Double your pleasure, double your fun! ;-)
Jun 9, 2010
Jun 8, 2010
Fairy Tale Origins - Part V
Snow White, Part II
There are an astounding number of versions of Snow White, last week we explored just a few. What’s interesting is how the story changes with the region it’s told in, as well as the country. Italy has several versions, including one where Snow White grows while in her crystal coffin; ones with neither dwarfs nor prince; and ones with necrophiliac princes (the ones who fall in love with what appears to be a corpse). A Scottish version has her ending up in a three-some when her husband’s second wife is able to defeat the evil mother. The Italian versions can’t seen to decide whether it’s the mother or the step-mother who’s the villain, but the Grimm’s settle that question in 1819 when they kill off the “good” queen in their version and add the “evil” step-mother. Without a doubt, their murderous queen remains one of the most vivid villains in folkloric history. She orders the death of an innocent girl and demands her heart. In many versions she cooks and eats it.
The queen is a woman whose power comes from her beauty; the implication being that it’s this beauty that gives her an important place in the world. If she loses that beauty, what power is left to this aging woman? The answer would seem to be witchcraft – potions and poisons, deadly combs and strangling stay-laces.
The magic mirror serves not only as a source of information for the queen, but a symbol of her insecurity and growing madness. Snow White is a kind of reverse mirror for the queen, reflecting all the good that the queen has lost.
Blood and consumption seem to be a large part of the story. The three drops of red blood spark the queen’s wish for a child. You can be sure there was blood in the death of the mother in childbirth. Blood is also a symbol of sexual maturity, the point at which the “bad” queen decides to dispose of Snow White. As proof, the queen demands to see the blood on the hunter’s knife, then makes a meal of the heart, echoing the ancient pagan belief that ingesting an enemy's flesh would enable one to claim their strength and magic.
The number of dwarfs in Snow White is significant. The number seven is regarded as a magical number. It took seven days to create the world, and ancient astronomers believed that there were seven planets. All the great Jewish feasts lasted for seven days, and there are legends of seven hills, seven cities and seven sacred trees.
What is important to remember about these versions of the Snow White tale is that they provide an interesting glimpse into the late Middle Ages. Women, it seemed, could either have the innocence and purity of Snow-white, or the conspiring, vindictive nature of the evil stepmother. In this era women were seen as unpredictable, in need of the control and stability that only a male partner (such as the prince or the dwarfs) could provide.
It’s hard to believe that this dark tale was the basis for Disney’s feature film. Walt Disney was fond of fairy tales and not shy about reshaping them to suit his needs, turning them into the simple tales he believed that his audience, a generation marked by economic depression and two world wars, wanted.
At the time, no one knew whether audiences would actually sit through an eighty–four minute cartoon, and the film was called "Disney's folly" as he poured more and more time and money into it.
He emphasized the dwarfs (who were not dwarfs but robbers in some versions), giving them names, distinct personalities, and a cozy cottage. The prince’s role was expanded, and he became pivotal to the story. His love for Snow White, demonstrated at the very beginning of the film, becomes the spark that sets off the powder keg of the stepmother's rage.
Only the queen retains some of the real power of the traditional tale. She's a genuinely frightening figure, and far more compelling than Snow White (who was drawn as a blonde at one point), a wide–eyed, childish figure wearing rags.
Although the film was a commercial triumph, and has been beloved by generations of children, critics through the years have protested the sweeping changes Disney Studios made, and continues to make, when retelling such tales. Walt himself responded, "It's just that people now don't want fairy stories the way they were written. They were too rough. In the end they'll probably remember the story the way we film it anyway."
Sad, but true.
Jun 7, 2010
Metagnostic Monday
metagnostic ~ incomprehensible; beyond understanding
Last week really kicked my butt, on so many different levels. If you took all the bad luck I had in May (which, let me tell you, was considerable) and put it into one week, it still wouldn’t even come close to how bad last week was. I’m just grateful that the old week is gone and the new one is here. Let’s hope it will be kinder.
Two things of note:
First, I’d like to apologize to all my blogging friends out there whose blogs I normally comment on faithfully. I read your posts, but wasn’t able to do much (if any) commenting. The way my week was going I almost didn’t get my posts up.
Second, the fabulous Dolly, from Writer Revealed, had me do a guest post on her blog! She’s been running a weekly series called “Why I Write?” and I was honoured when she asked me to take part. If you don’t have her site bookmarked already, you can find it HERE. This is a great series and I advise everyone to have a look. I love seeing what makes other people tick.
Anyone play Mouse Hunt on Facebook? I learned a neat trick. If you leave the site, or even shut down your computer, without exiting out of Facebook, the game will keep running. This is how I’ve managed to make Apprentice level so fast. Even when I’m not using my computer I’m still catching mice. Of course the down side to that is people think I’m logged into Facebook when I’m not. :-)
This Week’s Goals:
Tuesday: Part V of my fairy tale series takes a more in depth look into Snow White and what Disney did to her. ;-)
Wednesday: Will feature a new Hump Day Hunk for your viewing pleasure. If you have any preferences, let me know. I’m always willing to do a little research.
Thursday: This week’s Passion for Poetry form is Minute Poetry, and trust me when I say it takes more than a minute to write it!
Friday: Chapter 42 of the Space Opera. What’s this test Nakeisha’s undertaking? And has anyone noticed the wind’s picking up?
Elsewhere in my week:
Tonight there’s a Scribe’s meeting, and since I missed the last two I’m really going to have to make the effort to go tonight. The prompt, if anyone else would like to give it a try, is to write 150 words in an anthropomorphic genre.
Quite frankly, that’s the only thing I’ve got “planned” for this week. As far as I’m concerned, if I get anything else done it’s gravy. I have two short bios to write, one for the anthology my poetry group is putting out and the other for the Scribe’s website. Why is it so hard to write about myself??
I also need to go through my poetry (dare I suggest organizing it again?) to choose poems for the anthology. This time I have three pages to fill. And maybe it’s time I started thinking about what poems I’m going to read for the poetry reading I’m doing in August.
Reading-wise . . . after a fast start I’ve slowed down considerably, but I’m still about half-way there. I’m thinking 52 books for the year was probably right for me after all. Can you believe it’s June already? It seems like just yesterday we were all complaining about the cold.
That’s what’s on my plate for the week, how about yours?
Last week really kicked my butt, on so many different levels. If you took all the bad luck I had in May (which, let me tell you, was considerable) and put it into one week, it still wouldn’t even come close to how bad last week was. I’m just grateful that the old week is gone and the new one is here. Let’s hope it will be kinder.
Two things of note:
First, I’d like to apologize to all my blogging friends out there whose blogs I normally comment on faithfully. I read your posts, but wasn’t able to do much (if any) commenting. The way my week was going I almost didn’t get my posts up.
Second, the fabulous Dolly, from Writer Revealed, had me do a guest post on her blog! She’s been running a weekly series called “Why I Write?” and I was honoured when she asked me to take part. If you don’t have her site bookmarked already, you can find it HERE. This is a great series and I advise everyone to have a look. I love seeing what makes other people tick.
Anyone play Mouse Hunt on Facebook? I learned a neat trick. If you leave the site, or even shut down your computer, without exiting out of Facebook, the game will keep running. This is how I’ve managed to make Apprentice level so fast. Even when I’m not using my computer I’m still catching mice. Of course the down side to that is people think I’m logged into Facebook when I’m not. :-)
This Week’s Goals:
Tuesday: Part V of my fairy tale series takes a more in depth look into Snow White and what Disney did to her. ;-)
Wednesday: Will feature a new Hump Day Hunk for your viewing pleasure. If you have any preferences, let me know. I’m always willing to do a little research.
Thursday: This week’s Passion for Poetry form is Minute Poetry, and trust me when I say it takes more than a minute to write it!
Friday: Chapter 42 of the Space Opera. What’s this test Nakeisha’s undertaking? And has anyone noticed the wind’s picking up?
Elsewhere in my week:
Tonight there’s a Scribe’s meeting, and since I missed the last two I’m really going to have to make the effort to go tonight. The prompt, if anyone else would like to give it a try, is to write 150 words in an anthropomorphic genre.
Quite frankly, that’s the only thing I’ve got “planned” for this week. As far as I’m concerned, if I get anything else done it’s gravy. I have two short bios to write, one for the anthology my poetry group is putting out and the other for the Scribe’s website. Why is it so hard to write about myself??
I also need to go through my poetry (dare I suggest organizing it again?) to choose poems for the anthology. This time I have three pages to fill. And maybe it’s time I started thinking about what poems I’m going to read for the poetry reading I’m doing in August.
Reading-wise . . . after a fast start I’ve slowed down considerably, but I’m still about half-way there. I’m thinking 52 books for the year was probably right for me after all. Can you believe it’s June already? It seems like just yesterday we were all complaining about the cold.
That’s what’s on my plate for the week, how about yours?
Jun 4, 2010
Cro Cumaisc Etir Casbairnde Ocus Lethrannaigecht
Yes, that's right. I never got this post up yesterday so it's poetry today, serial tomorrow. Sorry!
I like Bob Newman’s definition of this form the best: This is an Irish verse form. The name means "Sorry, the translator can't take your call at the moment".
Irish poetry began with an oral tradition which depended upon rhyme to assist the memory. The ancient Irish poets, filidh (from the verb, to see) were highly respected and thought to have magical powers similar to the Welsh poets.
The Irish patterns depend heavily on alliteration, consonance and assonance, sharing the word cywdydd (harmony of sound) with the Welsh. A defining feature of ancient Irish poetry is, dunadh, beginning and ending the poem with the same syllable, word or line. This brings the poem full circle.
Around the 5th century, Christianity came to Ireland. With its introduction the filidh gave up their "magical" role and became "scholars". The poetry that emerged from the 6th to 12th century is intricately formal, dán díreach ("straight or strict verse"). During this time Ireland became known as an "island of saints and scholars".
The early Church in Ireland was unusually well organized. The Latin influenced system enabled the monks to record and preserve much of the ancient poetry. The Cro Cumaisc Etir Casbairnde Ocus Lethrannaigecht developed from this history and carrying the tradition of the ancient bards into the present.
The form calls for any number of 4-line stanzas rhyming abab. There’s also a strict syllable count, and here’s where my sources disagree. While some claim the syllable count is 7-5-7-5, others claim the count is 5-7-5-7. Being Irish, the lengths of the rhyming words are also specified, in this case as 3, 1, 3, 1. The 3 does not indicate triple rhymes; the requirement is simply that the rhyming words are three syllables long.
The verse form looks like this:
x x x x(x x a)
x x x x b
x x x x (x x a)
x x x x b
or
x x (x x a)
x x x x x x b
x x (x x a)
x x x x x x b
Cast Out
At the dawn of creation
when the world was new,
grew the tree of temptation –
fruit enough for two.
The serpent, so seductive
with his apple sweet –
this one act so destructive
such a deadly treat.
Should they have asked permission
Before they had a taste?
Theirs, a sin of omission
And a fall from grace.
Tears of grief and frustration,
yet they left the glade.
Faint the hope of salvation
in a promise made.
Life can be so oppressive
in this world of sins,
making man so agressive -
a game no one wins.
I like Bob Newman’s definition of this form the best: This is an Irish verse form. The name means "Sorry, the translator can't take your call at the moment".
Irish poetry began with an oral tradition which depended upon rhyme to assist the memory. The ancient Irish poets, filidh (from the verb, to see) were highly respected and thought to have magical powers similar to the Welsh poets.
The Irish patterns depend heavily on alliteration, consonance and assonance, sharing the word cywdydd (harmony of sound) with the Welsh. A defining feature of ancient Irish poetry is, dunadh, beginning and ending the poem with the same syllable, word or line. This brings the poem full circle.
Around the 5th century, Christianity came to Ireland. With its introduction the filidh gave up their "magical" role and became "scholars". The poetry that emerged from the 6th to 12th century is intricately formal, dán díreach ("straight or strict verse"). During this time Ireland became known as an "island of saints and scholars".
The early Church in Ireland was unusually well organized. The Latin influenced system enabled the monks to record and preserve much of the ancient poetry. The Cro Cumaisc Etir Casbairnde Ocus Lethrannaigecht developed from this history and carrying the tradition of the ancient bards into the present.
The form calls for any number of 4-line stanzas rhyming abab. There’s also a strict syllable count, and here’s where my sources disagree. While some claim the syllable count is 7-5-7-5, others claim the count is 5-7-5-7. Being Irish, the lengths of the rhyming words are also specified, in this case as 3, 1, 3, 1. The 3 does not indicate triple rhymes; the requirement is simply that the rhyming words are three syllables long.
The verse form looks like this:
x x x x(x x a)
x x x x b
x x x x (x x a)
x x x x b
or
x x (x x a)
x x x x x x b
x x (x x a)
x x x x x x b
Cast Out
At the dawn of creation
when the world was new,
grew the tree of temptation –
fruit enough for two.
The serpent, so seductive
with his apple sweet –
this one act so destructive
such a deadly treat.
Should they have asked permission
Before they had a taste?
Theirs, a sin of omission
And a fall from grace.
Tears of grief and frustration,
yet they left the glade.
Faint the hope of salvation
in a promise made.
Life can be so oppressive
in this world of sins,
making man so agressive -
a game no one wins.
Jun 3, 2010
Passion For Poetry
Sorry folks, the week got away from me so the poetry post is going to be delayed until this evening. In the meantime, here's a quiz for your entertainment. Let me know in the comments what kind of poetry form you are. :-)
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Jun 2, 2010
Jun 1, 2010
Fairytale Origins - Part IV
Snow-white (Part I)
When someone mentions the name, Snow White, it probably calls to mind a vision of seven dwarfs whistling while they work, and a cartoon princess singing, “Some day my prince will come.” Would it surprise you to know that the original Snow White was considered one of the darkest fairy tales of all? The earliest known written version was called The Young Slave, published in Italy in 1634 by Giambattista Basile. In this version, a baron's unmarried sister swallows a rose leaf and becomes pregnant. She gives birth in secret and names the baby Lisa. Fairies are summoned to bless the child. The last one stumbles in her haste and utters a curse instead. As a result, Lisa dies at the age of seven while her mother is combing her hair. The grieving mother has the body encased in seven caskets made of crystal, and hides it under lock and key.
On her deathbed, she gives the key to her brother, but makes him promise that he will never open the locked door. More years pass, and the baron marries. One day he is away, so he gives the key to his wife with strict instructions not to use it. Suspicious, she immediately goes to the locked room where she discovers a beautiful young girl who seems to be fast asleep. (Basile explains that Lisa has grown and matured in her enchanted state.) The baroness seizes Lisa by the hair — dislodging the comb and waking her. Thinking she's found her husband's secret mistress, the jealous baroness cuts off Lisa's hair, dresses her in rags, and beats her black and blue.
The baron returns and notices the young woman cowering in the shadows. His wife tells him the girl is a kitchen slave, sent by her aunt. Soon after the baron sets off for a fair, and promises everyone a gift, including the slave. Lisa requests that he bring back a doll, a knife, and a pumice stone.
He returns and gives the slave the items she asked for. Alone by the hearth, Lisa talks to the doll as she sharpens the knife to kill herself. The baron overhears her sad tale, and learns she's his own sister's child. The girl is then restored to beauty, health, wealth, and heritage — while the cruel baroness is cast away, sent back to her parents.
The Young Slave, complete text
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In another Italian tale called The Crystal Casket, Snow White is persuaded to introduce her teacher to her widowed father. After the marriage, the teacher treats her stepdaughter cruelly. An eagle helps the girl to escape and hides her in a palace of fairies. The stepmother hires a witch, who takes a basket of poisoned sweetmeats to the girl. She eats one and dies. The fairies revive her. The witch strikes again, disguised as a seamstress with a beautiful dress to sell. When the dress is laced up, the girl falls down dead, and this time the fairies will not revive her. Instead, they place her body in a gem–encrusted casket, rope the casket to the back of a horse, and send it off to the city.
Horse and casket are found by a prince, who falls in love with the beautiful "doll" and takes her home. His mother is appalled but the prince will not be parted from his treasure and locks himself away in a tower with the girl. He’s called away to battle and leaves the “doll” in the care of his mother. His mother ignores the macabre creature — until a letter arrives warning her of the prince's impending return. Quickly she calls for the maids to clean the neglected corpse. They do so, spilling water in their haste, badly staining the maiden's dress. The queen has them remove the dress, thinking to have a replacement made. As soon as they loosen the laces, the maiden returns to life, confused and alarmed.
The queen hears her story with sympathy, dresses the girl in her own royal clothes, and then, oddly, hides the girl behind lock and key when the prince comes home. He immediately asks to see his "wife." The Queen tells him that she had her buried because of the smell. He’s so upset the queen finally relents. The girl is summoned, her story is told, and the two are properly wed.
The Crystal Casket complete text
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In a third Italian version of the tale, it's the girl's own mother who wishes her ill — an innkeeper named Bella Venezia who cannot stand a rival in beauty. First she imprisons her child in a lonely hut by the sea; then she seduces a kitchen boy and demands that he murder the girl. The servant abandons the girl in the woods, returning with the eyes and blood of a lamb.
The girl wanders through the forest and soon finds a cave where twelve robbers live. She keeps house for them, who love her and deck her in jewels every night. Her mother eventually gets wind of this, and is more jealous than ever. Disguised as an old peddler woman, she sells her daughter a poisoned hair broach. When the robbers return, they find the girl dead, so they bury her in a hollow tree.
At length, the fair corpse is discovered by a prince, who takes it home and fawns over it. The queen is appalled, but the prince insists upon marrying the beautiful maiden. Her body is bathed and dressed for a wedding. The royal hairdresser is summoned. As the girl's hair is combed, the broach is discovered, removed, and she comes back to life.
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
In a Scottish version of the story, a trout in a well takes the role of the magical mirror. Each day a queen asks, "Am I not the loveliest woman in the world?" The trout assures the queen that she is. . .until her daughter comes of age, surpassing the mother in beauty. The queen is filled with envy, summons the king, and demands the death of their daughter. He pretends to comply, but sends the girl off to marry a foreign king.
When the queen finds out the princess is still alive she crosses the sea to her daughter's kingdom, and kills her with a poisoned needle. The young king, grieving, locks his beloved's corpse away in a high tower. Eventually he takes another wife, who notes that he always seems sad. She asks him what gift she could give him that would make him happy and he tells her that nothing can bring him joy but his first wife restored to life.
She sends him up to the tower, where he finds his first wife alive and well. The second wife had found her and removed the poisoned needle from her finger. With the couple reunited, the second wife offers s to go away. The king won’t hear of it and the three of them live happily until the queen hears that her daughter has come back to life. She crosses the ocean again to kill her, this time with a poisoned drink. The second wife tricks her into drinking the poison herself, and the young king and his two wives live happily ever after.
Gold-tree and Silver-tree, complete text
*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*~*
The Grimms' version starts with a barren queen who longs for a child. The queen stands sewing by an open window. She pricks her finger. Blood falls on the snow. She makes her wish for a child as white as snow, as red as blood, and as black as the wood of the window-frame. Her wish is granted, but the queen dies as soon as her baby is born.
The king takes for another wife, a woman who could not bear anyone more beautiful than she. She had a looking glass that could tell her if there was anyone who surpassed her in beauty. All was well until Snow-white turned seven, at which point the looking-glass told the queen that her step-daughter was more beautiful.
In a rage, the queen summoned a huntsman to take the child away and kill her. He was to bring back her heart as proof of the deed. The huntsman couldn’t bring himself to kill a child, so he set her loose in the forest and brought the heart of a young boar back, which the queen cooked and ate.
Snow-white wandered in the forest until she found a cottage and the seven dwarfs who lived there. They agreed to let her stay provided she clean, sew, wash, and cook for them. Of course the queen soon realized she’d been tricked, and tried three times to kill Snow-white. Once by lacing her up too tightly in some stay-laces, once with a poisoned comb for her hair, and finally, with a poisoned apple. The dwarfs made a coffin of glass for her and placed it on the mountain.
Eventually a king’s son found the coffin, with Snow-white in it, and persuaded the dwarfs to part with it. As the coffin was being carried to his palace, it was jostled and the piece of poisoned apple fell out of Snow-white’s mouth. The prince was over-joyed to see she was alive, and immediately asked for her hand in marriage.
The queen was beside herself with rage over the fact Snow-white was still alive. However, she was forced to wear red-hot, iron slippers and was made to dance until she dropped down dead.
Snow-white, full text of the Grimm’s version
Next week we’ll explore how Disney changed the story, and some of the recurring themes.
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