Week 13 Storytelling: House of Thieves

I have seen too many women come into this dark place, never to leave again. They waltzed in naively, expecting to see their "one true love" (or so the story goes), ignoring all the warning signs. I didn't understand it, personally--this hovel is in the deepest thicket of a forest filled with dangers; I am baffled as to why the maidens don't turn around and go home immediately after seeing it.

This used to be a den of evil. The men who lived here were thieves and murderers. They went out into the world under charming guises and sought out pretty young ladies with whom to be betrothed. After that, the robbers lured the maidens back to this place, overtook them, and cooked and ate them.

As for me, I am but an old woman. I wandered into this place years ago with no other place to go after some hardships in my life. When the men saw me, they scoffed. I had heard of their reputation, but I placated them, saying I would keep their secret if they would let me stay with them. And so it had been for several years.

One day, a fair maiden--prettier than all the rest--came by this place. I had watched as she made her way down the winding path, looking wholly uneasy the entire way. As she walked, she left a trail of beans and lentils. When she made her way into the shack, my trusty pet bird called out a warning to her: turn back; this is a place of evil. She was visibly shaken, but continued to explore the rooms. Luckily, the men had gone into town for the day, so she was not seen by anyone.

She made her way throughout the house and finally reached the room where I was sitting. When I saw her full fairness and grace, I took pity on her and told her of the dangers of this place. As I was doing this, we heard the thieves barge through the door, hollering with excitement with what I was sure was another helpless maiden. I instructed the lost bride to hide behind a large pot until she could get the chance to escape.

What happened next must have been traumatizing for anyone watching: the men overpowered their victim and cut her into pieces. She had a ring on her little finger, and the thieves tried to remove it to no avail. After a while, they gave up and simply cut the finger off. It flew right into the poor maiden's lap behind the pot, and as I looked over, she was frozen in shock and I realized that she had seen the entire thing.

The thieves with the maidens in the den. 

Illustrator: Helen Stratton. 1903. Source.

The drunkards seemed to lose interest in the finger, and shortly after their merriment were passed out. The young bride-to-be took her opportunity and bolted out of the den, taking the finger with her.

A few days later, some officials came to the door and arrested all of the men in this band of thieves. Apparently, at her wedding toast, the cunning bride revealed the robbers' secret and proved it with the finger. The men were all condemned for their actions and executed.

Looking back at this place now, I remember all of the horrors that took place in this kitchen, and am thankful that I never have to witness such things again.

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Author's note: This week, I retold the story of the Robber Bridegroom. The original story is in the third person omniscient, but I wanted to tell it from the point of view of the old woman who helps the maiden. Not much background is given about her, so it was fun to develop her character and explain where she comes from.

The plot of my retelling is very closely related to that of the original. I changed a few details in the behavior of the old woman as she helps the young woman. In the original story, the robbers want to find the finger with the ring after it is chopped off and lands in the girl's lap, but the old woman deters them from doing so, calling them to dinner and saying that "the finger cannot run away." She also slips a sleeping draught into their wine so that they will pass out and so the girl can escape. In my story, I left out these details and just attributed the girl's safety to the men's carelessness and drunkenness. As I was reading this story, I did not understand why the old woman would go to such lengths to rescue this particular girl when she had previously seen so many deaths. I tried to explain her pity in my story, but I didn't think she would take many more measures to prevent the girl's death than simply telling her to hide. I didn't want to portray her as totally heartless, however--even though she might have been systematically desensitized to the idea of death throughout the years, there is still residual trauma as she goes back to the place where she used to live and reflects on the terrible things that had happened there.

Bibliography:
The Robber Bridegroom.
Household Stories by the Brothers Grimm.
Jacob Grimm and Wilhelm Grimm.
Translated by Lucy Crane.
Illustrated by Walter Crane.
1886.

Week 13 Reading Diary: Grimm's Fairy Tales (Crane)

This week, I read Crane's translation of a collection of fairy tales. I chose this one based on its description and those of the other fairy tale units. After last week, I wanted to read a collection of fairy tales to compare to the versions of the stories in the English Fairy Tales unit.

The Fisherman and His Wife: Oh, the lessons one could learn about being greedy. As I read through this story, I got more and more frustrated with the wife's demands and increasingly sorry for the husband. In the end, I hope the wife learned her lesson--to be content with what she has and not to constantly want more. In a way, this is a good moral for everyone as it could apply to daily life: we should be happy with the season of life that we are in and live in the present, and not continually be anxious about the future, or the "next step" in life.

Aschenputtel: The familiar story of Cinderella (German translation: Aschenputtel). I kept thinking throughout this story that Aschenputtel is both really quick-witted and quick on her feet. To be able to escape through the pigeon house, change out of her dress, and return to the house to sit by the fire in such a short time must have taken a lot of effort. Minor details, though...
I have loved this story since childhood because it puts its characters in their proper place. Aschenputtel, with her piety and goodness, deserves what she received in the end after enduring such harsh torment from her stepmother and stepsisters. The latter, although their punishments were extreme and gruesome, certainly got their dues as well.

The Robber Bridegroom: This story was comparable to the one of Mr. Fox in the English Fairy Tales unit (and indeed, as I look back at said story, the introduction states that Dan Ashliman has made a compilation of Robber Bridegroom variations). Who knows how many of the terrible crimes the gang had committed, but I was certainly glad when the young bride-to-be unmasked them.

The Six Swans: What I found interesting about this story was that it said nothing about the stepmother being evil until she finds the clew of yarn (although the king must have been relying his instincts when he first meets her, but this is not explicitly stated). Therefore, for the first part of the story, I was confused as to why the children had to be locked up.
The rest of the story was empowering. For the young sister to have the willpower to remain completely silent for six years is inspiring and a true testament to her love for her brothers. It is sad to see evil try to tarnish such a pure love, but it is encouraging to see that this evil is not rewarded.

King Thrushbeard: In this story, the moral that one should not judge based on appearance pervades strongly throughout. The maiden at first loses opportunities to marry a worthy king like Thrushbeard because she scorns his appearance (and that of other suitors). Then, when she marries the beggar and is sent to work in the marketplace selling pots, people buy her wares at first because she is beautiful, but she finds that she cannot depend on this for very long. In the end, she ultimately learns her lesson and it is fortunate that King Thrushbeard maintains his love for her long enough for her to humble herself.

The Three Spinsters: This was the first story in this unit that I hadn't heard before (or a variation of it). The entire time, I was expecting the maiden to go back on her word and not invite the spinsters to the wedding, or act ashamed of them, but I am glad that she did not do so. It is interesting, though, that this story seems to reward laziness--overall, the girl did hardly anything and successfully escaped spinning in the end.

Snow White: Ah, the classic fairy tale. I grew up with this story and I have heard countless different versions of it, so I was curious to see how this played out overall. Whereas in the original Disney movie, the evil stepmother only tries one time to kill her (with the poisoned apple), in this story, she attempts three times. Even though Snow White is only seven years old (which is, admittedly, a very young, naive age), I get frustrated at her for falling for the queen's tricks over and over again. However, the rest of the story was as it is usually told, and I am glad that Snow White ends up happy and the stepmother is brought to justice.