Warrior women of fairy tales (part 3)

 There has been a delay in me posting these, so I'm back now. This is a topic about warrior women in fairy tales, who are not the weak damsels in distress as everyone makes them out to be. This is the third part of the fairy stories with these girls.

Fitcher's Bird

This is a very dark story by the Brothers Grimm. It's never appeared in children's omnibus of fairy tale collections and you'll soon find out why. It's about a sorcerer who disguises himself as a beggar, so that he could kidnap young women and take them off to his castle. He kidnapped the eldest of three sisters, killed her and returned to the streets. He found the second sister, took her back to his castle and gave her a bunch of keys. He told her never to enter a locked room and then he gave her an egg to look after. When the sorcerer went away, the second sister opened the forbidden door and entered a gruesome sight of chopped body parts belonging to her sister. In panic, she dropped the egg and it fell in the bloody mess. What happened to her next also happened to her older sister, when the sorcerer returned. He found the egg and knew that the woman had betrayed him by entering the forbidden room. He killed the second sister and hacked her to pieces. Then the sorcerer kidnapped the youngest sister and took her to his castle. He gave her keys and an egg. He told her the same thing, warning her never to enter this locked room. When the sorcerer left, the youngest sister put the egg down and then she opened the forbidden room's door and found her dead sisters. She restored their body parts and they were able to live again. When the sorcerer returned, he noticed the egg but it wasn't in the bloodied room. Believing that the young sister kept her promise to him, he wanted to marry her. The woman wanted the sorcerer to carry a heavy basket filled with gold to her family. Inside those baskets were really her two sisters. She then got a skull and placed it on the windowsill. She covered herself in honey and birds feathers so that she looked like an unusual bird. She left the castle and went to visit her family. When the sorcerer returned to the castle, the place was burned down by the three sisters out of revenge. 

Li Chi and the Serpent

This story is part of Chinese legend and goes far back in history. There is a giant serpent monster threatening villagers in a kingdom. It's all been agreed among the human officials and the monster that one a year, a young girl is sent to the serpent's cave. A young girl named Li Chi volunteers to be the next sacrifice to the serpent. She wanted to help her poorly father because a sacrifice to the serpent delivers a lot of money to the families of the girls. As there were already six daughters, and no sons, Li Chi told her father that she wanted to offer herself as food to the serpent in the next year, so that her family would have a better life. The magistrate agreed for Li Chi to be the next sacrifice. Li Chi's grandmother gave her some rice balls, a sword an a hunting dog. When she visited the cave of the serpent, she placed the rice balls on the ground and went off somewhere to hide. She watched the serpent monster appear and then eat on the rice balls. The dog ran up and barked at it, while Li Chi buried the sword into the serpent, which killed it. She became Li Chi who slayed the serpent. She went inside the cave and found the nine skeletal remains of the previous victims. When she returned home, victorious, she was made a queen. 

More to come soon...

She Wolf Night  

Warrior women of fairy tales (part 2)

 This is another fairy tale themed project about heroic girls. I will mention two stories in each post and this is the second part. 

The Wild Swans

This is a story by Hans Christian Andersen. It's all about a young woman who rescues her eleven brothers. It begins when a widower king remarries but his new wife is a witch. The king already has twelve children, eleven sons and one daughter named Eliza or in some versions, Elisa. The spiteful witch queen puts a curse on the eleven boys, so they are all turned into swans and sent away. Eliza is then carried away by her brothers out of the queen's evil reach. Soon Eliza encounters a fairy queen, who tells her how to help her brothers remove the curse. Princess Eliza gathers stinging nettles from graveyards to make into shirts but can't speak a word. She's often seen knitting and some believe that she's a witch herself. As they're about to pull her off towards the stake where they want her burned for witchcraft, she has almost finished knitting and her swan brothers appear. She is able to put the shirts over each of them. Not only has she restored their human forms, but the brothers rescue their sister from death. This determined Eliza knitted for so long even while she was being escorted to her execution.  

Alice in Wonderland

This is a famous story saga by Lewis Carroll. This is a story about a brave girl who finds herself in a scary and threatening world. Alice encounters weird creatures, a Mad Hatter, talking animals, living inanimate objects, a blood thirsty Queen of Hearts, and much more. There is Alice's furhter adventures in the book's sequel  "Through the Looking Glass". She's often associated with the twins Tweedle-dum and Tweedle-dee, of Humpty Dumpty, the Cheshire Cat, the Red and White queens, and more. Included in the story is a poem about a dragon called Jabberwocky that was slain by a Vorpal Blade. While Alice now today appears to have been the dragon slayer, the original work only gave little reference to it. But besides this, one doesn't have to be a dragon slayer to be a warrior. It doesn't matter if Alice did or didn't kill the Jabberwocky. By the end of her story, Alice became Queen Alice of Wonderland. The trails and adventures Alice went through alone caused her to be one super tough girl.

More to come...

Posted by the She Wolf Night gang  

Warrior women of fairytales (part 1)

 This is a new project about heroic girls and women in fairy tales. I shall highlight a few of the stories and break this into a few separate posts with two stories each post. This is Part One.

The Snow Queen

This is a story by Hans Christian Andersen, with plenty of magic and mythical symbolism. It's all about a girl who rescues a boy. First of all it begins when a troll curses a mirror and broke it. Shards of the mirror fell as snow and a tiny piece lodged into the eye of a boy called Kai. His best friend, a girl named Gerda, became very worried about him after Kai disappeared. He was kidnapped by the mysterious Snow Queen and taken far away. Gerda is the story's adventuress and hero because she travels so far, in dangerous places, searching for her lost friend. She's the warrior of the story for rescuing her friend Kai from the icy spell of the immortal Snow Queen. There is a number of references to myths, such as the snow goddess, or Snow Queen, the mirror, and also the reindeer that becomes Gerda's friend, journeying to the North Pole. It all hints at the Winter solstice.      

Hansel and Gretel 

This is one of the story collections by the Brothers Grimm. It's a story about a girl saving the life of her brother. It starts when the children, brother and sister, Hansel and Gretel, are left in the woods by their father and step mother. The boy Hansel leaves pebbles on the journey so they can find their way home after getting lost. Both children are left in the woods again but there aren't any stones to leave a trail so Hansel finds crumbs in the kitchen. As he drops the crumbs in the woods, hoping to make a path, birds eat it all. Soon the children are left completely alone and are lost, They find a cottage made of gingerbread. A witch appears, imprisons Hansel in order to fatten him up so she could eat him. She also makes Gretel her servant. Gretel heroically pushes the evil witch into the oven and rescues her brother from his cage. It seems that this story touches on famine, starvation, poverty and also witchcraft, hinting that it comes from a harsher time long before the Brothers Grimm. 

I shall make more posts of this topic soon....

Posted by the She Wolf Night gang