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My Obsession Has a Name: Child Ballads
*waves excitedly* Hey guys! Quick update: I’m really enjoying my temp job, I’m gathering some awesome story ideas that fell in my lap, and little by little, preparing for MomoCon! And heads-up, I’m also making plans to redirect my sites (including this one) to puelladocta.com, and combine my online presences. So prepare for some different branding going on with my Christina A. Nelson {Author} stuff, particularly on my Youtube and G+ pages. Facebook isn’t going anywhere, because of it’s no-name-changing page nonsense. >.< But just wanted to warn you. Anyway, I said something about my temp job? Yes, while I’m sitting at a desk all day, I’ve started listening to…
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“Paper of Pins” Folk Song
HAPPY HALLOWEEEEEN! BWAAHAAHAHAHAAA! Betcha thought I was done blogging this week, huh? Well, not on your life! Because I’ve enjoyed writing and researching this Freaky Fairy Tales series SO MUCH, I’ve decided to do another folk ballad dissection, like I did for The Twa Sisters in honor of creepy Samhain. “You listen to Grampa’s story or no candy!” As I mentioned before in the Twa Sisters post, “If you know your folk songs, it’s very rare to find a story song that is sung exactly the same if you compare different versions.” Naturally, “Paper of Pins” is no exception, but it gets interesting to compare the songs depending on the area…
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The Death of the Little Hen – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Well, friends, Halloween is almost upon us! And that means this is the last Freaky Fairy Tale of October 🙁 But I saved you a good one for last. It’s one of the wackiest and most morbid-for-no-reason fairy tales I’ve probably ever heard. Are you ready? BEHOLD! Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3 + Day 4 + Day 5 Sweet and silly piece by Ross Sullivan-Wiley THE DEATH OF THE LITTLE HEN [Original source] – I’ve added punctuation and fixed formatting here. You don’t expect it. It builds with the sunny, round-faced optimism and sweetness you’d expect in a 1940s Disney short. And for the record, an old-fashioned term for a rooster…
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The Iron Stove – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Good day, fair readership. Is that a mug of hot cider I see next to your mouse? Enjoying the season, I see, as you should be! Thoughts of colored leaves and warm pumpkin pie will make the Mondays go away. Come on over and cuddle up next to the hearth, kids, it’s time for another Freaky Fairy Tale! Today’s tale….rambles. It sounds like it’s about to end, and then it goes on to a whole other story arc, and then it looks like it’s going to end, but goes on to another one! It’s more bizarre and amusing than it is Halloweenish, but I give you an iron stove, err, ironclad…
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The Three Snake-Leaves – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Hello, darlings! It’s time for another Freaky Fairy Tale! BETRAYAL! Betrayal most cruel! Frailty, thy name is woman! And as a woman myself, this story makes us look crazy, and I resent that! WE AREN’T CRAZY, YOU GUYS ARE THE CRAZY ONES!!! *coughs* Sorry about that. Let’s just start, shall we? BEHOLD! Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3 + Day 4 + Day 5 THE THREE SNAKE-LEAVES [Original source] – I’ve added punctuation and fixed formatting here. So, a father can’t take care of his only son anymore because he’s so poor, and the son decides to go seek his fortune. He’s sad to leave, but he knows that…
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The Singing Bone – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Happy Monday again, readerlings! Well, we’ve been enjoying autumn, getting pumpkins for carving and going costume shopping. Hope your first week of October was as fun as ours! So! Are you ready for another *thunderclap* FREAKY FAIRY TALE? I hope you are! (If you’re confused about what the heck I’m talking about, visit the first entry for some background.) Cuz I’ve got a tale so weird, so morbid, it’ll make your bones sing with fear! BEHOLD! Day 1 + Day 2 + Day 3 + Day 4 + Day 5 THE SINGING BONE [Original source] – I’ve added punctuation and fixed formatting here. OooooooohoooooOooooOooooohhh…..it’s, it’s the sound of a singing bone…it’s….it’s…
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The Hare’s Bride – Grimm’s Fairy Tales
Ahh, October is upon us again, and you know what that means! That’s right, Halloween! As I’ve said before, Halloween is basically a holiday revolving around stories, particularly creepy ones. For good or for ill, I’m a sucker for a good scary story, but invariably I’ll be up late thinking I see shadows or hearing ghosts making weird noises…which just end up being an overactive imagination and an old apartment building. But you know where some of the weirdest, goriest stories come from? Fairy tales. Seriously! If you read the original versions of some of your favorite tales you’d be surprised what has been conveniently removed over the years to be more…
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Things I Learned From British Folk Ballads
As a folk song nerd, you notice certain patterns you find throughout British Isles folksongs and folk tales. Mainly, there’s a lot of death, which isn’t so great, but you’ll notice similar death tropes, or if nothing else, character tropes. I’ve known about the list, “Things I Learned from British Folk Balads” for a nice long while, as its been bopping around the internet for a good many years, and I’m sure a lot of you have heard of it, but I wanted to share some of my favorites! (My comments in bold.) ———————————— Don’t ignore warnings. If someone tells you to beware of Long Lankin, friggin’ beware of him.…
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The Twa Sisters Folk Song
(11/2/2021 – Wow, it’s been over 10 years since I wrote this! As I was reading through again, I’ve included more hyperlinks for reference, updated the link list notes at the bottom, fixed typos I found and added a parenthetical comment that is marked, but otherwise I’ve left it unchanged!) (8/27/2026 – I’ve also added some more pictures while I re-link the old ones!) In Story Nerd entries, I’ll be discussing classic mythologies and folktales, themes, yarns, characters and tropes and follow their histories–and alterations through history–sociological impact, and the general weirdness of storytelling. Basically, the oft-sprawling Science of Story. This can get very broad and very nerdy, so please…
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