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Published: November 18th 2012
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The Witch
Isn't she lovely? The Witch I love the witch. What a wonderful witch. She has the look that any self-respecting witch should have. "Hee, hee, come into my house little one." Can't you just hear her cackle, "Come into my house, dear child"?
The Man I can't figure out if this is a woodman, a dunce, a peasant or just what he represents. Perhaps in different stories he can be any one of these characters and more. I looked at him and wondered, "Hmmmmmmmmm, is this the way I look when I am feeling
green?
The King and ........ The king seems pretty obvious, at least to me Why is it the king is almost never the hero? The prince and the princess are always young, beautiful and smart. What happens so that by the time a prince becomes a king those attributes seem to have been lost?
Is this the Queen? Why is it that so often the Queen is jealous and a pain? Like the King, there is something that seems to change a lovely princess into a cruel Queen.
Oh dear!
And who are the others in the photo? Use your imagination and create your own story.
The Knight What would a fairy-tale be without a knight? Who would save the fair maiden? Who would slay the dragon? Just as in real life, we need a knight.
The Dragon
The poor dragon never gets any respect and in the end never wins. Indeed the dragon almost always dies in fairy-tales. This is quite different in modern literature where a dragon is allied with the heroes of the story. Where would Harry Potter have been without the dragons? Indeed I have read there are ten types of dragons identified in the Harry Potter books. Some are easy going and others are best left alone.
A Wall of Puppets You will see some of our friends already shown here. All four walls of the room were filled with puppets. Some walls were filled with display puppets and others held those for sale.
Puppets Puppets and puppetry are much more popular and in evidence in Europe
than in the States. My impression is that they have been used for centuries in the telling of stories. This is true not just in Europe, but in Asian countries as well.
We have seen puppet museums in several countries and puppet stores in even more European countries, including Prague. While we were walking through the Old Town district in Bratislava we saw a puppet store and museum. The museum and shop was located in a house. As we entered we saw that to our left parents and children were getting ready for a presentation or maybe it was a workshop. To our right was the store and museum and there was no charge for entering. The walls were covered with puppets ranging in size from life size to small and made from a variety of materials. Some were over a hundred years old and others were new. Frankly the old puppets show much better craftsmanship than the new.
Puppet museums always draw our attention. This is especially true since we have a friend who has a Ph.D. in puppetry. I had never imagined such a degree. He has traveled all over the world teaching others
The Knight to the Rescue
At least in fairy-tales. the craft.
As we entered the museum/shop a young woman greeted us with a friendly 'Hello' in Slovak. Hearing our reply she quickly switched into English, telling us to look as long as we liked.
We Forgot We saw a notice that the next day there was to be a puppet presentation. We duly noted the time and intended to attend, but sadly we became so involved in touring the castle the next day we forgot about the presentation until it was too late. Well, it is hard to do everything, so we simply enjoyed what we could do and did not worry about what we might have missed.
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Bob Harrison
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Puppets
The photos resonate with me. Growing up in Baltimore in the early 1950s, when television was just being introduced, I watched a local show called "Paul's Puppets" 6 pm weeknight. The faces and characters were reminiscent of the puppets you saw.