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Author
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Comment
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korin
Unregistered User
(7/7/06 11:44 pm)
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spinning 2
There's also the Armenian folk tale of Anaeet. Prince Vachagan fell in love with Anaeet, the daughter of a sheperd, and asked her to marry him, but she replied she would not marry him since he did not know a trade. Prince V decided to learn how to weave brocade (the royal coucil deciding that such a craft was the most worthy of a prince), and Anaeet accepted his suit. Later on, when they had become king and queen, V went out into his kingdom in disguise (so he wouldn't lose 'the common touch') and met a procession of men following a priest. The priest had promised them all well-paying work, and he took them all into a hillside cavern. To their horror, they found inside the hill a colony of abused slaves, and they were told that the men who knew a trade would be forced to work for the evil priest, while those who did not would be killed. V immediately spoke up, saying that he was a weaver and all the other men were his assistants, and they were put to work. He created a beautiful brocade with a secret message in it, and the greedy priest immediately took it to Queen Anaeet, thinking she could pay the highest price. Anaeet immediately deciphered the hidden message, threw the priest in prison, and took an army to rescue all the slaves. King V was praised as the savior of the other men (who would have been put to death, since they did not know a trade themselves), and Anaeet was praised for being foresightful enough to make the prince learn a trade in the first place.
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korin
Unregistered User
(7/19/06 5:19 am)
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spinning 3
There's also Penelope, who used the excuse of wishing to finish her weaving as a way to put off the suitors wishing to marry her until her husband Ulysses, whom they believed dead, could return.
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Gunnlods Cup
Registered User
(7/23/06 6:48 pm)
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Re: fiber/ domestic arts in fairy tales
A book that may be of use: "Spiders and Spinsters' by Marta Weigle
A few links I have:
www.allfiberarts.com/cs/mythology.htm
www.mythinglinks.org/ct~weaving.html
www.applehollow.com/fairy.html
And a fairytale that I don't know whether it's mentioned in any of those links or not:
The Chuang Brocade (Chinese)
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jillie
Unregistered User
(7/25/06 9:02 pm)
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more ideas
Also in Greek mythology: Agemmenon is killed by Clytemnestra after he walks on a red tapestry. She convinces him that he is great enough that he shouldn't have to walk on the dirt, and then claims that has too much hubris to live afterwards.
Knitting: The only reference I can think of is not a fairy tale, but Conrad's "Heart of Darkness" and the two woman in black who are knitting before the Marlow enters the office. Isn't knitting considered bad luck on the stage?
Another not really fairy tale source: Patricia McKillip's novels have a very fairy tale feel and are filled with sewing and weaving motifs, especially "Od Magic" and "The Tower at Stony Wood."
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Monika
Registered User
(7/25/06 11:36 pm)
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Re: knitting
I don't know of any fairy tales or myths specifically about knitting, but the knitting itself can be used to tell a story, with various stitches and patterns carrying symbolic meanings. Often this takes the form of a good luck charm or protective spell worked into a piece of clothing - the link below has some examples of the "language" of Aran knitting:
www.tarahandknitting.com/...lklore.htm
Whole narratives can also be written in textiles, and pieces of knitted and woven cloth have (allegedly/apocryphally) been used by various underground resistance movements as a means of writing and transmitting coded messages. I read a quite interesting book several years ago that discussed examples of this, I wish I could remember the title and/or author. All I can think of at the moment is the women in A Tale of Two Cities, knitting away as they watch the executions by guillotine.
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Terri Windling
Registered User
(7/31/06 1:21 am)
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Fiber arts
You might try investigating the myths and folk stories of the Sami
people, who have a strong fiber arts tradition. I came across a
good Sami website (boreale.konto.itv.se/samieng.htm)
when we did an article on the Anglo-Norwegian fiber artist Yuli
Somme over on the Endicott site (www.endicott-studio.com/gal/gyuli.html).
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 7/31/06 1:23 am
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