
So I'm not opposed to polishing tales. Actually, in this volume, I would have preferred a bit more polish, at least in the instances of cannibalism. I'm pretty immune to most things, but for some reason, when one speaking being eats another speaking being (whether wife, child, or different animal species), it disturbs me.
I still liked this volume. I just got a bit creeped out in a few of the tales. Maybe that's for the best, actually. Maybe it's the last bit of grit in these tales and I should embrace it.
“My friends,” he said, “we’ve been eating the old woman! However, we’ve eaten so much of her that I suppose we might as well finish her!”
...or maybe not.
The stories were ...I use the term "polished", which is where the author/transcriber/translator takes the old tales and edits them to a greater or lesser extent. We often scoff that the Victorians took all the grit out of the fairy tales, and that's true, but more often "polishing" just makes the stories into a better read.
The brothers Grimm didn't polish anything, and...have you read Grimm's? It's either very violent, or just very weird.
So I'm not opposed to polishing tales. Actually, in this volume, I would have preferred a bit more polish, at least in the instances of cannibalism. I'm pretty immune to most things, but for some reason, when one speaking being eats another speaking being (whether wife, child, or different animal species), it disturbs me.
I still liked this volume. I just got a bit creeped out in a few of the tales. Maybe that's for the best, actually. Maybe it's the last bit of grit in these tales and I should embrace it.
“My friends,” he said, “we’ve been eating the old woman! However, we’ve eaten so much of her that I suppose we might as well finish her!”
...or maybe not.
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