The fact that the woman who willingly marries the widowed father was most likely doing so because she literally had no other options--due to poverty, age, or suspected infertility--is never considered because her feelings are of little value. The potential for being resentful at having a husband and children forced upon her for reasons out of her control is is great, but it doesn't matter, given that women are expected to be motherly, no matter the situation.
Category: #FairytaleTuesday
#FairytaleTuesday: Nasty Flax Spinning
The queen summoned the three spinsters to the castle, and on the day that the king was supposed to return home, she sat them down next to one another in her room, gave each of them a spinning wheel, and ordered them to spin. Moreover, she told each of them what to answer when the king questioned them. As soon as the king arrived, he heard the humming of the wheels from a distance and was so glad that he intended to praise his daughters.
#FairytaleTuesday: The Three Little Men in the Forest
This story came to the brothers by way of Wilhelm Grimm's future wife, Dortchen Wild. It is believed that Charles Perrault's The Fairies was a source of inspiration, given that similar punishment/reward systems were used for the kind and unkind girls. Some variants have the queen asking the king that mercy be shown to her stepmother and stepsister, who are then banished instead of executed.
#FairytaleTuesday: Rapunzel
[CW: child abuse, attempted suicide] One of the most well known fairytales in the world, this one was published by the Grimm brothers in 1812 but it first appeared several centuries earlier. Giambattista Basile’s Petrosinella is the oldest written version, dating back to 1634. Mademoiselle de la Force published Persinette in 1698 and Johann Gustav Büsching published Das Mährchen von der Padde in 1812, shortly before the Grimm's published their version.
#FairytaleTuesday: Little Brother and Little Sister
[CW: child abuse, violence against women] This is a relatively old tale which was first seen in print in Giambattista Basile's Pentamarone in the mid-17th century. It can be seen in various forms all over Europe and was told to the Grimm brothers by Marie Hassenpflug. A shortened version was included in the first edition of their tales but the story was later expanded for subsequent editions. This one contains obvious similarities to tale type 451: The Nurse Looking for Her Brothers, which we touched on in #FairytaleTuesday: The Twelve Brothers.
Fairytales or Folklore?
It feels like I'm always online and especially always on Twitter. Having said that, I do miss things occasionally. When I re-started with the Grimm fairytale sharing, I automatically went with #FolkloreThursday to post them on Twitter. I didn't realize that, in my long absence, #FairytaleTuesday had been started some years ago. So, I'm going … Continue reading Fairytales or Folklore?
#FairytaleTuesday: Riffraff
[CW: animal on animal violence] This tale has also been known as The Adventures of Chanticleer and Partlet: How They Went to the Mountains to Eat Nuts", "The Pack of Ragamuffins", "The Vulgar Crew", "A Pack of No-goods", and "The Pack of Scoundrels". It was told to the Grimms by August von Haxthausen sometime before 1812.
#FairytaleTuesday: The Twelve Brothers
[CW: threats of violence to children and women] This is one of my favorite story types and includes a number of variants, including The Six Swans, The Twelve Wild Ducks, Udea and her Seven Brothers, The Wild Swans, The Seven Ravens, and The Magic Swan Geese. This particular version was told to the Grimm brothers by Julia and Charlotte Ramus and included in the first edition of their tales.
#FairytaleTuesday: The Hand with the Knife
[CW: mutilation, child neglect] Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index type 576: The Magic Knife This is one of those lesser known tales that appeared in the Grimm’s first edition but was removed in later editions. I couldn't find this specific story in the ATU classification and there is no history available that I could find without doing some serious … Continue reading #FairytaleTuesday: The Hand with the Knife
#FairytaleTuesday: The Stolen Pennies
One day a father was sitting at the table with his wife and children and a good friend who was visiting him, and they were having their noonday meal. As they were sitting there, the clock struck twelve, and the visitor saw the door open, and a pale child dressed in snow-white clothes entered.
