Week 11 Essay: Welsh Fairy Tales

I really enjoyed the readings for this unit. I felt like many of the stories had good messages behind them. My favorite story I read this week was The Story of John O'Groats. I think I liked this story such much because it had a happy ending. I do not have children of my own, so I can only imagine what it's like to have a child who is walking down a path of destruction and no matter what you do, you can't change them. I like that even though the son in this story may have caused strife with his father because of his irresponsible spending and relations with harlets, the father still loved his son. He loved him so much, and expected that he would spend all of his inheritance after his father passed, so he stored up money for his son to live off of when he spent everything else. He knew he could not just give it to his son because he would end up spending all of that too. Instead, he did something that I would describe as tough love. Some might read this story and think the father's plan was a little cruel, but I believe that was the only way to make the son change his ways. He left a note for his son explaining he should hang himself and end his misery. The son was so upset about losing everything that he attempted to do so with the noose his father left. The father did not attach the noose to anything, so the son did not die. He did however learn his learn, got married, and never gambled again. What a great story! I would encourage everyone to read this unit, especially this specific story.

Welsh Fairy Tales

Source: The Public Domain Review