The Fairy Tale Re-Draw: Music, a Lot of Bears, and an Infamous Sleeping Curse!
Welcome to the FINAL blog post in this Fairy Tale Re-Draw series! I feel like May has flown by, and I’m so pleased that we’re ending the month with 10 blog posts and 31 daily uploads of fairy tale fun! Click here to catch up on ALL of the blog posts in the series, and check out the Puddles of Ink Instagram to see ALL of the illustrations from the month.
As sad as I am to wrap these posts up, this project is far from over - in fact, it’s safe to say we’re just getting started! I will be publishing a zine featuring all 31 of these stories, as well as 9 new ones! The zine will also feature a short retelling by me for every single illustration. Leave me your suggestions for stories in the comments, and make sure you’re following my Instagram to see behind-the-scenes exclusives as well as news on the zine as soon as it happens!
Now, without further ado, let’s get stuck in to our FINAL 4 fairy tales!
The Lute Player
This Russian fairy tale intrigued me from the moment I read it a few years ago; it follows a married King who decides he isn’t quite done seeking the addictive glory one receives through winning battles, and so decides to embark on an adventure. Clearly he over-estimated his talents and, unfortunately, ends up losing. He is captured by his opponent - another monarch - and has no choice but to send an urgent message to his wife to deliver his ransom fee. The poor woman is then dragged into an adventure of her own as she attempts to use her wit to save him; it’ll be no surprise to you that I chose to focus on her perspective in my retelling!
If you want to read the story yourself and find out how the lute fits in, click here! You can also read the Andrew Lang retelling here, which he published in 1901 in The Violet Fairy Book. One thing to note is that although the instrument cited in the title and translations is a lute, the original instrument described in the story is actually a gusli!
Goldilocks and the Three Bears
Out of all the fairy tales in this project, I think this is the one that I ended up learning the most about without expecting to! I’ve adored this story since I was little, but I had no idea that it’s a 19th century English fairy tale that was penned by Robert Southey. He actually published it anonymously at first, but later reissued it under his own name in 1848 - you can have a read of it, or listen to it, here. You’ll notice that Goldilocks in this version is actually called Silver-Hair, and she’s a little on the unruly side. Initially, she was supposed to be an ugly, foul-mouthed vagrant who invites herself into the house of three bachelor bears, serving as a cautionary figure that little girls should not aspire to be like.
She only transforms into a pretty child 12 years later in Joseph Cundall’s re-write, and it’s from this that the most common version of the story was born. Honestly, I had only ever known the classic plot of this fairy tale, so I was amazed to discover so many different variants:
There’s a version where Goldilocks is almost eaten by the bears and ends up running into the forest to be saved by her mother.
At some point, the three male bachelor bears become a family (around the 1850s), and this has come in various formats: 2 siblings and a friend/ a parent and two children/ 2 parents and a child.
There’s a Routledge publication (1867) where the bear family have names: the father is called Rough Bruin, the mother is called Mammy Muff, and the child is called Tiny.
Check out more about these versions, as well as so many other fascinating tid-bits of information here. You can also see the supposed house that inspired Robert Southey to write the story here on Country Living!
Snow White and Rose Red
I never liked this story as a kid. I found it really confusing that there were two Snow Whites in the fairy tale universe, I found the wounded bear a bit annoying, I didn’t really find the dwarf creepy and I wasn’t satisfied with the ending. However, reading it as an adult with a mindset of recreating it for myself, I found it much more inspiring and wanted to include it in the project.
If none of the elements above ring a bell for you, then make sure you check out the story here. It’s a little lengthier than a standard fairy tale because quite a lot happens; the narrative follows two sisters, very different in temperament, who nurse a wounded bear and become entangled in a wider adventure from their act of kindness. The Brothers Grimm version is the most popular, but there is a shorter story called The Ungrateful Dwarf by Caroline Stahl, which is generally thought to be the oldest variant of the tale. This interesting article on Tor gives more information on Stalh, as well as key developments and differences between the stories, and I’d definitely recommend reading it if you’re interested in an example of the way in which the work of female fairy tale authors was taken and morphed by male voices.
Sleeping Beauty
I couldn’t think of a better fairy tale to end these posts with than the one and only Sleeping Beauty. Across the polls I did on Instagram, this was the second most popular story amongst everyone who voted (beaten by the wonderful Beauty and the Beast). Now, I’ve already decided that I’ll be doing a future post where I go into the other variations of this story in more detail, alongside some different illustrations more suited to them, so make sure you keep an eye out for that in the future.
The story of Sleeping Beauty as we know it is thought to come in two separate parts: Perceforest is the earliest known version from 1528, and it happens to be a Medieval romance. The princess Zellandine loves a man called Troylus, who is sent off to do some tasks to win her hand in marriage. Whilst he’s gone, Zellandine falls into an enchanted sleep. Troylus finds her asleep, rapes her and impregnates her. She only wakes up when, after their child is born, it suckles on her finger and draws out the flax that caused her to fall asleep to begin with (I have no idea how she gave birth in a deep sleep, and I’m yet to find a convincing explanation. This is an issue that is repeated through some variations of the Sleeping Beauty tale). At some point during or after this, Troylus disappears again, but on returning this time he marries her.
The second part is generally agreed to come from a few different sources; mostly two heroines from separate medieval legends - Genevieve of Brabant and Brunhild. But it wasn’t until the legendary Giambattista Basile published his version Sun, Moon and Talia, that the two parts officially merged with the addition of the King’s jealous wife wanting to kill Sleeping Beauty and her offspring with her husband. As I mentioned, make sure you keep your eyes peeled for my upcoming posts and illustrations which will explore these stories in far more detail!
Charles Perrault took the merged stories and created his own two part tale: some folklorists believe that they were originally two separate stories that were later put together to be published as one. You can read a translation of it here; I’d definitely recommend it because there’s no rape or impregnation, although the prince does marry her in secret, and the queen (the woman the prince ends up marrying after his tryst) has ogre lineage! The Brothers Grimm were sceptical of including the tale in their collection because of Perrault’s version: they weren’t convinced of its German roots until, after more research, they found the links to Brunhild. Despite this, you can definitely see Perrault’s influence in Little Briar Rose, although their story ends when the prince wakes Rosamund up - this is the version that Disney chose to adapt. You can read and listen to it here.
This article on Ranker goes through the different versions and comparisons with fun pictures and illustrations. I’d also recommend looking at Pook Press and their beautiful archive for more information on all of the authors and the story, as well as the stunning books they publish.
And just like that, we’re at the end of the Fairy Tale Re-Draw posts! I feel like that went so quickly, but I also know how tired I am after all the uploads this month! Thank you so much for all of the support, comments, likes and messages - I’m really glad that so many people have enjoyed the illustrations and posts! You can catch up with them all here and I’ll be working on all of the additional follow-up posts as promised so look out for those!
Make sure you’re following the Puddles of Ink Instagram to know first-hand what the 9 additional stories are, what the illustrations will look like, get a cheeky look at my re-tellings AND what the zine will look like!! There is a lot of fun new content coming up, so I hope to see you back here soon!