Today I’m excited to join in on the Fairy Tale Tag created by The Fairy Tale Central! They’re having a month-long celebration of fairy tales this February, and Jenelle Schmidt is hosting February is Fantasy Month, so I’m all here for all the fairy tale and fantasy goodness. *grins* Be sure to check both of them out!
THE QUESTIONS
– What’s an obscure fairy tale you love?
Can I get away with calling The Twelve Dancing Princesses obscure? No? *cough* Maybe the Six Swans. 🙂 Or East of the Sun, West of the Moon? Or Tam Lin?
– If you got to choose Disney’s next animated princess movie, what fairy tale would you choose to be adapted?
Twelve Dancing Princesses because it needs to be a movie and it would be super fun! Although it would have to be more like Tangled than like most of Disney’s princess movies. 😉
– What is the first fairy tale you remember hearing when you were a child?
Wow, what an excellent question. I don’t really know?? I do remember a neat Cinderella picture book we had . . . so maybe that? Or Beauty and the Beast? Or Snow White and Rose Red? Or The Twelve Dancing Princesses . . . I just kind of don’t remember a time BEFORE I knew fairy tales. XD
– If you were to embark on a fairy tale quest, what necessities would you pack in your bag?
*rubs hands together* Okay. I would definitely bring some kind of magically re-filling water jug (especially if I ended up in a desert). And one of those table-cloths that provides you with food when you put it out. Next up, certainly a journal and several pens, so I could make sure to record everything that happens. A hairbrush or comb (though I would make sure I didn’t get it from Snow White’s stepmother). A pair of seven-league boots (because obviously). A map (of course!). A pouch of gold and silver coins (probably hidden so that bandits won’t find them). A knife or two. And a small dragon who can ride in my bag and stick his head out and keep me company. There. I think those are the necessities…
– What’s your favorite fairy tale trope?
Not sure if it’s necessarily fairy tale specific, but I do love me a good missing-heir or return-of-the-rightful-king trope.
– If you could be any fairy tale character archetype (the princess, the soldier, fairy godmother, talking animal, mischievous imp, wise old woman, evil stepmother/sister, etc.), who would you want to be and why?
Again, not sure if this is fairy tale specific, or more fantasy-in-general, but I would love to be the librarian or bard (or both!) — or maybe scribe — so that I can hang out in the libraries or tell stories or record things.
– What animal/mythical creature would be your sidekick for fairy tale adventures?
A gryphon! Because they are underappreciated (even though dragons are cool) and have feathers, and are AWESOME, and I could ride it. I named my cat after a gryphon (from Dark Lord of Derkholm by Diana Wynne Jones), so yes.
– What is your favorite historical era, and what fairy tale would you love to see in that setting?
1700s because of the pistols and costumes and things. I was going to fall back on my usual answer of The Twelve Dancing Princesses, but it seems that many of the retellings I’ve read DO have some sort of pistols-era as the setting . . . So I’m not sure.
Oh! Cinderella.
I am totally planning to do one with Cinderella either in a steampunk or fictional 18th-century-esque setting, where there’s a sort of revolution, and pistols and things, and Cinderella is a spy sent to gather intel on the prince. *grins*
– If you could change a fairy tale’s villain into a hero, who would you choose and why?
I’m usually content to leave the heroes and villains in their proper place . . . Does the Huntsman from Snow White count? I know he’s more of a minion/anti-hero, and people often turn him into a good character, but he has a lot of potential for that. 😛
– Do you prefer fairy tales with happy endings or sad/tragic endings? why or why not?
HAPPY ALL THE WAY. I associate happy endings with fairy tales and while not all of them are, I think it’s an important part of them. See also J. R. R. Tolkien’s essay On Fairy Stories, which includes important thoughts on Eucatastrophe and myth and so forth. But I think that we need happy endings, to remind us that good wins in the end and that we can keep going, instead of despairing because there’s no hope left. Life is sad enough without having to have tragedy in our fiction too, which should show us the potential of heroism and happy endings and all good things we can strive toward, and lift a burden from our shoulders as we read, instead of heaping another one on. That’s why I loathe sad/tragic endings, and why, while everyone is obviously entitled to their own opinions, I don’t intend to change my stance on them. Happy endings forever! 🙂
The Page Dreamer (Deborah O'Carroll) 