The New Blue Fairy Book Part 2: Fairy Tales 7 to 12

By Laird Stevens

This book contains six of the eighteen fairy tales from Andrew Lang's Blue Fairy Book (1889). The stories have been rewritten sentence by sentence to make them accessible to 21st century American children.
The 6 stories in this book include Little Red Riding Hood, The Master Maid, The Goose-girl, Prince Hyacinth and the Adorable Princess, The Girl with Saffron Hair, and Sleeping Beauty in the Wood.
The great beauty of Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, originally published in 1889, is that it brought together many different fairy tale traditions. There are stories written by Charles Perrault and Mme d’Aulnoy, collected by the Grimm brothers and Asbjornsen and Moe, and translated from the Arabian Nights. It is a very rich collection of fairy tales.
However, the stories are written in a language that is outdated and in places inaccessible to modern American children (and even their parents). To remedy this problem, I have thoroughly edited half of the stories contained in Lang`s book, keeping the stories as intact as possible, while revising every sentence so the stories can once again be read with pleasure by children.

• Language: English
• Publisher: Laird Stevens
• Release date: Oct 17, 2014
• ISBN: 9780986706691

Laird Stevens

THEMATIC BIO Laird Stevens My life–at least, the part of it that I still carry with me today–began with music. My father played the piano by ear. He played, and I wrapped myself in the sound. He was my earliest God. One evening, when my mother put me to bed, she said that I would soon begin piano lessons, and the thought was so electric that I stayed awake until morning. Seven years later, my beautiful world–impossibly intricate, and shamelessly cerebral–was destroyed in a flood of hormones. There were a few survivors, but the shadow of sex was on them all. To make sex pretty, I called it “love” (as I had been trained to do), but it wasn’t love, and it didn’t become anything like love until a few years later. Certainly, it had to do with love, but the walk from sex to love was long and difficult to understand. After that, there was literature. At fifteen or sixteen, I developed an incomprehensible thirst for other people’s stories. My story, which was both new and exciting, was not yet connected to anything else. Reading Dickens and Dostoevski and D.H. Lawrence, I found a place to fit in. And then, finally, there was philosophy. Descartes showed me that nothing I knew was certain. At sixteen, it was easy to agree. I knew that music and love were guiding my life. I didn’t even presume to ask why. I knew that if I ever made sense of my life, it would be in terms of the stories that I now read compulsively. But after reading Descartes, I started caring about something quite different. I started caring more about questions than I did about answers. I would get my answers in due time, once I started asking the right questions. And the right questions were the ones that cut deepest into my belief system, the belief system that I, like Descartes, had patched together uncritically from childhood to the present. Much later (I was twenty-two at the time), I was reading Plato and discovered what he called “the divine madnesses.” These were things that we did that made us feel like Gods. But, and this was an insurmountable ‘but,’ we were not Gods, and could never do these things unless we had the help of the Gods. The four divine madnesses were music, love, poetry and philosophy. Music was possible only if a God took over our bodies and wrote it for us. The same was true of poetry. Love (and I had no trouble believing this) was a gift of madness from the Gods, and so–unparadoxically–was philosophy: the reasoning of a God was simply madness to a person unpossessed. So said Plato, at any rate. But whatever issues you may have with Plato, remember that no one since has had any better ideas. We still talk about how musicians and poets are “inspired” when they write: they breathe something in, and this allows them to create. Science has nothing useful to say about love, and I have no good answer to the question, “Where do ideas come from?” They gallop into my consciousness like wild things, and if I manage to catch the good ones and let the bad ones go, my day is nothing less than extraordinary. My commitment to the idea of divine madness varies, but it is the most useful one I have ever found when it comes to defining my own life. It is one that I would recommend everyone try on for size.

Book preview

The New Blue Fairy Book

Part 2: Fairy Tales 7 to 12

Edited by Laird Stevens

The New Blue Fairy Book Part 2: Fairy Tales 7 to 12

Edited by Laird Stevens

Smashwords Edition, License Notes

This ebook is licensed for your personal enjoyment only. This ebook may not be re-sold or given away to other people. If you would like to share this book with another person, please purchase an additional copy for each recipient. If you’re reading this book and did not purchase it, or it was not purchased for your use only, then please return to Smashwords.com and purchase your own copy. Thank you for respecting the hard work of this author.

Copyright 2014 by Laird Stevens

eBook edition ISBN: 978-0-9867066-9-1

Preface

The great beauty of Andrew Lang’s Blue Fairy Book, originally published in 1889, is that it brought together many different fairy tale traditions. There are stories written by Charles Perrault and Mme d’Aulnoy, collected by the Grimm brothers and Asbjornsen and Moe, and translated from the Arabian Nights. It is a very rich collection of fairy tales.

However, the stories are written in a language that is outdated and in places inaccessible to modern American children (and even their parents). To remedy this problem, I have thoroughly edited half of the stories contained in Lang`s book, keeping the stories as intact as possible, while revising every sentence so the stories can once again be read with pleasure by children.

Table of Contents

Little Red Riding Hood

The Master Maid

The Goose-girl

Prince Hyacinth and the Adorable Princess

The Girl with Saffron Hair

The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood

LITTLE RED RIDING-HOOD

Once upon a time there was a young little girl who lived in a tiny village. She was reckoned the prettiest girl in the whole countryside. Her mother loved more than her own life, but her grandmother loved her even more than that, and was always pampering her with little gifts. Once she gave the girl a red-colored riding-hood, and this was so becoming that the girl wore it every single day. And that is why she was called Little Red Riding-Hood.

One day her mother made some pastries and then called Little Red Riding-Hood into the kitchen. Your grandmother is sick today, she said. I’d like you to see how she’s doing. You can take some pastries along with you, and this pot of freshly-made butter.

Little Red Riding-Hood put all the food in a wicker basket and covered it with a brightly-checkered cloth. Then she put on her riding-hood and her matching cape and off she went to her grandmother’s house, which was through the woods and in another village.

She was walking through the woods when suddenly, a wolf jumped onto the path in front of her. He wanted to eat her up then and there, but he didn’t dare because there were two woodcutters nearby. Instead, he asked the girl where she was going. Little Red Riding-Hood was unaware of the dangers involved in talking to a wolf, so she greeted him politely and said, I’m going to see my grandmother. I’m taking her some pastries and a little pot of butter.

Does she live far away? asked the Wolf.

Oh, yes, said Little Red Riding-Hood. Do you see that mill over there? My grandmother’s house is even further than that. She lives in the first house in the next village.

Indeed, said the Wolf. I think I’ll pay her a visit myself. Here’s an idea: I’ll go this way, and you go that way, and we’ll see which one of us gets there first.

Little Red Riding-Hood was saying goodbye when she realized that the Wolf was already gone: he was streaking off towards her grandmother’s house. So instead, she picked a few berries to see if they were sweet or sour, and she ran after a butterfly, and she gathered a bouquet of flowers for her grandmother.

The Wolf soon arrived at the grandmother’s house and immediately knocked on her door.

Who’s there? called a voice from inside the house.

It’s Little Red Riding-Hood, said the Wolf, mimicking the girl’s voice. I’ve brought you some pastries and a little pot of butter from my mother.

The grandmother was in bed, resting up. She said, It’s not locked. Just lift the latch and come in.

The Wolf lifted the latch and opened the door. Then he leapt on the bed in a single bound, and gobbled the grandmother down. He had not eaten in three days, and he was very hungry. He then shut the door and climbed into the grandmother’s bed, pulling the covers up over his snout. He was waiting for Little Red Riding-Hood to arrive, and soon afterwards she did, and knocked on the door.

Who’s there? cried the Wolf. He was mimicking the grandmother’s voice, but not doing a very good job.

His voice frightened Little Red Riding-Hood. But she reasoned that her grandmother was hoarse because of her illness, and so she answered, It’s Little Red Riding-Hood. I’ve brought you some pastries and a little pot of butter from my mother.

The Wolf tried to soften his voice. He said, It’s not locked. Just lift the latch and come in.

Little Red Riding-Hood lifted the latch and opened the door.

The Wolf watched her come in and close the door. Then he pulled the sheet right over his head so he was completely hidden. He said, Put the pastries and the butter on the table, and then come and lie in bed with me.

So Little Red Riding-Hood got undressed and climbed into bed with the Wolf. At once, she began to think that something was wrong.

What big arms you have, grandmother! she said in a confused tone of voice.

All the better to hug you with, my child.

"And what big ears you have,