Week 5 Extra Credit Reading: European Fairy Tales Part II

This week I will be reading Andrew Lang's European Fairy Tales I. This post will cover part B.

The Giants and Herd-Boy,  by H.J. Ford

• I find it odd that some creatures generally construed as evil in modern fairy tales are not so bad in these. It seems that the father voluntarily married his daughters to trolls. 
• I really don't understand the first story. Was the point to say don't be overly ambitious? Maybe it will come to me later. 
• Why would the prince not recognize the daughter wasn't Ilonka? The reading seems to imply he's doing it to save face. 
• Hanging the farmer and his family seems like a very harsh punishment. 
• I am really having trouble understanding the point of all these stories. There never seems to be a clear moral hero in each one. The Sun Hero didn't seem to be a bad guy, if anything he was a product of his upbringing. 
• I understand the point of the Herd-boy, one should be generous without needing recognition for that greed. 
• The Voice of Death almost seems similar to Adam and Eve. The people in that land were innocent, but their curiosity killed them. 

Thanks for reading.