August 7 - "King Crin"

“King Crin”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

After catching King Crin in his true form, the third baker’s daughter must wear through seven pairs of iron shoes, mantles, and hats to win back Crin. While doing so the daughter collects three prizes that help her in her quest to find Crin.

Three baker’s daughters, three houses visited, three rewards for surviving each night, three nights to convince Crin of her love – notice a pattern here? And the importance of wearing through seven pairs of iron shoes, iron mantles, and iron hats? And the meaning of the passage at the end?:

They put on the dog and high did they soar,
They saw me not, I stood behind the door.

Huh? What does this have to do with anything in the story?

Some of these tales make little sense, and jump from one illogical scenario to another (a pig son killing baker’s daughters until he finds the one who wipes mud from his body to surviving the nights at the cottages of Wind, Lightning, and Thunder to being rewarded with a chestnut, walnut, and hazelnut), but are quite engaging in some unexplainable way. They somewhat succeed by the fact that they are outrageous.

July 31 - "The Canary Prince"

“The Canary Prince”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * * (Great) Folktale

A witch grants a prince the ability to turn into a canary so that he can reach the princess he loves.

I enjoyed this story more than some of the other folktales because of its uniqueness – an ability to forego some of the more formulaic elements of these Italian folktales – and its more logical narrative. While this story still had its moments of illogical incidents and suddenly appearing characters, the entire tale wasn’t populated by such occurrences. I also enjoyed the fact that it was a riff on the Rapunzel story – or maybe the Rapunzel story was the one doing the riffing. It’s always fascinating to see a different take on a familiar story.

[This story was read on July 31. The review was not posted until later due to laziness on my part.]

July 17 - "Crack and Crook"

“Crack and Crook”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * (Okay) Folktale

Two master thieves, Crack and Crook, join together to rob the king. In an attempt to catch the thieves the king asked his prisoner, another thief, Snare, for advice.

How many daughters does a king have ready to be married at his whim? It seems as though all it takes to find yourself married to a princess is to solve a problem, overcome some (3) challenges, or simply just show up. I wish there would have been a more detailed account of the heist; I’m a sucker for a good heist story. That is the problem with the entire tale, we are told what happened, not shown what happened. It makes the story read quickly, but is not very entertaining.

July 14 - "The Twelve Oxen"

“The Twelve Oxen”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A girl living with her twelve brothers is continually confronted by the evil actions of witches living in the forest around them.

Folktales have to be some of the most formulaic stories told. The “rule of threes,” gifts with consequences, and royalty and witches populate these tales to no end. Yet even with the formula, there can be surprises in these tales. Twists you don’t expect – some simply too unbelievable to imagine. I guess that’s what makes them fun. These aren’t the most exciting tales, but they are rarely boring.

June 20 - "The Parrot"

“The Parrot”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A merchant purchases a parrot to tell tales to his daughter, keeping her inside their home and out of the reach of a king who wants to marry her.

I enjoyed the tales-within-the-tale the parrot told the daughter more than I cared for the main story. Each adventure the parrot sent the maiden of his tales on became more and more enjoyable, folktales themselves. And I don’t know if it was the result of the translation, or if the tale really went this way, but beating the wizards to death with crowbars was hilarious. Never did I expect to find in an ancient Italian folktale how to properly dispose of wizards. Harry Potter beware, all I need is a crowbar.

May 29 - "The Prince Who Married a Frog"

“The Prince Who Married a Frog”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * (Okay) Folktale

The king’s three sons test their three brides to see which couple will inherit the kingdom. The youngest son and his frog bride perform the best with each of the king’s challenges.

The cursed frog fairy tale is nothing new. This tale is unique in that the frog is female instead of male. There is a bit of a copout in that the transformation from frog into beautiful princess occurs off the page, without any strong reason. It occurs because the princess found love, even in her frog form; only nowhere in the story does the young prince ever admit such feelings. In fact, he always makes a point of replying that he is the “love who loves you not.” The pieces are all there, only they don’t fit together quite right, and the story feels incomplete.

May 18 - "The Three Castles"

“The Three Castles”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * (Okay) Folktale

A would-be thief takes a job from the king shepherding sheep. He kills a three-headed snake while protecting the flock and finds keys to three magical kingdoms hidden inside its heads. Using the gifts of the kingdoms, he wins the princess’s hand in marriage.

This story is like a bad mash-up of multiple ideas. The boy’s exploration of thieving is briefly explored at the beginning of the story and then completely forgotten as the story moves along into its magical kingdoms of crystal, silver, and gold. The disjointed tale has potential, but you never feel as though either story is fully realized. Each one could have been its own fascinating story, but smashed together neither lives up to its potential.

May 11 - "The Snake"

“The Snake”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A young girl is given three gifts after befriending a snake only to have her jealous sisters attack and maim her. Years later the use of her gifts allows the young girl to come face to face with her wicked sisters.

I was waiting for this one. The dark folktale with the eye-gouging and the chopping off of hands. As brutal as moments were in this tale, it still followed form: gifts of three, wrongs righted, and a happy ending. With 100+ folktales to go in this collection, it will be the tales that break from the form – offer something new, something different – that truly capture my attention. I say bring them on.

May 7 - "The Little Girl Sold with the Pears"

“The Little Girl Sold with the Pears”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

After being found, hidden away in a basket of pears, a clever young girl quickly rises through the servant ranks only to be forced to complete an impossible quest to steal the witches’ treasure.

Like so many of these Italian folktales, the protagonist is given gifts – usually three – that help him or her overcome the obstacles of the story. The predictability and formulaic nature of the folktales are, I’m sure, a part of the appeal of the form (I see it; I do), but that leaves the success of the story to the details, often small, sometimes lacking. And it’s here in the details that this story succeeds in only being average. The baby hidden in the pear basket is cute, but other than a nice title, it does little to elevate the story above the rote formula of the folktale.

April 30 - "The Count's Beard"

“The Count’s Beard”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

Micillina the Witch plagued a small town at the top of a steep hill until Masino, the prodigal son of the town, returned to tackle the problem.

A bit of mystery – a detective story hidden beneath a folktale. The mystery was nothing intricate or clever – it was predictably and easily solved by Masino upon his return to the village – but it gave the folktale an added element of, well, mystery that was unique. I also enjoyed the poetic proclamations made by the townspeople. It amazes me how translators can work their magic maintaining the rhymes and integrity of the original prose. The story still stumbles near the end, when conflicts are too quickly resolved, too neatly wrapped.

[This review was posted to the blog a day late. The story was read on April 30th, but an unexpected nap stole the night from me.]

April 24 - "Silver Nose"

“Silver Nose”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * * (Great) Folktale

A widowed woman reluctantly agrees to send her three daughters to work for an ominous, silver-nosed man. The third, most clever, daughter is obligated to save her more curious, trapped sisters.

This is one of the more normal folktales I’ve come across in this collection. The characters are placed in situations where their poor choices come back to haunt them, and only the most clever of girls can outwit the big bad. The story is predictable in a way that is expected, and thus enjoyable. This is the type of story young children (me) grow up hearing. One interesting observation: in all the ways I’ve heard the devil described, silver-nosed is new. I don’t know – if it was me – a dude comes asking for my daughters, slick as oil, complete with silver nose, I’m going to tell the beast to keep walking.

April 20 - "The Little Shepherd"

“The Little Shepherd”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * (Okay) Folktale

A mean little shepherd is cursed to stay small until the day he finds the lovely Bargaglina.

I think I’m going to enjoy detecting patterns and similarities among folktales as I continue to ready more and more. This idea of a character meeting individuals that provide him with the gifts to help him later in his quest has become a recurring trait in these Italian folktales. Only here, they don’t fit as seamlessly into the overall story, or into the action at the moment their purpose becomes clear. Instead, they feel needlessly tossed into the story as a quick cheat to advance the character’s progress. These gifts were earned, and they should have value. Overall, the story feels cobbled together – some individual parts and moments stand out, but together things just blandly, and occasionally erratically, move from point A to point B.

April 16 - "Money Can Do Everything"

“Money Can Do Everything”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A king challenges a prince to prove that money can do everything by forcing the prince to talk to his heavily guarded daughter within three days or suffer beheading.

I’m sure there are those that disagree, but money really can do everything. Is it right and good that anything can be accomplished with the liberal application of money? Probably not, but that’s the world we live in. It was the world of the past. And it will be the world of the future. What’s funny about this story is that even the man with all the money didn’t believe this to be true and had to be saved by his more level-headed nursemaid, a woman I highly doubt had much money of her own. Yet still, she knew how the world worked. I think we all do – money or not.

April 13 - "Body-without-Soul"

“Body-without-Soul”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

Clever Jack is told by the king to rescue his kidnapped daughter from the evil sorcerer, Body-without-Soul. With gifts gained from helping four animals along the way, Jack fights for the princess’s freedom.

There is nothing wrong, or terribly exciting, about this story. It tells a simple tale in a rather straightforward – and predictable – way. The elaborate manner in which Jack must defeat Body-without-Soul is unique. It would have been more interesting if Jack’s defeat of the sorcerer hadn’t been so obvious, but the time constraint – a folktale is typically a short, short story – necessitates this compressed telling. I did find it amusing in the beginning of the tale that Jack’s mom told him he’d be old enough to venture out alone once he was able to kick over the tree in their yard. The image of the young boy dropkicking a tree each morning until it was finally felled was priceless.

[This review was posted to the blog a day late. The story was read on April 13th, but illness and an unexpected nap stole the day away from me.]

April 8 - "And Seven!"

“And Seven!”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A lazy woman, challenged with tasks of increasing difficulty by her soon to be husband, is aided by three magical old ladies, each asking only to be invited to the upcoming wedding. When the wedding day arrives, the lazy woman cannot recall the names of her saviors and faces foretold doom on her happy day.

Women are not portrayed very well in these folktales. The hero of this story ends up being rewarded for her gluttony and sloth. I’m curious to see if this depiction of women carries through the collection of Italian folktales assembled here. The neat thing about these stories is that while they may seem predictable, the endings always twist in funny ways – not ways you would expect a story to twist. My favorite part of the story was the scene in the beginning with the mother serving bowl after bowl after bowl of soup to her fat daughter before finally ceasing with seven and a wooden spoon to the indolent daughter's head. It’s just a striking - pun intended - image, and a great way to start the story.

April 7 - "The Man Who Came Out Only at Night"

“The Man Who Came Out Only at Night”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A cursed man leaves his new wife with a magical diamond ring to circle the word –tortoise by day and man by night – to break the curse and live happily ever after with his bride.

If you give someone power, there is no guarantee they’ll wield it well or wisely. The woman in this story appears to be noble and loving, but as she begins to use the power of her diamond ring, we see her for what she truly is – a…witch. And the townspeople see the same thing. They send the police to arrest her, only to, what, give up and forget when her husband returns? The story would have been more complete if she either was punished for her abuses, or if she hadn’t succumbed to the power of the diamond in the first place. In the end, all sympathy is lost and the woman becomes little more than throwaway character in a happily ever after story.

March 29 - "The Ship with Three Decks"

A Week of Italo Calvino“The Ship with Three Decks”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * * * (Excellent) Folktale

A boy tricked into servitude by a mangy man sets off on a quest to find the King of England’s missing daughter. Sailing a ship with three decks, the youth finds the missing princess, but must first complete three trials.

Sometimes the fun arrives not from knowing how the story will end, but in how the story gets there. A ship with three decks, each deck loaded with different cargos, each cargo delivered to a thankful island, and each island pledging future aid: we know the formula. The enjoyment comes in learning of the challenges facing the youth searching out the King’s kidnapped daughter. That the characters are no more than cookie-cutter copies of the inhabitants of any other folktale makes no difference to the story, and my enjoyment the tale.

A successful folktale can transport you back to your childhood, when times were magical, and stories – especially those folk and fairy tales – filled you with wonder. I still find that magic and fascination in the stories I read, but these folktales and fables I’ve been reading remind me of childhood, as I imagine they do for most – it is when we were first introduced. Sometimes a bit of nostalgia can brighten a day.

March 26 - "The Man Wreathed in Seaweed"

A Week of Italo Calvino“The Man Wreathed in Seaweed”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* * * (Good) Folktale

A king offers a reward to the person who finds his kidnapped daughter. The search for the princess moves from land to sea where a drunkard is abandoned on a small island and finds a surprise.

A fine story, if not overly predictable. The innocent are double-crossed, the wicked are punished, and the ending is happy – the same old story, told in a different way, and at times rather awkwardly translated from its original Italian. I did enjoy the imagery, from the shape-shifting creature to drunken, seaweed-clad Samphire Starboard emerging from the sea; there were many pretty pictures floating around. It is also nice to find the occasional happy ending to a story. Most of our fictions today aim to be realistic, strive for that accuracy of life, and end up reflecting back bleak but honest reality.

March 25 - "Dauntless Little John"

A Week of Italo Calvino“Dauntless Little John”
by Italo Calvino
Italian Folktales (1980)

* (Eh) Folktale

Dauntless Little John takes the only available room in town, a room in which no one has ever survived the night.

I’ll be honest: the magic of this story was lost on me. I didn’t understand the story in the least. Part of the problem may be my unfamiliarity with the culture – I know nothing of Italian folklore; I know little of any folklore outside what I have read in comic books and seen in cartoons. I do like the idea of an unafraid boy, but the mysteriously assembled giant and surprise ending made little sense. All the fancy sentences and styling can’t save a story you do not understand. In a collection of 200 folktales, I simply hope to find more I enjoy than not.