TOTW - Fresh Fairy Tales

Fairy tales – they’ve been told and retold, but maybe you’re drawn to tell one again. And you’d be in good company.

Even many of the versions of fairy tales we think of as “collected” were actually retold in ways that made them distinctive. A number of today’s popular fairy tales were invented by actual authors, often women, in the French salons of the 17th century. These salons were creative and intellectual outlets for women shut out of other intellectual institutions. (For more on the French Salons, read “Introduction: The Rise of the French Fairy Tale and the Decline of France” by Jack Zipes in Beauty and the Beast and Other Classic French Fairy Tales.) Later, in the nineteenth century, the Brothers Grimm made significant changes to tales they collected from their sources, most of which weren’t peasants in the German countryside but educated young women. (For more on this, read the introduction by Jack Zipes to The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm.) The Grimms also reshaped the tales for their intended audiences. Perhaps you would like to join such an august company of re-tellers.

But what more can be said with these stories? Bookshelves in YA and children’s libraries are full of fairy tale retellings. How might you craft fresh versions?

Perhaps the more appropriate question is this - Why do we still enjoy reading these tales? Why are many of us drawn to write them?

The simple answer is that they continue to have relevance for contemporary readers. What follows is a list of suggestions for finding unique relevance in old stories – the unexplored but rich terrain in fairy tales.

Consider the Historical Parallels or Significance. What are the connections one might make to tales and historical events? How might a tale represent what happened in the past? Jane Yolen, for example, used “Sleeping Beauty” to tell a sophisticated story of the Holocaust in Briar Rose. An alternative would be to consider contemporary parallels or significance, as Alex Flinn has done in a number of her novels. 

Draw a Cultural Picture. What stories are too little told? How might they depict cultures and peoples misrepresented or underrepresented in literature? Grace Lin used Chinese folk and fairy tales to inspire the wonderful MG fantasy Where the Mountain Meets the Moon. However, those of us considering writing outside our cultures should think carefully on the if’s, when’s, and how’s of such a decision. 

Find Logic in the Illogical. Often, the things that occur in fairy tales don’t entirely make sense. Why doesn’t Red Riding Hood notice that her grandmother has a hairy face? Why is Cinderella so obedient as she’s robbed of her position and possessions? Gail Carson Levine’s Ella Enchanted offers an answer to this last question that’s both humorous and emotionally resonant. Great stories can come from making sense out of nonsense. 

Tell the Tale from Another Side. Every character has his or her own story: the prince, the witch, the servant girl who walks into the tale briefly and then walks out. Try seeing the story from all sides, and writing it from an alternative perspective. To read an example of this kind of story, track down Donna Jo Napoli’s Zel or The Magic Circle, both of which offer the perspectives of witches. 

Kindle the Emotional Heat. Fairy tales might be about magic and once-upon-a-time, but they’re also about fathers who abandon children, lovers who must see past the ugly outward appearance of a beloved to the sweetness beneath, girls who make the wrong choices and must try to save themselves. These stories are, at their cores, about situations people continue to face every day. When we’re drawn to a particular tale, we might ask, why? What truths are we finding in it? The answers to these questions led me to write a version of “Hansel and Gretel”. Robin McKinley provided two sets of answers in two novels that retell the story of “Beauty and the Beast”, Beauty and Rose’s Daughter. 

I’m sure I’ve overlooked some ways of approaching old and yet compelling stories. How do you create unique stories from already-told tales? 

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.