fairy books
xianyu...@gmail.com
For all who's interested fairy tales, I found this site is outstanding
because of its collections and illustrations.
http://www.fairyland.tv/fairytales/3.html
Cloud
leno...@yahoo.com
I'm sure it is, though I don't have time to go over all of it. I
looked at the myth of Perseus, and I might have guessed that that
version was written by Charles Kingsley (I read a shortened version in
the 2nd volume of the "Better Homes & Gardens Storybook") because
among other things, in a side reference to Alcyone, she's referred to
as a "fairy maiden" and, in Victorian fashion, there's no hint as to
who Perseus' father might be (or even a mention of the shower of gold)
until the humiliation scene at Polydectes' "wedding" party. The story
is told in at least 30 pages at that website, but you can read it in 5
pages (same length) here:
http://ancienthistory.about.com/library/bl/bl_text_kingsleyperseus1.htm
Not to mention passages like this!
And then, behold, beneath him was the long green garden of Egypt and
the shining stream of Nile.
And he saw cities walled up to heaven, and temples, and obelisks, and
pyramids, and giant Gods of stone. And he came down amid fields of
barley, and flax, and millet, and clambering gourds; and saw the
people coming out of the gates of a great city, and setting to work,
each in his place, among the water-courses, parting the streams among
the plants cunningly with their feet, according to the wisdom of the
Egyptians. But when they saw him they all stopped their work, and
gathered round him, and cried -
'Who art thou, fair youth? and what bearest thou beneath thy goat-skin
there? Surely thou art one of the Immortals; for thy skin is white
like ivory, and ours is red like clay. Thy hair is like threads of
gold, and ours is black and curled. Surely thou art one of the
Immortals;' and they would have worshipped him then and there; but
Perseus said -
'I am not one of the Immortals; but I am a hero of the Hellens. And I
have slain the Gorgon in the wilderness, and bear her head with me.
Give me food, therefore, that I may go forward and finish my work.'
Then they gave him food, and fruit, and wine; but they would not let
him go. And when the news came into the city that the Gorgon was
slain, the priests came out to meet him, and the maidens, with songs
and dances, and timbrels and harps; and they would have brought him to
their temple and to their king; but Perseus put on the hat of
darkness, and vanished away out of their sight.
Therefore the Egyptians looked long for his return, but in vain, and
worshipped him as a hero, and made a statue of him in Chemmis, which
stood for many a hundred years; and they said that he appeared to them
at times, with sandals a cubit long; and that whenever he appeared the
season was fruitful, and the Nile rose high that year.
(I mean, "Thy hair is like threads of gold"? Why wouldn't Perseus have
black curly hair, like other Greeks? Other than that, Kingsley's
version is well worth reading.)
Lenona.