My Five Favourite Fairytales
Oct. 2nd, 2022 09:48 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
snowynightVasilisa the Beautiful
Forced to go to the man eating witch Baba-Yaga for light, Vasilisa finishes the witch's impossible tasks helped by the doll gifted by her mother and gets the promised reward. I like how women dominates the story. Vasilisa's mother is dead, but her doll is essential to Vasilisa both as help and comfort. Baba-Yaga is dangerous, powerful but gives Vasilisa what she needs for freedom and new life. At the end Vasilisa gets a new life free from her abusive family.
The Three Spinners
In this tale, the lazy commoner girl marries a prince as laziness prevails. I am amused because of the irony: commoners are supposed to rise in status through hard work, but the consequence of hard work itself may prevent them from achieving such status.
The Shadow by Hans Christian Andersen
It's actually a horror story, in which a man's shadow gradually takes over the man's life and comes into an unsettling end. It allows multiple interpretations and good inspiration for a Halloween story/
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
In this well acclaimed fairytale, Gerda goes on an epic adventure and befriend a lot of people on her way to save her love Kai abducted by the Snow Queen. My first encounter with the story is through this Marvel comics Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Snow Queen AU by elspethdixon (link to the last part), and I love it ever since. The world in the Ice Queen is large and magical with a cast of colourful characters. I also like that it's Greta who sets out to be the champion and Kai is the damsel in distress. Gerda/Robber Girl & Gerda/Snow Queen are very good ships (alas in a rare fandom)
The King of the Snakes:
Summary: This is a popular Chinese fairytale with many variants (link on wikipedia). In its basic form, a powerful snake demands a man to give a daughter to it as its wife or it will eat him. Only the youngest (and most beautiful) agrees to be its bride to save her father. The bride discovers that her snake husband is very rich, kind and has an alternate (often handsome) human form, so she's very happy with her marriage. Unfortunately upon a visit, her sister gets jealous and murders her to take her place when the husband is away. When the husband returns, the murderer makes up various lie to assume the identity of the victim. The murdered sister transforms into a bird to sing of her crime, and gets killed by the murderer. The victim undergoes a series of transformation and death and finally revives to tell her husband of the truth. Then the snake husband kills the murderer and they live happily forever.
I find it fascinating because of how dark it is: the murderer isn't satisfied with killing her sister once, but repeatedly to hide the truth. While the younger sister is killed repeatedly, she relentlessly returns to avenges herself as much as possible. The transformation sequence gives a mythical flavour to the story, which resonates with Chinese myths and tales of people turning into other form and continue their missions/revenge after death.
Forced to go to the man eating witch Baba-Yaga for light, Vasilisa finishes the witch's impossible tasks helped by the doll gifted by her mother and gets the promised reward. I like how women dominates the story. Vasilisa's mother is dead, but her doll is essential to Vasilisa both as help and comfort. Baba-Yaga is dangerous, powerful but gives Vasilisa what she needs for freedom and new life. At the end Vasilisa gets a new life free from her abusive family.
The Three Spinners
In this tale, the lazy commoner girl marries a prince as laziness prevails. I am amused because of the irony: commoners are supposed to rise in status through hard work, but the consequence of hard work itself may prevent them from achieving such status.
The Shadow by Hans Christian Andersen
It's actually a horror story, in which a man's shadow gradually takes over the man's life and comes into an unsettling end. It allows multiple interpretations and good inspiration for a Halloween story/
The Snow Queen by Hans Christian Andersen
In this well acclaimed fairytale, Gerda goes on an epic adventure and befriend a lot of people on her way to save her love Kai abducted by the Snow Queen. My first encounter with the story is through this Marvel comics Steve Rogers/Tony Stark Snow Queen AU by elspethdixon (link to the last part), and I love it ever since. The world in the Ice Queen is large and magical with a cast of colourful characters. I also like that it's Greta who sets out to be the champion and Kai is the damsel in distress. Gerda/Robber Girl & Gerda/Snow Queen are very good ships (alas in a rare fandom)
The King of the Snakes:
Summary: This is a popular Chinese fairytale with many variants (link on wikipedia). In its basic form, a powerful snake demands a man to give a daughter to it as its wife or it will eat him. Only the youngest (and most beautiful) agrees to be its bride to save her father. The bride discovers that her snake husband is very rich, kind and has an alternate (often handsome) human form, so she's very happy with her marriage. Unfortunately upon a visit, her sister gets jealous and murders her to take her place when the husband is away. When the husband returns, the murderer makes up various lie to assume the identity of the victim. The murdered sister transforms into a bird to sing of her crime, and gets killed by the murderer. The victim undergoes a series of transformation and death and finally revives to tell her husband of the truth. Then the snake husband kills the murderer and they live happily forever.
I find it fascinating because of how dark it is: the murderer isn't satisfied with killing her sister once, but repeatedly to hide the truth. While the younger sister is killed repeatedly, she relentlessly returns to avenges herself as much as possible. The transformation sequence gives a mythical flavour to the story, which resonates with Chinese myths and tales of people turning into other form and continue their missions/revenge after death.
