Fairy Tales in Different Cultures: Petrosinella: A Neopolitan Rapunzel

Today we are going to discuss Petrosinella: A Neopolitan Rapunzel. It is the earliest version of a written Rapunzel story. I found two versions of the book at the library. Both are illustrated by Diane Stanley. One has Diane Stanley listed as the author and the other has Giambattista Basile, who is the original author. 

The stories are basically the same and are the same as the traditional story. The main difference being that the mother, named Pascadozzia in the Basile version, craved parsley and took it from her neighbor's garden. The neighbor was an ogress. She made the mother promise to give her unborn child to her. The child was born with a sprig of parsley in her hand in Basile's version and thus she was named Petrosinella which means parsley. Once Petrosinella was seven she began school and walked by the ogress' house. The ogress talked to her every day and told her to remind her mother of her promise. Finally the mother told Petrosinella to answer her with "Take it." The ogress took Petrosinella and locked her in the tower. One time with the ogress was out, Petrosinella put her hair down as she stuck her head out the little window. A prince who was returning to his parents' kingdom happened by and noticed the beautiful face and climbed up the hair. They talked and fell in love. He began to visit often at night while the ogress slept. He begged Petrsoinella to leave with him, but she refused even though she did not know why she refused. One day another ogress spotted the prince visiting Petrosinella and told her stepmother ogress. The stepmother ogress said she would put an end to the visits and that Petrosinella could never leave because she had a spell on her and needed the three acorns which were hidden in the rafters in the kitchen to break it. Petrosinella was listening so when the prince came that night she told him about the acorns and they searched and found them and left. However the ogress's friend saw them and made such noise that she woke the ogress. She quickly chased them. Sure they were going to be caught Petrosinella remembered the acorns and threw one onto the ground. A vicious dog appeared and went after the ogress. She however came prepared with bread. She continued her chase. The next acorn turned into a lion. The ogress found a mule skin to wear and tricked the lion. The third acorn became a wolf and the wolf ate her before she had a chance to trick it. The prince and Petrosinella were married and lived happily. In Stanley's version Petrosinella's mother was sent for the wedding. 

According to the information presented in Stanley's book,  Giambattista Basile published the original version of the story in 1637. It was in Neopolitan and it was hard to translate into English without a dictionary, but several versions were translated. She used a version by John Edward Taylor from 1847 and N.M. Penzer from 1932. For a full text version of the story on-line, visit SurLaLune Fairy Tales.

According to John K. Davis on this website there is also a connection to the legend of Saint Barbara. Saint Barbara was locked in a tower by her father to make sure she did not have an unworthy suitor. While he was away on business Barbara became to learn about the teachings of Christ and became a Christian. When her father returned and discovered this, he took her the Roman pro-consul who ordered her father to behead her. After beheading her, her father was struck down by lightning and consumed by fire.

The craft I shared is one Hazel and I made back in 2012. It is a toy of Rapunzel's tower and I shared it back in May 2012.

For more Rapunzel stories and other fairy tales, check out:

• Sugar Cane: A Caribbean Rapunzel
• My Rapunzel Pinterest Board
• My Fairy Tales in Different Cultures Series

Sharing Saturday 14-26

Thank you to everyone who shared with us last week!! There were so many amazing ideas. For features this week I chose two themes: 4th of July/Independence Day and Summer. Since my mind seems to be with both it only seemed right. I picked a few of each, but there are many more from last week! I hope you will go check them and all that was shared out!

Fourth of July Features

1) From Happy Deal- Happy Day: Frugal Craft: 4th of July Centerpiece

2) From  Rock-a-Bye Parents: American Flag Bead Pin

3) From Gift of Curiosity: 4th of July Montessori Activities 

4) From Stella 123: 4th of July Marshmallow Decorating 

5) From ArtClubBlog: Flag Stones 

6) From A Little Pinch of Perfect: Patriotic Windsock Kid Craft 

Summer Features

1) From Living Montessori Now: Top 10 Summer Themes for Preschoolers

2) From Our Adventure Story: The Ultimate 2014 Summer Adventure List 

3) From  Play Dr. Mom: ABC's of Summer

4) From Felt with Love Designs: Links with Love: The Ultimate Round-Up of Summer Sewing Projects 

5) From The Jenny Evolution: Beach Books for the Summer 

6) From Krafts and Kiddos: Handprint Mermaid Painting 

7) There's Just One Mommy: 20 Sea Animal Crafts

 

Thank you to everyone who shared last week!! I hope you will join us and share again!! If you are featured here, please feel free to grab a featured button to display proudly on your blog. 

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From Your Hostess: This week we explored lemons, shared The Persian Cinderella for our Fairy Tales in Different Cultures, a simple craft to help teach prayer, a starfish and sand dollar wreath, a review of math picture books and a math lesson on fractal (frozen fractals from Disney's Frozen).

Make sure you enter our giveaway!

Now for This Week's Party  
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2)  Link any kid-friendly, child-centered post. Please no etsy shops or giveaways, etc.  Remember to link to your actual post. 

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What Are Frozen Fractals? A Lesson on Fractals to Go with Disney's Frozen Movie and Let It Go Song

Hazel and I LOVE Disney's movie Frozen. We are constantly listening to the soundtrack in our car. One of our favorite songs from the movie is Let It Go. If you have not heard the song or seen the movie you can
check out the song from the actual movie (with movie scenes) from Disney's website.

Math Lesson: Math Books Perfect for Homeschoolers and Summer Vacation

Do you have an Octonauts' fan at home? Make sure you enter my current giveaway for the newly released DVD.

Since I have not done a math post in awhile I thought I would share a few of the great math books I have found recently at my local library. There are many new ones out there and I promise to share more soon as well.

 The first one is a great book for any homeschooler wanting a fun way to introduce some geometry. Shapes in Math, Science and Nature:Squares, Triangles and Circles by Catherine Sheldrick Ross is an amazing book to really learn about three basic shapes. It is full of information and activities to explore circles, triangles and squares and as a former geometry teacher, I highly recommend this one. It even includes some of the geometric constructions where only a compass and straightedge (with no measurements on it) are used. The grade level recommendation for this one is fourth through ninth, but there are definitely some activities younger children could do it in it.

If you are trying to introduce some algebra here is a book for you, Mystery Math: A First Book of Algebra by David A. Adler. This book introduces the concept of a balanced equation, a variable and solving the equation while keeping it balanced in a fun way. In order to do this, a child must be able to add, subtract, multiply and divide. Since it has a theme of a haunted house, it also would be fun to read and introduce around Halloween.

Are you doing any traveling this summer? Here is a perfect book to teach math while traveling or about traveling. It is Travel Math by Pia Awal. This book introduces time and distance calculations, as well as calculations with things like population size, mountain height, temperatures, etc. The math involved is recommended for fourth grade and up.

So those are my recommendations for today with more to come. For more Math Lessons, check out:

• For the Love of Geometry 
• Finding Shapes and Patterns Everywhere! 
• Math in Nature 
• Number Importance and Number Sense 
• Egyptian Math--Pyramids 
• Pi Day 2013 and 2012
• This Plus That: Life's Little Equations
• My Math Pinterest Board

Starfish and Sand Dollar Wreath for a Touch of Summer

 Disclosure: I was sent these craft items to review free of charge from Oriental Trading. All opinions in this post are my own. I did not receive any other compensation for this review. I added links to the particular products for your convenience, but not for any compensation.

So while at Cape Cod last week, Hazel and I were in one of our favorite shops and I saw a pretty wreath made with white starfish. It looked very simple. It was a chipboard wreath form painted white with white starfish glued all over it. I showed it to my mother and Hazel and said we could make that. The owner of the store even commented how he considered getting out his glue gun to make one. I think it was on sale for about $17 dollars. I remembered the wonderful starfish I had received from Oriental Trading and thought let's make one when we get home.