IV. Fairy Lore and Folk Lore. Though fairy stories may have lost their intrinsic interest for high school students, the teacher will find in the collection given here the material for many a study. What merits keep the old stories alive and make them perennially fascinating to children of all nations? Which stories are the better for children, those of Hans Christian Andersen or those of the Brothers Grimm? What are the particular merits or demerits of each class? How do the stories by the latter writers compare in originality and beauty with the older stories? What comparisons can be made between The Ugly Duckling and The King of the Golden River? What merits has Cinderella over Bluebeard? What is the effect of Jack the Giant Killer and stories of that kind on the minds of young people?
V. Fiction. Look under the subtitles for the long list of stories suitable for study when the class is dealing with fiction.
VI. Legendary Heroes. What can be more interesting than a study of these characters from the borderland of history? These great figures come forth from the shadows of the past and move before us like living men: Beowulf, the Saxon; Frithiof, the Norse hero; Siegfried, the German; Roland, the French knight; The Cid, Spain’s greatest warrior and gentleman; Hector and Ulysses, the Greeks; King Arthur and his knights from England; Horatius, the Roman, and Sohrab, the Persian.
The literature of the Arthurian legends as given in Journeys, where they cover about 150 pages, is a cycle of great importance to every high school student. The selections concerning Arthur form a series of narratives which, though from different sources, give a vivid picture of the great knight and his times. The cycle is in volume V and the titles are:
a. Arthur Made King, page 117.
b. Arthur Weds Guenevere; The Round Table, page 119.
c. Arthur and Pellinore, page 122.
d. Arthur Gets Excalibur, page 127.
e. Balin and Balan, page 130. (The stories given so far were written expressly for Journeys, but all have followed rather closely the relation of Malory.)
f. Geraint and Enid, page 148. (This is one of the most popular of Tennyson’s Idyls of the King. The poem is given complete.)