Tricksters Flashcards
1
Q
What is a unique element of “The Juniper Tree”?
A
it’s a mash up of a bunch of folktale tropes
(ex. the mom wishing for a kid as red as blood and white as snow = Snow White inspo)
2
Q
Is “The Juniper Tree” funny?
A
- prof thinks it very funny - while being grotesque
- has funny turns of events and a light touch
- is funny from the start
prof thinks it’s especially funny that the dad insisted his son stew was all for him because it was so good
3
Q
Where is the performance in “The Juniper Tree”?
A
- starts with a performance of 9 months of pregnancy
- details the passing of 9 months with the cycle of nature
- the performance is built into the text
- the song and its building throughout the story
4
Q
What ‘meaning’ comes from “The Juniper Tree”?
A
- story is about the durability of a person
- killed, turned into soup, turned into a bird, comes back to life
- the story has a lot of things in it → prof wonders what the ‘north star’ is
- what connects it all?
- is it just fun?
5
Q
What is a trickster figure?
A
- in eurowestern cultures tricksters are children who generally avoid being eaten
- trick the predator into doing/eating something else
- could also be the tricksters punishing those who caused them to be eaten
- like The Juniper Tree
6
Q
What tropes do trickster stories follow?
A
- they begin with a hungry character who figures out hunger, and turns hunger against those who want to eat them
- they generally have a good heart, but use trickery to live
- their ‘down-and-out-ness” becomes their superpower (underdogs)
- often using themselves as bait to trap the person trying to eat them
7
Q
What is a theory about why there’s a whole genre of stories about cannibalism?
A
- trickster stories are from the days when hunting was a very important thing
- important to note knowing folktales came from communities and developed culturally
8
Q
What happened the first time the kids were sent out in “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm?
A
- poor woodcutter and his family lived at the edge of a forest
- Hansel = boy, Gretel = girl
- they didn’t have enough money for food so the wife came up with an idea to abandon the kids in the woods so they didn’t have to pay for them anymore
- the kids overheard this conversation
- Hansel snuck out and picked up white pebbles from around the house
- the next morning the family set out into the woods
- on the way Hansel dropped the pebbles, marking their path
- they started a fire and the parents left the kids
- once the moon shone on the stones the kids followed them home
- the dad was happy and his wife was sad to see them
9
Q
What happened the second time the kids were sent out in “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm?
A
- the famine got even worse and so the parents tried to abandon the kids again
- Hansel couldn’t leave the house to pick up stones, so he used the bread crust the woman gave him to make crumbs to follow home
- they started a fire and the parents left the kids (”chopping wood”)
- that night they couldn’t follow the breadcrumbs home because birds had eaten them
- they walked aimlessly for the next few days
- after three days they saw a pretty bird who sang a song, and they decided to follow it
- it led them to a douse made out of bread, cake, and sugar
- the kids started to eat it
10
Q
What happened after the kids found the house in the woods in “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm?
A
- the woman who lived in the house found them and invited them inside
- she was a witch who planned to eat them
- she locked Hansel into a shed to fatten up to eat
- Gretel became her maid who would feed her brother
- the witch would ask Hansel to hold out a finger, she was to eat him when he was fat enough
- Hansel stuck a bone out and the witch couldn’t see the difference, thinking Hansel maintained a skinny weight
- after 4 months she decided to eat him anyway
- the witch tried to trick Gretel into the oven, but instead Gretel tricked her into it
- she then went to free Hansel
- they raided the witch’s house for pearls and jewels
- on the way home they had to ask a duck for help crossing a lake
- they went home and found their father
- his wife had died
- they lived happily ever after
11
Q
What is the last line of “Hansel and Gretel” by the Brothers Grimm?
A
“My fairy tale is done. See the mouse run. Whoever catches it can make a great big fur hat out of it.”
12
Q
What happened in the first half of “Fulano de Tel and His Children”?
A
- married couple had a boy and a girl
- the woman got sick and died
- one day the kid’s teacher fell in love with the dad and gave gifts to the children
- they wanted them to marry
- the dad said no and that some day the teacher would give them bad things instead
- eventually he succumbed and married her
- on their second night the teacher insisted that the kids get kicked out of the house
- the girl overheard and went out that night to get a little sack of flour
- that night the dad woke them up to ‘bring them to a wedding’
- the girl left a trail of flour on their way so they could find the path home
- the dad tried to kick them out again, the daughter brought figs this time and followed them home
13
Q
What happened in the second half of “Fulano de Tel and His Children”?
A
- the wife threatened to poison them all if the kids came back again
- the girl could only find a sack of wheat to mark the trail with, and the birds had eaten it all by the time they needed to follow it home
- they got lost on the way home, but saw a light and decided to walk to it, thinking it was maybe their father
- the light turned out to be a house made of candy
- the kids started eating it and the witch who lived in it asked them to come in
- she set the girl to do housework and tried to fatten up the boy
- when checking how fat the boy was he gave her the claw of a chicken (one of the ones he had to eat) and she thought he was super skinny
- she still decided to eat him the next day
- the girl instructed her brother to trap the witch in the oven when she tried to put him in there
- he was successful and the kids went home but didn’t recognize their parents
- the asked “are you Fulano de Tal” → the dad said yes
- they explained that they were his kids
- he hugged them and decapitated his wife
- the head was hung above his bed and he slapped it three times before going to sleep and after waking up
14
Q
How does “The Juniper Tree” by the Brothers Grimm start?
A
- rich man and his wife had no kids, but prayed for them
- in front of their house was a garden with a juniper tree
- the wife once cut her finger under it and wished for a child as red as blood and as white as snow
- the wife was very attached to the juniper tree and wanted to be buried under it when she died
- she bore a child nine months after her wish under the tree
- she was so happy that she died
- the man was sad but married his second wife
- they had a daughter (Marlene), the first child was a boy
- the step mother hated the boy, to the point where she was ‘possessed’ by the devil
15
Q
What did the stepmother/devil do in “The Juniper Tree” by the Brothers Grimm?
A
- the wife one day decapitated the son with a chest when he was grabbing an apple from it
- she was the devil during this
- after she came back to and tied the boy’s head back on with a scarf
- the daughter notices that her brother is sitting unmoving in the corner
- the mom told her to slap him if he doesn’t answer her, pinning his death on the daughter
- they cooked him into a stew
- the father came home and asked for the boy, they said he went off to visit other family (mother’s great uncle”
- the dad was sad that he didn’t say goodbye
- the dad ate and loved the stew, asking for more and more
- the daughter collected the bones from the stew and mourned her brother outside
- the bones were placed under the juniper tree and it started moving
- a bird emerged from it and as it vanished the bones did too
16
Q
What did the bird do in “The Juniper Tree” by the Brothers Grimm?
A
- the bird began to sing the brother’s story in the first person
- the goldsmith heard it and asked for the song a second time
- the bird said no, but that it would for the golden chain the goldmsith was holding
- it got it, and sang the song twice more
- the shoemaker heard it and ran over too, beckoning his family to come
- he asked the bird to sing again and offered a pair of red shoes
- the bird repeated its song one more time
- the bird flew away to the mill with its gifts
- it started singing its song and the men stopped working as they listened
- it asked for the millstone when the workers requested the song another time
- the bird sang its song and flew away with all of its goods
17
Q
What happened when the bird came home in “The Juniper Tree” by the Brothers Grimm?
A
- the bird landed on the roof of the original family’s house
- inside Marlene was weeping, the father felt happy/relief (like he was going to see an old friend again), and the wife felt scared of the storm she felt was coming
- the bird began to sing, the father heard it and went outside to watch
- the bird dropped the chain on the father’s neck after it stopped its song
- Marlene went outside when the bird began its song again to see if it would give her something too
- she got the shoes
- the wife went to leave the house and the bird dropped the millstone on her as soon as she got outside
- she burst into flames and the brother appeared where she was
18
Q
How does “The Rose-Tree” by Joseph Jacobs start?
A
- a good man had a daughter with his first wife and a son with his second
- the step mother hated the daughter
- the step mother asked the daughter to buy her a pound of candles
- on the way home, a dog stole the candles from the girl
- she bought another pound and a dog stole them again
- she bought a third bunch and the same thing happened
- she came home crying to her stepmother, having wasted the money she was given
- the step mother hid her anger and asked the girl if she could comb her hair
- jealous of the golden hair, the step mother asked the girl to get a billet of wood and an axe
- she ‘parted’ the girl’s hair with the axe on the billet, cutting her head off
- the mother took the heart and liver of the girl and made it into a stew
- the husband tasted it but didn’t like it, same with the boy
- the boy found the sister’s body and mourned her under a rose tree
19
Q
What happens the spring after the brother mourns in “The Rose-Tree” by Joseph Jacobs?
A
- when the rose tree flowered that spring, a bird was among the flowers
- it sang a song of the daughter’s story by the cobbler’s shop
- the shoemaker offered a pair of red shoes to hear the song again
- it sang the song in front of a watchmaker’s
- the jeweller gave it a watch to hear the song again
- the bird snag the song by a millstone
- the workers gave it the millstone to hear it again
- the bird flew back to the original family’s house and used the millstone to make it sound like it was thundering on the roof
- the boy went out to check on it - he got the shoes
- the father checked on it - he got the watch
- the stepmother checked to see if she would get something from the thunder - she was killed by the millstone
20
Q
What is a summary of “The Singing Bones”?
A
- a poor man and woman had 25 children
- the man was good, the woman was bad
- the woman always served meat without bones → because meat is less heavy and thus cheaper without bones
- the husband asked the wife why she didn’t eat meat
- she said it was because she didn’t have teeth
- the husband rounded up his children and only counted fifteen of the twenty five
- the mom said the others were at their grandma’s house
- thinking about his children one day, the father heard voices that were daying
- “our mother killed us, out father ate us. we are not in a coffin, we are not in a cemetery”
- he raised the stone he was in front of and saw lots of bones which started singing again
- he was angry and buried the bones in they yard and killed his wife
- he never ate meat again
21
Q
How does “Little Thumbling” by Charles Perrault start?
A
- woodcutter and wife had seven children
- oldest was 10 and youngest was 7, the wife never has fewer than two kids at a time
- they were poor because they had so many kids
- the youngest was sick and did not speak, they thought he was stupid but he was actually just generous and kind
- he was small too → called “Little Thumbling”
- the underdog of the family and took the blame for everything
- but also the wisest
- one year they were so poor that the family decided to get rid of their children
- the father decided to take them out into the woods and leave them there
- would pretend to cut firewood so they would wait for him out there
- the mom was against this plan, but eventually agreed
- Little Thumbling overheard this plan
- in the morning he went to the river and picked up a bunch of white pebbles before returning home to join his brothers on their walk into the forest → dropping the pebbles to mark the path
- the parents abandoned them when they were far enough
- Thumbling told his brothers about his plan and led them home
22
Q
What happened after the kids came home the first time in “Little Thumbling” by Perrault?
A
- the parents had just received a payment from the king when they got home
- the wife went to go buy some meat as they mourned their abandoned kids now that they had enough money to feed them
- hearing that the wife was sad the kids went inside, consoling her with them being okay
- they were happy until they spent all of their money again and decided to re-abandon the kids
- took them further away so their plan wouldn’t fail again
- Thumbling went to go get stones again that morning but couldn’t since the door was locked, he used the bread he got for breakfast to make crumbs to mark the way instead
- when he tried leading everyone home he found that hte birds had eaten all of his crumbs
23
Q
What happened after the kids were abandoned for a second time in “Little Thumbling” by Perrault?
A
- while wandering the woods, Thumbling saw a light and began to follow it → it was a house with a woman who answered the door
- the woman warned that the house belonged to her ogre husband who ate children
- they decided that an ogre was better than wolves so they agreed to hide in the house for one night
- the ogre came home and insisted he smelled fresh meat (the boys were hidden under the bed)
- he found them right away
- he grabbed a knife and one of the kids → the wife urged him to wait to kill anyone until morning because he already had a lamb ofr dinner
- the ogre agreed and said that the kids should be fed too to keep them fat
- the ogre had 7 children daughters who had gone to bed early → they wore crowns to bed
- the boys were put into a bed next to the one the daughters shared
- Thumbling switched him and his brother’s sleeping caps for the crowns the ogresses were wearing so the ogre would assume that his daughters were the boys
- the ogre woke up in the middle of the night, regretting not having killed the boys already, and went to the sleeping caps and cut the throats of his daughters
24
Q
What happened after the ogre went back to sleep in “Little Thumbling” by Perrault?
A
- when the ogre went back to sleep, Thumbling woke his brothers up and led them out of the house - running into the woods
- the wife found her daughters dead in the morning and fainted
- the ogre found her and his daughters, and was also emotional
- he ran after the boys in seven—league boots
- Thumbling hid him and his brothers in a cave when they saw the ogre after them
- the ogre sat and slept on the rock hiding the boys
- they heard him snoring and took the opportunity to run again
- Thumbling put his enchanted boots on (they magically resized to his feet) and went back to the ogre’s house
- Thumbling warned the wife about a lie he made up about the ogre → theives were apparently threatening his life but would spare him if he paid them
- the ogre asked him to get the money from his wife (apparently)
- Thumbling went back home with the ogre’s money
25
Q
What is an alternate ending and moral to “Little Thumbling” by Perrault?
A
- APPARENTLY - an alternate ending is that Thumbling offered to work as a messenger with the 7-league boots (that’s where he got the money)
- MORAL: sometime the runt makes the family’s happiness, and not the ones that seem to be the best
26
Q
How does “Vasilisa the Fair” by Alexander Afanasev start?
A
- merchant had a daughter called Vasilisa the Fair
- the wife died when the daughter was 8
- she gave her a doll before she died
- asking her to take it with her but keep her concealed, and feed it to ask for advice if she was in trouble
- merchant remarried a woman with two daughters around Vasilisa’s age
- step mother and step sisters were jealous of Vasilisa’s beauty
- they gave her all kinds of work to try to make her uglier
- it didn’t work and she just got kinder
- Vasilisa used the doll to help her with the tasks, is how she survived
- it did all of the work for her
27
Q
What happened after her father left on a business trip in “Vasilisa the Fair” by Alexander Afanasev?
A
- after a few years the stepmother moved to a house near Baba Yaga when the father went out on business
- she sent Vasilisa into the woods on errands to try and get her captured by Baba Yaga
- one night the step family conspired to send Vasilisa to Baba Yaga’s house to get them some fire (all of the candles in the house were out)
- she took the doll as it said nothing bad could happen to her if it was in her pocket
- two horsemen (one white one red) galloped past her as she walked
- a black horseman galloped past her as she got to Baba Yaga’s house
- her fence was made of bones
- Baba Yaga said she’d give fire in exchange for work done by the girl → if she doesn’t do the work she’ll be eaten
- after dinner Vasilisa offered her doll Baba Yaga’s scraps and asked for help
- the doll had done all of her chores by the next morning → all there was left to do was prepare supper
- Baba Yaga was satisfied, and gave her more work to do the next day
28
Q
How does she get away from Baba Yaga in “Vasilisa the Fair” by Alexander Afanasev?
A
- at dinner Vasilisa asked about the horsemen that she keeps seeing
- they’re Baba Yaga’s faithful servants
- Baba Yaga asked her how she did the work so fast, and thre Vasilisa out when she heard that it was because she was blessed by her mother
- she was given a skull with fire and sent on her way
- the fire went out before she got home, but the skull requested to be given to the stepmother
- it used its eyes to burn the stepmother and sisters
29
Q
What happens after the fire in “Vasilisa the Fair” by Alexander Afanasev?
A
- now alone, she went to a nearby town and stayed with an old women without children
- she was bored and began to spin flax
- the doll said she would make her a loom if she gave it the right items
- by winter the linen was woven, and in the spring it was bleached
- she gave it to the woman she was staying with to sell
- the old woman decided the tsar was the only person suited for the impeccable linen
- he was amazed and ordered shirts made from it
- he called for Vasilisa to make shirts out of it
- the tsar requesting a meeting with her because the shirts were so good
- he fell in love at first sight and decided they were to marryu
- Vasilisa’s father came home after and was happy for her
30
Q
What is a summary of the first half of “Momotaro, or the Peach Boy”?
A
- an old man and woman lived together without any kids
- they were poor
- one day they parted ways to do their chores
- while the woman was washing clothes she saw a ripe peach floating down the stream
- she pulled it to shore
- she gave the peach to her husband that evening, but before he could eat it it split in two, the fruit and a baby boy (instead of a pit)
- the baby ate the peach
- the couple named him Momotaro and took very good care of him
31
Q
What is a summary of the second half of “Momotaro, or the Peach Boy”?
A
- one day he asked for dumplings to take on an adventure to the Ogre’s Island
- he wanted to get their treasure
- so the mom made him the dumplings (kimi-dango) and the parents wished him good luck on his journey
- on the way he fell in with a monkey
- it asked for a dumpling in exchange for going on the journey with him
- the same thing happened with a pheasant and a dog
- each animal had a role in the battle they had with the Ogres
- eventually they won and grabbed the treasure
32
Q
How does “Jack and the Beanstalk” by Joseph Jacobs start?
A
- a poor widow has a son named Jack and a cow named Milky-white
- they lived off of the cow’s milk
- one morning the cow gave no milk
- they decided to sell the cow
- he met a man on the way to the market who wagered 5 beans for the cow
- the beans were supposed to grow into the sky
- Jack agrees to the trade
- the mom was disappointed when she found out Jack only got beans for the cow
- he was sent to bed without supper
33
Q
What happens the first time Jack climbs up the beanstalk (Joseph Jacobs)?
A
- in the morning he noticed his beans had indeed grown into the sky
- he climbed up it and saw a road at the top
- the road led to a house with a tall woman in it
- he asked her for breakfast, and she warned him that her husband was an ogre who’d eat him
- Jack begged instead and she gave him food in the kitchen
- the ogre started approaching and Jack was hidden in the oven
- he smelled “the blood of an Englishman”
- the wife tried to cover it up and sent him away
- she advised Jack to wait in the oven until the ogre was asleep
- when the ogre fell asleep at the table Jack crept out
- he took one of the bags of gold that the ogre had grabbed before he fell asleep
- he climbed down the beanstalk
- he and his mom lived off of the bag of gold for a while
34
Q
What happens the second time Jack climbs up the beanstalk (Joseph Jacobs)?
A
- once it was gone he climbed up the beanstalk again
- the woman warned Jack to leave again, and told him that the ogre was especially annoyed by the loss of one of his bags of gold
- she gave him breakfast again because she was curious, and the ogre came in again
- he asked his wife for the hen that lays golden eggs → it laied one on the table
- he then fell asleep
- Jack crept out and grabbed the hen, but laughed and woke up the ogre
- the ogre was concerned over his missing hen
- Jack ran quickly down the beanstalk and showed the hen to his mom
35
Q
What happens the third time Jack climbs up the beanstalk (Joseph Jacobs)?
A
- He decided to climb up the beanstalk again
- he waited beneath a bush for the house to be empty this time instead of approaching the wife
- he went into the house, but soon after the ogre smelled human blood
- the wife said it was from his dinner last night
- after his breakfast the ogre called for his golden harp
- he fell asleep at the table again
- Jack grabbed it and ran, but the harp called after its “master” as he tried to get away
- the ogre chased after Jack and saw him climbing down the beanstalk
- he climbed after him
- Jack tried going faster and called for an axe
- Jack chopped the beanstalk when he got down, the ogre fell with it
- now rich with the golden harp and hen, Jack and his mom lived happily ever after (he married a princess too)
