Tell me if you have a topic you'd like to see. (Contact: LoiS-sez@LoiS-sez.com .)
Please also let others know about this site.

Friday, December 25, 2020

Deihl - The Three Bells - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

Stating something obvious, but unsaid is called "mentioning the elephant in the room."  This New Year's elephant, leaving 2020 for 2021, deserves considering.  Artists have a way of putting things in many ways, including t-shirts and posters.  An artist calling himself MoTasS on Redbubble.com created this poster and it's also on t-shirts there.

https://www.redbubble.com/i/poster/FUNNY-SAYING-ABOUT-THE-NEW-YEAR-2021-GIFT-FOR-CHRISTMAS-by-MoTasS/63381562.LVTDI?utm_source=google&utm_medium=cpc&utm_campaign=g.pla+notset&country_code=US
Poster & tees on Redbubble.com by MoTasS

I found a New Year's story also related to coping with seeing either the positives or negatives in life.  It's called "The Three Bells" and I found an illustration that led me to more information I'll give later.  The story matches my long-time wondering how people living near churches ringing bells feel about it.








That "The End" is for the entire book, Holiday-Time Stories by Edna Groff Deihl.  While Deihl wrote several books for children, the only online information I could find was her Harrisburg, Pennsylvania grave and she lived from 1881-1935.  She also isn't remembered in print biographical reference works on children's authors. This book never had its 1930 copyright renewed.  It's rather like the bell that stopped ringing as it entered the Thirties, a decade those of us leaving 2020 should remember.  

This past year has had so many leave us forever, it has been hard to remember them all.  I know churches have gotten creative in continuing their services, many can be found online at YouTube and some continue in-person in parking lots.  I don't know if church bells continue to ring at their usual times or possibly extra as a memorial.  The three bells shown at the beginning of today's post came from a Chicago Tribune article on how churches in that area rang a memorial back in April.  Remember April was when the current pandemic was looking its worst while we tried to "flatten the curve."  Now winter has brought both the hope of starting vaccine shots and the despair of far larger spikes in deaths.  May the end of one year and the start of another bring remembrance and reflection in many ways.

********************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  



At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
  • There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
  • You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.

    Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            
         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html
         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html
         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales
         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.
       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.
     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!
    Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.
You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Friday, December 18, 2020

Kingsley - The Star - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

https://www.zazzle.com/stars_in_the_sky_remembrance_ornament

2020 has battered us and removed too many from our lives.  

Besides being a much needed remembrance ornament, a star is doubly important this Christmas.

This coming week, besides Christmas, is the Winter Solstice (YAY!  After it the days get longer!) and, on the same day, December 21, the reappearance of an astronomical phenomenon not seen for 800 years called the Christmas Star.  

It actually is not one star, but a conjunction of two planets.  This is Jupiter and Saturn, although Jupiter and Venus have also had a conjunction. Some say this was the Star of Bethlehem the Magi followed.  Other theories are a comet or even a supernova was what they followed.  For a discussion of the star from religious, astronomical, and historical views, that earlier link takes you to Wikipedia.  Of course Wikipedia alone is too dry for storytelling, so I went looking further.

No matter how many older books in the Public Domain I have, and even in the narrow category of Christmas, there often seems to be a need for something I don't own.  Most of the time my Christmas programs are done from the framework of an American Hired Girl looking at how we do a Victorian Christmas.  Today's story could easily be added to such a program.  While Queen Victoria died on January 22, 1901, her influence upon our celebration of Christmas was especially fresh in the early 20th century and continues today.  Looking for any story specifically about the Christmas Star, I found Florence M. Kingsley's story in the 1916 anthology edited by Phebe A. Curtiss, Christmas Stories and Legends, for the perfect tale.  I don't own the book, but Project Gutenberg has it in their holdings.  If you are looking to donate before the end of the year (U.S. tax law alert!) to something that will keep stories and Public Domain material available, I strongly recommend both Project Gutenberg and Wikipedia.

The final story in Christmas Stories and Legends retells from a different perspective the familiar Christmas story found in the opening of Matthew in the New Testament.  Don't let that stop you, nor Kingsley's belief in using older word choices  like "thou" and "dost", for their meaning is clear.  I personally would drop them when telling, but it's a personal choice.  One word I would keep and explain is my personal pet peeve about modern slang taking the word "lame", the orthopedic problem of difficulty walking, and now uses it in an unrelated manner.  The original use is in this story.  

Beyond that you may ignore how this copy inserts the page numbers of the original book.  There were no illustrations except your own mental ones.

THE STAR

By Florence M. Kingsley

Once upon a time in a country far away from here, there lived a little girl named Ruth. Ruth's home was not at all like our houses, for she lived in a little tower on top of the great stone wall that surrounded the town of Bethlehem. Ruth's father was the hotel-keeper—the Bible says the "inn keeper." This inn was not at all like our hotels, either. There was a great open yard, which was called the courtyard. All about this yard were little rooms and each traveler who came to the hotel rented one. The inn stood near the great stone wall of the city, so that as Ruth stood, one night, looking out of the tower window, she looked directly into the courtyard. It was truly a strange sight that met her eyes. So many people were coming to the inn, for the King had made a law that every man should come back to the city where his father used to live to be counted and to pay his taxes. Some of the people came on the backs of camels, with great rolls of bedding and their dishes for cooking upon the back of the beast. Some of them came on little donkeys, and on their backs too were the bedding and the dishes. Some of the people came walking—slowly; they were so tired. Many miles some of them had come. As Ruth looked down into the courtyard, she saw the camels being led to their places by their masters, she heard the snap of the whips, she saw the sparks shoot up from the fires that were kindled in the courtyard, where each per[Pg 160]son was preparing his own supper; she heard the cries of the tired, hungry little children.

Presently her mother, who was cooking supper, came over to the window and said, "Ruthie, thou shalt hide in the house until all those people are gone. Dost thou understand?"

"Yes, my mother," said the child, and she left the window to follow her mother back to the stove, limping painfully, for little Ruth was a cripple. Her mother stooped suddenly and caught the child in her arms.

"My poor little lamb. It was a mule's kick, just six years ago, that hurt your poor back and made you lame."

"Never mind, my mother. My back does not ache today, and lately when the light of the strange new star has shone down upon my bed my back has felt so much stronger and I have felt so happy, as though I could climb upon the rays of the star and up, up into the sky and above the stars!"

Her mother shook her head sadly. "Thou art not likely to climb much, now or ever, but come, the supper is ready; let us go to find your father. I wonder what keeps him."

They found the father standing at the gate of the courtyard, talking to a man and woman who had just arrived. The man was tall, with a long beard, and he led by a rope a snow white mule, on which sat the drooping figure of the woman. As Ruth and her mother came near, they heard the father say, "But I tell thee that there is no more room in the inn. Hast thou no friends where thou canst go to spend the night?" The man shook his head. "No, none," he answered. "I care not for myself, but my poor wife." Little Ruth pulled at her mother's [Pg 161]dress. "Mother, the oxen sleep out under the stars these warm nights and the straw in the caves is clean and warm; I have made a bed there for my little lamb."

Ruth's mother bowed before the tall man. "Thou didst hear the child. It is as she says—the straw is clean and warm." The tall man bowed his head. "We shall be very glad to stay," and he helped the sweet-faced woman down from the donkey's back and led her away to the cave stable, while the little Ruth and her mother hurried up the stairs that they might send a bowl of porridge to the sweet-faced woman, and a sup of new milk, as well.


That night when little Ruth lay down in her bed, the rays of the beautiful new star shone through the window more brightly than before. They seemed to soothe the tired aching shoulders. She fell asleep and dreamed that the beautiful, bright star burst and out of it came countless angels, who sang in the night:

"Glory to God in the highest, peace on earth, good will to men." And then it was morning and her mother was bending over her and saying, "Awake, awake, little Ruth. Mother has something to tell thee." Then as the eyes opened slowly—"The angels came in the night, little one, and left a Baby to lay beside your little white lamb in the manger."


That afternoon, Ruth went with her mother to the fountain. The mother turned aside to talk to the other women of the town about the strange things heard and seen the night before, but Ruth went on and sat down by the edge of the fountain. The child, was not frightened, [Pg 162]for strangers came often to the well, but never had she seen men who looked like the three who now came towards her. The first one, a tall man with a long white beard, came close to Ruth and said, "Canst tell us, child, where is born he that is called the King of the Jews?"

"I know of no king," she answered, "but last night while the star was shining, the angels brought a baby to lie beside my white lamb in the manger." The stranger bowed his head. "That must be he. Wilt thou show us the way to Him, my child?" So Ruth ran and her mother led the three men to the cave and "when they saw the Child, they rejoiced with exceeding great joy, and opening their gifts, they presented unto Him gold, and frankincense and myrrh," with wonderful jewels, so that Ruth's mother's eyes shone with wonder, but little Ruth saw only the Baby, which lay asleep on its mother's breast.

"If only I might hold Him in my arms," she thought, but was afraid to ask.


After a few days, the strangers left Bethlehem, all but the three—the man, whose name was Joseph, and Mary, his wife, and the Baby. Then, as of old, little Ruth played about the courtyard and the white lamb frolicked at her side. Often she dropped to her knees to press the little woolly white head against her breast, while she murmured: "My little lamb, my very, very own. I love you, lambie," and then together they would steal over to the entrance of the cave to peep in at the Baby, and always she thought, "If I only might touch his hand," but was afraid to ask. One night as she lay in her bed, she thought to herself: "Oh, I wish I had a [Pg 163]beautiful gift for him, such as the wise men brought, but I have nothing at all to offer and I love him so much." Just then the light of the star, which was nightly fading, fell across the foot of the bed and shone full upon the white lamb which lay asleep at her feet—and then she thought of something. The next morning she arose with her face shining with joy. She dressed carefully and with the white lamb held close to her breast, went slowly and painfully down the stairway and over to the door of the cave. "I have come," she said, "to worship Him, and I have brought Him—my white lamb." The mother smiled at the lame child, then she lifted the Baby from her breast and placed Him in the arms of the little maid who knelt at her feet.


A few days after, an angel came to the father, Joseph, and told him to take the Baby and hurry to the land of Egypt, for the wicked King wanted to do it harm, and so these three—the father, mother and Baby—went by night to the far country of Egypt. And the star grew dimmer and dimmer and passed away forever from the skies over Bethlehem, but little Ruth grew straight and strong and beautiful as the almond trees in the orchard, and all the people who saw her were amazed, for Ruth was once a cripple.

"It was the light of the strange star," her mother said, but little Ruth knew it was the touch of the blessed Christ-Child, who was once folded against her heart.

* Used by permission of the author and the publishers, Henry Altemus Company.

**************

Acrylics by John W. McKinstry on Friends of the Mountain Dulcimer
**************

You may find the entire book at https://www.gutenberg.org/files/17770/17770-h/17770-h.htm.  I think Phebe Curtiss's Foreword is worth noting her intent.

FOREWORD

No greater teaching force has ever been discovered than the story and no one has ever lived who used that force so skillfully as did our Great Teacher.

It is not strange, then, that among all the stories that have ever been written or told none are so dear to us as the stories and legends which center in His birth.

Young and old alike delight in them and never tire of hearing them.

. . .

It is our earnest wish that this little book may find its way into many homes and schools and Sunday Schools and that its contents may help to give a deeper appreciation of the true Christmas spirit.

And if you see the star I hope you think about this story and the first Christmas star.

UPDATE: I fell in love with a video of Jack Beck and his wife, storytelling colleague, Dr. Wendy Welch (her doctorate is in ethnography which Wikipedia defines as " a branch of anthropology and the systematic study of individual cultures. In contrast with ethnology, ethnography explores cultural phenomena from the point of view of the subject of the study."  I'd just say "folklore.") I further said thievery is part of advancing the folk process.  She conceded if I'd mention her most recent work in the scholarly work, Covid-19 Conspiracy Theories, which has the subtitle of  "QAnon, 5G, the New World Order and Other Viral Ideas."

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1WzlG1ZGV-Fp6LQnvh0uLtQ5Vif-vvVIp/view 

It's not that long (109MB), combining a brief bit of Christmas songs with the factual explanation of the Planetary Conjunction, but I tried to download the Google Drive video here and blogger said it was too large!  At least clicking on that link lets you see their "pedantic" correction of songs dealing with the "Christmas Star."

*******************
This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  



At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
  • There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
  • You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.

    Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            
         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html
         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html
         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales
         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.
       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.
     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!
    Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.
You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Friday, December 11, 2020

Ransome - Salt (part 2 of 2 ) - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

I mentioned last week that Shakespeare used the folk idea of the importance of salt in his play, King Lear.  I also said I hoped I'd be able to track down the Jewish roots to that story before Hanukkah, but WOOPS!  Hanukkah began on Thursday the 10th.  (Holidays have a way of sneaking up on people, don't they?)  Didn't make that deadline, but maybe you will enjoy tracking down the picture book version by Nina Jaffe.

 


 

 
 
We pick up the story as told by Ransome at the last three words from last week: All day long . . .




If I was telling this to an audience I would also mention there's a city of salt underneath Detroit.  It's the
http://detroitsalt.com/
 http://detroitsalt.com/

It's worth seeing the company's history which stretches from 400 million years ago when the salt was deposited there.  The salt was discovered in 1895 and the mines were opened in the early 20th century.  The company hopes to reopen tours to the public when it is again possible, but hopes their website gives a taste of it.  Hmmm I wonder if people in those mines are always thirsty?

Thirsty for more stories?  

*************************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  



At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
  • There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
  • You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.

    Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            
         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html
         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html
         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales
         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.
       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.
     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!
    Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.
You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Friday, December 4, 2020

Ransome - Salt - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

My comments here are moderated and I have difficulty just showing them.  Recently a friend on Facebook commented on how happy she was to see in the sidebar I had included stories here by Arthur Ransome.  She said how much she enjoyed his work, even though it wasn't seen much nowadays.  That's part of the reason I believe in "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  Prior to this I've posted four of his tales.  If you prowl them you will learn what a fascinating and unusual person he was.  Ian Fleming's background creating James Bond has similarities!

Today's story is so long I'm going to split it into two parts.  You may remember Shakespeare in "King Lear" had the old boy not value his daughter, Cordelia, when she said she loved him "as meat loves salt."  That has folktale roots I may follow after this story, but for now let us stick with the Russian tale.  Maybe I can track down a Public Domain Jewish version for Hanukkah as it seems to be the source of Shakespeare's re-interpretation.

There will be no illustrations as Ransome's book is from 1916, but the illustrations in the best known Nelson publishing edition is 1971 and Faith Jaques illustrations are still under copyright -- use your imagination!

I've mentioned before some collections of tales use a "frame."  Ransome uses such a device, having the stories told by "Old Peter" to a group of children.  When possible I cut it off, but this tale includes a brief return during the story, so I didn't remove it.  This isn't Shakespeare's "King Lear", but it includes several familiar folktale elements.  Don't rule it out for including what may seem familiar.  I suggest instead you enjoy the journey and see if it takes any unexpected twists in the reassuring elements.

 




Here the Nelson edition has an illustration showing Ivan secretly dropping his pinch of salt in all the dishes.  (Now your "Ivan the Ninny" is your mental picture.)




That's a little over half-way through our tale.  It sounds like "and they all lived happily ever after" doesn't it?  Not so fast.  Next week our "Ninny" has complications adding seasoning to the story.  

Yes, you may read ahead.  The book is available online, but I hope you return next week and think about this story when we pick it up at "All day long. . . "  Until then most of North America and the northern half of the globe may have opportunities for using salt on our sidewalks and roads as well as in our meals.

************************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  



At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
  • There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
  • You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.

    Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            
         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html
         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html
         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales
         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.
       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.
     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!
    Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.
You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!

Friday, November 27, 2020

Grimm - Clever Grethel - Keeping the Public in Public Domain

This was certainly a different Thanksgiving.  Because we were advised it was "Better to have a Zoom Thanksgiving than an ICU Christmas" many people wound up cooking for smaller numbers, including some cooking who don't normally cook.  I like to say I treat my family like gods . . . burnt offerings!  However my daughter on our Facebook Messenger family call said I really was a pretty good cook!!! I was stunned.  Then she started naming the things I made that she liked.  Unfortunately my husband doesn't eat any of them.  It's been so long I almost forgot about making those dishes.  Let me explain, more than once he's said to me, "Ooo, go brush your teeth, you taste like vegetables!"  When I mentioned this to a long-time friend of his, she remembered him years ago eating Thanksgiving with them.  She said all he wanted was a peanut butter and jelly sandwich.  Actually I know her memory is slightly off because he eats a straight peanut butter sandwich...no jelly.

That may sound like it was easy to make Thanksgiving dinner for him.  Nope.  Something more special than a peanut butter sandwich was needed, especially after a month and a half of hospital/rehab food helped him lose 30 pounds.  (Trust me, he could spare it, but I still wanted something special.)  I know he may not be a big turkey eater, but he will eat some as long as you rinse off the gravy.  Found a Banquet frozen Turkey and Gravy package serviceable without my learning to cook a whole bird which would mainly go to waste.  Mashed potatoes, corn, and brown-and-serve rolls worked for him.  I wanted to try something new for myself besides having sweet potatoes from a can with a bit of brown sugar.  He doesn't eat stuffing, but I found a great recipe to help me use up some apples before they spoiled and also some bread already stale.  I'll give the recipe after today's story.  I also decided to try another recipe for Easy Peach Cobbler instead of buying a pie.  I made it.  It is easy.  It's also very sweet and rich.  I'll give it, too, at the end.  So many "cozy" mysteries I read like to throw in food and recipes.  I try to avoid them rather than think about eating while reading.  If you don't care to have them, that's fine.  My reputation won't be damaged as nobody could ever call me a Foodie.

But I do admit to enjoying a glass of wine.

Today's story may be a cautionary tale to cooks who drink while cooking, or maybe to the people expecting them to cook.  Grethel may have a bit too much to drink, but she manages to keep her wits about her when she needs to get out of trouble.  The Brothers Grimm aren't known for Trickster tales, but I think we could almost say this is one.


There are many translations of the works by the Brothers Grimm.  That was the 1886 version found in Household Stories translated by Lucy Crane with illustrations by Walter Crane.  Unless you're a German scholar, I'd advise anyone wanting to tell any of their stories to find various translations, read them all and tell it your way.  This one should be told with a sly bit of cheek in tongue.

Now for those recipes.  

Denmark supposedly is the source of this Apple Stuffing.

2 cups diced apples

4 cups soft bread crumbs (Mine weren't soft, but it didn't matter.)

1/2 cup seedless raisins

Mix them all in a big mixing bowl.  (I did that the night before and also mixed the other ingredients in a separate bowl.)

2 tablespoons of melted butter (I learned microwaves melt butter very quickly!)

1/2 teaspoon salt

1/3 cup sugar (After you taste this recipe you may decide to reduce it to 1/4 cup, but try this first as its sweetness is very unique.) 

1 tablespoon of lemon juice (I keep RealLemon on hand, so I didn't have the next ingredient.)

1 teaspoon lemon peel, grated

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/4 cup any stock (I made a 1/4 cup of BetterThanBouillon chicken flavor)

The recipe warns not to add too much stock as the apples, when they cook, will become applesauce and add their own moisture to the stuffing.  I didn't do that.  I prefer the apples staying in small chunks, so on Thanksgiving Day I mixed it all and heated it enough in the oven to make it warm.  The next day it was delicious cold.  I still have a third day's generous portion since I'm the only one eating it, but it's a treat I find myself enjoying even if I did make it.

The Easy Peach Cobbler could be made with any flavor pie filling if you prefer cherry or apple.

2 cups peach pie filling 

1 package yellow cake mix

2 sticks butter

1 cup nuts (I used walnut pieces, but they're really up to you)

You should have a 9x13" pan (I didn't, but had 2 glass casserole pans equaling that.  It really needs to be "well greased."  I used Pam cooking spray, but later found the edges a bit stubborn to remove.

Spread pie filling in the pan.  Sprinkle cake mix over the top.  Pour melted butter over the top.  Add nuts sprinkled over the top.  Bake 45-50 minutes at 350 degrees.

This can be served hot, but also very good cold.  Use a cake or pie spatula to cut and serve, but know it's intended to be crumbly.  It was very rich and a bit sweet to my tastes, but my husband loved it.  I'm glad, because half that would be a bunch for one person to eat and probably this could serve much more than four (the two of us for two days).

I don't think any professional chefs will be put out of business by these two recipes, although the pandemic is trying its best to eliminate restaurants as a business.  I do think when family Thanksgivings return I have two good items not duplicating anything anybody else might bring.

Now back to the usual information about how you can keep reading stories in the Public Domain.

*********************

This is part of a series of postings of stories under the category, "Keeping the Public in Public Domain."  The idea behind Public Domain was to preserve our cultural heritage after the authors and their immediate heirs were compensated.  I feel strongly current copyright law delays this intent on works of the 20th century.  My own library of folklore includes so many books within the Public Domain I decided to share stories from them.  I hope you enjoy discovering new stories.  



At the same time, my own involvement in storytelling regularly creates projects requiring research as part of my sharing stories with an audience.  Whenever that research needs to be shown here, the publishing of Public Domain stories will not occur that week.  This is a return to my regular posting of a research project here.  (Don't worry, this isn't dry research, my research is always geared towards future storytelling to an audience.)  Response has convinced me that "Keeping the Public in Public Domain" should continue along with my other postings as often as I can manage it.
Other Public Domain story resources I recommend-
  • There are many online resources for Public Domain stories, maybe none for folklore is as ambitious as fellow storyteller, Yoel Perez's database, Yashpeh, the International Folktales Collection.  I have long recommended it and continue to do so.  He has loaded Stith Thompson's Motif Index into his server as a database so you can search the whole 6 volumes for whatever word or expression you like by pressing one key. http://folkmasa.org/motiv/motif.htm
  • You may have noticed I'm no longer certain Dr. Perez has the largest database, although his offering the Motif Index certainly qualifies for those of us seeking specific types of stories.  There's another site, FairyTalez claiming to be the largest, with "over 2000 fairy tales, folktales, and fables" and they are "fully optimized for phones, tablets, and PCs", free and presented without ads.

    Between those two sites, there is much for story-lovers, but as they say in infomercials, "Wait, there's more!"
The email list for storytellers, Storytell, discussed Online Story Sources and came up with these additional suggestions:            
         - David K. Brown - http://people.ucalgary.ca/~dkbrown/stories.html
         - Richard Martin - http://www.tellatale.eu/tales_page.html
         - Spirit of Trees - http://spiritoftrees.org/featured-folktales
         - Story-Lovers - http://www.story-lovers.com/ is now only accessible through the Wayback Machine, described below, but the late Jackie Baldwin's wonderful site lives on there, fully searchable manually (the Google search doesn't work), at https://archive.org/ .  It's not easy, but go to Story-lovers.com snapshot for October 22 2016  and you can click on SOS: Searching Out Stories to scroll down through the many story topics and click on the story topic that interests you.
       - World of Tales - http://www.worldoftales.com/ 
           - Zalka Csenge Virag - http://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com doesn't give the actual stories, but her recommendations, working her way through each country on a continent, give excellent ideas for finding new books and stories to love and tell.
     
You're going to find many of the links on these sites have gone down, BUT go to the Internet Archive Wayback Machine to find some of these old links.  Tim's site, for example, is so huge probably updating it would be a full-time job.  In the case of Story-Lovers, it's great that Jackie Baldwin set it up to stay online as long as it did after she could no longer maintain it.  Possibly searches maintained it.  Unfortunately Storytell list member, Papa Joe is on both Tim Sheppard's site and Story-Lovers, but he no longer maintains his old Papa Joe's Traveling Storytelling Show website and his Library (something you want to see!) is now only on the Wayback Machine.  It took some patience working back through claims of snapshots but finally in December of 2006 it appears!
    Somebody as of this writing whose stories can still be found by his website is the late Chuck Larkin - http://chucklarkin.com/stories.html.  I prefer to list these sites by their complete address so they can be found by the Wayback Machine, a.k.a. Archive.org, when that becomes the only way to find them.
You can see why I recommend these to you. Have fun discovering even more stories!