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Classic Transformation Stories - The Donkey Cabbage
11 years ago
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Note: There are some hints and spoilers below, so don't keep reading if you don't want to see them. Read The Donkey Cabbage instead!
I love Fairy Tales!
And some of the most classic are a compilation by Andrew Lang!
Andrew Lang was poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology in the Victorian era. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales from all of over the world. Andrew Lang collected and adapted dozens of fairy tales in a veritable rainbow of books between 1889 and 1907, 12 in all. They actually were a rainbow of books; each book was named and often bound in a particular color.
He wrote the Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, Grey, Violet, Crimson, Brown, Orange, Olive, and Lilac Fairy Books.
I enjoy reading and re-reading his collection; and you can find them all online http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/
Like many traditional fairy tales there are many transformations and talking animals. People wearing enchanted animal skins, spells and curses turning them into beasts.
But there is one story in the Yellow Fairy Book that has rampant transformations using a magic vegetable that is a lot of fun. The Donkey Cabbage
In this story a young hunter gains some amazing magical items, and is betrayed by his love, stealing them for her witchly mother, leaving him stranded and penniless.
But he finds a special item that turns the tide in his favor, Donkey Cabbage!
So that he came safely to the ground amidst cabbages and vegetables. The Hunter then looked about him, saying, 'If only I had something to eat! I am so hungry, and it will go badly with me in the future, for I see here not an apple or pear or fruit of any kind--nothing but vegetables everywhere.' At last he thought, 'At a pinch I can eat a salad; it does not taste particularly nice, but it will refresh me.' So he looked about for a good head and ate it, but no sooner had he swallowed a couple of mouthfuls than he felt very strange, and found himself wonderfully changed. Four legs began to grow on him, a thick head, and two long ears, and he saw with horror that he had changed into a donkey. But as he was still very hungry and this juicy salad tasted very good to his present nature, he went on eating with a still greater appetite. At last he got hold of another kind of cabbage, but scarcely had swallowed it when he felt another change, and he once more regained his human form.
What comes from the heads of Donkey Cabbage and it's antidote cabbage?
A revenge plot where in comedy of errors and tricks several women eat a salad which turns them into panicking scampering donkeys!
Where he then treats them as animals, by loaning them to mill to do hard work, where they feed them and beat them for him!
The story goes on and does have a happy ending but the transformations with a fun and unique magic item, is executed wonderfully and is a fun read.
I'm very tempted to write a transformation story based on this, with a bit more of a modern flair, would anybody like to read such a thing?
I love Fairy Tales!
And some of the most classic are a compilation by Andrew Lang!
Andrew Lang was poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology in the Victorian era. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales from all of over the world. Andrew Lang collected and adapted dozens of fairy tales in a veritable rainbow of books between 1889 and 1907, 12 in all. They actually were a rainbow of books; each book was named and often bound in a particular color.
He wrote the Blue, Red, Green, Yellow, Pink, Grey, Violet, Crimson, Brown, Orange, Olive, and Lilac Fairy Books.
I enjoy reading and re-reading his collection; and you can find them all online http://www.mythfolklore.net/andrewlang/
Like many traditional fairy tales there are many transformations and talking animals. People wearing enchanted animal skins, spells and curses turning them into beasts.
But there is one story in the Yellow Fairy Book that has rampant transformations using a magic vegetable that is a lot of fun. The Donkey Cabbage
In this story a young hunter gains some amazing magical items, and is betrayed by his love, stealing them for her witchly mother, leaving him stranded and penniless.
But he finds a special item that turns the tide in his favor, Donkey Cabbage!
So that he came safely to the ground amidst cabbages and vegetables. The Hunter then looked about him, saying, 'If only I had something to eat! I am so hungry, and it will go badly with me in the future, for I see here not an apple or pear or fruit of any kind--nothing but vegetables everywhere.' At last he thought, 'At a pinch I can eat a salad; it does not taste particularly nice, but it will refresh me.' So he looked about for a good head and ate it, but no sooner had he swallowed a couple of mouthfuls than he felt very strange, and found himself wonderfully changed. Four legs began to grow on him, a thick head, and two long ears, and he saw with horror that he had changed into a donkey. But as he was still very hungry and this juicy salad tasted very good to his present nature, he went on eating with a still greater appetite. At last he got hold of another kind of cabbage, but scarcely had swallowed it when he felt another change, and he once more regained his human form.
What comes from the heads of Donkey Cabbage and it's antidote cabbage?
A revenge plot where in comedy of errors and tricks several women eat a salad which turns them into panicking scampering donkeys!
Where he then treats them as animals, by loaning them to mill to do hard work, where they feed them and beat them for him!
The story goes on and does have a happy ending but the transformations with a fun and unique magic item, is executed wonderfully and is a fun read.
I'm very tempted to write a transformation story based on this, with a bit more of a modern flair, would anybody like to read such a thing?
Thanks for sharing!