Zelinda and the Monster
This story is part of the Italian Popular Tales unit. Story source: Italian Popular Tales by Thomas Frederick Crane (1885).- This is the Italian version of Beauty and the Beast
- A poor man had three daughters
- The youngest was the most civil and the fairest
- Every January the man would travel to a fair in a neighboring town
- One daughter asked for a dress, one asked for a shawl, and Zelinda asked for a rose
- The man easily found the dress and shawl, but had to leave the fair to look for a rose for his dear Zelinda
- He came upon a huge castle
- There was every kind of flower you could think of
- The house looked dead and vacant, so he reached and picked a rose
- All of a sudden, flames came from the Earth and a scary dragon shaped figure came from the castle
- The monster wanted to kill then man, but instead settled for allowing him to return home and bring back the daughter that wanted the rose
- Zelinda understood what had to be done and traveled back to the Monster with her father
- They arrived and were treated very well, they were able to stay and the castle and they were provided a huge breakfast before the father had to leave Zelinda under the Monster's power
- Once Zelinda's father left, the Monster was so nice to Zelinda. He treated her like a queen and asked if she would marry him
- Zelinda couldn't commit because of the way the monster looked
- One day the monster called out to Zelinda in a haste
- He said, "Listen, Zelinda: if you do not consent to marry me, it is fated that your father must die. He is ill and near the end of his life, and you will not be able even to see him again. See whether I am telling you the truth."
- He began drawing out an enchanted mirror and there she saw her father on his deathbed
- Without hesitation Zelinda promised to marry the monster and be a loyal wife
- She wanted to hug her father one last time
- After she said those words, the monster turned into a handsome young prince
[Crane did not translate the rest of the story but just summarized it as follows: Zelinda and her husband strive to obtain his parents' consent to his marriage. They refuse and the young couple run away from the royal palace and fall into the power of an ogre and his wife, from whom they at last escape.]
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| (Zelinda, her father, and the Monster) |
Hey Madee!
ReplyDeleteWith it being the end of the semester, I was curious to see how others did their reading notes, since it was brought to my attention that mine were different than others. Yours much more concise and useful to writing than the stream of consciousness format of my own, so I imagine that writing referential stories was easier because of it.