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Author
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Comment
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(7/25/03 7:00 am)
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Female knights in fairy tales?
Hello again.
A sudden memory surfaced tonight as I sat down to reflect on the presence of female knights and woman warriors in fairy tales and myths.
Do anyone recall a movie (or tele-movie) involving a young woman who actually became a knight to save her lover (or something like that - my memory is fuzzy here)? It is an Italian production and is set in a fairy-tale world, complete with talking animals, evil witches and handsome princes.
Any ideas?
:)
Blackwolf
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(7/25/03 7:03 am)
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Typo error.
It is supposed to be "Does anyone...". Not "Do anyone...".
Heh. It is late at night afterall. ;)
Blackwolf
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Mary
Unregistered User
(7/25/03 7:59 am)
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Italian Folktales
Calvino's collection contains one such tale -- she's helping her father. Then a neighboring king falls in love with her and tries to trick her into revealing that she is a woman.
In Pantheon's Russian collection, there is also a woman who dresses and acts like a man, and the story consists solely of a man trying to get her to reveal she's a woman.
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Ron McCutchan
Unregistered User
(7/25/03 1:53 pm)
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Female Knights
There was a very bad Italian adaptation of ORLANDO FURIOSO (I think I've blocked out the exact title, it was so bad)--don't know if that's what you were thinking of--definitely female knights, but a lot of gratuitous female nudity as well. Maybe I'm just thinking of it because I need to check out Tasso's version of ORLANDO for a project I'm doing involving Italian madrigals.
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(7/25/03 11:52 pm)
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Variant
I have notes and a variant of that story in my collection NOT ONE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS but am in Scotland without a copy to crib from.
Jane
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(7/26/03 7:12 am)
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Tasso
Ron,
Thank you for mentioning Tasso. Besides Orlando Furioso and the Faerie Queene, I also examined Jerusalem Delivered (Gerusalemme Liberata). Clorinda is the more prominent female knight there.
The Faerie Queene was actually inspired by Aristo. Bradamante in
the Furioso became Britomart. I am interested to hear more about
the notes, Jane. :)
I think I has a slight remembrance of that tele-movie I was talking about. "The Knight of the Golden Rose"? I might be wrong here...
Blackwolf
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Jane Yolen
Unregistered User
(7/26/03 7:40 am)
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Alas
Alas--someone else will have to tell you, as I won't be back in the States till October. (I have a version of Bradamante in the collection, too, with notes.)
Or <gasp> you could buy the book! Call me wildly optimistic!
Jane
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(7/26/03 6:51 pm)
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Hehe.
I am going to buy the book, Jane. ;)
Speaking of Bradamante and Britomart, these fantastic female knights, I am actually more inclined towards Marfisa, the Saracen female knight who has been described as "singular" and a "phoenix". An earlier version of Marfisa has been found in another epic (I need to look at my bibliography again) where she has been portrayed as more blood-thirsty and more aggressive as a warrior.
Blackwolf
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Blackwolf
Unregistered User
(7/26/03 6:57 pm)
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Finally...
I went back to my bibliography to look for the title of this particular epic ...
Found it:
Boiardo, Matteo.Maria. Orlando Innamorato, translated by Charles Stanley Ross, Oxford University Press, New York, 1995.
Another medieval tale with a cross-dressing female knight: "Romance de Silence" by Heldris de Cornualle.
:)
Blackwolf
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denag
Registered User
(7/30/03 7:23 am)
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female knights
Not an "authentic" fairy tale from an ancient tradition, but Tamora Pierce's fantasy series "The Song of the Lioness" features a girl who becomes a knight. The first book of the 4 is called "Alanna - The First Adventure".
And, with LOTR still fresh in my mind, Tolkien also has a female warrior.
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