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Author
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Comment
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jcklaus
Registered User
(6/6/06 10:23 am)
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Father/Son fairy tales
I'm looking for fairy tales that deal with problems between fathers and sons as one of the main storylines. Do any come to mind? Thank you.
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(6/6/06 11:43 am)
ezSupporter
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Re: Father/Son fairy tales
hmmm...this is interesting because often in rites of passage to adulthood narratives (which make up quite a lot of the stories) there is often tension between father and son (which is resolved at the end of the narrative when the son in effect takes over the father's role. In a Kordofan tale from African, for instance, the Emir begins to lust after the youngest son's fantastic bride. He sets impossible tasks for the young man, hoping he will fail. The bride finally gets the Emir to agree to his own death if the son can succeed in making a new born walk and talk in a single day. When that happens, the Emir is executed and the youngest son takes over.
(shades of Zeus and Cronus)
What I would look at however in many important tales are the father surrogates--Iron John probably being the most well known since Robert Bly made it so popular. These surrogates often accompany the young man on his journey--offering themselves up as sacrifices. Occasionally, they appear as brothers of the bride to be (the Irish tale the Black Horse) transformed into animal shapes. While, they might be considered "helpers" rather than fathers, they often seem to function in a positively paternal way...while biological fathers seem to represent the old order and world which must be renewed.
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(6/6/06 4:38 pm)
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Re: Father/Son fairy tales
I can think of tales where the father sets tasks for sons which usually causes competition between the sons for pre-eminence. The father isn't so much in opposition to the sons, but the one who sows discord.
THE FOREST BRIDE by Parker Filmore is one such tale: the father, a farmer, decides that his sons should marry, makes each of them cut down a tree, and in whichever direction the tree falls, the son must follow until he reaches his bride. The first two find sensible brides, but the third finds a mouse. The father sets tasks for the brides to be, and the mouse, with the aid of all her mouse friends, outdoes them. In the end, of course, the mouse is really a princess, and the youngest son does the best out of the three.
THE WHITE CAT follows a similar type of plot line and can be found here: www.surlalunefairytales.com/authors/aulnoy/whitecat.html. In this case the father is a king and does not want to give up his throne, so the conflict is a little more direct.
Best,
Alice
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(6/7/06 5:00 am)
ezSupporter
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Re: Father/Son fairy tales
Alice: The Forest Bride story is very similar to the Kordafan story I mention above called the Monkey Girl. Here the Emir insists that his three sons find wives: each throws his spear and the door where it lands is the woman he will marry. The youngest rides up and down the town and at last when he throws his spear--it lands far out in the desert at the base of a tree. A girda monkey, sitting in thre tree, accepts the marriage proposal. It is only after the true princess hidden in the monkey skin emerges, that the Emir falls in love with and begins to plot a way to remove his son.
Thanks for bringing up Forest Bride, as I hadn't really discovered any other versions so similiar to the Monkey Girl.
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midori
snyder
Registered User
(6/7/06 5:25 am)
ezSupporter
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Re: Father/Son fairy tales
Hmmm...I just thought of Deadelus and Icarus. We could consider that a tragic father and son tale.
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jcklaus
Registered User
(6/10/06 10:13 am)
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thanks
Thank you so much for your replies. Really helpful.
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