Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman), Part B

Today I finished the reading for the second unit of the Brothers Grimm stories. I again focused on one specific story to takes notes, but I went ahead and read all of the stories. I chose the one that I thought would interest me the most to write a story.

• I read the Lazy Heinz story and was a bit confused by it
• I decided to take notes over it because it was unlike anything else that I had read
• Fat Heinz was a lazy man that did not take a liking to tending to his goat
• He would begrudgingly take his goat to the field every day
• Heinz thought of his work as some of the most difficult on the earth
• He desperately wanted to sleep on the job and not pay attention to his "work"
• I like how Heinz is in fact actually that lazy
• He constantly thinks of ways to not do his "job", which is taking a goat to a field
• Somehow Heinz comes up with the genius idea to fix all of his problems
• I do not think I will ever understand his decision, but he believes that it would be best to marry "Fat Trina"
• I think this is definitely a harsh name to give your wife, but Heinz sees no problem with it
• He only cares about getting out of his work
• Heinz estimates that his wife will take out the goat to the pasture everyday
• However, his wife is somehow just as lazy as him
• I found this detail to be quite comical and it added some development to the story
• They decide to trade two goats for a beehive
• This is somehow a fair trade, but I do not quite buy that logic
• Their laziness continues to be fed because now they do not have to get out of bed
• Their surprising ambition drives them to want a child
• With this child they planned on making it tend to geese all day
• It is most likely a good thing that these two lazy people did in fact not have a child

This story was entertaining and very unique. I had a few good laughs while reading this, and I think it would be funny to retell.

(Another photo of the two Grimm brothers. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman. Source:UnTextbook

Reading Notes: Brothers Grimm (Ashliman), Part A

So, this is the final week for reading and taking notes for me. I decided to read the fairytales that I was somewhat familiar with as a child. I took notes over the one that I thought would be the best for retelling.

• The story of the wolf and the children reminds me of Red Riding Hood
• I knew that the warnings of the mother would be of waste
• The wolf continuously comes back to the house to try and fool the children
• The children were smart but they were again only children
• The ploys of the wolf to enter the home were constantly delayed
• The children made the mistake of telling the wolf why he was not their mother
• In typical fashion the wolf kept returning until he had masked all of his wolf like qualities
• I expected the mother to return to a house with no children
• Surprisingly, one child was still left
• I found it a bit odd that the goat was able to retrieve all of her children from the wolf's stomach
• You would think that the wolf would have woken up during the cutting of his stomach
• I thought it was clever that they filled the wolf's stomach with rocks
• I thought it would be to just fool the wolf into thinking that he was full from eating the children
• Instead, he ended up drowning in the water as he bent down for a drink
• I did not expect the story to end in such a manner
• I think there were hints of darkness in the story
• When the kids were recovered I expected them to just go home and not try to kill the wolf
• I guess in the end the wolf got what was coming to him

I think there are a few details that I would change if I retold this story. I was not exactly thrilled with the idea of the wolf eating the children and then the goat recovering them. I also thought it was a bit odd to kill the wolf in the end. I would probably make my story a bit more realistic in that sense.

(The two brothers Grimm. Source: Wikimedia Commons)

Bibliography: The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales translated by D. L. Ashliman. Source:UnTextbook