#folktales — Public Fediverse posts
Live and recent posts from across the Fediverse tagged #folktales, aggregated by home.social.
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Not only does my annotated edition of The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe contain the collectors' notes from the first two original volumes (the folktales), but I have also compiled notes on every single folktale in the first two volumes, and every hulder tale and folk legend in the third volume.
Listen to @rorystarr reading the editor's note on “The Three Billy-Goats Bruse” from the first volume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyyXVS0BSBI&t=925s
Then, of course, it’s just a tiny click to find out more about these huge books:
https://norwegianfolktales.net/books/the-complete-norwegian-folktales-and-legends-of-asbjornsen-moe
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Not only does my annotated edition of The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe contain the collectors' notes from the first two original volumes (the folktales), but I have also compiled notes on every single folktale in the first two volumes, and every hulder tale and folk legend in the third volume.
Listen to @rorystarr reading the editor's note on “The Three Billy-Goats Bruse” from the first volume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyyXVS0BSBI&t=925s
Then, of course, it’s just a tiny click to find out more about these huge books:
https://norwegianfolktales.net/books/the-complete-norwegian-folktales-and-legends-of-asbjornsen-moe
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Not only does my annotated edition of The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe contain the collectors' notes from the first two original volumes (the folktales), but I have also compiled notes on every single folktale in the first two volumes, and every hulder tale and folk legend in the third volume.
Listen to @rorystarr reading the editor's note on “The Three Billy-Goats Bruse” from the first volume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyyXVS0BSBI&t=925s
Then, of course, it’s just a tiny click to find out more about these huge books:
https://norwegianfolktales.net/books/the-complete-norwegian-folktales-and-legends-of-asbjornsen-moe
-
Not only does my annotated edition of The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe contain the collectors' notes from the first two original volumes (the folktales), but I have also compiled notes on every single folktale in the first two volumes, and every hulder tale and folk legend in the third volume.
Listen to @rorystarr reading the editor's note on “The Three Billy-Goats Bruse” from the first volume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyyXVS0BSBI&t=925s
Then, of course, it’s just a tiny click to find out more about these huge books:
https://norwegianfolktales.net/books/the-complete-norwegian-folktales-and-legends-of-asbjornsen-moe
-
Not only does my annotated edition of The Complete Norwegian Folktales and Legends of Asbjørnsen & Moe contain the collectors' notes from the first two original volumes (the folktales), but I have also compiled notes on every single folktale in the first two volumes, and every hulder tale and folk legend in the third volume.
Listen to @rorystarr reading the editor's note on “The Three Billy-Goats Bruse” from the first volume:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CyyXVS0BSBI&t=925s
Then, of course, it’s just a tiny click to find out more about these huge books:
https://norwegianfolktales.net/books/the-complete-norwegian-folktales-and-legends-of-asbjornsen-moe
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In "Wise Women", Sharon Blackie & Angharad Wynne re-narrate a selection of European #folktales mostly from the British Isles on old hags, witches, grandmothers, fairy godmothers and other mature women, of middle age & beyond
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Today's Small Town Legend is special: it comes from my late grandfather, Zalka Ottó, who was an amazing storyteller. He especially delighted in trickster tales and local anecdotes.
This was one of his favorite stories to tell.Read here:
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/sokoropatka-how-to-eat-pig-small-town.html#folklore #folktales #AtoZChallenge #blogging #SmallTownLegends
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The #AtoZChallenge is still ongoing, so here is a Small Town Legend about someone accidentally slapping Empress Maria Theresa on the butt:
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/the-queens-buttocks-small-town-legends.html
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"#Jewish #writers have a long, time-honored tradition of spinning the fantastical, from the numerous Jewish #fairytales and #folktales that have been retold for generations to modern #stories that remix old legends into new worlds.
In recent years, a growing number of #fantasy #novels by Jewish #authors, rich with Jewish characters, themes, and cultural touchstones, have earned international acclaim well beyond what might once have been a more niche readership. Many Jewishly-inspired fantasy works have been recognized with prestigious #literary awards, and some have even leaped into #film and #television productions.
If you’re looking for the perfect #read to immerse yourself in another world, as the best fantasy reads can do, consider starting with some of these standout Jewish-inspired #books."
https://unpacked.media/jewish-fantasy-is-having-a-moment-start-with-these-6-books/
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«Odins Sleipner havde otte Ben, man denne Flab har fire Læber.» (Odin’s Sleipnir had eight legs, but this gob has four lips.) – Jørgen Moe on his fictitious, stereotypical raconteur, Gjerulv Tollakssen. The comparison alludes to the typical rapidity of the storytelling Moe encountered.
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If you like dragon-slaying legends and a coat-of-arms featuring a cute dog, this blog post is for you!
It is about a brave woman who slays a ferocious dragon. With chemistry!
Read here:
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/nagylengyel-exploding-dragon-small-town.html -
Meanwhile, the A to Z of Small Town Legends continues on my blog.
Hévíz: A king asks to be hosted in the house of a power greater than him
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/heviz-greatest-power-in-house-small.htmlIstvánkirályfalva: The love of a Christian king and a Pagan woman
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/istvankiralyfalva-love-across-religions.htmlJák: The Devil goes to Rome
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/jak-devil-goes-to-rome-small-town.htmlKisbács: An encounter with the Card Demon
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/kisbacs-card-demon-small-town-legends.html#folklore #AtoZChallenge #SmallTownLegends #folktales #history
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Today's Small Town Legend is about a place where people decided sowing their fields with salt would yield the most valuable crop possible.
But wait! There is more!
Read here:
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/galagonyas-sowing-salt-small-town.html -
Hoda Afshar - Speak the Wind
'In the islands of the Strait of Hormuz off the southern coast of Iran a distinctive local culture has emerged as the result of many centuries of cultural and economic exchange...Central to these is a belief in the existence of winds-generally thought of as harmful-that may possess a person, causing her to experience illness or disease, and a corresponding ritual practice involving incense, music and movement in which an hereditary cult leader speaks with the wind through the afflicted patient in one of many local or foreign tongues in order to negotiate its exit'
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I am a bit behind on sharing my #AtoZChallenge posts so here are two of them - both featuring incredible women!
This one is about an incredibly buff woman fighting off a nobleman who wants to take her land:
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/ecsed-very-strong-woman-small-town.htmlAnd this one is about a heavily pregnant woman fighting off Tatar invaders:
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/fenyeslitke-women-vs-invaders-small.html -
Blog/Review: Contemporary Stories are Failing Kids (And Adults)
One of the little-known facts about J.R.R. Tolkien was that he absolutely despised Disney. So great was his hatred of Disney that he described it as “vulgar,” said that Walt Disney was “a cheat,” and even said that, at times, the animation gave him nausea. The reason for this wasn’t because he had an arbitrary hatred for the mouse running around on screen. Rather his hatred of Disney was two-fold, beginning when he saw the 1937 adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in theaters with C.S. Lewis. For one thing, he saw it as a total bastardization of the original tale published by the Grimm Brothers that was made purely for money’s sake. For another thing, he disliked how the movie shied away from the grimness of the source material. The dark aspects of fairytales were something that Tolkien greatly appreciated, as he was a staunch believer that if a story for children couldn’t also be enjoyed by adults, then it wasn’t worth writing. In fact, in his essay, On Fairy Stories, he bemoaned the fact that in recent years, fairy tales have largely been associated with children, leading to their infantilization, something Disney’s adaptation of Snow White added to.
If Tolkien had only lived to see the slop being pushed on our kids, his already heartfelt disgust towards the infantilization of fairytales and stories in general would have turned into the fury of a thousand suns.
The contemporary fairytales being pushed on kids today are excessively childish. If they aren’t stories that are based on existing intellectual properties (such as any number of Disney-owned franchises) it’s online entertainment such as the stuff on Disney+. Just think about the last time that you saw a kids’ show that treated kids like they were capable of thinking for themselves, that treated them as having the potential to grow past their current mindset. Bluey is one such show from what I’ve heard, but many of the shows out there treat kids as kids. They don’t treat them as young humans who are gradually maturing, navigating the complexities of growing up.
As an example, think about the difference between Miss Rachel and Mr. Rogers. Miss Rachel is known for her infantilized online persona aimed at teaching kids various lessons about things (including Left-wing politics for some reason.) Meanwhile, Mr. Rogers spoke to young kids as an adult. He came at it not as though he was trying to be one of them, but as a wise grandfather. He reached both kids and adults, something that Miss Rachel can’t do.
A similar contrast can be found in stories today versus stories written in the past. Even if you go back 10-20 years, kids’ stories were a lot heavier than they are today and could be enjoyed by any age bracket. For example, How to Train Your Dragon came out in 2010, and, while it primarily targeted kids, it had themes in it that went a lot deeper than one would think. It dealt with themes of courage, family expectations, trying to navigate growing up, etc. At one point, Stoic straight-up disowns Hiccup. The second movie that came out in 2014 had some heavy themes in it. However, fast forward to today, and even the third HTTYD movie felt dumbed down compared to the previous ones. Look at the spin-off show on Hulu, and the contrast is even more stark.
Additionally, many of the stories targeted towards kids and adults nowadays have become soulless cash-grabs, often grifting off of pre-existing franchises. To make things worse, the morals they teach are few and far between, if there even are any.
One example of this is Pixar’s newest movie, Hoppers. While it doesn’t have anything blatantly objectionable in it, a deep dive into the morals taught in the story and the political messaging is disturbing. The YouTuber, Real-Life Fake Wizard did a deep dive into the messaging subtly hidden throughout the movie and not only does it justify the main character’s terrible behavior as a Greta Thunberg-like environmental activist, but it also justifies killing people for the sake of the state.
Remember this is a movie aimed towards children pushing an anti-human, Leftist agenda on them covered up with smiles and laughter.
On that note, one of the things that made stories in the past appealing to adults and children were the strong moral lessons that they taught and the characters overcoming bad situations. This was important as not only did these stories give children profound truths that they could be reminded of throughout life, but they also prepared them in some ways for the adult world. In that way, the stories got better as you grew up as you could now interpret them through a wiser, more experienced lens. Nowadays, however, our contemporary folklore is encountering a massive divide between kids’ stories and adult stories.
To illustrate this point, just recently I went to Walmart and checked out their book section with my mom. The kids’ section was a small area, with mainly coloring books and picture books based on various franchises, most of them owned by Disney. The rest of the book area was a handful of young adult novels such as The Hunger Games and a few Percy Jackson and the Olympians books scattered around (with the main one being the Nico x Will LGBTQ+ adventure) hidden amongst the books aimed towards adults.
Several of these books I recognized from the #booktube and #booktok community as having explicit content in them, with the most notable ones being the Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Fourth Wing series, both of which, I believe, have been banned in public schools. I also saw the sequel to the infamous book, Haunting Adeline, a book which has become known for its glorification of stalking, physical abuse, and rape (including penetration with a gun.)
I wish I was making this up. That isn’t even mentioning the trigger warning on the first page of the book.
This goes to show how not only have stories aimed towards kids lost the plot (often literally) of being appealing to children while also appealing to adults with the moral messaging and overall story, but the divide between adult literature and kids’ is growing vastly. Even with young adult novels intending to be the buffer zone between kids’ books and adult literature, you still often lack clear morals and a sense of good and evil. Often, you are even being exposed to – at best – softcore porn. These stories don’t help you grow up; they dumb you down by appealing not to a higher sense of morality, but to your base impulses.
While children’s literature used to be considered to be stories for adults told amongst the elders of the village that children were privy to, learning profound universal morals and values along the way, what could be considered as modern fairytales have lost the plot entirely. They have either become something to meet kids where they are at and, in some ways, keep them there, or their idea of adult doesn’t come from the morals within the tale, but rather the increasingly explicit lack thereof. In this way, neither kids nor adults are maturing by reading these tales. They’re only being corrupted to something animalistic.
Until next time,
M.J.
#Blog #BookReview #Books #Contemporary #Fairytales #Fantasy #fiction #Folktales #Kids #KidsShows #KidsStories #movies #OpinionPeice #Review #Stories #Writing -
Blog/Review: Contemporary Stories are Failing Kids (And Adults)
One of the little-known facts about J.R.R. Tolkien was that he absolutely despised Disney. So great was his hatred of Disney that he described it as “vulgar,” said that Walt Disney was “a cheat,” and even said that, at times, the animation gave him nausea. The reason for this wasn’t because he had an arbitrary hatred for the mouse running around on screen. Rather his hatred of Disney was two-fold, beginning when he saw the 1937 adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in theaters with C.S. Lewis. For one thing, he saw it as a total bastardization of the original tale published by the Grimm Brothers that was made purely for money’s sake. For another thing, he disliked how the movie shied away from the grimness of the source material. The dark aspects of fairytales were something that Tolkien greatly appreciated, as he was a staunch believer that if a story for children couldn’t also be enjoyed by adults, then it wasn’t worth writing. In fact, in his essay, On Fairy Stories, he bemoaned the fact that in recent years, fairy tales have largely been associated with children, leading to their infantilization, something Disney’s adaptation of Snow White added to.
If Tolkien had only lived to see the slop being pushed on our kids, his already heartfelt disgust towards the infantilization of fairytales and stories in general would have turned into the fury of a thousand suns.
The contemporary fairytales being pushed on kids today are excessively childish. If they aren’t stories that are based on existing intellectual properties (such as any number of Disney-owned franchises) it’s online entertainment such as the stuff on Disney+. Just think about the last time that you saw a kids’ show that treated kids like they were capable of thinking for themselves, that treated them as having the potential to grow past their current mindset. Bluey is one such show from what I’ve heard, but many of the shows out there treat kids as kids. They don’t treat them as young humans who are gradually maturing, navigating the complexities of growing up.
As an example, think about the difference between Miss Rachel and Mr. Rogers. Miss Rachel is known for her infantilized online persona aimed at teaching kids various lessons about things (including Left-wing politics for some reason.) Meanwhile, Mr. Rogers spoke to young kids as an adult. He came at it not as though he was trying to be one of them, but as a wise grandfather. He reached both kids and adults, something that Miss Rachel can’t do.
A similar contrast can be found in stories today versus stories written in the past. Even if you go back 10-20 years, kids’ stories were a lot heavier than they are today and could be enjoyed by any age bracket. For example, How to Train Your Dragon came out in 2010, and, while it primarily targeted kids, it had themes in it that went a lot deeper than one would think. It dealt with themes of courage, family expectations, trying to navigate growing up, etc. At one point, Stoic straight-up disowns Hiccup. The second movie that came out in 2014 had some heavy themes in it. However, fast forward to today, and even the third HTTYD movie felt dumbed down compared to the previous ones. Look at the spin-off show on Hulu, and the contrast is even more stark.
Additionally, many of the stories targeted towards kids and adults nowadays have become soulless cash-grabs, often grifting off of pre-existing franchises. To make things worse, the morals they teach are few and far between, if there even are any.
One example of this is Pixar’s newest movie, Hoppers. While it doesn’t have anything blatantly objectionable in it, a deep dive into the morals taught in the story and the political messaging is disturbing. The YouTuber, Real-Life Fake Wizard did a deep dive into the messaging subtly hidden throughout the movie and not only does it justify the main character’s terrible behavior as a Greta Thunberg-like environmental activist, but it also justifies killing people for the sake of the state.
Remember this is a movie aimed towards children pushing an anti-human, Leftist agenda on them covered up with smiles and laughter.
On that note, one of the things that made stories in the past appealing to adults and children were the strong moral lessons that they taught and the characters overcoming bad situations. This was important as not only did these stories give children profound truths that they could be reminded of throughout life, but they also prepared them in some ways for the adult world. In that way, the stories got better as you grew up as you could now interpret them through a wiser, more experienced lens. Nowadays, however, our contemporary folklore is encountering a massive divide between kids’ stories and adult stories.
To illustrate this point, just recently I went to Walmart and checked out their book section with my mom. The kids’ section was a small area, with mainly coloring books and picture books based on various franchises, most of them owned by Disney. The rest of the book area was a handful of young adult novels such as The Hunger Games and a few Percy Jackson and the Olympians books scattered around (with the main one being the Nico x Will LGBTQ+ adventure) hidden amongst the books aimed towards adults.
Several of these books I recognized from the #booktube and #booktok community as having explicit content in them, with the most notable ones being the Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Fourth Wing series, both of which, I believe, have been banned in public schools. I also saw the sequel to the infamous book, Haunting Adeline, a book which has become known for its glorification of stalking, physical abuse, and rape (including penetration with a gun.)
I wish I was making this up. That isn’t even mentioning the trigger warning on the first page of the book.
This goes to show how not only have stories aimed towards kids lost the plot (often literally) of being appealing to children while also appealing to adults with the moral messaging and overall story, but the divide between adult literature and kids’ is growing vastly. Even with young adult novels intending to be the buffer zone between kids’ books and adult literature, you still often lack clear morals and a sense of good and evil. Often, you are even being exposed to – at best – softcore porn. These stories don’t help you grow up; they dumb you down by appealing not to a higher sense of morality, but to your base impulses.
While children’s literature used to be considered to be stories for adults told amongst the elders of the village that children were privy to, learning profound universal morals and values along the way, what could be considered as modern fairytales have lost the plot entirely. They have either become something to meet kids where they are at and, in some ways, keep them there, or their idea of adult doesn’t come from the morals within the tale, but rather the increasingly explicit lack thereof. In this way, neither kids nor adults are maturing by reading these tales. They’re only being corrupted to something animalistic.
Until next time,
M.J.
#Blog #BookReview #Books #Contemporary #Fairytales #Fantasy #fiction #Folktales #Kids #KidsShows #KidsStories #movies #OpinionPeice #Review #Stories #Writing -
Blog/Review: Contemporary Stories are Failing Kids (And Adults)
One of the little-known facts about J.R.R. Tolkien was that he absolutely despised Disney. So great was his hatred of Disney that he described it as “vulgar,” said that Walt Disney was “a cheat,” and even said that, at times, the animation gave him nausea. The reason for this wasn’t because he had an arbitrary hatred for the mouse running around on screen. Rather his hatred of Disney was two-fold, beginning when he saw the 1937 adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in theaters with C.S. Lewis. For one thing, he saw it as a total bastardization of the original tale published by the Grimm Brothers that was made purely for money’s sake. For another thing, he disliked how the movie shied away from the grimness of the source material. The dark aspects of fairytales were something that Tolkien greatly appreciated, as he was a staunch believer that if a story for children couldn’t also be enjoyed by adults, then it wasn’t worth writing. In fact, in his essay, On Fairy Stories, he bemoaned the fact that in recent years, fairy tales have largely been associated with children, leading to their infantilization, something Disney’s adaptation of Snow White added to.
If Tolkien had only lived to see the slop being pushed on our kids, his already heartfelt disgust towards the infantilization of fairytales and stories in general would have turned into the fury of a thousand suns.
The contemporary fairytales being pushed on kids today are excessively childish. If they aren’t stories that are based on existing intellectual properties (such as any number of Disney-owned franchises) it’s online entertainment such as the stuff on Disney+. Just think about the last time that you saw a kids’ show that treated kids like they were capable of thinking for themselves, that treated them as having the potential to grow past their current mindset. Bluey is one such show from what I’ve heard, but many of the shows out there treat kids as kids. They don’t treat them as young humans who are gradually maturing, navigating the complexities of growing up.
As an example, think about the difference between Miss Rachel and Mr. Rogers. Miss Rachel is known for her infantilized online persona aimed at teaching kids various lessons about things (including Left-wing politics for some reason.) Meanwhile, Mr. Rogers spoke to young kids as an adult. He came at it not as though he was trying to be one of them, but as a wise grandfather. He reached both kids and adults, something that Miss Rachel can’t do.
A similar contrast can be found in stories today versus stories written in the past. Even if you go back 10-20 years, kids’ stories were a lot heavier than they are today and could be enjoyed by any age bracket. For example, How to Train Your Dragon came out in 2010, and, while it primarily targeted kids, it had themes in it that went a lot deeper than one would think. It dealt with themes of courage, family expectations, trying to navigate growing up, etc. At one point, Stoic straight-up disowns Hiccup. The second movie that came out in 2014 had some heavy themes in it. However, fast forward to today, and even the third HTTYD movie felt dumbed down compared to the previous ones. Look at the spin-off show on Hulu, and the contrast is even more stark.
Additionally, many of the stories targeted towards kids and adults nowadays have become soulless cash-grabs, often grifting off of pre-existing franchises. To make things worse, the morals they teach are few and far between, if there even are any.
One example of this is Pixar’s newest movie, Hoppers. While it doesn’t have anything blatantly objectionable in it, a deep dive into the morals taught in the story and the political messaging is disturbing. The YouTuber, Real-Life Fake Wizard did a deep dive into the messaging subtly hidden throughout the movie and not only does it justify the main character’s terrible behavior as a Greta Thunberg-like environmental activist, but it also justifies killing people for the sake of the state.
Remember this is a movie aimed towards children pushing an anti-human, Leftist agenda on them covered up with smiles and laughter.
On that note, one of the things that made stories in the past appealing to adults and children were the strong moral lessons that they taught and the characters overcoming bad situations. This was important as not only did these stories give children profound truths that they could be reminded of throughout life, but they also prepared them in some ways for the adult world. In that way, the stories got better as you grew up as you could now interpret them through a wiser, more experienced lens. Nowadays, however, our contemporary folklore is encountering a massive divide between kids’ stories and adult stories.
To illustrate this point, just recently I went to Walmart and checked out their book section with my mom. The kids’ section was a small area, with mainly coloring books and picture books based on various franchises, most of them owned by Disney. The rest of the book area was a handful of young adult novels such as The Hunger Games and a few Percy Jackson and the Olympians books scattered around (with the main one being the Nico x Will LGBTQ+ adventure) hidden amongst the books aimed towards adults.
Several of these books I recognized from the #booktube and #booktok community as having explicit content in them, with the most notable ones being the Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Fourth Wing series, both of which, I believe, have been banned in public schools. I also saw the sequel to the infamous book, Haunting Adeline, a book which has become known for its glorification of stalking, physical abuse, and rape (including penetration with a gun.)
I wish I was making this up. That isn’t even mentioning the trigger warning on the first page of the book.
This goes to show how not only have stories aimed towards kids lost the plot (often literally) of being appealing to children while also appealing to adults with the moral messaging and overall story, but the divide between adult literature and kids’ is growing vastly. Even with young adult novels intending to be the buffer zone between kids’ books and adult literature, you still often lack clear morals and a sense of good and evil. Often, you are even being exposed to – at best – softcore porn. These stories don’t help you grow up; they dumb you down by appealing not to a higher sense of morality, but to your base impulses.
While children’s literature used to be considered to be stories for adults told amongst the elders of the village that children were privy to, learning profound universal morals and values along the way, what could be considered as modern fairytales have lost the plot entirely. They have either become something to meet kids where they are at and, in some ways, keep them there, or their idea of adult doesn’t come from the morals within the tale, but rather the increasingly explicit lack thereof. In this way, neither kids nor adults are maturing by reading these tales. They’re only being corrupted to something animalistic.
Until next time,
M.J.
#Blog #BookReview #Books #Contemporary #Fairytales #Fantasy #fiction #Folktales #Kids #KidsShows #KidsStories #movies #OpinionPeice #Review #Stories #Writing -
Blog/Review: Contemporary Stories are Failing Kids (And Adults)
One of the little-known facts about J.R.R. Tolkien was that he absolutely despised Disney. So great was his hatred of Disney that he described it as “vulgar,” said that Walt Disney was “a cheat,” and even said that, at times, the animation gave him nausea. The reason for this wasn’t because he had an arbitrary hatred for the mouse running around on screen. Rather his hatred of Disney was two-fold, beginning when he saw the 1937 adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in theaters with C.S. Lewis. For one thing, he saw it as a total bastardization of the original tale published by the Grimm Brothers that was made purely for money’s sake. For another thing, he disliked how the movie shied away from the grimness of the source material. The dark aspects of fairytales were something that Tolkien greatly appreciated, as he was a staunch believer that if a story for children couldn’t also be enjoyed by adults, then it wasn’t worth writing. In fact, in his essay, On Fairy Stories, he bemoaned the fact that in recent years, fairy tales have largely been associated with children, leading to their infantilization, something Disney’s adaptation of Snow White added to.
If Tolkien had only lived to see the slop being pushed on our kids, his already heartfelt disgust towards the infantilization of fairytales and stories in general would have turned into the fury of a thousand suns.
The contemporary fairytales being pushed on kids today are excessively childish. If they aren’t stories that are based on existing intellectual properties (such as any number of Disney-owned franchises) it’s online entertainment such as the stuff on Disney+. Just think about the last time that you saw a kids’ show that treated kids like they were capable of thinking for themselves, that treated them as having the potential to grow past their current mindset. Bluey is one such show from what I’ve heard, but many of the shows out there treat kids as kids. They don’t treat them as young humans who are gradually maturing, navigating the complexities of growing up.
As an example, think about the difference between Miss Rachel and Mr. Rogers. Miss Rachel is known for her infantilized online persona aimed at teaching kids various lessons about things (including Left-wing politics for some reason.) Meanwhile, Mr. Rogers spoke to young kids as an adult. He came at it not as though he was trying to be one of them, but as a wise grandfather. He reached both kids and adults, something that Miss Rachel can’t do.
A similar contrast can be found in stories today versus stories written in the past. Even if you go back 10-20 years, kids’ stories were a lot heavier than they are today and could be enjoyed by any age bracket. For example, How to Train Your Dragon came out in 2010, and, while it primarily targeted kids, it had themes in it that went a lot deeper than one would think. It dealt with themes of courage, family expectations, trying to navigate growing up, etc. At one point, Stoic straight-up disowns Hiccup. The second movie that came out in 2014 had some heavy themes in it. However, fast forward to today, and even the third HTTYD movie felt dumbed down compared to the previous ones. Look at the spin-off show on Hulu, and the contrast is even more stark.
Additionally, many of the stories targeted towards kids and adults nowadays have become soulless cash-grabs, often grifting off of pre-existing franchises. To make things worse, the morals they teach are few and far between, if there even are any.
One example of this is Pixar’s newest movie, Hoppers. While it doesn’t have anything blatantly objectionable in it, a deep dive into the morals taught in the story and the political messaging is disturbing. The YouTuber, Real-Life Fake Wizard did a deep dive into the messaging subtly hidden throughout the movie and not only does it justify the main character’s terrible behavior as a Greta Thunberg-like environmental activist, but it also justifies killing people for the sake of the state.
Remember this is a movie aimed towards children pushing an anti-human, Leftist agenda on them covered up with smiles and laughter.
On that note, one of the things that made stories in the past appealing to adults and children were the strong moral lessons that they taught and the characters overcoming bad situations. This was important as not only did these stories give children profound truths that they could be reminded of throughout life, but they also prepared them in some ways for the adult world. In that way, the stories got better as you grew up as you could now interpret them through a wiser, more experienced lens. Nowadays, however, our contemporary folklore is encountering a massive divide between kids’ stories and adult stories.
To illustrate this point, just recently I went to Walmart and checked out their book section with my mom. The kids’ section was a small area, with mainly coloring books and picture books based on various franchises, most of them owned by Disney. The rest of the book area was a handful of young adult novels such as The Hunger Games and a few Percy Jackson and the Olympians books scattered around (with the main one being the Nico x Will LGBTQ+ adventure) hidden amongst the books aimed towards adults.
Several of these books I recognized from the #booktube and #booktok community as having explicit content in them, with the most notable ones being the Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Fourth Wing series, both of which, I believe, have been banned in public schools. I also saw the sequel to the infamous book, Haunting Adeline, a book which has become known for its glorification of stalking, physical abuse, and rape (including penetration with a gun.)
I wish I was making this up. That isn’t even mentioning the trigger warning on the first page of the book.
This goes to show how not only have stories aimed towards kids lost the plot (often literally) of being appealing to children while also appealing to adults with the moral messaging and overall story, but the divide between adult literature and kids’ is growing vastly. Even with young adult novels intending to be the buffer zone between kids’ books and adult literature, you still often lack clear morals and a sense of good and evil. Often, you are even being exposed to – at best – softcore porn. These stories don’t help you grow up; they dumb you down by appealing not to a higher sense of morality, but to your base impulses.
While children’s literature used to be considered to be stories for adults told amongst the elders of the village that children were privy to, learning profound universal morals and values along the way, what could be considered as modern fairytales have lost the plot entirely. They have either become something to meet kids where they are at and, in some ways, keep them there, or their idea of adult doesn’t come from the morals within the tale, but rather the increasingly explicit lack thereof. In this way, neither kids nor adults are maturing by reading these tales. They’re only being corrupted to something animalistic.
Until next time,
M.J.
#Writing #BookReview #OpinionPeice #Fantasy #Blog #Review #KidsShows #Books #movies #fiction #Stories #KidsStories #Fairytales #Contemporary #Kids #Folktales -
Blog/Review: Contemporary Stories are Failing Kids (And Adults)
One of the little-known facts about J.R.R. Tolkien was that he absolutely despised Disney. So great was his hatred of Disney that he described it as “vulgar,” said that Walt Disney was “a cheat,” and even said that, at times, the animation gave him nausea. The reason for this wasn’t because he had an arbitrary hatred for the mouse running around on screen. Rather his hatred of Disney was two-fold, beginning when he saw the 1937 adaptation of Snow White and the Seven Dwarves in theaters with C.S. Lewis. For one thing, he saw it as a total bastardization of the original tale published by the Grimm Brothers that was made purely for money’s sake. For another thing, he disliked how the movie shied away from the grimness of the source material. The dark aspects of fairytales were something that Tolkien greatly appreciated, as he was a staunch believer that if a story for children couldn’t also be enjoyed by adults, then it wasn’t worth writing. In fact, in his essay, On Fairy Stories, he bemoaned the fact that in recent years, fairy tales have largely been associated with children, leading to their infantilization, something Disney’s adaptation of Snow White added to.
If Tolkien had only lived to see the slop being pushed on our kids, his already heartfelt disgust towards the infantilization of fairytales and stories in general would have turned into the fury of a thousand suns.
The contemporary fairytales being pushed on kids today are excessively childish. If they aren’t stories that are based on existing intellectual properties (such as any number of Disney-owned franchises) it’s online entertainment such as the stuff on Disney+. Just think about the last time that you saw a kids’ show that treated kids like they were capable of thinking for themselves, that treated them as having the potential to grow past their current mindset. Bluey is one such show from what I’ve heard, but many of the shows out there treat kids as kids. They don’t treat them as young humans who are gradually maturing, navigating the complexities of growing up.
As an example, think about the difference between Miss Rachel and Mr. Rogers. Miss Rachel is known for her infantilized online persona aimed at teaching kids various lessons about things (including Left-wing politics for some reason.) Meanwhile, Mr. Rogers spoke to young kids as an adult. He came at it not as though he was trying to be one of them, but as a wise grandfather. He reached both kids and adults, something that Miss Rachel can’t do.
A similar contrast can be found in stories today versus stories written in the past. Even if you go back 10-20 years, kids’ stories were a lot heavier than they are today and could be enjoyed by any age bracket. For example, How to Train Your Dragon came out in 2010, and, while it primarily targeted kids, it had themes in it that went a lot deeper than one would think. It dealt with themes of courage, family expectations, trying to navigate growing up, etc. At one point, Stoic straight-up disowns Hiccup. The second movie that came out in 2014 had some heavy themes in it. However, fast forward to today, and even the third HTTYD movie felt dumbed down compared to the previous ones. Look at the spin-off show on Hulu, and the contrast is even more stark.
Additionally, many of the stories targeted towards kids and adults nowadays have become soulless cash-grabs, often grifting off of pre-existing franchises. To make things worse, the morals they teach are few and far between, if there even are any.
One example of this is Pixar’s newest movie, Hoppers. While it doesn’t have anything blatantly objectionable in it, a deep dive into the morals taught in the story and the political messaging is disturbing. The YouTuber, Real-Life Fake Wizard did a deep dive into the messaging subtly hidden throughout the movie and not only does it justify the main character’s terrible behavior as a Greta Thunberg-like environmental activist, but it also justifies killing people for the sake of the state.
Remember this is a movie aimed towards children pushing an anti-human, Leftist agenda on them covered up with smiles and laughter.
On that note, one of the things that made stories in the past appealing to adults and children were the strong moral lessons that they taught and the characters overcoming bad situations. This was important as not only did these stories give children profound truths that they could be reminded of throughout life, but they also prepared them in some ways for the adult world. In that way, the stories got better as you grew up as you could now interpret them through a wiser, more experienced lens. Nowadays, however, our contemporary folklore is encountering a massive divide between kids’ stories and adult stories.
To illustrate this point, just recently I went to Walmart and checked out their book section with my mom. The kids’ section was a small area, with mainly coloring books and picture books based on various franchises, most of them owned by Disney. The rest of the book area was a handful of young adult novels such as The Hunger Games and a few Percy Jackson and the Olympians books scattered around (with the main one being the Nico x Will LGBTQ+ adventure) hidden amongst the books aimed towards adults.
Several of these books I recognized from the #booktube and #booktok community as having explicit content in them, with the most notable ones being the Court of Thorns and Roses series and the Fourth Wing series, both of which, I believe, have been banned in public schools. I also saw the sequel to the infamous book, Haunting Adeline, a book which has become known for its glorification of stalking, physical abuse, and rape (including penetration with a gun.)
I wish I was making this up. That isn’t even mentioning the trigger warning on the first page of the book.
This goes to show how not only have stories aimed towards kids lost the plot (often literally) of being appealing to children while also appealing to adults with the moral messaging and overall story, but the divide between adult literature and kids’ is growing vastly. Even with young adult novels intending to be the buffer zone between kids’ books and adult literature, you still often lack clear morals and a sense of good and evil. Often, you are even being exposed to – at best – softcore porn. These stories don’t help you grow up; they dumb you down by appealing not to a higher sense of morality, but to your base impulses.
While children’s literature used to be considered to be stories for adults told amongst the elders of the village that children were privy to, learning profound universal morals and values along the way, what could be considered as modern fairytales have lost the plot entirely. They have either become something to meet kids where they are at and, in some ways, keep them there, or their idea of adult doesn’t come from the morals within the tale, but rather the increasingly explicit lack thereof. In this way, neither kids nor adults are maturing by reading these tales. They’re only being corrupted to something animalistic.
Until next time,
M.J.
#Blog #BookReview #Books #Contemporary #Fairytales #Fantasy #fiction #Folktales #Kids #KidsShows #KidsStories #movies #OpinionPeice #Review #Stories #Writing -
I have been looking into the possibility of publishing some Swedish folktales in English translation. A reflective blogpost.
https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/swedish-folktales
#SwedishFolktales #ScandinavianFolklore #Folklore #Folktales
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I have been looking into the possibility of publishing some Swedish folktales in English translation. A reflective blogpost.
https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/swedish-folktales
#SwedishFolktales #ScandinavianFolklore #Folklore #Folktales
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I have been looking into the possibility of publishing some Swedish folktales in English translation. A reflective blogpost.
https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/swedish-folktales
#SwedishFolktales #ScandinavianFolklore #Folklore #Folktales
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I have been looking into the possibility of publishing some Swedish folktales in English translation. A reflective blogpost.
https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/swedish-folktales
#SwedishFolktales #ScandinavianFolklore #Folklore #Folktales
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I have been looking into the possibility of publishing some Swedish folktales in English translation. A reflective blogpost.
https://norwegianfolktales.net/articles/swedish-folktales
#SwedishFolktales #ScandinavianFolklore #Folklore #Folktales
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#AtoZChallenge of Small Town Legends:
C is for Csíkménaság and Hoopoe Jesus
This one is a legend from Transylvania about a bunch of people who mistook a hoopoe for Jesus... and then tried to capture him
Read here:
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/csikmenasag-hoopoe-jesus-small-town.html -
The #AtoZChallenge continues!
Today's legend takes place in the era of the Tatar invasions, and tells of a fortunate escape due to healthy snacks.
Bágy: Walnut Body Armor
https://multicoloreddiary.blogspot.com/2026/04/bagy-walnut-body-armor-small-town.html -
Here we go!
The A to Z Challenge has begun. My theme this year is Small Town Legends: weird folklore from villages and small towns in and around Hungary.
First up: some very strange geese.
Ács: Zombie Goose Shenanigans https://share.google/Aa9plXTmBYbUrUPXM
#AtoZChallenge #SmallTownLegends #blogging #folklore #folktales #legends
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#gamemastersbookclub Explores the Genres! Shenmo (Chinese Gods and Devils) #Shenmo #chinese #mythology #folktales #legends #fantasy #books #booksky
The Bridge of Birds by Barry Hughart
Jade City by Fonda Lee
Six Crimson Cranes by Elizabeth Lim
The Ghost Bride by Yangze Choo
The Girl with the Ghost Eyes by M.H. Boroson -
Dark fairy tales
Disturbing fairy tales
Grotesque fairy tales
Horrific fairy tales
Please stop. Folktales are, above all else, entertaining. Fun. Amusing.
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Some Irish folklore this St Patrick’s Day: the Sídhe, the Aos sí, the fair folk, the good people, or the people of the shee from Irish folklore, who live underground. You may know the banshee, or Bean sídhe or woman of the sídhe. In fact the very word Sídhe is the term for earthen mounds like the one in my #linocut and the Aos sí are “the people of mounds.” The Sidhe evolved from a mythological people known as 🧵
#printmaking #folklore #Sidhe #fairyMound #folktales #mastoArt
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Well, just how the hell am I supposed to translate this, then? "Svenska Folk-Sagor och Äfventyr" Swedish folktales and folktales? Swedish folktales and adventures? What is the difference, in Swedish, between a saga and an äventyr?
I fell at the first hurdle, it seems.
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See also:
Native American Folktales by Thomas A. Green, 2009
#Folktales are at the heart of Native American culture. Prepared especially for students and general readers, this book conveniently collects 31 of the most important Native American folktales. These are drawn from the major Native American cultural and geographical areas and are organized in sections on origins; heroes, heroines, villains, and fools; society and conflict; and the supernatural.
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The Annotated African American Folktales by Henry Louis Gates, 2017
Collected for the first time, these nearly 150 African American folktales animate our past and reclaim a lost cultural legacy to redefine American literature.
Drawing from the great folklorists of the past while expanding African American lore with dozens of tales rarely seen before, The New Annotated African American Folktales revolutionizes the canon like no other volume. -
Today's research rabbithole:
I start looking into a folktale collected from a Hungarian Jewish woman who immigrated to the US in the 1920s.
I find out she was also a poet.
I find out the tale was recorded from her by famous poet May Swenson.
I also find out May and Anca were lovers for many years.
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Phantom Funerals are commonly found in ghostly #folklore. Sometimes they are the apparitions of real funerals which will shortly take place in the neighbourhood. But often the phantom cortege serves as an omen of death to the witness rather than to someone else. #PhantomsFriday #ghosts #folktales
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Yes, indeed, join in the festive fun for #PhantomsFriday tomorrow and let's see how scarily Christmassy we can make it! #folklore #legend #folktales #ghost #ghosts #art #literature #poetry
RE: https://bsky.app/profile/did:plc:jpkdfigmsuf2uqloc5dmwxr5/post/3mabgrcu2s22p -
Re-Tracing the Dance-Steps of the Hugboon: The Nordic Background of Orkney Folk Legends
5 December, online – freeIn this seminar, Prof Terry Gunnell (University of Iceland) will explore the Nordic connections of Orkney legends & folklore
https://llc.ed.ac.uk/celtic-scottish-studies/css-seminar-series-251205
#Scottish #literature #legends #folklore #folktales #Norse #Orkney
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A very wealthy and vain man said to the Hodja: "You can't even guess how much I am worth, can you?"
The Hodja gave him a look and said: "Sixty gold pieces."
"HA! My outfit alone is worth sixty gold pieces!"
The Hodja gave him another glance: "I know."
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Spending the day at a conference on Roma storytelling at the Hungarian Heritage House. Lectures, roundtables, and actual storytellers. I am so excited!
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"The governor’s suggestion drew only more attention: It could be the ghost of Charlotte, the only empress of Mexico, a woman whose short and turbulent 19th-century reign has transformed her into the legendary figure known as Carlota."
#weird #weirdnews #ghosts #legend #haunted #scarey #spooky #folktales
https://www.nytimes.com/2025/10/31/world/americas/mexico-ghost-governor.html -
It's Asexual Awareness Week! 💜 🤍 🖤
Here are some characters from folklore any mythology who are on the ace spectrum (according to my personal canon):
Pomona (from the myth of Pomona and Vertumnus)
Palamedes (from the Trojan war)
Marfisa the Knight (from Orlando Furioso)
The lad from Twelve Dancing Princesses
#AceWeek #AceAwarenessWeek #asexual #queer #LGBTQ #folktales #mythology
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The SCP foundation is...
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How the Fates and Frame.io Helped ‘Folktales’ Create a Sense of Magic
#IndieWire #CraftTechnologySoundandSetDesign #Features #Film #Folktales #MagnoliaPictures #TopoftheLine -
From ‘Oh, Hi!’ & ‘Diciannove’ To ‘Folktales’ & ‘House On Eden’, Indies Saw A Window This Weekend And Grabbed It – Specialty Preview
#News #2000MeterstoAndriivka #AJGoesToTheDogPark #Diciannove #Folktales #GunsMoses #HouseOnEden #OhHi #ShariLambChop #Shoshana #SpecialtyPreview #TheHome -
From ‘Oh, Hi!’ & ‘Diciannove’ To ‘Folktales’ & ‘House On Eden’, Indies Saw A Window This Weekend And Grabbed It – Specialty Preview
#News #2000MeterstoAndriivka #AJGoesToTheDogPark #Diciannove #Folktales #GunsMoses #HouseOnEden #OhHi #ShariLambChop #Shoshana #SpecialtyPreview #TheHome -
From ‘Oh, Hi!’ & ‘Diciannove’ To ‘Folktales’ & ‘House On Eden’, Indies Saw A Window This Weekend And Grabbed It – Specialty Preview
#News #2000MeterstoAndriivka #AJGoesToTheDogPark #Diciannove #Folktales #GunsMoses #HouseOnEden #OhHi #ShariLambChop #Shoshana #SpecialtyPreview #TheHome -
From ‘Oh, Hi!’ & ‘Diciannove’ To ‘Folktales’ & ‘House On Eden’, Indies Saw A Window This Weekend And Grabbed It – Specialty Preview
#News #2000MeterstoAndriivka #AJGoesToTheDogPark #Diciannove #Folktales #GunsMoses #HouseOnEden #OhHi #ShariLambChop #Shoshana #SpecialtyPreview #TheHome -
𝟯 𝗪𝗼𝗿𝗱 𝗥𝗲𝘃𝗶𝗲𝘄: “𝗭𝗹𝗮𝘁𝗲𝗵 𝘁𝗵𝗲 𝗚𝗼𝗮𝘁 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗢𝘁𝗵𝗲𝗿 𝗦𝘁𝗼𝗿𝗶𝗲𝘀” 𝗯𝘆 𝗜𝘀𝗮𝗮𝗰 𝗕𝗮𝘀𝗵𝗲𝘃𝗶𝘀 𝗦𝗶𝗻𝗴𝗲𝗿 𝗮𝗻𝗱 𝗠𝗮𝘂𝗿𝗶𝗰𝗲 𝗦𝗲𝗻𝗱𝗮𝗸 -
Delightful children's tales in an old folk tradition are still enough for adults to wax nostalgic, too.
#bookreviews #literature #books #bookworm #book #read #readreadread #3words #isaacbashevissinger #mauricesendak #zlatehthegoat #folktales #jewishliterature #polishliterature #childrensliterature #shortstories
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Going down the rabbit hole about the Welsh Triads. Organizing random mythical things in threes is one of the most delightful storytelling systems I know.
#Wales #folklore #mythology #folktales #WelshFolklore #storytelling