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Showing posts with label Sprookjes - Fairytales. Show all posts

Monday, November 24, 2025

Ducky Quack Cooks His Own Meal

"Ducky Quack Cooks His Own Meal" (a classic Dutch children's story, often recited or read aloud): Ducky Quack is a stubborn and independent duckling who thinks he can do everything himself.

One day, he decides to cook his own meal, without help from Mother Duck or the other animals.

He gets to work full of courage: he picks carrots, fetches water from the ditch, makes a fire... but everything goes wrong.

The pot tips over, the food burns, and in the end, Ducky Quack is left with a huge mess.

When he's hungry and sad, Mother Duck comes to help anyway.

Ducky Quack learns that it's okay to be independent, but that doing things together (and sometimes asking for help) is also very nice and smart.

Moral: Independence is good, but cooperation is sometimes better!

https://dorpenstedennederland.blogspot.com/

https://fieggentrio.blogspot.com/

Tuesday, August 19, 2025

Why the sunflower always turns towards the sun

An old fairy tale tells why the sunflower always turns to the sun.

Long ago, Clytie, a water nymph, was in love with the sun god Apollo.

She gazed at him every day as he rode through the sky in his solar chariot.

Apollo didn't notice her love and shifted his attention to someone else.

Grief-stricken, Clytie remained in the same spot for days, her eyes fixed on the sun, without food or drink. The gods took pity and turned her into a sunflower so she could gaze at her beloved sun forever.

Since then, the sunflower turns to the sun, a symbol of her eternal devotion.

This story explains heliotropism, in which sunflowers follow the sun to capture maximum light.

https://dorpenstedennederland.blogspot.com/

https://fieggentrio.blogspot.com/

Saturday, May 24, 2025

Hansel and Gretel

Hansel and Gretel is a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm.

Hansel and Gretel, two children, are abandoned in the forest by their poor parents.

They get lost and come across a house of sweets and cakes, which belongs to an evil witch.

The witch lures them inside, wants to fatten Hansel up to eat and makes Gretel her slave.

Gretel outsmarts the witch by pushing her into the oven, causing her to burn.

The children escape with the witch's treasures, find their way home and live happily with their father, while their evil stepmother has disappeared.

https://dorpenstedennederland.blogspot.com/

https://fieggentrio.blogspot.com/

Friday, January 24, 2025

William Tell

A Swiss legend about William Tell's apple.

In 1307, the legendary Swiss crossbowman William Tell refused to salute the hat that governor Gessler had placed on a pole in the village square, as a symbol of the ruling Austria.

Gessler then ordered him to shoot an apple from his son's head with his bow.

He succeeded.

However, when Tell was asked what the purpose of his second arrow was, he replied that it was meant for the governor if it hit his son.

He was then captured. While Tell was being taken to prison in a boat across Lake Lucerne, a storm broke out and he managed to escape.

William Tell quickly returned to Küssnacht and shot the governor dead with his crossbow.

https://dorpenstedennederland.blogspot.com/

https://fieggentrio.blogspot.com/

Friday, October 11, 2024

The Black Umbrella

The little house stood on the edge of the city and belonged to Eliza, a black woman. For many years she had been a kitchen maid and washerwoman in the house of a rich merchant. From Monday morning to Sunday morning she worked and slept in the large, beautiful house, but she spent Sunday afternoon and the night from Sunday to Monday in her little house in the suburbs. There she usually sat by the window, because that way she could hear and see what was happening outside. The Black Umbrella One evening, when she had fallen asleep by the window, she was awakened by a strange singing. "A bird doesn't sing like that," thought Eliza, and she opened her eyes. In the twilight she could see behind the low wall of the churchyard a number of stooped figures dressed in black. And she listened to the song with which people were accustomed to accompany their dead to the grave: No more tears will come to your eyes; you are now forever at home, where no more tears flow. Eliza the kitchen maid had often sung that song herself, when a neighbor from the neighborhood was brought to their last resting place. Eliza liked to sing: sad and happy songs, but sad ones the most. She now closed the window, put on her shoes, put on her hat and went outside. In the cemetery she knelt down beside the mourners and sang along with them. It grew dark, the rain fell from the low-hanging clouds, the wind roared above the cemetery. Eliza pulled her hat lower over her forehead and turned up the collar of her coat. The rain ran down her back, but she continued to sing. And a tall, thin man in a black frock coat stood up to give the kitchen maid a large black umbrella. "Take it, sister," he said, "such a good singer must not get wet." And he opened the umbrella for her. The kitchen maid hid under it and continued to sing the funeral song for the poor negroes with the others. When the song ended, the thin man stood up once more and began to pray. Everyone joined in his prayers in a low voice. But when the kitchen maid finally said "Amen," a violent wind arose, which thundered over the churchyard like the wings of a gigantic bird. Eliza looked up and saw that she was kneeling beside a grave overgrown with grass and weeds, and that there was no one in the churchyard except her. Frightened, she stood up and fled home. After she had closed the front door behind her, she noticed that she was still holding the large black umbrella in her hand. She put it in a corner and spent the night trembling and awake. Would the spirits of the dead not come to fetch the umbrella? But no one appeared, only the rain rustled down monotonously and the branches whipped by the wind beat against the window. For many years that large black umbrella stood in the cottage of kitchen maid Eliza. When it rained, she took it out of the corner, and when she came home, she put it back in its place. But she never lent it out. And no one ever laughed at her when Eliza told how she had sung the death song for poor Negroes in the rain with the ghosts.

https://dorpenstedennederland.blogspot.com/

https://fieggentrio.blogspot.com/

Saturday, June 8, 2024

Saint Michael and the dragon

High in heaven, where light and glory reign, Archangel Michael watched over peace.

But that peace was brutally shattered by the rise of a dark dragon.

With flaming eyes and poisonous breath, he sowed chaos and threatened to devour the kingdom of heaven. Michael, clad in radiant armor, seized his flaming sword and bravely descended to do battle.

The collision was unrelenting.

The dragon roared furiously as Michael dodged his attacks with agility and strength.

The battle raged long and fiercely.

The sky rang with the screams and lightning flashes of their clashes.

Michael, despite his courage, began to suspect.

The dragon was strong and tireless.

But Michael was not alone.

Encouraged by the songs of angels, he drew new strength from his faith.

With one final, powerful thrust, he pierced the dragon's heart.

The dragon roared one last time and fell, defeated.

Peace returned to heaven.

Michael, the victor, was honored as a hero.