Extra Reading Notes: British Fairy Tales (Emerson) Part A

Extra Reading Notes

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(The first of the five photographs shows Frances Griffiths with the alleged fairies By Elsie Wright)

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The Fairies of Caragonan
What I really found interesting and appriecated the most from this short story is the format and flow. Rather than the story itself, I was more intrigued by the three act, almost play like format. In addition, the actual flow of the story was very different from American fairy tales because instead of starting at the beginning (when/why the hunter got sick in the first place) it started with his cure by the fairies then went back to tell his tale.

The Fairies of Caragonan (Part II)
The continuation of the previous story provided a nice, bow-wrapped ending to a fairly peculiar fairytale. From other mythologies that involve fairies, I have known fairies to be more trickster, selfish characters yet in this telling they willing helped a hunter save his ill-fated life. Admittedly, I was kind of waiting for the other shoe to drop as read on. If I were to rewrite this story I would definitely add the trickster element.

Three Short Stories of Fairies 
I loved how with this Emerson story was a collection of three seemingly connected stories. Oddly enough, after each story I found myself wanting more and got that answered with the next story even though they are not originally connected. As for the first story when the blacksmith ended up with the money, I immediately wanted there to be a fable about the importance of cherishing money and in the next story a farmer gained a lesson in just that.

The Old Man and the Fairies
This second collection of short stories was more of what I am used to when I think of fairies. I think of the fairies having conditions for any riches they give out and holding true to them. The theme of conditional riches is deeply seeded in many different folklores but I feel as though the most impactful are usually those of the trickster variety, like Anansi, Loki and the fairies of this story.

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All reading notes are based off of stories from Welsh Fairy-Tales and Other Stories by Peter H. Emerson (1894).