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Dreamdeer
Valinor
Sep 12 2009, 4:31am
Post #2 of 4
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Thank you for sharing that! The story of the little man who goes away when given a gift of clothes might date back even farther.
We've all followed the "hobbit" discorvery, homo floriensis. And the evidence indicates that they might well have overlapped with homo sapiens. But what the papers skipped over and what an archaeologist friend told me, was that the indigenous people of that island tell a story that they wiped out a nest of "rude and thieving" little people without speech, with the gift of pitch-soaked clothing followed by a torch thrown into their cave.
Life is beautiful and dangerous! Beware! Enjoy!
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Nix of Mirkwood
Bree
Sep 17 2009, 7:16pm
Post #3 of 4
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Just like how Cinderella got her glass slippers!
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Like you said, it is "intuitively obvious". They must have been really old. But I didn't know that so many international versions existed! That's really fascinating! And that Professor Zipes has the coolest job ever!
Did you know "Cinderella" was actually an old Chinese tale. Charles Perrault was the first to actually write it in Europe, and he's the reason that Cinderella got glass slippers. You see Perrault had read the original story and stayed faithful to it, giving his heroin "fur slippers". Later, his tale was mistranslated and Cinderella ended up having "glass slippers". They appear as glass slippers in French versions nowadays because everyone has gotten used to the idea. You see, the French word for "glass" is "verre". But there is another French word that is pronounced in the same way as the word for "glass" (they both rhyme with "bare") but which is spelled differently: "vaire" means a kind of fur from a squerril.
Funny, isn't it?
~We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold~
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Nix of Mirkwood
Bree
Sep 18 2009, 6:24pm
Post #4 of 4
(150 views)
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By the way, what you said reminded me a lot of the story of The Bear King. If you're not familiar with it, it's a fairy tale about a the daughter of a rich man in some versions and that of a king in others who meets a bear one day. Her sister is terrified and runs away from him, but the girl makes friends with him and invites him over to her house for supper. The bear is so touched by her kindness that he rides away with her on his back and takes her to his kingdom. He tells her that he was once a king until an evil witch put a curse on him that turned him into a bear and that he would remain in his bear form bear until he could find a young woman who will truly love him. She must also pass a test. He told her that every night, he turns back into a man at night, and that he would be able to visit her as a man every night, but this must be done when the lights are out, because she is forbidden from looking upon her husband in his man form for three years. If she passes this test, the curse would be broken and the Bear King would be restored to his human form.
You may recognize this as a spin-off of the story of Cupid and Psyche! Greek mythology!
The young queen manages to resist looking at him for three years minus a few days. She spends every day of those three years with her husband in bear form, and every night, he comes to her in human form. She has children by him, and everything seems to be working out, until she goes back to visit her family. She tells her sisters all about it, and they are all stunned to hear that she does not know, after three years, what her husband looks like. One of them gives her a candle, and tells her to light it the next night and sneak a quick glance at her husband while he is sleeping (since all torches and light were banned from the castle). The queen goes back to the Bear King's kingdom and decides she can resist for a few more days. But that night, she finds herself incapable of waiting any longer and lights the candle while the king is asleep...
So basicly, she ruins everything, like Psyche did, but like Psyche, she manages to get he happy ending...
~We must away ere break of day
To seek the pale enchanted gold~
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