Walking-Iris Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I'm positive the Hive mind can help me with this one. We're about to start a fun side project (rabbit trail) that caught our fancy and I need some help with choosing some fairy tales/folktales/myths etc to read. I need stories that contain some of the following mythical creatures: hydras dragons unicorns centaurs gnomes gryphons fairy godmothers elves ogres Some of these I can think of some of off the top of my head, (Cinderella, Puss in Boots, Elves and the Shoemaker, Saint George and the Dragon), but I certainly do not have time to reread every fairy tale book I have. I need a handful of stories for each creature as well. Ideas? Favorites? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
73349 Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 DS likes the Jim Weiss Giants CD (maybe 4 stories? includes ogres). Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Aurelia Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 I pulled most of these from D'Aulaires' Book of Greek Myths and 50 Monster Stories: hydras - Hercules and the Hydra dragons - Fafnir the Dragon, St George and the Dragon, The Laidly Worm unicorns - Morgan Morning ogres - Momotaro, The Three Little Pigs and the Ogre Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lori D. Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 hydras - from Greek mythology (not fairy tales) - Heracles (Hercules) killed the hydra of Lerna as the 2nd of his 12 Labors - Wikipedia article on the hydra - retelling at the Perseus Project website - The Twelve Labors of Hercules book by Riordan - with modification, the event is portrayed in the Disney animated movie Hercules - here's a hilariously goofy 5-min. 1960s cartoon of Hercules and the Hydra - okay, and don't forget the hydra scene from the 1960s Jason and the Argonauts (which leads into the all-time best skeleton fighting scene EVER -- the skeletons grow from the hydra's teeth) dragons - so many stories/myths and history with dragons, so I'll just link a few ideas: - "Farmer Giles of Ham" (Tolkien) -- humorous; based on Tolkien's deep awareness of Medieval language and culture; NOT traditional fairy tale dragon - A Book of Dragons (Nesbit) - nine short stories, each with a VERY different and creative type of dragon; humorous; NOT traditional fairy tale dragons - Sim Chung and the River Dragon -- Korean dragon fairy tale - The Four Dragons -- Asian dragon fairy tale - The Black Dragon and the Red Dragon -- Persian dragon tale - and here's a big list of Dragon Stories unicorns - from Medieval Christian religious symbology (not fairy tales) - symbol of the Incarnation (the unicorn lays its head in the lap of a virgin <---> Mary, the virgin, bears Jesus Christ the Son of God) - Wikipedia article on unicornhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn - no fairy tales, myths, or short stories tht I can find - The Last Battle (by Lewis), last of the Narnia Chronicles, one of the main characters, Jewel, is a unicorn - The Last Unicorn (by Beagle), a classic fantasy (for older teens/adults), features a unicorn - My Little Pony animated TV series -- some characters are unicorns centaurs - from Greek mythology (not fairy tales) - Wikipedia article on centaurs - Chiron = the most famous Greek centaur; father of the healing arts and tutor to many of the Greek heroes - short myths about Chiron and centaurs, at Medea's Lair website - Fantasia, the original animated Disney movie, has a section with male and female centaurs ("racially-pure-only" couples!! :ack2: ), fauns, winged horses, and Dionysius, set to the music of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony No. 6 gnomes - not directly in fairy tales; GOBLINS (which ARE in fairy tales) seem to be the closest type of character -- those that are small and live underground (like in The Princess and the Goblins (MacDonald), or, the Nome King in Tik-Tok of Oz (Baum)) - gnomes seem to appear in just a few more recent fantasy works (e.g.: Harry Potter; Discworld) - Wikipedia article, for history, origins, and influences gryphons - griffin = Greek mythology; not many fairy tales - Wikipedia article on history, origins, appearance in Literature - I *think* there is something from Medieval times in Britain's history about the griffin and the dragon as symbols of the nation (or is that unicorn and the dragon...??) - spelled "gryphon", it is an invention of Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (chapter 9-10), like a traditional griffin, it has the head/talon/wings of an eagle, and body of a lion - "The Twelve-Headed Griffin" -- Romanian short fairy tale - "The Griffin" -- short fairy tale by Grimm - "The Island of the Nine Whirlpools" -- a griffin appears briefly in this short story in the collection, A Book of Dragons (Nesbit) ogres - fairy tale character that is a cannibal (man-eating), and a bit of a cross between a giant and a troll; they usually live in castles, and tend to be a character in tales from northern European countries - Wikipedia article on history and origins - "Puss in Boots" - "Hop O' My Thumb" - your library may have Ruth Manning Sanders' collection of short tales, A Book of Ogres and Trolls - the title character in the animated movie Shrek is an ogre I though it interesting that the majority of your creatures are NOT found in fairy tales! Out of time -- I skipped elves and fairy god mothers -- there are so many... happy reading! Warmest regards, Lori D. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kubiac Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 There's a wonderful obscure book called Frankie by Wilanne Schnieder Belden about a family of magical people whose new baby grows up to be a griffin/gryphon. Definitely suitable for the 10yo and I think the 6yo would like it too. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 hydras - from Greek mythology (not fairy tales) - Heracles (Hercules) killed the hydra of Lerna as the 2nd of his 12 Labors - Wikipedia article on the hydra - retelling at the Perseus Project website - The Twelve Labors of Hercules book by Riordan - with modification, the event is portrayed in the Disney animated movie Hercules - here's a hilariously goofy 5-min. 1960s cartoon of - okay, and don't forget the hydra scene from the 1960s (which leads into the all-time -- the skeletons grow from the hydra's teeth) dragons - so many stories/myths and history with dragons, so I'll just link a few ideas: - "Farmer Giles of Ham" (Tolkien) -- humorous; based on Tolkien's deep awareness of Medieval language and culture; NOT traditional fairy tale dragon - A Book of Dragons (Nesbit) - nine short stories, each with a VERY different and creative type of dragon; humorous; NOT traditional fairy tale dragons - Sim Chung and the River Dragon -- Korean dragon fairy tale - The Four Dragons -- Asian dragon fairy tale - The Black Dragon and the Red Dragon -- Persian dragon tale - and here's a big list of Dragon Stories unicorns - from Medieval Christian religious symbology (not fairy tales) - symbol of the Incarnation (the unicorn lays its head in the lap of a virgin <---> Mary, the virgin, bears Jesus Christ the Son of God) - Wikipedia article on unicornhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Unicorn - no fairy tales, myths, or short stories tht I can find - The Last Battle (by Lewis), last of the Narnia Chronicles, one of the main characters, Jewel, is a unicorn - The Last Unicorn (by Beagle), a classic fantasy (for older teens/adults), features a unicorn - My Little Pony animated TV series -- some characters are unicorns centaurs - from Greek mythology (not fairy tales) - Wikipedia article on centaurs - Chiron = the most famous Greek centaur; father of the healing arts and tutor to many of the Greek heroes - short myths about Chiron and centaurs, at Medea's Lair website - Fantasia, the original animated Disney movie, has a section with male and female centaurs ("racially-pure-only" couples!! :ack2: ), fauns, winged horses, and Dionysius, set to the music of Beethoven's Pastoral Symphony No. 6 gnomes - not directly in fairy tales; GOBLINS (which ARE in fairy tales) seem to be the closest type of character -- those that are small and live underground (like in The Princess and the Goblins (MacDonald), or, the Nome King in Tik-Tok of Oz (Baum)) - gnomes seem to appear in just a few more recent fantasy works (e.g.: Harry Potter; Discworld) - Wikipedia article, for history, origins, and influences gryphons - griffin = Greek mythology; not many fairy tales - Wikipedia article on history, origins, appearance in Literature - I *think* there is something from Medieval times in Britain's history about the griffin and the dragon as symbols of the nation (or is that unicorn and the dragon...??) - spelled "gryphon", it is an invention of Lewis Carroll in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (chapter 9-10), like a traditional griffin, it has the head/talon/wings of an eagle, and body of a lion - "The Twelve-Headed Griffin" -- Romanian short fairy tale - "The Griffin" -- short fairy tale by Grimm - "The Island of the Nine Whirlpools" -- a griffin appears briefly in this short story in the collection, A Book of Dragons (Nesbit) ogres - fairy tale character that is a cannibal (man-eating), and a bit of a cross between a giant and a troll; they usually live in castles, and tend to be a character in tales from northern European countries - Wikipedia article on history and origins - "Puss in Boots" - "Hop O' My Thumb" - your library may have Ruth Manning Sanders' collection of short tales, A Book of Ogres and Trolls - the title character in the animated movie Shrek is an ogre I though it interesting that the majority of your creatures are NOT found in fairy tales! Out of time -- I skipped elves and fairy god mothers -- there are so many... happy reading! Warmest regards, Lori D. Thank you Lori. This list is helpful. Yes I know that some of these aren't fairy tale specific. I mentioned in my OP that I was looking for "fairy tales/folktales/myths etc". My oldest wants to make his own mythical creatures book and illustrate it, sort of like a guide. I promised him I'd get it bound. And I love that he wants to do that, and we thought we would gather as many tales with those creatures as we could to compare, because he wanted to get his descriptions and "advice to his readers" just right. Most of these creatures that I listed were from his initial list that he wrote down. Who knows what he'll add or eventually write about. I asked here because I wanted to find some stories we may not have read or heard of. You listed a few I haven't heard of before so thank you!!! ETA: there's a unicorn in The Valiant Little Tailor. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
clarkacademy Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 Dragonology Monsterology Fairyopolis Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 Dragonology Monsterology Fairyopolis Thanks for reminding me of these. He has Piratology and Wizardology. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Miss Tick Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 When I was a kid, I lived looking through the coffee table book my grandparents had about gnomes. It was a "scientific"study of gnomes in Holland. Wonder if I could find a used copy (wistfully), my kids would enjoy it. Anyway, it looks like is called Gnomes, the Deluxe Book and the authors are Huygen and Poortvliet. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 When I was a kid, I lived looking through the coffee table book my grandparents had about gnomes. It was a "scientific"study of gnomes in Holland. Wonder if I could find a used copy (wistfully), my kids would enjoy it. Anyway, it looks like is called Gnomes, the Deluxe Book and the authors are Huygen and Poortvliet. That sounds lovely. Sort of reminds me of the Brian Froud books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
helena Posted January 13, 2014 Share Posted January 13, 2014 What?! No pegasus or trolls? ;) http://www.amazon.com/Pegasus-Marianna-Mayer/dp/0688133827/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389651692&sr=1-6 http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Trolls-Review-Childrens-Collection/dp/1590172175/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389651825&sr=1-3&keywords=trolls If your son has the stomach for it, the Andrew Land series is the best IMO. Here's a list of which stories are in each book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang's_Fairy_Books Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Walking-Iris Posted January 13, 2014 Author Share Posted January 13, 2014 What?! No pegasus or trolls? ;) http://www.amazon.com/Pegasus-Marianna-Mayer/dp/0688133827/ref=sr_1_6?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389651692&sr=1-6 http://www.amazon.com/DAulaires-Trolls-Review-Childrens-Collection/dp/1590172175/ref=sr_1_3?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1389651825&sr=1-3&keywords=trolls If your son has the stomach for it, the Andrew Land series is the best IMO. Here's a list of which stories are in each book: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Andrew_Lang's_Fairy_Books LOL who knows? We have the Andrew Lang Blue and Red fairy books. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Violet Crown Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 The Griffin and The Minor Canon, by Frank Stockton, illustrated by the immortal Maurice Sendak. Fantastic story. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Chris in VA Posted January 14, 2014 Share Posted January 14, 2014 When you get done with your studies, your son might enjoy the humor in the Sisters Grimm books! They take classic fairytales and twist them up into very memorable characters--it's a hoot, and my dd enjoyed the whole lot of them. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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