East of the Sun, West of the Moon

Hello, Friends. I have been doing a lot of reading and getting through some of the things to be filed and "to do's", as I call them, that have piled up around my desk. I'm beginning to feel a little clutter free. Okay, so I have a long way to go, but I'm excited that it has begun. Here is my other recent book review on "East of the Sun, West of the Moon".

Before I go there, this is what I've learned about Storytelling - we need to a) share our personal stories - this keeps "us" and our families alive for generations; b) share historical stories - for this keeps even the small things of history alive and shared and we can gain so much encouragement and learning from them; and, c) share old stories - fairytales, moral stories, folktales, cultural stories - because they explain how it used to be, they give us dreams, they teach us and are universal in their story, oh, and d) share "new" stories that we have developed, because that charges our creativity, innovation and imagination and brings relevance to people.

I think we are doing "a" and "b" pretty well, however, the old stories are getting so lost - we need to go back to old stories and remember and learn them. That means old books, like "East of the Sun, West of the Moon." We also need to develop more "new" stories, not just personal, but fun and great fiction stories that are relevant to people today and encourage them in the world of storytelling. Okay, so I've lectured a bit. Now here's the book review. Peace and belief, and Happy Thanksgiving!

East of the Sun and West of the Moon:
Old Tales from the North
Written by Peter Christen Asbjornsen & Jorgen Engebretsen Moe. Illustrated by Kay Nielsen
Published 1976 by Hodder & Stoughton Children’s Books, London, England
Published 1977 by Doubleday & Company, Inc., Garden City, NY
ISBN: 0-385-13213-1
LCCN: 77-74791

My Thoughts
This is a classic in the world of storytelling and stories, which I know only because the book keeps coming up in bibliographies done by storytellers. If you ever heard that storytellers also use the number 3 in stories, i.e., The Three Pigs, The Three Bears, etc., then these stories are the true testament to the use of 3. Also, with the use of repetition. It was one of those times I never wanted anything repeated again. The pictures are pre-anime (Japanese) and I would love to see some of them in large posters, however, the stories, are mostly so-so, with little glimmers of light, and lots of bright spotlight on other fairy tales that are better written with the same general plot.

Preface
“Another theme is the maturing of love through a hazardous search such as in East of the Sun and West of the Moon in which we recognize a version of the Greek legend of Cupid and Psyche.”

Kay Neilsen
“A school mistress at Emerson relates how a small Mexican boy used to come often to the studio to watch him paint “The Canticle”. One day the boy said he would like the mural better if there was a cat in it. Did he have a cat? Yes, so Kay told him to bring it to the studio and he’d paint it into the mural. Later Kay confessed he would have wished for a more photogenic cat but had not wanted to disappoint his young friend. And there it sits, an all-white puss on a red brick paving.”

Stories
East of the Sun and West of the Moon – I like this story. However, I just read Edith Pattou’s book, East. She does a great job of taking this story and developing characters and location – it was truly magical! (See yesterday's post)

The Blue Belt – a variation of “Simon and Susannah”, Negro love story and folk-tale found in The Last Tales of Uncle Remus by Julius Lester.

Lassie and the Godmother – the moral is “you reap what you sow”, and really powerfully done. This one is going to be included in my list of stories. P. 53-60.