Giveaway: Giambattista Basile’s The Tale of Tales

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Reviewer Maria Tatar says these stories are “marked by vertiginous fantasy, spirited wit, and baroque excess.” The Tale of Tales, or Entertainment for Little Ones is made up of 49 fairy tales within a fiftieth frame story, containing the earliest versions of Rapunzel, All-Fur, Hansel and Gretel, The Goose That Laid the Golden Egg, Sleeping Beauty, and Cinderella. Bawdy and irreverent as well as tender and whimsical, this modern translation is by Nancy L. Canepa, with pen-and-ink illustrations by Carmelo Lettere.

A world of fairy-tale unreality is revealed within these pages, as well as the everyday rituals of life in seventeenth-century Naples. These stories influenced later writers like Charles Perrault and the Brothers Grimm, and they will inspire 21st century readers as well. Fully annotated.

We are giving away two copies of The Tale of Tales. To enter, simply comment by 11:59 p.m. (Eastern Standard Time) December 19, 2009 in response to this imaginative question: In Hansel and Gretel, why were breadcrumbs scattered to mark a path? Please be as creative as possible in your answers. Good luck and have fun! (Sorry, at this time we can only ship to U.S. addresses.)

Ancient Marvels

Remembering History

Discoverers of the Universe

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http://thetruebookaddict.blogspot.com/ Michelle Miller/the true book addict

The first time the parents take Hansel and Gretel into the woods to abandon them, Hansel uses white pebbles to help them find their way back home. When he hears the parents talking about abandoning them again, he tries to gather more pebbles, but the stepmother has barred the door. He must resort to using crumbs from their bread to mark the path, which gets eaten up by birds. One theory of the significance of using the bread is that bread is life sustaining and Hansel now uses the bread to save their lives which is beyond its original purpose.
http://www.doctorkate.net kate atkinson

well it seems obvious to me that it was the boy’s idea to sprinkle bread crumbs. a girl would have used something more permanent. (like a sharpie!?)
http://www.deerme.net/ Sheryl

Ha, wow, I cannot compete with the bright analysis from Michelle Miller or the sharp barb from Kate Atkinson.

Considering Hansel’s willingness to throw away bread for a trail and to gorge himself on sweets (from the house), I suspect that he was on the Atkins Diet plan. No carbs… but feel free to eat plenty of sugar and fat!
http://winabook.westofmars.com Susan Helene Gottfried

Nope, don’t enter me today. I’m dropping in to say THANKS for the e-mail; it’s fun to get e-mail from you guys. I’ve posted about this at Win a Book for you.
Anne

So they’d have less to carry going in to the woods, and then a snack on the walk back home?
Deborah Brent

I have one book on the original fairy tales. They were definitely not for children.
http://sunnyatthelibrary.com Sunny@theLibrary

This looks really nice!

I think that in her obvious dislike for the children, the stepmother deprived Hansel and Gretel of all but the most basic necessities — namely clothing, bread, and water.

Obviously, they needed their clothes and could not scatter water, so bread crumbs it was. And considering the dry, horrible scraps the stepmother fed the children, it wasn’t much of a loss anyway.
Rachel W.

They wanted to fatten up the birds in the woods for a snack later?

Thanks for the giveaway!
http://tristanrobin.blogspot.com Tristan Robin

OOH LA LA

I’ve had my eye on this book at Amazon! Early versions of faery tales are so exciting. And earlier incarnations of such well-known tales must be enthralling!
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Alannah

Once upon a time, two children were playing in the yard of their home, which was very close to a dense forest. These two children had gotten into a bit of a fight, as brother and sister tend to do. Amidst all their shoving, Gretel noticed someone in the forest. She shoved her brother to the ground, and pointed for him to look.

Hansel turned his head towards the forest just quickly enough to see a fleeting figure, before it turned and disappeared deeper into the forest. He jumped up, intending to give chase, but his sister yelled for him to stop.

“Why?” he questioned her.

“We’ll get lost silly, we need a way to get back. Like a string or something.”

Hansel rolled his eyes, but raced into the house and back out quickly with a loaf of bread.

“Bread? Are you hungry?” asked Gretel.

“Breadcrumbs, to find our way back. It was closest to the door. . .come on!” Saying that, Hansel then ran into the forest, leaving Gretel no choice but to follow him and their trail of breadcrumbs.
Rene’ Nilsson

So they could follow a trail of fat birds home?

This sounds like a fun read! I’ll have to look for it.
Jean Prytyskacz

Maybe Hansel was hungry and left crumbs while eating?
http://alternate-parallel.blogspot.com Swati

So that the tame vegetarian wolf who ate only bread from Hansel’s hands and nothing else, could follow them later.
http://bibliofreakblog.com J.T. Oldfield

Because Hansel and Gretel were bourgeois and didn’t care about wasting food even though there are starving children in Africa.
Susan M.

The poor children thought that if they *buttered* the breadcrumbs first, they would shine in the moonlight, like the pebbles did. Little did they realize that just made them tastier when gathered and scattered on a little mac and cheese.
Pamela Toler

Was there ever a child who could eat while [s]he walked and not leave a trail of crumbs?
Kriti

They wanted to feed the birds?
http://cleerysalley.blogspot.com/ Donell C.

Because if they left a trail of bread crumbs, when it fed the magical ants, birds, and daschunds (if they’re anything like mine)of the forest, the creatures would be pleased and reward the children with assistance, wishes and possibly enchanted gifts!
Regina

Gretel knew better than to mark her trail with lipstick, after all, those tricksy imps will just move the rocks around so it points in the wrong direction and Hansel insisted that GPS stood for “Gluten Pieces Sprinkled”!
http://giveawayroundup.blogspot.com/ Sheila

But I’m not creative! That’s why I READ books and don’t WRITE them! ) But let’s see, maybe because they were stupid little children who deserved the fate that befell them in this scary fairy tale!
http://marycatelli.livejournal.com/ Mary

They didn’t realize what fairy tale they were in. They thought by feeding the birds they would get some magical assistance being lead out of the forest.

(Gluttonous, treacherous little birds!)
http://fairytalenewsblog.blogspot.com/ Gypsy Thornton

Seriously: would you eat bread given to you by someone who had already once tried to kill you off by purposely abandoning you among the hungry predators deep in the middle of a dark, dark wood? Might as well try to put the probably-poisoned loaf to good use (wouldn’t that have grated extra-specially if it had worked!) but alas, it appears the bird population of the forest were decreased instead…
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com Editor

Teehee, all great comments! And who would have thought of vegetarian wolves? Just a reminder folks, please answer the question posed when commenting (however inane it may seem to you.) It’s part of the game rules
jacque

Hansel left the bread crumbs because gretal ate all the m m’s. I loved some of these answers ! Funny!
http://litscribbles.wordpress.com Dae

In Hansel and Gretel, why were breadcrumbs scattered to mark a path? An excellent question! I think I’ll get very into this…

Originally, Hansel’s plan was far more intricate. The boy intended to scatter the breadcrumbs in order to attract giant, fantastic birds with wingspans as large as wide as rivers. For indeed, his father had told him bedtime stories about such marvelous creatures, so he had it on good authority that they existed.

The plan was then to somehow lull the birds into a sense of security long enough for Hansel and Gretel to climb on their backs and be carried away. Hansel was a little unclear on exactly how he’d do this. In fact, Gretel was so busy pestering him about it – sisters always do that sort of annoying thing – that when he next looked for the crumbs he found that the birds had eaten them up already.

His father had failed to mention that the fantastic birds were also fantastically stealthy.

Yet the story has a happy ending! After defeating the witch, Hansel and Gretel were helped across a river by riding on some obliging birds, leaving Hansel altogether satisfied with his adventure.

This little-known aspect of the fairy tale not only explains Hansel’s choice of breadcrumbs – which contrary to popular belief was neither desperate nor arbitrary, but deliberate and calculated – but also gives the story’s otherwise awkward ending a new, poignant meaning.
Alissa Barvina

Now, the stepmother loved her witchy mother very much, and knew that she too was suffering during the famine: all the little children were dying, and already dead children are really no fun to eat! So she decided that her husband’s two children, called Hansel and Gretel, would sustain her poor mother for a little while, and decided to send them to her. She gave them magic loaves of bread. The bread was made from flour ground from the bones of the two childrens’ mother, who had been buried beneath the tree in the vegetable garden. However, the stepmother had not ground the bones properly, and in Hansel’s loaf of bread there was his mother’s fingerbone, all in one piece. The stepmother and her husband abandoned the two children to the woods. Hansel set bread crumbs down on the ground to mark their path, so that they might find their way home. However, when the children were not looking, the bread crumbs rearranged so that they pointed the way to the Witch’s house. Their mother’s spirit protected them though: all the birds that were sitting on the tree where the childrens’ mother was buried flocked to the crumbs, and ate them to prevent Hansel and Gretel from being led to the Witch. There was one bird, however, that bit and tore at the wings of the others: it was a little white bird, as white as the stepmother’s winter skin. By the time that little white bird killed the other birds, however, all the bread crumbs were gone. All that remained, to Hansel’s surprise, was the little fingerbone, which he slipped into his pocket for safe keeping. Hansel and Gretel then fell asleep. When they awoke, the little white bird led them to the Witch’s candy house. The witch locked up Hansel and started to fatten him so that he would make a hearty dinner in those lean times. Yet, while he was alone, Hansel heard the little fingerbone singing in his pocket and he was comforted. The next morning, the witch told him to stick his finger out through the bars, but Hansel stuck out his mother’s fingerbone instead! The witch yanked her hair and smoke came out from her ears. She thought the bone was Hansel’s finger, and how thin it was! She continued to fatten him up. The next day, she grabbed the bone that she thought was Hansel’s finger, and it was so fragile that it snapped in two in the witch’s iron hands. The witch then knew Hansel hadbeen decieving her, and that the mother’s protective spell was now broken. She set up to cook him for supper, but, as the story goes. Gretl tricked her, and pushed her into the oven, where she was burned to a crisp!
http://winningreadings.blogspot.com Winning Readings

So they could have fun vacuuming later. My 2yo LOVES vacuuming. Or just to be nice and feed the birds. Little ones are generous like that. Maybe there were ducks around.

janemaritz at yahoo dot com

We posted about this giveaway at Winning Readings: http://winningreadings.blogspot.com/2009/12/tale-of-tales.html
http://www.wondersandmarvels.com Editor

My goodness, Alissa and Dae, you’ve held me spellbound. Winners are chosen by Random.org but I do wish you two good luck!
Lindsey

Hansel thought he was being helpful and didn’t realize he was just making a bigger mess for Gretel to get them out of.
Patti Bright

That is all he had to mark a path to find his way home…how sad it didn’t work.
plb8156@aol.com
Wendy M

They were not trying to leave a marked path it just happened that they were such messy eaters that they left the crumbs on the path. :0)
wmmahaney(at)att(dot)net
http://startingfresh-gaby317.blogspot.com/ Gaby @ Starting Fresh

Hansel wanted to use something that wouldn’t be immediately apparent, so he nixed Gretel’s suggestion of tying bows on tree branches. They wanted to move quickly, so the children opted to “drop” things on the forest floor. They were worried that if they used pebbles or rocks, they wouldn’t be able to tell their rocks from the ones that had originally been on the forest floor. They first tried with buttons, but they only had the buttons from their shirts, pants, and jackets – so they’d quickly run out. So the children cut the bread crumbs big and dropped them along the way. They figured that even if ants or birds might get some of the crumbs, there would be a trail of animals along their path. And they trusted that the animals wouldn’t be greedy/clever enough to find all the crumbs. But they miscalculated!

gaby317nyc at gmail dot com
http://www.tarotbyarwen.com Arwen

In Hansel and Gretel, why were breadcrumbs scattered to mark a path?

Actually, it is a little known fact that Hansel hated birds. He secretly poisoned those bread crumbs.

Gretel, tender-hearted though she was, understood that they might get lost so she sprinkled the crumbs so that they could follow the dead bird and mice carcasses home.
Breiab

They left bread crumbs because Hansel being the greedy little boy that he was, thats all they had left. They weren’t far from the house when Gretal noticed that he ate the candy she had packed for such an occasion.