I've started to work Project Gutenberg into this blog, because I've found a number of lost fairy stories and books on it. I am a firm supporter of the project because I love old, lost stories . You can, for example, get all 14 Oz books on it.Today, I just found The Goblins' Christmas, by Elizabeth Anderson, and illustrated by Alexander Sharp. It's a little old-fashioned and clunky, what with being from 1908 and all. But it's just the sort of story I would have loved as a child, and that my own daughter would have loved when she was little.
Goblins and Christmas? It's got to be good!
29 comments:
This was so wonderful and the illustrations are marvelous! Thanks so much for sharing!!
Many people who enjoy the classic fairy tales may say that Walt Disney has destroyed them, altered them, mutilated them beyond recognition compared to the original tales. However, it may be safe to say that he instead made them kid friendly, so to speak. Walt Disney did not create one single movie that did not come from fairy tales or books that I know of but he did make them his own. Also, there are no ideas or thoughts or stories that have not been thought of before. Fairy tales belong to no one which perhaps does not give him the right to destroy the stories according to some people, but to others it gives him precedent to make them his own as well as make them appropriate for children. For example, what he did with Snow White was create a sweet little girl who could nurture dwarfs and become queen instead of a spoiled little girl who had to learn to do household chores to survive and who had a stepmother, or is some versions a mother, who wanted to eat her. No mother would really want their young children to read or watch such maniacal and menacing tales because chances are it would scare them for the rest of their lives and make them believe that perhaps mothers did not love unconditionally and would perhaps eat them when they became a nuisance.
Julia C.
From George MacDonald's "The Fantastic Imagination"
"'But a man may then, imagine in your work what he pleases, what you never meant!'
"Not what he pleases, but what he can. If he be not a true man, he will draw evil out of the best; we need not mind how he treats any work of art! If he be a true man, he will imagine true things; what matter if I put them there or not?"
I was reading this today and it seems to fit here.
Thank you for bringing those long lost fairy tales to our attention. I'm off to Project Gutenberg now.
You should look for the 'color' fairy books by Andrew Lang on PG. They were always my favourite as a child and the illustrations were always beautiful. The stories were always very cool!
Peas,
Mrs Yoder
nice blog!
The tale of the Goblins’ Christmas has always fascinated me. While our culture tells us a different story of Christmas, this tale portrays a more deceptive and ill-mannered Kris Kringle. The original, and I use the word original loosely, legend tells us that Santa has the help of elves. They construct the playthings and find it irresistible to keep from doing it. This Santa is a benevolent one that is only concerned with keeping the elves happy and giving children around the world toys to play with. This Kris Kringle is more menacing. While the Goblins only demonstrated compassion and good feelings toward this outsider, they were fooled and essentially murdered. This is revealed when Santa transforms all of the beings into toys.
As a child I would have liked to hear this tale, however I would not have believed it true, for the popular culture legend was not this tale. This is how society works. We believe certain cultural beliefs and any other rendition is not real. I was a student teacher for a first grade class in a Catholic school. We studied a unit on Christmas around the world. There was one tale that told of an old woman putting candy and small gifts in the children’s’ shoes. I remember clearly that one student piped up ,”But she’s not real right? It’s just pretend?” and it struck me that While this small child could believe in Santa so vividly, and yet completely dismiss another culture’s “Santa” so easily.
So cool!
www.my-new-tips.blogspot.com
There is nothing quite like old literature. Clunkiness aside, there tends to be a magic there that is missing in more "modern" offerings ...
how wonderful, thank you for the link, im off to make a cup of t & sit awhile and read. I love the illustrations! *ruthie*
nice blog!!!!!!!
please visit me back !!!!!
Culture of Indonesia
couldn't find a place to e-mail you directly so i thought I'd leave a comment instead..
I LOVE your header. Did you make it yourself??
Thanks Erica-Rose! If you'll scroll down on the left side of the blog, you'll see the info on the banner artist!
hi,actually im from malaysia.my name is ruby.nice to meet you
juz a bit comment,you have a nice blog.you try to tell what in your mind.that's all
i hope we can be a good friend...
I love fairies stories too.
The older books are the best, and this is preatty old!
I loved it here, I am linking the blog right away.
Thanks for the following!
link exchange?
Very Very good. Nice blog.
I love magic and fairytales! :)
I absolutely have enjoyed your page. I have an award at my place for you. Come by and have a glass of Lemonade! Congrats on your page.
Great Idea!!
I'm fascinated with this movie called "Santa Clause Conquers the Martians" so this book totally has me going! I'm excited to learn more about it. Cheers :o)
This story gives ole’ Kris Kringle a lot of power. Santa Claus has always had the power of a ‘seer’ of sorts, but I have not seen him have this power to transform before. I guess that is why Santa had the elves make toys for him.
Now I find myself humming Santa Claus is Coming to Town. “You better watch out, you better not cry…..Santa Clause is coming…”.
This is so much like the Little Orphan Annie poem from the October post. In this one, children are warned, “the goblins gonna getcha if you don’t watch out!”
In psychology, positive reinforcement is rewarding good behavior in order to have it happen again. Positive punishment is punishing the bad behavior to keep it from happening. It is so funny how Santa will, through positive reinforcement, give the children gifts for good behavior. Yet, if Orphan Annie were the disciplinarian, she would instead have the naughty little children learn to be good by having the goblins lurking in the dark to get them every time they are bad.
I love this story. I wish they had more Christmas very tale stories. The illustrations are beautiful. Since it is the time of year, this story would be a wonderful hit for all children to read and hear. Even though it is an old story, it should be brought out for everyone to see and read.
Since we do think that Walt Disney has ruined the lives of children in “happily ever after,” I believe that this story does not ruin the belief of Santa or Christmas. I enjoy more of the classic fairy tales but I also do enjoy the Disney ones as well even though there is no such thing as “happily ever after.” This story should be out this Christmas for everyone to read.
What a great story and great idea to find such a classic tale with the magic spirit of Christmas and Saint Nick!
Ashley G.
Combining the two stories must be an awesome compilation. Unfortunately I have not read it yet, but I’m definitely going to. Christmas stories are always excellent, not only during the season but we can use them as every day reading.
Combining Christmas and goblins for me actually comes in natural because of my own version of how goblins came to exist.
Goblins are strange creatures. They mean and mischievous creatures. Also, they are known as small creatures, so my own version of their existence is that they were kicked out of Santa’s Workshop because they were bad and didn’t want to work. Santa punished them for misbehaving by making them look ugly and casting them to England from where the rest of the story became.
This is the reason I said earlier that Goblins and Christmas go hand in hand.
When I saw this post I immediately thought of the school play my younger brother was in called “The Goblins and the Gravedigger”. While I’m sure many are familiar with this particular tale as well, I was surprised to find the strong resemblance it had Charles Dickens’ holiday tale “A Christmas Carol”. With the three goblins standing in for the three ghosts of Christmas and the gravedigger taking the place of Ebenezer Scrooge, this play also resulted in the “redemption” of the surly figure in the end after he realized the errors he had made in his life in regards to love and compassion. Even though I have enjoyed both of these tales, I still have to say my absolute favorite interpretation of this story is the animated version Disney made that incorporated Mickey and his “pals.” I can still vividly remember sitting on the living room floor watching this “movie” on the VHS tape my parents had used when they had taped it while it was on television. –Holly G.
When I saw this post I immediately thought of the school play my younger brother was in called “The Goblins and the Gravedigger”. While I’m sure many are familiar with this particular tale as well, I was surprised to find the strong resemblance it had Charles Dickens’ holiday tale “A Christmas Carol”. With the three goblins standing in for the three ghosts of Christmas and the gravedigger taking the place of Ebenezer Scrooge, this play also resulted in the “redemption” of the surly figure in the end after he realized the errors he had made in his life in regards to love and compassion. Even though I have enjoyed both of these tales, I still have to say my absolute favorite interpretation of this story is the animated version Disney made that incorporated Mickey and his “pals.” I can still vividly remember sitting on the living room floor watching this “movie” on the VHS tape my parents had used when they had taped it while it was on television. –Holly G.
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