Using our brainstormed list of fairy tale characteristics as a guide, decide whether or not "The Bronze Ring" is a good example of a fairy tale and then explain why.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2004

Answers

I do believe that "The Bronze Ring" is a good example of a fairy tale because, as we said in our list, the hero is rewarded with a prize (often a person) for his valor. In this case, the princess whom he loves is his reward.

-- Anonymous, September 20, 2004

Yes, I believe so. A good reason is because the "Is related to royalty" part shows itself in two different ways: One being the gardener of the king, and then marrying his daughter.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

Well i think it is a good fairy tale and i'll connect the bronze ring to the supernatural aid the hero recieves. But I have to wonder about the character being a noble birth as we said in the brainstorm, I think one of the main themes in this was that he was not of royal birth.

-ror

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

I think this story fits rather nicely with the romanticized views of good and evil in that there's a very plain good guy (the gardener's son) and a few bad guys (the princess' dad and the guy he wants her to marry. I'd say king, but there's two). The stereotypes are furthered by the responses of the gardener's son and the princely guy to the badgering of the old woman.

-Bains

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

The hero goes through his Heroic Struggle with substandard means (we can imply some Heroic Suffering as well). He meets his Aged Mentor, who advises him on how to get his Object of Desire (namely The Princess, more secondary the Ring of Power, which is also an item of Supernatural Use). Good and Evil are notably defined--the Hero loves The Princess; we assume the minister's Wicked Son does not (the Wicked Son is more favored). Despite his Bad Odds, the Hero overcomes and is rewarded.

Also, Senseless Violence a plus! (Including suspended disbelief that the king would allow himself to be boiled alive).

W00t.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

The story takes a greatly simplified view of justice in several respects (maybe this wasn't on the list, but it should have been). For example, the Wicked Son gets royally screwed over just for being a bit arrogant - perhaps a moral? Also, it is perfectly acceptable for the "hero" character to use genocide to get his magic ring back by (irrationally) demanding that they recover his ring. Apparently being on an island shouldn't be a hindrance to mice in this case. This oversimplified view of fairness and justice - mentioned in Tolkien's essay - makes "The Bronze Ring" a fairy tale.

"A wise man once said, 'for trifling matters, it is better to resolve things simply by shouting.'" No connection with the story.

John

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

This story seems to use quite a few of the characteristcs we brainstormed. One of the ones was that the hero will suffer and will end up happy. This happens when he is floating around on the boat with hardly no food, but then the talking mice got, lost, and then found again the ring and then the protagonist is happy again.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

"The Bronze Ring" is a good example of a fairy tale (according to our definition), and here are is one more reason why. The hero of the tale (the gardener's son) gets some (supernatural?) aid from the old beggar-lady that he takes pity on. Though the manner in which she helps him may not exactly be magical, it certainly is a bit strange for an old lady to suggest killing three dogs and boiling the King 'till his skin comes off in order to cure the King of his illness. In my opinion, this woman is not your average old, feeble beggar-lady.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

The Bronze Ring is a good example of a fairy tale because it has both many elements of the fantastic and the Hero performs unlikely events. Just about every element of the story fits those descriptions ranging from the stuff the ring does to the throwing the king in the cauldron stuff.

Gotta love this quote: ",or we shall perish, every mouse of us."

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

I must say this story wins for bizzareness (whats with the blind mice and the ring magically appearing in a dead fish moments after it was dropped? Does its power still work if you loose it?) Anyway, yes, this story does demonstrate the proper fairy tale requirements. One moral I'm not sure other people mentioned was don't steal, the wicked soceror was definitly a bad guy, and he ends up thouroghly dead (which also happens to fit in with Tolkien's 'children like killing for justice' theory in his essay on Fairy stories).

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

It seems to me this story satisfies all the verifiable elements of a faerie story we described, excluding super-human powers of the protagonist. In this case, it seems only his kindness and cleverness help him find happiness. Looking at many other popular fairy tales, like Cinderella and Jack & the Beanstalk, it would seem this definition applies more to "legends" and "myths" than fairy tales, per se. I believe this story to be a true fairy tale.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

"The Bronze Ring" can be considered a good fairy tale in that it certainly has elements of the fantastic, shown in the fact that there is an island of mice who can talk to the gardener's son, who happens to be in a ship full of cats. Conveniently, the cats and dogs can not talk. Also, the beautiful maiden ends up married to the now very rich gardener's son who arrived in a gold ship, which probably would not even float in real life.

-- Anonymous, September 21, 2004

The Bronze Ring does qualify to be a fairy tale as we described in class. The Hero is rewarded in the end, and he has the ideals of the "good" (what with helping strange beggar-ladies). In this case, only his kindness and cleverness help him find happiness. The lovely princess is married (as stated in class) to the gardener's son, who arrives in a fantastic gold ship (the laws of buoyancy no longer apply to his boats).

-- Anonymous, September 22, 2004