Fairy Tales

Fairy Tales Develop Imagination

Fairy tales are a very important part of developing the child's imagination.  Imagine, without fairy tales, children wouldn't be able to imagine, for example, being abandoned in the woods by their father and step-mother only to be locked up by a witch who intended to eat them.  How would children imagine such things without our help.  How about having their  grandmother eaten by a wolf?  Many children need a little imaginative nudge.  As the children get a little older, the stories have to go even further to reach those little corners of their imagination. 

Here are a few advanced stories that our well-seasoned Waldorf teacher Cristabella Leonardo read to her third grade class last year:

GEB

Geb, the grandson of Atum, was the Earth God; his sister, Nut, was his counterpart as the Sky Goddess.  He was often depicted as a recumbent male figure lying beneath a woman, who is Nut.  Sometimes he appears as a goose; at other times, as a goose-headed man, or a man carrying a goose on his head.  In predynastic times, he was probably worshipped in the form of a sacred goose.        

It is perhaps surprising that Geb, the Earth God par excellence, should be male in gender.  In most cultures, the earth, the bringer forth of vegetation and living things, is regarded as female: Mother Earth.  In at least one place, his shrine at Bata in Heliopolis, Geb was worshipped as a bisexual god and credited with having laid the Great Egg from which the sun emerged at the dawn of time in the form of the Benu Bird.  One of Geb's epithets was 'The Great Cackler', a reference to the cackle he gave as he produced this Egg.

The Phakussa Stele tells of how Geb fell in love with his mother, Tefnut.  He yearned for her and wandered about the land in great distress until the day that his father, Shu, departed the earth.  On that day, Geb came upon his mother, Tefnut, in the palace of Shu at Memphis.  He seized hold of her with great violence and raped her.

Geb does not seem to have been punished for the rape of his mother.  Instead, he became King of Egypt in his father's palace, and reigned successfully for many years.  He was given the title, unique to him, of Iry-paat-neteru or 'Heir of the Gods'.  Geb named as his heir his eldest son, Orisis, who thus became the first of many Kings, both mythological and human, to sit upon the Egyptian thrown, known as 'the Throne of Geb'; and the first to hold the title 'Heir of Geb', which was later borne by the mortal Kings of Egypt.

Beautifully hand painted Geb Nut wooden toys are available
at our school store - the Dough House.  Children can finally
re-inact the exciting story of Geb.  Mother sold separately.

Here's another favorite:

It was early one morning in the month of May

Before

It was early one morning in the month of May
Oh the wind and the rain
Two lovers went walking on a hot summer's day
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

He said to the lady "won't you marry me"
Oh the wind and the rain
"And my little wife you'll always be"
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

Then he knocked her down and he kicked her around
Oh the wind and the rain
Then he knocked her down and he kicked her around
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

He hit her in the head with a battering ram
Oh the wind and the rain
He hit her in the head with a battering ram
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

He threw her in the river to drown
Oh the wind and the rain
He threw her in the river to drown
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

He watched her as she floated down
Oh the wind and the rain
He watched her as she floated down
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

She floated on down to the miller's millstream
Oh the wind and the rain
He watched her as she floated down
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

The miller fished her out with a long fishing pole
Oh the wind and the rain
The miller fished her out with a long fishing pole
A crying the dreadful wind and rain
He made fiddle pegs of her long finger bones

After

Oh the wind and the rain
He made fiddle pegs of her long finger bones
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

He made a fiddle bow of her long curly hair
Oh the wind and the rain
He made a fiddle bow of her long curly hair
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

The only tune that fiddle would play was
Oh the wind and the rain
The only tune that fiddle would play was
A crying the dreadful wind and rain

Mother Holle is a favorite Waldorf fairy tale

Once upon a time there was a widow who had two daughters; one of them was beautiful and industrious, the other ugly and lazy. The mother, however, loved the ugly and lazy one best, because she was her own daughter, and so the other, who was only her stepdaughter, was made to do all the work of the house, and was quite the Cinderella of the family. Her stepmother sent her out every day to sit by the well in the high road, there to spin until she made her fingers bleed. Now it chanced one day that some blood fell on to the spindle, and as the girl stopped over the well to wash it off, the spindle suddenly sprang out of her hand and fell into the well. She ran home crying to tell of her misfortune, but her stepmother spoke harshly to her, and after giving her a violent scolding, said unkindly, ’As you have let the spindle fall into the well you may go yourself and fetch it out.’

The girl went back to the well not knowing what to do, and at last in her distress she jumped into the water after the spindle.
She remembered nothing more until she awoke and found herself in a beautiful meadow, full of sunshine, and with countless flowers blooming in every direction.
She walked over the meadow, and presently she came upon a baker’s oven full of bread, and the loaves cried out to her, ’Take us out, take us out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long ago.’ So she took the bread-shovel and drew them all out.
She went on a little farther, till she came to a free full of apples. ’Shake me, shake me, I pray,’ cried the tree; ’my apples, one and all, are ripe.’ So she shook the tree, and the apples came falling down upon her like rain; but she continued shaking until there was not a single apple left upon it. Then she carefully gathered the apples together in a heap and walked on again.
The next thing she came to was a little house, and there she saw an old woman looking out, with such large teeth, that she was terrified, and turned to run away. But the old woman called after her, ’What are you afraid of, dear child? Stay with me; if you will do the work of my house properly for me, I will make you very happy. You must be very careful, however, to make my bed in the right way, for I wish you always to shake it thoroughly, so that the feathers fly about; then they say, down there in the world, that it is snowing; for I am Mother Holle.’ The old woman spoke so kindly, that the girl summoned up courage and agreed to enter into her service.
She took care to do everything according to the old woman’s bidding and every time she made the bed she shook it with all her might, so that the feathers flew about like so many snowflakes. The old woman was as good as her word: she never spoke angrily to her, and gave her roast and boiled meats every day.
So she stayed on with Mother Holle for some time, and then she began to grow unhappy. She could not at first tell why she felt sad, but she became conscious at last of great longing to go home; then she knew she was homesick, although she was a thousand times better off with Mother Holle than with her mother and sister. After waiting awhile, she went to Mother Holle and said, ’I am so homesick, that I cannot stay with you any longer, for although I am so happy here, I must return to my own people.’
Then Mother Holle said, ’I am pleased that you should want to go back to your own people, and as you have served me so well and faithfully, I will take you home myself.’
Thereupon she led the girl by the hand up to a broad gateway. The gate was opened, and as the girl passed through, a shower of gold fell upon her, and the gold clung to her, so that she was covered with it from head to foot.
’That is a reward for your industry,’ said Mother Holle, and as she spoke she handed her the spindle which she had dropped into the well.
The gate was then closed, and the girl found herself back in the old world close to her mother’s house. As she entered the courtyard, the cock who was perched on the well, called out:
’Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Your golden daughter’s come back to you.’
Then she went in to her mother and sister, and as she was so richly covered with gold, they gave her a warm welcome. She related to them all that had happened, and when the mother heard how she had come by her great riches, she thought she should like her ugly, lazy daughter to go and try her fortune. So she made the sister go and sit by the well and spin, and the girl pricked her finger and thrust her hand into a thorn-bush, so that she might drop some blood on to the spindle; then she threw it into the well, and jumped in herself.
Like her sister she awoke in the beautiful meadow, and walked over it till she came to the oven. ’Take us out, take us out, or alas! we shall be burnt to a cinder; we were baked through long ago,’ cried the loaves as before. But the lazy girl answered, ’Do you think I am going to dirty my hands for you?’ and walked on.
Presently she came to the apple-tree. ’Shake me, shake me, I pray; my apples, one and all, are ripe,’ it cried. But she only answered, ’A nice thing to ask me to do, one of the apples might fall on my head,’ and passed on.
At last she came to Mother Holle’s house, and as she had heard all about the large teeth from her sister, she was not afraid of them, and engaged herself without delay to the old woman.
The first day she was very obedient and industrious, and exerted herself to please Mother Holle, for she thought of the gold she should get in return. The next day, however, she began to dawdle over her work, and the third day she was more idle still; then she began to lie in bed in the mornings and refused to get up. Worse still, she neglected to make the old woman’s bed properly, and forgot to shake it so that the feathers might fly about. So Mother Holle very soon got tired of her, and told her she might go. The lazy girl was delighted at this, and thought to herself, ’The gold will soon be mine.’ Mother Holle led her, as she had led her sister, to the broad gateway; but as she was passing through, instead of the shower of gold, a great bucketful of pitch came pouring over her.

 ’That is in return for your services,’ said the old woman, and she shut the gate.

So the lazy girl had to go home covered with pitch, and the cock on the well called out as she saw her:
’Cock-a-doodle-doo!
Your dirty daughter’s come back to you.’
But, try what she would, she could not get the pitch off and it stuck to her as long as she lived.