As my blog layout is currently Sleeping beauty-themed I though I'd start my fairytales-related entries with that one. You probably know Disney's take on Sleeping Beauty but it's a seriously toned-down and "soft" version of this famous fairytale.
Origins and alternative versions of the tale
There are many similarities between a French 14th century tale called
Perceforest. It's also believed that
Il Pentamerone (1636) contained an early version of "Sleeping Beauty" which strongly influenced
Charles Perrault's famous tales. The Grimm brothers published another version of Sleeping Beauty:
Briar Rose which is VERY tame and which I belived is the version used for Disney's movie and the one most people heard of: at the end of the tale, the Prince kisses the sleeping princess awake (and they live happily ever after)...
Illustrations by Edmond Dulac, Arthur Rackham, Edward Frederick Brewtnall, Edward Burne-Jones, Herbert Cole
First of all, Perrault did not write for children, like La Fontaine's well-knowed
Fables they were just a way to avoid censorship and to send messages to the nobility living at king Louis XIV's court. Hence Perrault's tale does not stop when the sleeping princess wakes-up.
After the princess wakes-up, she marries the prince and they have several children. But the prince's mother actually is an ogre and while the prince is away she asks her cook to kill every one of her grand children and cook them for dinner. The cook who does not have the courage to kill the innocent children, instead hide them and gives fawns to the ogre. But she's still not satisfied and asks the cook to kill her daughter-in-law and cook her for dinner. The cook who's a good man decides not to kill the princess and hides her and gives the old queen some deer for dinner.
But some day, as the princess and her children are playing, hidden in the cook's house, the old queen hears them and have them brought. She then decides not to eat them but to throw them in a pit filled with snakes. But as she intends to do so, the prince comes back from war or whatever he was away for... And in rage and fear of punishment, the old queen jumps in the pit and dies. THE END. This version is pretty dark as cannibalism is a theme which has been often forgotten in most children's books.
Alternative version of Sleeping Beauty (NSFW)
In other older and alternative versions of the tale, as in
Perceforest, the prince discovers the sleeping princess while hunting in the woods. He falls in love with her and then instead of trying to wake her up, he just rapes her. Yes, he rapes her in her sleep and he comes back several time, not telling anyone what/who lied in the midst of the woods. The princess soon gets pregnant and gives brith, still not waking-up. But her child getting hungry grabs one of her mother's finger and starts sucking on it hence removing the pin which had condemned her to eternal slumber. The princess then woke-up and the prince who had come to the woods again discovers the princess awake with their child and decides to marry her (how convenient)!
Little Snow White
Schneewittchen or
Little Snow White is my favourite Grimm fairytale. As much as I love Disney's version of the tale, I still prefer the fairytale that was read to me when I was a child, especially because it's actually much longer than Disney's version and much darker on many levels.
- Illustration by
sizh -
Plot variations
In Disney's version and in Grimm's most known version of the tale, Snow-White's main antagonist is her stepmother as her birthmother died in childbirth. But in Grimm's first edition of the tale, it's actually Snow White's mother who's jealous of her own's daughter beauty and youth and tries to take her down by having her killed and eating her heart in order to steal her youth and beauty.
Most of the time, only one of the many means used by Snow White's mother/stepmother is known: the famous poison apple. But the wicked queen actually used several means to have Snow White killed before the final apple trick. Let's list them in order:
-
The stay-laces: the queen disguises herself as an old pedler-woman selling stay-ribbons. Little Snow White upon seeing the pretty ribbons, lets the disguised queen enter the dwarves' cottage and also lets her lace her corset/stay properly. Upon doing so, the wicked queen ties Snow White's stays so tightly that it suffocates her. But the dwarves free Snow White by cutting the laces and she's alive again.
-
The poisoned comb: the queen disguises herself again and goes to Snow White, handling her a such a beautiful comb that little Snow White cannot resist and decides she has to have a closer look at that comb and she lets the queen in and lets her comb her hair. But as soon as the queen had put the comb in Snow White's hair that the poison took effect and she fell as if dead. But the dwarves remove the comb from Snow White's hair and she's alive again.
-
The poison apple: the famous one... You know what happened then. But it's not the prince's kiss who relived her. The dwarves did not have the heart to burry Snow White as she was still looking very beautiful and as if still alive. So they kept her in a glass coffin. And a prince going through the forest stumbled upon the coffin and fell in love with what appeared to be a corpse (yes that's disturbing...) and begged the dwarves to let him Snow White to his castle. He begged so much that the dwarves agreed and the prince had his servants carry her on their shoulders. But they stumbled on a tree stump and by doing so, the poisonous apple bite which was stuck into Snow White's throat came out and so she was alive again.
As a punishment for being so cruel to her, Snow White, now queen had red hot iron slippers cast especially for her mother/stepmother and when the wicked queen came to the wedding, she was forced to wear these slippers and dance until she dropped dead. So much for an innocent and kind little princess...
Interpretations and adaptations of the tale
The fact that in most folk-tale versions of this tale, it's Snow White's own mother who wants her dead is meaningful because as Bruno Bettelheim states, Snow White states the "classic" mother/daughter conflict and is kind of cathartic for the child when he discovers the cruel destiny of the wicked queen.
To my greatest delight, many writers and artists were inspired by this famous tale. My favourite modern take on this tale would be Neil Gaiman's
Snow, glass, apples which artfuly mixes several genres: vampire stories, fantasy and fairytale materials and is told from Snow White's stpemother's point of view and where the evil one might not be the one you think of. Angela Carter also included several short stories inspired by Snow White in
The Bloody Chamber.
Mangaka were also inspired by Snow White. My favourte manga adaptation sure is Yuki Kaori's first chapter of
Ludwig Kakumei. It might not please everyone but if you enjoy Yuki Kaori's wicked stories, you'll probably like it. It shares many aspects of Gaiman's take on the tale. Snow White also has a chapter in
Dictatorial grimoire by Kanou Ayumi.
Snow White's story has been adapted for cinema several times as well. The most recent releases being "
Mirror Mirror" - which is pretty funny and tongue in cheek, with a dash of Bollywood drama (see for yourself
here) - and "
Snow White and the huntsman" - which I actually did not like at all for so many reasons I should just stop here otherwise this post would turn into a looong rant -.
Snow White in lolita
Snow White is also quite a popular fairytale in the lolita world as the tale has been used on many prints or photoshoots in various magazines already. Baby the Stars Shine Bright seems to especially like this fairytale as they've been releasing several Snow White prints over the years (
1 -
2 -
3 -
4).
- Victorian Maiden, Innocent World, Baby the Stars Shine Bright -
Libellés : fairytales, lolita
La Belle et la Bête, a true story?
I bet you've already heard of this famous fairytale, at least you might have watched Disney's rendition of this French fairytale. The tale was firstly published in 1740, written by Madame Barbot de Villeneuve, but the most know rendition of the tale was written by Madame Leprince de Beaumont in 1757, she actually abriged and rewrote Barbot de Villeneuve's tale.
Let me tell you more about "La Bête", In most illustrations, he's represented as a lion-like creature, grotesque in appearance, half animal, half human. In Madame de Villeneuve's tale, the Beast appears stupid to Beauty due to the enchantment that has been cast on him by an evil fairy. But in most versions of the tale, the Beast is actually wise and gentle, a true gentleman despite his horrible appearance. It seems like the fairytale was inspired by a "real story".
- Illustrations by Edmund Dulac, Mercer Mayer, Scott Gustafson, H.M. Brock -
Petrus Gonsalvus, the "wildman of the woods" (1537-1618)
Petrus Gonsalvus, or rather Pedro Gonzales, was born in the Canary islands in 1537. He was born with
hypertrichosis or "werewolf syndrome" which resulted in an abnormal amount of hair growing all over his body.
Due to this rare genetic disease, he was soon sold to a circus, being brought from one place to another, where he was considered as a mmonstruosity provoking both disgust and fascination. He was finally sent to the court of the French king Henri II (1519-1559) when he was about 10 years old. At that time, many philosophers and writters were fascinated by the "myth" of the "
Wild man" and Henri II was also very interested in this "monster" looking like half a man and half a monkey.
King Henri II decided to keep this "creature" whose name he had latinized as "Petrus Gonsalvus" and made him his "protégé". Most courtesans were afraid the wildman might turn into a werewolf and tear the castle appart, but much to their "disappointment", Petrus did not act wild at all! Au contraire, he was so gentle and nice, that Henri II decided to make an "experiment": he decided to "civilize" Petrus, he had the best masters teach him everything a French gentleman from the Renaissance era should know: latin, history, geography... And to his masters' greatest surprise, Petrus was very good at everything he was taught despite his bestial appearance.
When king Henri II died, as his sons were too young to rule by themselves, his widow, Catherine de Medicis was then designed regent of the young king François II. Catherine decided to carry on the "experiment" her late husband had started. She wanted to find a wife for Petrus. Around 1572, Petrus is married to Catherine Raffelin, daughter of a lesser noble man serving at the court. They had 7 children, 4 of them inherited their father's condition. They made the regent queen very proud and many princes from all over Europe wanted to see the family or have one of the children given to them, as the Gonsalvus were still not considered as human beings but as animals or some kind of educated monsters who had no human feelings.
- The Gonsalvus family by Ulisse Aldrovandi, Lavinia Fontana, Joris Hoefnagel and an anonymous German artist -
In 1589, when Catherine de Medicis died, the Gonsalvus fell into disgrace and they exiled themselves in Italy where they found "shelter" at the Farnese court in Parma. There, the were studied by Ulisse Aldrovandi and some of their children were given away as gifts to the Farnese's friends. Despite this pretty cruel destiny, it seems that the couple formed by Petrus and Catherine was happy. Catherine had apparently learned to love Petrus despite his appearance, achieving to see the beauty of this educated and gentle man hidden by this large amount of hair.
It's highly possible that this real story actually was the origin of the tale "Beauty and the Beast". In the end, the Beast did not transform into an actual handsome prince, but kept the same appearance but his true nature and inner beauty made Beauty fall in love with him (not to mention that in most versions of the tale, Beauty seems almost disappointed by the appearance of the handsome prince her love freed from the enchantment).
Other intresting interpretations of the tale
- "The courtship of Mr Lyon" in
The bloody chamber by Angela Carter (the beast also has the appearance of a humanoid lion and he doesn't turn into a prince at the end of the tale)
- "
La Belle et la Bête" 1946 film by Jean Cocteau (my favourite "Beauty and the Beast" movie ever).
- "
La Belle et la Bête" 2014 film by Christophe Gans (not as eerie and fascinating than Cocteau's film but beautiful sets and mostly a retelling of the tale, loosely based on Madame de Villeneuve's tale).
- "
Gonsalvus : Ou la véritable histoire de la Belle et la Bête" by Julian Pösler for ARTE (in French).
Libellés : fairytales, history
La Barbe bleue and the Blood Countess
Let's talk about 2 controversial historic figures whose very special life story inspired many tales and horror stories: Gilles de Rais and Báthory Erzsébet. The only thing those two have in common, save from their fictional legacy, is that they're both said to be serial killers. You must have heard of Báthory Erzsébet already as she's mostly known today for supposedly being a "vampire" but you may not have heard of Gilles de Rais if you're not French or don't really know about Medieval history. Gilles de Rais is said to be the man who inspired Perrault's "Barbe bleue".
Gilles de Rais (1404-1440)
Gilles de Rais was a Breton knight, he was a companion in arms of Joan of Arc and a commander of the French army during the 100 years' war. Gilles de Rais was fierce in battle but according to many contemporary sources he seemed to be well liked by the king Charles VII and by Joan of Arc. He was devout and generous but seemed to be pretty uncontrollable sometimes, spending very large amounts of money in fine clothing and jewellery.
Gilles de Rais by Eloi Firmin (19th century) - Vincent Cassel as Gilles de Rais in "The Messenger"
In 1440, Gilles de Rais was arrested and found guilty of a count of about 60 gruesome murders of children whose age was ranging from 6 to 18. Both of his bodyservants and said accompliced confessed the crimes, adding very gruesome details, and peasants from the neigbouring villages said that they had seen many children going through the gates of Gilles' castle and were never seen again. He was also charged with sodomy and heresy and was sentenced to death by hanging and burning.
Nowadays the veracity of Gilles de Rais' guiltiness is subject to controversy. The bodyservants' confessions were indeed obtained through torture, and both the Church and the duke of Britany, who was the secular judge at Gilles' trial, really wanted him dead as they both had much to gain from it (the bishop of Nantes did not like Gilles and they were often fighting and the duke of Britany wanted Gilles' territory for his own). So much for the so-called serial killer...
Erzsébet Báthory (1560-1614)
Erzsébet was an educated woman who could read and speak 4 languages. She was married to Ferenc Nadasdy when she was only 14. While her husband was at war (fighting against the Ottomans), Erzsébet had to manage her husband's huge estate by herself and she was apparently very good at it. After her husband's passing, in 1604, Erzsébet found herself to be the most powerful widow of Hungary.
Anna Friel in "Báthory"
Between 1602 and 1604, rumors reached the court in Vienna, these rumors said that several young girls living near the countess' castle had been reported missing. King Mathias II assigned György Thurzo to investigate. Several witnesses were questionned and most of them said that many young girls had been lured to Csejte castle by offers of well-paid work. Some witnesses added that the young girls were tortured in several ways and killed or left to starve to death. It seemed that the count of her victims was more than 600, Erzsébet would then be the most prolific serial killers of history. The countess was never put on trial for her "crimes" tbough as her powerful family had her imprisonned in her own castle, immured in a set of rooms while her accomplices were put to death and burned.
Later, Erzsébet's story inspired many legends and tales. Some say she used to bleed her victims and bath in their blood to retain her beauty and youth. She was then associated with the vampire myths. Nowadays it seems that Erzsébet was most likely not as sadistic or as prolific as she was said to be. Some historians tend to consider she was "evicted" by the king Mathias II mostly because he owed her a great amount of money he could not pay back. Moreover, Erzsébeth was a powerful and educated woman in a country and society ruled by men so she was not really kindly considered by her male counterparts.
Libellés : fairytales, history
La belle au bois dormant / Sleeping Beauty
As my blog layout is currently Sleeping beauty-themed I though I'd start my fairytales-related entries with that one. You probably know Disney's take on Sleeping Beauty but it's a seriously toned-down and "soft" version of this famous fairytale.
Origins and alternative versions of the tale
There are many similarities between a French 14th century tale called
Perceforest. It's also believed that
Il Pentamerone (1636) contained an early version of "Sleeping Beauty" which strongly influenced
Charles Perrault's famous tales. The Grimm brothers published another version of Sleeping Beauty:
Briar Rose which is VERY tame and which I belived is the version used for Disney's movie and the one most people heard of: at the end of the tale, the Prince kisses the sleeping princess awake (and they live happily ever after)...
Illustrations by Edmond Dulac, Arthur Rackham, Edward Frederick Brewtnall, Edward Burne-Jones, Herbert Cole
First of all, Perrault did not write for children, like La Fontaine's well-knowed
Fables they were just a way to avoid censorship and to send messages to the nobility living at king Louis XIV's court. Hence Perrault's tale does not stop when the sleeping princess wakes-up.
After the princess wakes-up, she marries the prince and they have several children. But the prince's mother actually is an ogre and while the prince is away she asks her cook to kill every one of her grand children and cook them for dinner. The cook who does not have the courage to kill the innocent children, instead hide them and gives fawns to the ogre. But she's still not satisfied and asks the cook to kill her daughter-in-law and cook her for dinner. The cook who's a good man decides not to kill the princess and hides her and gives the old queen some deer for dinner.
But some day, as the princess and her children are playing, hidden in the cook's house, the old queen hears them and have them brought. She then decides not to eat them but to throw them in a pit filled with snakes. But as she intends to do so, the prince comes back from war or whatever he was away for... And in rage and fear of punishment, the old queen jumps in the pit and dies. THE END. This version is pretty dark as cannibalism is a theme which has been often forgotten in most children's books.
Alternative version of Sleeping Beauty (NSFW)
In other older and alternative versions of the tale, as in
Perceforest, the prince discovers the sleeping princess while hunting in the woods. He falls in love with her and then instead of trying to wake her up, he just rapes her. Yes, he rapes her in her sleep and he comes back several time, not telling anyone what/who lied in the midst of the woods. The princess soon gets pregnant and gives brith, still not waking-up. But her child getting hungry grabs one of her mother's finger and starts sucking on it hence removing the pin which had condemned her to eternal slumber. The princess then woke-up and the prince who had come to the woods again discovers the princess awake with their child and decides to marry her (how convenient)!
Sleeping Beauty used in lolita: Bssb, Angelic Pretty, Hanuli and Infanta
Sleeping Beauty in other media
As seen above,
Sleeping beauty has been used in lolita several times by differnt brands and is a reccurent theme as many other fairytales (Juliette et Justine also made a
Rpbe de la belle au bois dormant).
You might also have heard of the ballet based on
Sleeping Beauty. The music was composed by
Tchaikovsky and the choregraphy created by
Marius Petipa. Disney's movie uses some of Tchaikovsky's music in their animated movie. The ballet is pretty famous and the part of Princess Aurora is quite a challenge for dancers, especially its
Rose adagio which is one of the most difficult variation.
Edward Burne-Jones made a several paintings based on
Sleeping beauty: "
The legend of Briar Rose". Each panel comes with a poem written by
William Morris.
Sleeping beauty is also sometimes used as a motif in fashion editorials even if it's not the most used fairytale in fashion (see below).
Credits: Dakota Fanning by Karl Lagerfeld, Ad for Harrods by Patrick Naik, Annie Leibovitz for Disney
Libellés : art and litterature, fairytales, fashion, lolita, music and ballet
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