The tales started off on a very dark note. When I first started reading European fairy tales, I was kind of surprised by how gruesome some of them are. Since this wasn't the first unit with especially creepy tales, I think I was more prepared. Still, The Dead Mother was quite chilling. I especially didn't predict that the baby would be dead in the end when all of the people saw that it was the dead mother feeding her baby. I shouldn't have read that story so late at night.
Most of these stories were actually a little sad! The Water Snake was a tale that was particularly depressing. From the beginning, I couldn't tell where this story was going. I hoped that the snake turned into a prince or something, but when I got to the part about all of the snakes taking the girl from her house, I thought they were going to kill her or something. It was nice to read that she had a happy marriage, but then her mother had to go and ruin it! That definitely killed the mood for me. I wish I knew the motive behind her killing the girl's husband, especially since the girl seemed to be happy. I thought her turning herself and her children into birds was a bit random, too. Nevertheless, I'm excited to read the second half of the unit to see what kind of crazy stories that part has.
Sounds like the Russian fairy tales are quite dark. Which kind of should be expected. At least, I would think so. The Dead Mother story sounds pretty creepy. From your description, sounds like something that should be on The Walking Dead. It also seems to be that the common theme with this unit is corpses and killing. I guess it is good that I did not read this unit. Probably would have given me nightmares.
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