I’ve got a bit of a strange fairy tale sandwich for you to get your teeth into today, so I hope you’re excited for it! We’ve got everything from a tree that contains a golden bird, a side-story involving Lord Buddha, a French tale with ancient Greek roots, a case of Hypertrichosis that made a man an immortal legend, and a greedy hare with a marriage plot. Like I said, I hope you’re excited because I certainly am!
But before we get into our sixth post, make sure you’re following the Puddles of Ink Instagram where you’ll be able to catch all of the DAILY fairy tale uploads, as well as lots of behind the scenes exclusives, and information on the upcoming zine that I’m putting together now! If you want to be involved and vote on some of the mystery stories I’ll be including in the final product, then follow me on there and keep and eye on my Stories and my Fairy Tale Highlight!
This is the sixth blog post in my Fairy Tale Re-Draw series, but if you want to catch up on the previous 5 which collectively cover the first 15 stories and include lots of special resources and information, then click here to see them all!
The Golden Goose
I know I was read this story as a child because my mum remembers it so clearly, but I genuinely felt like I was reading it for the first time when I was researching newer tales to include in the line-up. I had fallen out of love with the story I’d originally had for number 16 back in 2018, and I’m really glad I chose to replace it with this one because I’m so happy with how the illustration turned out; what do you think of it? I’ve lost track of how many shades of brown I picked up and blended together!
You can read and listen to an audio recording of the Brothers Grimm version here; essentially, the story follows Simpleton, the youngest of three brothers who is often overlooked and ridiculed because of his…simple nature. Unlike his brothers, Simpleton is kind and generous, and it’s thanks to these traits that he falls in favour with a mysterious little grey man who rewards him with a golden goose. If you’re intrigued then I definitely recommend checking it out - it’s a really nice feel-good read.
As there isn’t very much else available in regards to its origins, I thought it would be fun to include another short story which is a tad different, but shares the same name. This bonus tale is from The Jataka Tales: popular stories about Lord Buddha where he features in human and animal form. The plot follows a golden goose (Buddha’s incarnation) who, seeing a poor old woman struggling to make ends meat with her two daughters, offers to continuously give them a feather which they can sell in exchange for money. The arrangement goes well f,or a while until, as humans often do, the old woman gets greedy. If you want to find out what happens, you can read and listen to it here. There is another version of the story where Buddha dies and becomes the goose to help his own family, and it’s his wife who becomes greedy - you can read that version here.
Beauty and the Beast
If you have Tale as Old as Time currently playing in your head then you’re not alone - it’s been on a loop for me ever since I doodled this idea in my sketchbook! I want to take a quick moment to say that I’m actually really proud of this illustration, partly because I think it’s a huge step up from what I did in 2018, but also because I really challenged myself to portray the Beast as opposed to Belle - please let me know if you like it too, or if you’d have gone with a different concept! I’ve been asking on Instagram for people’s favourite fairy tales, and Beauty and the Beast is the resounding winner so far!! No pressure then…
I learned so much from researching this story and, whilst I can’t wait to share it with you, I want to stress that this is a very brief overview. I’d love to do a far more in-depth exploration into the different adaptations, or analyse the complex themes and context surrounding it, so comment and let me know if that’s something you want to see and I’ll make sure I put that together soon!
The concept of Beauty and the Beast is an ancient one; there are links all the way back to Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis’s Cupid and Psyche, and The Golden Ass. There are also key similarities between the tale and The Pig King by Giovanni Francesco Straparola (which was published around 1550). But the story as we recognise it, albeit in a far longer form, is by Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve. Her story, La Belle et la Bete, was published in 1740, and was apparently inspired by the story of Petrus Gonsalvus. I highly recommend looking into his story because it’s fascinating; he suffered from Hypertrichosis, a condition where a person’s body produces lots of thick, dark hair, and was brought to France (he was originally from the Canary Islands) to amuse the royal family. He ended up marrying a court servant, Catherine, and they went on to have 7 children, 4 of which inherited the condition. You can read all about him here, as well as about what went on to happen to his children, but it’s a sad look at how people have always been either shunned or treated as spectacles simply for being different.
Villeneuve’s story features a framework that we are familiar with when it comes to the Beauty and the Beast plot, however she gave Beauty a large number of siblings, and there is more of a complex twist in the end involving the connection between a fairy, the Beast and Beauty. Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont rewrote Villeneuve’s story, and hers was published in 1756 - you can read a translation here. It’s this version that was then adapted by Andrew Lang and published in his Blue Fairy Book in 1889, which is the most commonly re-told out of them all. I must mention that there are thousands of versions of this fairy tale from across the world; this article in particular, offers a great introduction to the trope of animal brides within these stories and how they are featured all over the globe. This is another great read if you’re looking for something more on the topic of female subservience, whereas this one gives more information on some of the darker roots the fairy tale has in other stories. I’d also really recommend checking out Pook Press and their archive of work behind this story; they have an incredible gallery too!
The Hare’s Bride
And now for our final tale of this trio; this entry is much shorter and there aren’t many references available, so it’s a fitting one to follow Beauty and the Beast! This story is strange. One of the most common comments I kept seeing when I was researching it was that it’s a bit “pointless”, and I can see why some may initially think that. Have a read of it here (or listen to it here) and see what you think, but essentially it follows a hare who gets into the beautiful garden of a woman and her daughter. He feasts on all of the cabbages and, every time this happens, the mother tells her daughter to go and tell him to stop. Each time the daughter confronts the hare, he tells her to sit on his tail if she truly wants him to stop, and she refuses every time until her mother is so fed up that she forces her to do as he bids. The hare immediately hops away with her with the intent to marry her. The story ends with the girl managing to escape back to her mother before the wedding can happen.
So yes, on first glance it can seem pointless and unnecessary. But I think I speak for a lot of people who will attest that the ending of our heroine being able to escape from a situation that she desperately doesn’t want to be in is empowering and reassuring. So many fairy tales feature women, a lot of them incredibly young, who end up forced into situations and unions that they don’t want to be a part of - and even when they explicitly express this, they are still ignored. Let me know your thoughts in the comments below - it would be so interesting hear what you think!
Thank you so much for reading the sixth installment in my Fairy Tale Re-Draw blog post installments. I really hope you’ve enjoyed it and maybe even learned something new! Comment below with your thoughts and your fairy tale recommendations, and give this a like if you enjoyed it!