From the Brothers Grimm Series on Folkstreams Vimeo Channel: Activities During Coronavirus

Last week one tweet I read that made me laugh was a mother stating emphatically that she's not going to do anything educational while stuck at home with her young kids. They would watch too much tv. They would eat too much junk. Essentially, they would escape anyway they could during the Corona shutdown. I laughed. I liked that she was lowering her expectations and not putting too much pressure on herself. But even those activities will get old in my opinion, so I will keep looking for fairy tale related options to share. Fairy tales and folklore are about surviving trying times.

But on the note of watching TV, I wanted to share links to the From the Brothers Grimm series by Tom Davenport. These are rentable for a few dollars each on the Folkstreams Vimeo Channel. This is just an FYI service from SurLaLune--there is no affiliate earnings with these. Davenport Films made these many years ago so they are not HD and have a folksy feel. They are also mostly set in Appalachia. They are more suitable for older kids, I'd say 3rd grade and up.

I've linked and embedded the films below but some may not embed due to privacy settings. Just follow the links to learn more. They are all viewable for a $1.95 month long rental each.

My husband's favorite (and thus one of my sentimental favorites, too) is Soldier Jack or The Man Who Caught Death in a Sack:


Soldier Jack or The Man Who Caught Death in a Sack from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Jack and the Dentist's Daughter


Jack and the Dentist's Daughter from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

I remember when this aired on PBS, the last film they produced, Willa: An American Snow White:


Willa: An American Snow White from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Hansel & Gretel: An Appalachian Version


Hansel & Gretel: An Appalachian Version from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Ashpet: An American Cinderella


Ashpet: An American Cinderella from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Rapunzel, Rapunzel


Rapunzel, Rapunzel from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Mutzmag or The Girl Who Killed the Cannibals. This tale appears in many of the strong women of folklore collections.


Mutzmag or The Girl Who Killed the Cannibals from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

The Frog King


The Frog King from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Bristlelip is a version of King Thrushbeard.


Bristlelip from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

Bearskin or The Man Who Didn't Wash for Seven Years--Another favorite tale of mine. Really gets the feel of how disgusting Bearskin is!


Bearskin or The Man Who Didn't Wash for Seven Years from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

The Goose Girl


The Goose Girl from Folkstreams on Vimeo.

New Book: King Thrushbeard illustrated by Irina Dobrescu

King Thrushbeard by Brothers Grimm (Author), Irina Dobrescu (Illustrator) was released earlier this month. I have lots of illustrations to share.

Have I mentioned how excited I get when I see picture books of lesser known fairy tales? Well, most fairy tale pictures books excite me, but books like this one have an edge. While I have an admitted small obsession with fairy tales, I don't let this spill over too far into my social life. My immediate family and most intimate friends know what I do. The rest mostly don't. I mention the term fairy tales and they think I am frolicking at Disney World and these days also fangirling ABC's "Once Upon a Time" because that is how the world perceives fairy tales. If I am in the mood, I'll shock them with some Sleeping Beauty history that isn't suitable for a picture book. Sometimes I just let it go. Most of the time, I just remain vague.

But I have a bevy of children in my life and I like to expose them to some fairy tales. Books like this one help me share them with the younger ones especially. Four-year-old Kensie is getting a regular diet of these now and amazingly she sits and listens despite believing she is Frozen's Elsa incarnate. I have this book now on my wishlist as one I would love to share with her. I think she will love King Thrushbeard when I introduce it to her.

Of course, you can always read and study a little King Thrushbeard on SurLaLune. If anything, you'll gain an appreciation for Shakespeare's Taming of the Shrew and its folkloric roots.

Book description:

When a beautiful, but conceited, princess cruelly turns down each of her suitors, her father, the king, forces her to marry a beggar. But a life of hard work and love soon teach the princess a valuable lesson and her hardness gives way to kindness and compassion. And through loving eyes, the princess is surprised to see who her husband really is.

New Book: The Scarecrow King: A Romantic Retelling of the King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale by Jill Myles

The Scarecrow King: A Romantic Retelling of the King Thrushbeard Fairy Tale by Jill Myles was released in September. This one caught my attention because it is a novel-length retelling of King Thrushbeard. It's a romance, but when I think about it, there is a romance genre trope that could easily be considered King Thrushbeard although it isn't as common since it usually means the heroine isn't very likeable for at least part of the novel.

Book description:

Princess Rinda of Balinore knows of only one way to get her cold father’s attention – to be an obnoxious, spoiled princess. When she finds out that the king plan to marrying her off to a far-flung nobleman, she puts on her best bratty show in front of the entire court. But Rinda’s plan backfires, and she soon finds herself married to the most ineligible man ever. Her new husband is monastery raised, poor as dirt, and a traveling minstrel.

A very, very bad traveling minstrel.

But Alek isn’t what he seems like on the surface, and neither is Rinda. She won’t take this marriage lying down, and schemes to find herself a new husband – a king. But as she and Alek travel together, they learn that not only are appearances deceiving, but goals can change in the blink of an eye, and love can get in the way of the strongest plans…

The Scarecrow King is a romantic retelling of the King Thrushbeard fairy tale.

For those who care: Myles is the pen name for Jessica Clare who is traditionally published. From what I can tell, she self-publishes under the Myles name, especially those books that don't fit in her traditional publishing of erotic romance. I don't know how erotic this particular title is.

I am extremely picky about the self-pubbed titles I promote here, not because I am against them but because they would take up too much of my time and there is often problems with a high percentage of them, from editing to simple formatting. Several new fairy tale themed self-pubs show up every day now and most of them are erotic in nature which is not the focus of SurLaLune. There are plenty of other places on the web for that. Just look to see the sales in Kindle Store: Fairy Tales on Amazon and you'll appreciate the power of fairy tales and self-pubbing.