Extra Reading Diary: Russian Folktales

This is a Reading Diary that details my thoughts on the first section of Russian Folktales unit. Story source: Russian Fairy Tales by W. R. S. Ralston (1887).

• Oh my gosh.  The story with the dead mother broke my heart.  
• I can't think of anything more heartrendingly beautiful than a mom taking care of her child even after her own death. 
•  I love that the terrible wife called her husband a "bug bear."
• When I started reading this story I did not expect it to be the origin of the cuckoo clock.
• Isn't there a phrase that's something like "Wednesday's child is full of woe?"  The only reason I know that is because Wednesday from the Addam's family is named after that.  
• Wow.  Until I reached the end of the story I totally thought that Dneiper, Volga and Dvina were all women.
• Honestly though, I just love the name Emilian.  

(Dead Mother by Egon Schiele in 1910 from The Club of Compulsive Readers.)