I found this Swedish folk tale in a collection called The Maid of the North: Feminist Folk Tales from Around the World , edited by Ethel Johnston Phelps. This version is aimed more at younger viewers but can be enjoyed by all.
Category: European
Categories
Rapunzel
An Original Telling
The Grimm Brothers’ version of this story is, well, grim. One day I was reading Max Lüthi’s Once Upon a Time: On the Nature of Fairy Tales where he quotes delightful excerpts from Italian, Maltese and other versions of Rapunzel. I said, “Put those pieces together and you’ve got a wonderful story!” So I did. The shortened telling on this video includes only some of those delightful pieces. Sometime soon I’ll record the full-on version. The ending is my own.
Treehouse is one of the preschools at which I’m the regular weekly storyteller. I really enjoy telling there. The staff is great, the facility is cozy and sweet and they’re always working on innovative projects. You can read more about them at their website. Some of the puppets in this video are made by Folkmanis Puppets.
There are two stories in the video. The first is called “The Old Woman and her Bear.” It’s a very sweet Inuit folk tale about an old woman who adopts a polar bear cub. The kids loved it when I first told it and asked for it many other times. The other is “The King’s Sneeze,” adapted from a Grimm’s tale. You’ll get to see my favorite puppets Willy the Wolf and Francesca the Flying Squirrel and several others. I hope you enjoy the stories. All the original material is copyright © 2010 by Michael Litzky.