Tall Tales & Fairy Tales

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• Middelbare school
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• Leerjaar 5

Tall Tales & Fairy Tales

Paul Bunyan &  Babe the Blue Ox - American Tall Tale - Minnesota lumberjack

Today you will learn about:

•  folklore traditions/fairy tales/tall tales

• some popular American tall tales

• the ingredients for tall tales & fairy tales

• writing your own tall tale or twisting a fairy tale

Folklore - oral tradition

Folklore:

the traditional stories and culture of a group of people:

Fairy Tale:

a story with magic, monsters, 

animals with human qualities

Tall Tale:

a story that may or may not be true, 

but that contains details that are hard to believe

Tall Tales history

In the first half of the 19th century, America was undergoing rapid change. 

Americans would travel west to settle the land, pushing the great frontier 

 & hold bragging contests around the campfire at night, exaggerating 

and adding to the story as it was told over and over again.

Tall tales display rugged individualism.

Picture on top: Davy Crocket

Picture below right: Disney version of Davy Crocket

Picture below left: settlers/the great frontier

Paul Bunyan Tall Tale

The Paul Bunyan legend tells that it took five storks to carry him as a newborn and as he was a little older and clapped and laughed, it broke windows. 

 The legend continues that he sawed off the legs of his parents’ bed, in the middle of the night, when he was only seven months old and that the Grand Canyon was formed as he and Babe the Blue Ox walked through dragging his axe behind him. 

The myth of the Great Lakes being formed by Bunyan needing to create a watering hole for Babe to drink from is another popular one told by many.

Picture: Paul Bunyan and the Babe the Blue Ox

"Born on a mountaintop in Tennessee,

Greenest state in the land of the free,

Raised in the woods so he knew every tree,

Kilt him a b'ar when he was only 3.

Davy, Davy Crockett, King of the wild frontier!"

-From "The Ballad of Davy Crockett", 

 Theme of the Disneyland TV Production of "Davy Crockett"

Davy Crocket Tall Tale

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Tall Tale Heroes/Heroines

The main character:

•  accomplishes great feats using strength, skill and wits.

•  is helped by a powerful object or animal.

• is  followed from childhood onwards (e.g., Pecos Bill falls off a wagon and is adopted by wolves, Davy Crockett kills a bear at age three)
• has a colorful way of speaking & brags

• has one or more companions (e.g., Pecos Bill's wife, Mike Fink's friends, Johnny Appleseed's animals).

• has (common) problems with nature, people and/or progress.
  

• tries hard to be a good person but sometimes fails.

The hero does not like what others call progress 

Tall Tale characteristics

•  Choose a setting (time/place)  associated with a small town or local (historical) area  (e.g. Sneekermeer , IJsselmeer)

• Create a larger-than-life main character (someone like Grutte Pier) - a very strong/large person

• Create a plot (storyline/chain of events) - a common problem that everyone experiences and that the hero/main character solves with strength 

• Use a third person narrator (using he/she/they etc.) and include a bit of vernacular/folksy language (in dialogue)

• Exaggerate the events ;  be absurd/illogical/unrealistic
  

• Use colorful language (adjectives/adverbs/descriptive verbs: describe in detail)  & figurative language (similes, metaphors, personification etcetera)

writemystery.com

OPTION 1 - Tall Tale writing

Write a 400- to  600-word tall tale (individually or in pairs) on paper 

(1 page minimum, 2 pages maximum)

Writing prompts:

How Grutte Pier and the Frisians conquered their land

How the Frisian lakes came into existence 

How the leaning, unfinished Oldehove church tower came about

How the Great Lakes (American/Canadian border) were created

The story behind the  St. Lawrence river & the Thousand Islands (Ontario, Canada) 

The monster of Loch Ness (Scotland)

OPTION 2 - Fairy Tale Writing

Write your own 400- to 600-word fairy tale (individually or in pairs) on paper 

(1 page minimum, 2 pages maximum)

OR

Twist a common fairy tale to teach an alternative lesson

(e.g. Little Red Riding Hood smacks the wolf, gobbles the goodies in the basket: an indecent, boisterous young lady is taught a lesson by grandma;

e.g. Snow White is a young man rivaling his father in business, and is being rescued by a daring princess)

americanliterature.com