Jewish Fairy Tales and Stories

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Possession Stories

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I think the lectures that Dr. Valk and Dr. Lyngdoh gave were really interesting and opened my eyes to a whole different realm of fairy tales that I’d never really experienced before. Before going to the lecture, I had a different view of possession. Being Catholic, I had always thought of possession as a very religious thing, only consisting of a person and a demon. The person is usually not responsible and has no agency when possessed, completely controlled by what is possessing them. The lectures of both professor’s, however, changed my views and showed me a totally different side of things. Dr. Lyngdoh’s talk especially was very insightful into possession on India. I found the idea of the sankhini extremely interesting, especially how they view the act of possession. Instead of a complete possession, their version reminds me more of a werewolf. The differences between snake and tiger possession were really interesting, as well as how the different stories reflect the culture of th...
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Danielle Wendt is Good at Blogs

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I really enjoyed going through Danielle's blog posts, and it definitely gave me ideas for my own. Danielle's blog is a lot more professional than mine - all of her titles are like titles of papers, for example: "Giving Kids Relatable Heroes: The Role of Tricksters" and "The Importance of Luck: An Analysis of the 'Rags to Riches' Motif". All of her blogs are long and descriptive, each having more than one paragraph. She frequently uses pictures, all of which are aesthetically pleasing and fit with what she's talking about in each paragraph. She also provides links to all of her pictures, citing where she got them. I think that this is a great idea and something I hadn't thought of; I will try to also do this in the future. In her most recent blog post, she discusses the psychology in fairy tale trickster stories, and how the role of the trickster figure helps children. She made excellent points about the powers of escapism and how stories can ...
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Look, Mom! I'm a Hero!

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In fairy tales, children are often the protagonists, and even the heroes. This does make a lot of sense,since many fairy tales have their roots as tales to be told to children, either as cautionary tales or lessons. Common forms of the child-hero are trickster figures, who use their intellect to get out of situations. “Little Thumbling”, though ridiculed by his family and seen as dumb and small, saves his siblings through his mental maturity and ability to be cunning. It is through this journey that he gains respect and saves his siblings. In the folktale "Momotaro"or "The Peach Boy", Momotaro must leave his town and his elderly parents on a quest. Featuring an antagonist in the form of an ogre just like "Little Thumbling", this story is different. In this story, Momotaro is only able to achieve his goals through the help of his animal allies, teaching lessons about how help can lead to success. His growth into adulthood is also portrayed in this fo...
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