Reading Notes: American Indian Fairy Tales, Part B
The Fairy Bride
Story source: American Indian Fairy Tales by W.T. Larned, with illustrations by John Rae (1921).Plot:
there was a girl name Neen-I-zu, daughter of a chief and very loved and shielded from harm.
She liked to walk the forest alone though and see mystical things.
There were faries that lived in those woods. They loved to play pranks.
They always hid from the indians and were scarcly seen.
Just about everyone was sure they existed out there.
Neen-i-zu had heared a story from Iagoo of a faraway place where its always summer and always happy.
Neen-i-zu thought the fairies might be messengers from this happy place. So she hung around there hoping one day to be invited.
She made a song calling to be heard.
One night she stayed later than she should.
Side note: she hated hunters because they killed, she believed there would be no need to kill in the happy place. her mom wanted her to marry a hunter thought.
She was thinking about this one night in the forest^
She thought she saw something but ended up just going home.
When she got home her mom told her she wants her to marry a hunter but they got in a bit of a spat over this because Neen-i-zu didnt want to marry a hunter.
One point brought up during this fight was that the man her mother wanted her to marry was super tall and she was only half his size. That is to say that she is very short.
Her joy began to fade in the following days.
The wedding day was named, and she stopped singing her song.
On her wedding day, she want for a farwell visit to the grove.
Suddenly a massive cloud covered the sun. Neen-i-zu was gone for a very long time, they went searching for her and did not find her.
The next day a hunter came from the woods with a tale:
His dog returned to the hunter whining, which was uncharacteristic becaue this was a brave dog.
Then the hunter heard a voice singing, he saw the figure of Neen-i-zu walking.
She was met by a strange looking young man, that took her into the woods.
"so Need-i-zu became a bride after all"
Thoughts:
This was the simplest of the stories in part B, but man does it feel long. I really don't understand what this story is trying to say. there seem to be a number of tangents and unnecessary turns in the story that I would not have added. So much seemed to happen for no reason. I cant make a lot of sense out of this story or many of the other stories for that matter. The only thing i can come up with is that perhaps the story exists to support the literal existence of these faries and their power? I digress...
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