Books

Red Robin Hood: A Collection of Alternative Fairy Tales

Aubrey Leaman

Red Robin Hood image.jpg

Fairy tales have been passed down throughout the ages, where different cultures have recorded unique variations of the same fundamental stories. The SurLaLune series, for example, has entire books of all the different versions of Beauty and the Beast, Cinderella, The Twelve Dancing Princesses, etc.

But there are some versions that have been passed down much less reliably over time, and after working with a team of highly skilled researchers from only the best institutions from around the world, we are excited to premiere here a preliminary list of their titles, alongside brief summaries. We can only hope that as research continues the details of these stories will similarly be brought to light, to delight children’ ears just as they did in ancient times.

1) Red Robin Hood

In this classic tale, a wolf disguised as Little John tries to infiltrate Robin Hood’s hideout to take him down. But, of course, he is no match for Robin Hood…

2) Sleeping Beauty and the Beast

While disguising his appearance, a Beast falls in love with a princess and she with him, but when a curse sends her into deep sleep will he have the courage to wake her with true love’s kiss, when the very first thing her eyes will see is his ghastly, Beastly form?

3) Snow White and the Seven Wharves

After fleeing the evil queen, Snow White becomes a pirate princess roaming the seas, with seven wharves on an island serving as ports for her fleet of seven pirate ships.

4) Cinderspella

With a stepmother and stepsisters who are literally witches, Cinderspella must do the hard labor of gathering all of the frog’s legs and eyes of newt they need for their potions, day in and day out. That’s when Cinderspella’s own Scary Godmother shows up…

5) Goldilocks and the Three Dares

The bears agree to give Goldilocks their porridge, IF she can complete a series of ever-escalating dares.

6) Rumpelkiltskin

All of the straw spun into gold is going towards a bounty for the Loch Ness Monster’s head.

7) The Hog Prince

And you thought kissing a FROG was bad…

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Which fairy tale would you be most excited to read? Have you, fellow researching readers, “discovered” other versions of classic fairy tales like these?

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Repetition, Fairy Tales, and Classical Music

Classical Music Stories: The Twelve Dancing Princesses and Debussy

19 thoughts on “Red Robin Hood: A Collection of Alternative Fairy Tales”

  1. All of these sound amazing! I love fairy tale adaptations and have attempted to write some of my own (although they aren’t very good). There’s just so much great material out there to shape and put into new and interesting spins.

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      2. Honestly thank you for sharing this! There were so many resonances with other stories woven in that I ended up reading all three parts… It reminded me of Dorian Gray at the beginning and end a bit, plus I also loved the reason you gave for the old woman’s appearance about halfway through (I don’t want to say more in case any other readers see this and get spoilers)! You really do have a gift for storytelling!

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      3. Coming from you, that’s very high praises. Honestly, thank you so much for taking the time to read this and sharing your thoughts. It means a lot!

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