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Author
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Comment
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janinevv
Unregistered User
(9/19/02 1:11:53 am)
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Motifs in Fairy tales
I am writing a paper on motifs found in certain fairy tales. I am especially interested in the significance of blood in fairy tales (particularly the older versions, eg Grimm's). Often the princess or maiden is revived by drops of blood on her forehead or another part of her body (usually three). Any thoughts on this? Perhaps suggestions on what it means.
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Midori
Unregistered User
(9/19/02 4:43:08 am)
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whose blood?
The first thought that occured to me is that it might matter a good deal as to whose blood it is. The blood of fantastic creatures is different than lets say the blood drops that come from the Princess's mother. For instance in "The Goose Girl" the young woman has a handkerchief with three drops of her dead mother's blood--and this talisman offers the young woman help on her journey--I suppose you could play with this, extend out the metaphor of blood here and think of it almost as maternal blood--umbilical cord (hence the importance of the girl losing it since she can not begin her own journey until she has "cut" that cord)--menstral blood, the start of the girl's own maturation.
As far having the blood dripped on her forehead--I'm drawing a blank on those stories--can you tell us which one you are thinking of?
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Nalo
Registered User
(9/19/02 9:33:06 am)
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Re: whose blood?
In one version of the Bluebeard story, the young woman is carrying an egg when she enters the room where her sisters' dismembered bodies lie. In her shock, she drops the egg and gets a spot of blood on it which won't come out. I think it's Marina Warner in _From the Beast to the Blonde_ who talks about ovulation/menstrual cycle images in this story, and about how it could be seen as a horror story about the fact that pregnancy used to be scary because so many women died in childbirth. A young virgin bride was facing the possibility of death with her first experience of P-I-V sex. I know that reading that chapter influenced some of my thinking as I was writing my story "The Glass Bottle Trick."
-nalo
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Ailanna
Registered User
(9/19/02 12:09:07 pm)
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Not One Damsel in Distress
I remember reading that version of Bluebeard in Jane Yolen's Not One Damsel in Distress. If only I could remember the title! Off topic, but does it have anything to do with that ballad in which there's a knight who drowns maidens until the last (7th?) tricks and kills him instead?
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doris brett
Unregistered User
(9/19/02 5:59:00 pm)
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Whose blood
Yikes! Midori, I used the Goose Girl story in my last book with a live mother. When I read your post, I emitted a little cheep of panic and raced back to check on the original. Phew. In the version I have, the Queen is alive (old but hanging in there), although far away from where the Goose Girl-Princess is suffering. Do you have a different version?
Doris
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dorisi
Registered User
(9/19/02 6:13:35 pm)
ezSupporter
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Re: Whose blood
Whoops. I should have logged my previous post in under my user name of dorisi. I, and the computer, got terminally confused (excuse the shocking pun).
Doris
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Laura
Registered User
(9/19/02 10:36:33 pm)
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More on blood
Midori as always makes wonderful, insightful points. The only thing I can think to add would be the question of agency. Is the blood given, forcibly taken, or simply an accident, and how do those variations alter the emphasis of the narrative? Snow White's mother pricks herself accidentally, but almost reverently allows the blood to fall (I think, anyhow). Sleeping Beauty, however, has hers taken through trickery.
Laura S.
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swood
Unregistered User
(9/20/02 5:24:46 am)
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Blood & Heroes
Many heroes in mythic cycles are bathed in blood, which makes them invulnerable. Siegfried, having slayed a dragon, inadvertantly tastes the dragons blood which allows him to understand the speech of birds. Then, following the birds' advice, he bathes in the blood making him invulnerable.
Sarah
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janinevv
Unregistered User
(10/1/02 6:25:21 am)
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significance of blood in specific stories
I've narrowed down the blood to 3 specific stories namely the Goose Girl, Snow White and Sleeping Beauty. I have also read suggestions on the meaning of the blood (Bettelheim), which mostly run along the lines of what some of you suggested: menstruation, transition into adulthood etc. Any other suggestions? Thank you for replying.
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janinevanvuuren
Unregistered User
(10/1/02 6:43:20 am)
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P.S. Specific Blood
Sorry about originally referring to blood on a princess's/maiden's forehead- don't know where that came from! I actually want to refer to the blood on the cloth/handkerchief in the Goose Girl, Snow White's mother who pricks her finger and Sleeping Beauty pricking her finger on a spindle.
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Don
Registered User
(10/1/02 7:32:02 pm)
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Blood
If your paper is for a college course and you have access to a university library, you might look at Isabel Cardigos's book, IN AND OUT OF ENCHANTMENT: BLOOD SYMBOLISM AND GENDER IN PORTUGUESE FAIRY TALES.
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Bielie
Unregistered User
(10/9/02 1:11:51 pm)
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Blood
Judaism: Blood of the sacrificial animal
Christianity: Blood of the Messiah
The theme of sacrifice is rife in faerietales.
Read Hans Christian Andersen: The Mermaid saves her prince by dying.
Oscar Wilde: The nightingale and the rose, the happy prince
CS Lewis: Lion, Witch and Wardrobe
Tolkien: Gandalf in Moria. (Moria is where Abrahim sacrificed Isaac, and where Jesus was crucified.)
Gollum dies in Mount Doom. Frodo and Sam go in Exile
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Gregor9
Registered User
(10/10/02 4:48:08 am)
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Blood
Ailanna,
The version of Bluebeard with the egg is "Fitcher's Bird." I don't know what title Jane gave her variation, but it's the same one I used for my novel coming out in December.
The subtext of blood can be determined to represent all manner of things, but at the time these stories were fashioned, blood was itself a magical substance and had been used as such in stories for a long time. Bleeding was one of the most widespread forms of curative, never mind that more people died from this cure than from the illness for which they were being treated. Weaponry--sword blades for instance--were sometimes plunged into bloodbaths to temper them...and, likely, to bestow magical properties to them. So, menstrual or reproductive or fertility implications aside, blood was by definition magical and mysterious.
Greg
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(10/10/02 5:02:36 am)
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My story
Mine is also called "Fitcher's Bird." I had originally wanted to retell the Italian "Silvernose" which I found in Calvino but they would not give permission. So since I had found innumerable versions/translations of "Fitcher's Bird" I did that one instead.
Jane
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Carrie
Unregistered User
(10/10/02 10:22:59 am)
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three drops
This theme shows up n Poe's Liegia as well.
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Colleen
Unregistered User
(10/10/02 10:41:29 am)
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"It's always blood."
Carrying the theme through to modern pop culture, remember the episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer where Dawn is kidnapped and going to be killed so an evil god can open a dimension to hell? "The blood flows, the gates will open. The gates will close when it flows no more." When someone questions why it has to be blood, the answer is, "...it's always gotta be blood. Blood is life....It's what keeps you going, makes you warm, makes you hard, makes you other than dead. 'Course it's her blood."
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