[CW: kidnapping, murder, and dismemberment, body horror, and mass death by fire at the end]
Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 311: Rescue by the Sister with strong notes of type 312: Bluebeard
Alright friends, we’ve got a doozy today and it falls squarely into the Bluestocking Tale Type of “Unwilling Fairytale Brides Facing Certain Death with Grace and Honor.” This is honestly one of the more graphic entries in the Grimm catalog. It’s much closer to a Bluebeard story than a fairy tale in the softened, modern sense that we’re used to. It’s very similar, in fact, to The Robber Bridegroom, which we covered in a previous post.
Stories of this type are not uncommon. It also comes out of Italy as How the Devil Married Three Sisters and the Norwegian The Old Dame and Her Hen. All of these stories focus on a bad man who kidnaps three sisters in succession, murdering the first two, before being foiled by the third. The fine details between the stories may change, but the primary plot is usually the same.
Once upon a time there was a sorcerer who was a thief, and he used to go begging from house to house in the guise of a beggar. One time a maiden opened the door and gave him a piece of bread. He only had to touch her to force her to jump into his basket. Then he carried her off to his house, where everything was splendid inside, and he gave her whatever she desired.
Of course, he didn’t give her what she most desired: her freedom. But he gave her lots of other things, including an egg that she was to treat as very precious and guard while he was away. He also gave her a key with the admonition to not use it for any reason.
Which, I mean, come on. Who isn’t going to use it? There is no version of this story that ends with her NOT using that key. But, of course, when she goes into the room…
…she saw a large basin in the middle with dead and butchered people lying in it. She was so tremendously horrified that the egg she was carrying plopped into the basin. To be sure she quickly took it out and wiped the blood off, but the blood reappeared instantly. She wiped and scraped, but she couldn’t get rid of the stain.
So, as expected, her… groom comes back, sees the stained egg, knows what she did and well, adds her to the basin o’ people. And then he goes back to her house, grabs the second sister, and repeats the process. This went about as well as the first round, so he’s forced to go back and grab the third sister, which is when things change.
…the third daughter was smart and cunning. She put the egg into a cupboard and then went into the secret chamber. When she found her sisters in the bloody basin, she looked all over the place for their missing parts and put them all together—head, body, arms, and legs. So the two sisters came back to life. Then their sister led them out of the chamber and hid them.
Now, when the sorcerer got home, and didn’t find any blood stains, he assumed that 3rd sister didn’t enter the chamber. He didn’t actually check, though. He just took her at her word and asked her to be his bride. She said yes but told him that he had to carry a basket of gold back to her parents, on his back. He was unaware that the basket was also filled with reanimated sisters and he set off with his burden. The cunning 3rd sister took this opportunity to make a mannequin of herself in the form of a decorated skull that she placed on her windowsill.
Then she invited wedding guests, dipped herself in honey and feathers, and set off down the road. She was unrecognizable to the approaching guests, which engendered the following conversation:
“Where are you coming from, oh, Fitcher’s bird?”
“From Fitze Fitcher’s house, haven’t you heard?”
“And what may the young bride be doing there?”
“She’s swept the whole house from top to bottom.
Just now she’s looking straight out of the window.”
Once she got away, the helpers that had been sent by the first two sisters arrived at the house and set the whole thing on fire, killing literally everyone inside, groom and guests, and all.
I mean, it’s a helluva a revenge tale, there at the end. But I have to admit that I like it. Ok, not the rampant misogyny and murder, but the fact that one of them is able to figure it out and save her sisters, and make the bad man pay. Too many times in these stories, we see women being used as pawns and bargaining chips for men with big egos. So it just feels good to see a fairytale heroine who takes it back, right?
Because, when you really look at it, the helpers showing up at the end to roast everyone was just kind of icing. She had already gotten her sisters and herself out of there. AND she managed to liberate a good chunk of the sorcerer’s gold, so theoretically, they should be ok. Well, financially, I suppose, though psychologically and physically, I wouldn’t even hazard a guess.
But I think it’s worth examining what a story like this says about trauma, and our ability to be made whole after that.
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