Storytelling Week 12: The girl white as milk

This is the girl white as milk

This is the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the bird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the miller
That loved the song of the bird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the bird
That went to the miller
That loved the song of the bird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the girl with life so brief
That reborn as a bird
That went to the miller
That loved the song of the bird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the brother struck with grief
That so loved the girl with life so brief
That reborn as a bird
That flew to the miller
That loved the songbird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

These are the bones

That lay buried by the brother so struck with grief

That so loved the girl with life so brief
That reborn as a bird
That flew to the miller
That loved the songbird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the tree
That grew above the bones

That lay buried by the brother so struck with grief

That so loved the girl with life so brief
That reborn as a bird
That flew to the miller
That loved the songbird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the rose

That bloomed on the tree

That grew above the bones

That lay buried by the brother so struck with grief

That so loved the girl with life so brief
That reborn as a bird
That flew to the miller
That loved the songbird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the bird
That sat by the rose

That bloomed on the tree

That grew above the bones

That lay buried by the brother so struck with grief

That so loved the girl with life so brief
That reborn as a bird
That flew to the miller
That loved the songbird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

This is the girl white as milk
That transformed to a bird
That sat by the rose

That bloomed on the tree

That grew above the bones

That lay buried by the brother so struck with grief

That so loved the girl with life so brief
That reborn as a bird
That flew to the miller
That loved the songbird
That dropped the millstone
That crushed the stepmother
That slayed the girl white as milk

(John D. Batten)

Author's Note: For this story, I took the story line of "The Rose Tree" and combined it with the cumulative storytelling style of "The Old Woman and Her Pig". In the original story of "The Rose Tree", there are two children with the same father but different mothers. The daughter from the first wife and the son from the second. The stepmother despised the girl and one day after the girl had messed up a task three times in a row the stepmother devised a plan. She then slayed the girl with an ax. Later, she cooked the girl and fed her to the family. The father unknowingly ate some but the boy refused. He then buried the bones of the girl under the rose tree and cried there so often it watered the tree which grew. Later a white bird appeared in the tree and she sang the song of her story. She used this song to get items from people around town. The first two were gifts for the father and brother and the last was a millstone. She then ran the millstone across the roof of her house to sound like thunder. One by one each came out to check. The brother and father were first and their gifts dropped from the sky. When the stepmother went out to see if she would get a gift, the bird drooped the millstone on her head. I was unsure how this story would work in the cumulative style, but I am satisfied with how it turned out.

Bibliography: Both The Rose Tree and The Old Woman and Her Pig are from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs (1890)

Week 12 Reading Diary: English Fairy Tales

Here are my thoughts on the stories from the English Fairy Tales Unit. These tales are from English Fairy Tales by Joseph Jacobs.

Tom Tit Tot: I must admit that the title of this story made me giggle. Overall, the story was extremely similar to Rumpelstiltskin. The similarity did not bother me, though I did feel like I was reading something I already knew and part of what I love about this class is learning new stories. All in all the story was good though and I liked some of the vernacular that was used.

The Rose Tree: Wow, this story was way more violent than I was expecting. I thought the stepmom was just going to cut the hair off, but she killed the girl! Though it did make the song make more sense within the story. I thought the song might have been tangential, but no it was definitely how the story went. Completely caught me off guard. I liked it though, the story.

The Old Woman and Her Pig: I love stories like this. It is passover soon and at the end of every passover we sing a song that is cumulative like this about a father buying a kid (as in goat, not child) for two zuzim. I have fond memories of that song and so seeing stories like this make me happy. It even has extremely similar elements like the stick and fire and butcher.

Binnorie: Though this was not my favorite story of the unit I still enjoyed it pretty well. I liked a lot of the alliteration at the beginning of the story.

Mouse and Mouser: I enjoyed the rhythm of this story quite a bit. It made it quick and fun to read. The mouse was pretty stupid to accuse the cat though, he should have seen the ending coming.

Cap O' Rushes: I liked that this story was similar to Cinderella without being an exact copy of it. I enjoyed it quite a bit.

The Story of the Three Little Pigs: I have always absolutely loved this story so it was so great to read it for class! There were also some bits included that I did not remember so that was fun to read as well.

The Master and His Pupil: I enjoyed this story more than I thought I would. Normally stories in this theme annoy me, but this one is well done and fun.

The Pupil