Week 14 Reading Notes Part B: English Tales

The King o' the Cats

A woman and her cat are waiting for the husband to come home when he flings the door open.  He starts ranting about how while he was digging a grave he fell asleep and when he woke up he saw 9 white cats carrying a coffin.  He said they came closer and closer to him and the biggest cat in the front of the group said, "Tell Tom Tildrum that Tim Toldrum's dead."  After saying this, their cat, Tom, starts swelling up and says, "What?  Old Tom dead! then I'm the King o' the Cats!"  The cat runs up the chimney and is never seen again.

Tom, King o' the Cats! sourced via Wikipedia

This story in particular made me laugh really hard at just how ridiculous it was!  If I were to redo this story, I would definitely make it someone's dream to try to justify how ridiculous it is.  I would love to try writing a story that is just totally crazy and then it turns out it is just a dream!

Bibliography:
More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs

Week 14 Reading Notes Part A: English Tales

The Three Wishes

One day a woodsman went out to chop wood and his wife gave him supplies.  He comes upon a great tree to chop but before he hits it a fairy begs him not to.  To show it is grateful, the fairy tells him he will be granted three wishes, but quickly disappears.  The man mostly thinks it isn't real, comes home, and when his wife says supper won't be ready for a while, he says he wishes for pudding and BAM pudding comes down the chimney.  Then later the wife gets mad at him and screams that she wishes pudding were in his nose.  It happens and they can't get it out so they have to use their final wish to get it out and they run out of wishes.

Fairy sourced via Pixabay

This is a classic example of being careful what you wish for!  This story kinda made me mad, which is why I would like to change it!  I want to write a story where someone that gets three wishes actually does it in a responsible manner!  I don't think I have ever personally read a story where being granted three wishes turns out okay.

Bibliography:
More English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs