Virgin Saviors and Murderous Succubi

"The Maiden and the Unicorn" by Domenichino.

I presented a round table this last Fall at Sirens Con titled Virgin Savior to Murderous Succubus: Women's Sexual Roles in Fantasy and Folklore. The interest was due to the fact that I was writing another fantasy set in the Kingdom of Xia and my heroine discovers that she is half human and half serpent demon. The serpent demon in Chinese folklore is always a woman--and often portrayed as a predator of men and a succubus. It made me wonder about the role of the hypersexual almost always beautiful woman turned monster--so prevalent in fantasy and folklore across multiple cultures. While on the other side of the coin, the virgin. Almost always female as well, in the original lores--her virginity as something pure and precious--the only person capable of taming unicorns. 

Upon further reflection, I realized that my fascination with this dichotomy is deeply rooted-- ever sense I fell in love with Anne Boleyn and her daughter, Elizabeth I. Years before the Tudors had become as popular as they were in recent years. Anne Boleyn, second wife to Henry VIII and the "cause" for England's break from Rome and the Catholic Church, was beheaded for treason, adultery and incest. All of which could have been avoided if only she had given Henry a healthy son. What is incredible are the charges against her--not only was Anne accused of having had sex with her own brother, but six other men--with allusions to more transgressions. She could not be an ordinary woman who had an affair. No. She had to have bedded her own brother and much of the court as well. Anne was made to appear hypersexual and monstrous (she was said to have had a sixth finger and dabbled in witchcraft)--all of which was justification for hacking her head off. When again, in truth, her worst downfall was never giving Henry a healthy son.

Her daughter, Elizabeth I, in turn, managed to take the throne under circumstances that again made life stranger than fiction. And the only way she felt that she could hold on to power, to put off all her advisors constantly asking: When? When will you take a consort and make an heir? was to take on the role of the Virgin. Elizabeth I would never take a husband, and was instead (by her own words) married to her country and her people. Artists and writers portrayed her as a virgin and a goddess--not an ordinary woman. One has to wonder if she learned some hard lessons from her mother's life, and through Boleyn's infamous demise. 

From my research online, here are just a few examples of succubi types in myth and lore from across the world:

Lilith, created from earth as Adam was--unlike Eve, who was made from his rib. Would not submit to Adam, even in the matters of sex, refusing to take the missionary position. She fled Eden, and chose the demons of the world as her lovers, spawning thousands of demonic children. Yaweh sent three angels to retrieve Lilith to bring back to Eden for Adam. They threatened to kill her demonic children if she refused. Lilith replied that she'd rather suffer through her children's death and her own before ever submitting to Adam. In turn, she cursed newborns and their mothers in childbirth, and threatened to steal men's semen while they slept--to make more demon babies. She is known as the female night demon, mother of demons, the howling one, the first Eve or the first woman.

Indian "mohini" appears to bachelors dressed in a white sari and with her hair unbound and flowers woven in it. She lures men to take her as a wife then kills him by sapping his strength.

Japanese "kitsune" sharing similarities to the Chinese "hu li jing" and Korean "kumiho". Seen alternately as trickster and seductress or guardians, friends, lovers and wives. Common belief in ancient Japan was any woman encountered alone, especially at night or dusk was most likely a fox.

Japan's "hone-onna" or literally, bone woman. she lures men into bed as a beautiful woman then turns into a skeleton and sucks his soul dry.

Huldra from Scandinavian folklore. Often appears as a naked woman with unbound hair but from behind looks like the hollow of a tree. She is found in the forest and sometimes has an animal tail depending on which area the folklore is from. She is known to lure men into the forest for sex, killing them if she isn't satisfied. Some simply lured men into the underworld, and others were said to steal human babies and replace them with changelings. 

And some online research on virgins:

Literally means "maiden".

Vestal Virgins: priestesses of Vesta, Goddes of the Earth. They were chosen between age six and ten and had to devote thirty years of their life to the priesthood and celibacy. 

Virgins taming unicorns rooted in various mythos and cultures. Most popular in the Middle Ages and mentioned in a Greek bestiary. The unicorn is attracted to the virgin maiden's purity and scent, and is tamed after being stroked by her, or suckled, depending on variation. 

One explanation is the unicorn representing Christ and his humility by laying his head in the virgin's lap, and the virgin is represented by the Virgin Mary. There are also paintings featuring the unicorn with the Virgin Mary.

The legend that unicorns have the ability to detect non-virgins and would kill them. Virgin detection ability have also been attributed to the stag, lion and elephant.

Despite Christian influences, the sexual overtones of the unicorn and the maiden depicted in art and folklore are frequent. The virgins are often nude or in states of undress and the horn can alternately be taken as a symbol of purity or virility.

What are your thoughts about virgins and succubi and their portrayal in fantasy novels? Can you think of any novels that uses these types of lore?

Cindy Pon is the author of Silver Phoenix (Greenwillow, 2009), which was named one of the Top Ten Fantasy and Science Fiction Books for Youth by the American Library Association’s Booklist, and one of 2009′s best Fantasy, Science Fiction and Horror by VOYA. The sequel to Silver Phoenix, titled Fury of the Phoenix, was released in April 2011. Her first published short story is featured in Diverse Energies, a multicultural YA dystopian anthology from Tu Books (October 2012). Cindy is also a Chinese brush painting student of over a decade. Visit her website at www.cindypon.com.

To Trope or Not To Trope: That is the Question

Readers come to the fantasy shelves looking for a specific kind of reading experience. They want to enter other worlds, or they want to enter worlds like this one and yet different, strange, magical. Maybe without realizing, they long for a specific set of tropes: characters, worlds, situations, or magic that resemble those in other fantasy stories they’ve read and loved.

But who wants to read the same story, with a few names changed, over and over? No one.

Writers sometimes have to perform a tricky balancing act. They have to serve up a story that can provide the pleasure readers are anticipating, while also offering something new, something surprising and unique.

To find some answers on ways writers might do this, I asked other Inkies to chime in.
Pippa Bayliss:
Using tropes is related as much to our individual style as our premise and characters are, so it's not easily buttonholed. In my experience my use of them developed as part of my world building.

Tamora Pierce's Beka Cooper series comes to mind as a brilliant example of using language and all forms of literary trope to enhance and create a unique world.

In my own writing, my MC uses unusual turns of phrase because that's who she is (and she's powered by my particularly unusual imagination). I try to keep her metaphors, idioms and comparisons appropriate to her age and life experience - and possibly more importantly, her nationality.

I love the rhythm of words and coming up with original ways of capturing and communicating the emotion evoked by my MC's situation, so those are my 'trope creating' moments. Sometimes they're right there and other times I lose sleep coming up with the best way to avoid cliche. Synonyms are my absolute favorite way of brainstorming - and I confess I'm partial to alliteration (in moderation ... at least, I TRY to keep it to a minimum).
Hilari Bell: 
I think we all use tropes, almost unthinkingly. Unless you're going for some very unusual setting, it's hard to avoid them. However, there's almost nothing that works better than turning a trope on its head, and doing the reverse of what's expected. On the other hand, even reversing tropes is becoming something of a trope itself. I think a writer's only real hope is to tell a story you love the way you want to tell it, and let the chips fall where they may.
Kate Coombs:
In THE RUNAWAY PRINCESS and THE RUNAWAY DRAGON, I deliberately take tropes and give them a little twist to create humor. For example, the princess is supposed to be languishing in a tower while princes vie for her hand in marriage, but she gets her friends to sneak her out, leaving the royal guards vigilantly watching over an empty tower. And the wicked witch in the woods wants to be left in peace to read romance novels, but when princes keep coming around bothering her, she rolls her eyes and rather reluctantly turns them into frogs so they'll leave her alone. I've had fun reinventing tropes!

Another way to keep tropes from making your work predictable is by creating rich characters--then even when you use tropes, the focus is on these characters who feel so real that readers love and cheer for them despite their flaws. Surprises are great, but they need to work with the logic of the storytelling and of characters' personalities. Besides, even if readers CAN predict, say, the ending of a book (um, the hero/heroine triumphs?), the road to get there can twist and turn in wonderful ways.


Some great answers here. For myself, I too like twists. In ALIA WAKING, Alia wants very much to become a warrior, but she starts to question her goals when she sees the reality that exists along with the warriors’ ideals. Margot, in WATER SHAPER, begins as the classic romantic heroine, but her wants and needs as in individual complicate the romance she stumbles into. In my current WIPs, I find myself twisting tropes in a variety of ways, but mostly in regard to perspective. For example, is that guy really a bad boy with a heart of gold, or is he just a bad boy? And what do either of those things mean, anyway?

I did want to mention some great resources for those interested in thinking on tropes and how one might, or might not, want to use them. Try THE TOUGH GUIDE TO FANTASYLAND by Diana Wynne Jones and the many resources linked in “Beyond Orcs and Elvs,” an Omnivoracious interview with Stacy Whitman on writing cross-culturally.

Now, to get to some discussion. What about you? What tropes do you play with, and how do you play with them? Why do you play with them in the way you do?

Post author bio: Laura Williams McCaffrey is a full time writer and writing teacher. Her third young-adult speculative fiction novel is forthcoming from Clarion Books. She’s the author of two other young-adult speculative fiction novels: Water Shaper, selected for the 2007 New York Public Library Books for the Teen Age list; and Alia Waking, named an International Reading Association Notable Book. Alia Waking was also a nominee for the annual Teens’ Top Ten Books list and for Vermont’s Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award. Laura is a faculty member at Solstice, a low-residency MFA in Creative Writing Program at Pine Manor College, and she teaches writing and literature at Pacem Learning Community, a learning center for homeschoolers. You can visit her website at: http://www.laurawilliamsmccaffrey.com/.