The Faces of the Fairy and Witch
Reconsidered
The role of the witch and the fairy in the
European literary tradition of three classical fairy
tales.
MA Thesis European Studies Graduate School for Humanities University of Amsterdam
Student number: 5972450 First supervisor: Yolanda Rodríguez Pérez
Second supervisor: Alex Drace-Francis
“Some day you will be old enough to start reading
fairy tales again.”
TABLE OF CONTENTS
INTRODUCTION 1
CHAPTER I. AN INTRODUCTION TO THE LITERARY FAIRY TALE GENRE
1.1 Fairy tale terminology 5
1.2 The origin of the fairy tale genre 7
1.3 The publishing history of fairy tales 8
1.4 Resumé 13
CHAPTER II. THE FRIENDLY FAIRY AND THE WICKED WITCH 2.1 Ancient origins and Medieval images
15
2.2 Contradictory images 18
2.5 Resumé 23
CHAPTER III. A HISTORICAL OVERVIEW OF THE THREE TALES
3.1 Rapunzel 25 3.1.1 Italy 26 3.1.2 France 27 3.1.3 Germany 28 3.2 Sleeping Beauty 29 3.2.1 Middle Ages 30
3.2.2 Italy 30 3.2.3 France 31 3.2.4 Germany 32 3.3 Cinderella 33 3.3.1 Italy 34 3.3.2 France 36 3.3.3 Germany 37 3.4 Resumé 38
CHAPTER IV. THE ANALYSIS 4.1 Historical time 40 4.2 Allotted role 43 4.3 Character traits 47 4.4 Appearance 49 4.5 Resumé 51 CONCLUSION 53 NOTES 57 WORKS CITED 61
INTRODUCTION
A long time ago, in a place not that far from here, people started telling each other stories. The aim of these tales was to instruct on basic daily principles, and to educate norms and values.1 Today we would identify
these stories as fairy tales, and among the many different literature genres that have been created and handed down through time, folklore, and in particular fairy tales have been able to retain the power to amaze, bewilder and fascinate readers of all times, appealing to the limitless fantasy of children and adults, but also encoding a great deal of knowledge and experience, as Vladimir Propp stated it: “the
compositional unity of the wondertale lies in the reality of the past.”2 Up
until today, these storylines have survived, although altered and adapted to new socioeconomic and cultural conditions.3
These fantastical, enchanting, and fanciful stories are inhabited by various fairy tale characters of which two in particular will be examined in this thesis: the archetypes of the fairy and the witch. Fairies and witches are often attributed with the role of the alternative mother, the fairy godmother, stepmother, grandmother, mother-in-law, foster mother, nurse or servant. In the old days, before there were books with illustrated images, the storyteller had to use visual vocabulary to paint a textual picture of these characters that incarnated good or evil.4 Our
popular perception of the words ‘fairy’ and ‘ witch is inextricably bound up with good and evil, without explaining, defining, or considering their
1 Jack Zipes, Fairy Tale as Myth, Myth as Fairy Tale, Lexington: University Press of Kentucky 1994, p. 10.
2 A wondertale can be considered a “Russian” synonym for the Western fairy tale. Vladimir Propp, Theory and History of Folklore, Manchester: Manchester University Press 1984, p. 117.
3 Alan Dundes, “Metafolklore and Oral Literary Criticism,” The Monist, no. 50 (1966), p. 505.
4 See for further readings: Maria Tatar, Off With Their Heads! , Princeton: Princeton University Press 1992; Rachel Freudenburg, “Illustrating Childhood – “Hansel and Gretel”,” Marvels & Tales, no. 2 (1998), pp. 263-318; Ruth B. Bottigheimer, “Iconographic Continuity in Illustrations of “The Goosegirl”,”Children’s Literature, no. 1 (1985), pp. 49-71.
history and the corresponding perceptions of society and the world in which they were created.5 Archetypes are, similar to fairy tales, a
reflection of the cultural ideas and tensions of a specific time, and thus they provide information about that specific time in which they were created or altered.6 Indicating that both archetypes went through a
transformation before it took on the shape we today recognize. Leading scholar on the fairy tale genre Jack Zipes, demonstrates that both fairies and witches are ancient divinities, but their appearances underwent tremendous changes, compared to the archetypes they used to be and the archetypes we recognize today.7
It is impossible to trace back the exact origin of the fairy and witch, but the meaning is presumably rooted in pagan cultural tradition.8 A great
amount of studies by literary critics and feminist anthropologists has been devoted to how the witch-archetype in Western folk and fairy tales were patriarchal reutilizations of ancient goddesses, how witches have been demonized, and how tales eventually came to reinforce stereotypes about women.9 Scholarly work about the origin of the fairy has
determined that they also originate from pagan goddesses,10 which
indicates that the witch and the fairy share the same origin. Remarkably the connection between the European literary fairy tale fairy and the
5 Jack Zipes, Breaking the Magic Spell: Radical Theories of Folk and Fairy Tales, London: Heinemann 1979, pp. 127-129.
6 Kay F. Stone, Some Day Your Witch Will Come, Detroit: Wayne State University Press 2008, p. 272.
7 Jack Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale: the Cultural and Social History of a Genre, Princeton, N.J.: Princeton University Press 2012, p. 60.
8 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 57.
9 See for further readings: Diane Purkiss, The Witch in History: Early Modern and
Twentieth-Century Representations, New York: Routledge 2013; Jacob Rabinowitz, The Rotting Goddess: the origin of the witch in classical antiquity’s demonization of fertility religion, Brooklyn, N.Y.:Autonomedia 1998; Jules Michelet, The Witch of the Middle Ages, London: Simpkin, Marshall and co. 1863; John Flood, Representations of Eve in antiquity and the English Middle Ages, New York: Routledge 2011; Linda C. Hults, The Witch as Muse. Art, Gender, and Power in Early Modern Europe, Philadelphia:
University of Pennsylvania Press 2005; Owen Davies, Willem de Blécourt, Beyond the
Witch Trials: Witchcraft and Magic in Enlightenment Europe, Manchester: Manchester
University Press 2004; or, Ronald Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon: A History of
Modern Pagan Witchcraft, Oxford: Oxford University Press 2001.
European literary fairy tale witch has not received much scholarly attention.
These two archetypes have a considerably longer history, and the stereotypical good/bad classification is far more complex. Both the words fairy and witch trigger our imagination, but what these two words, images, concepts, and archetypes precisely stand for, is not that evident. Throughout time the fairy and witch archetypes have been replicated, altered, and changed, remaining imperceptibly memetically loaded.11
Every image, allegory and symbol dating back from the mythical fantasy has been regenerated, and during this process, their original function may change depending on socio-historical or cultural circumstances. This refunctioning process is what happened to the archetypes of the fairy and the witch and this is the reason why their twenty-first century dominant appearance has become recognizable.12
Drawing up three case studies, this thesis will examine the portrayal of the fairy and the witch and the alterations of the narrative cycle of three classical European fairy tales from the fifteenth century to the twentieth century on different geographical dimensions. These three fairy tales must meet the requirements that they contain a fairy and/or witch persona and a visible shift of characters. The context of class, socio-historical, economic, religious and cultural will be examined in order to explain the alterations and reinterpretations that the fairy tale and the fairy and witch character experienced. The archetypes of the fairy and witch figures will be examined in the selected tales of “Rapunzel” ATU 310 (The Maiden in the Tower),13 “Sleeping Beauty” ATU 410,14 and
11 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 56.
12 Silvia Bovenschen, “Contemporary Witch, the Historical Witch and the Witch Myth: The Witch, Subject of Appropriation of Nature and Object of the Domination of Nature,” trans. Blackwell, Moore and Weckmueller, New German Critique, no. 15 (1987), p. 114. 13 Hans-Jörg Uther, The Types of International Folktales. A Classification and
Bibliography. 3 volumes, Helsinki: Academia Scientiarum Fennica 2004, Volume I, pp.
190-191.
“Cinderella” ATU 510.15 The ATU classification system systemizes folk
and fairy tales by the means of similar categories and themes, and is considered the folklorists’ guidebook. In this thesis the ATU system will be used as defining markers.
In the endeavour of answering the research question this thesis is divided into four chapters. In order to comprehend the two archetypes of the fairy and the witch we must first understand the context in which they were adopted, therefore the first chapter concisely introduces the European literary fairy tale tradition and how this evolved into the fairy tale we recognize today. The second chapter traces back the origins of the fairy and the witch archetypes. The third chapter will comprise the narrative cycle of the three stories, which will be analysed in the fourth chapter. The analysis is subdivided in four significant categories: historical time; allotted role; character traits and appearance. Historical time is inextricably bound up with geographical sphere and these two factors are of high influence on how the tale was written and interpreted. The allotted role of the characters defines the ‘why’ question to their behaviour. The character traits explain roughly whether the behaviour of the character fits their persona. The last aspect of appearance is significant since it is part of how these characters were valuated at the time the tale was written. All these steps developed and combined will constitute a clarifying how our present attitude towards fairies and witches has been shaped with the help of the literary tradition of fairy tales
I
An introduction to the literary fairy tale genre
The literary fairy tale genre is classified under the term folklore, which was coined in 1846 by William J. Thoms.16 The overarching term had beencreated in order to distinguish the lore17 genre from the folk,18 formerly
called Popular Antiquities or Popular Literature. Years of discussions and rigorous studies had proceeded before the term folklore finally came into existence,19 but unfortunately the boundaries demarcating this genre
remain blurred, leaving the exact definition of folklore undefined.20 The
same problem presents itself with the comprehensive term fairy tale, which has been in use since Madame d’Aulnoy published her book
Contes de Fées in 1697.21 The true historical origin of the fairy tale is
believed to hark back to more ancient times. This chapter will try to grasp and explain the origin and the history of development of the European literary fairy tale, starting with oral storytelling, and following the development into the literary narrative that today is identified as the literary fairy tale.
1.1 Fairy tale terminology
The terminology concerning this topic has a tendency of causing confusion, especially the terms fairy tale and folk tale result in terminological difficulties and confusing misunderstandings because of
16 William J. Thoms, (written under the pseudonym Ambrose Merton), “Folk-Lore,”
Journal of Folklore Research, no. 3 (1846), pp. 187-189.
17 Oxford Dictionaries: lore, “a body of traditions and knowledge on a subject or held by a particular group, typically passed from person by word of mouth.”
18 Oxford Dictionaries: folk, “informal people in general”, and “relating to the traditional art or culture of a community or nation; relating to or originating from the beliefs and opinions of ordinary people.”
19 Alan Dundes, The Study of Folklore, Englewood Cliffs, N.J.: Prentice Hall 1965, p. 4. 20 Ibid. p. 1.
21 Jacques Barchilon, “Adaptations of Folktales and Motifs in Madame d’Aulnoy’s Contes: a Brief Survey of Influence and Diffusion,” Marvels & Tales, no. 2 (2009), p. 355.
their interchangeable characteristics and their vague definitions.22 Both
fairy tales and folk tales are assumed to be created by unlettered folk storytellers. However they have a distinctly different history and definition, which can be detected from their structure, age, characters, and plots.23 Folk tales can be described as a reflection of the world and
belief systems containing characters from the real world, husbands and wives, peasants, thieves, rascals, lawyers, or priests, without magical interference, and have been in circulation a lot longer than fairy tales. A typical folk tale plot concerns a protagonist who loses his fortune, money, or honour due to the act of someone else. Folk tales tell the tale of familiar aspects of human life, such as marital struggles, or earning a fair living, and their endings are practically always disappointing.24 The fairy
tale is categorized under the umbrella of folklore, but fairy tales also fall under the category Tales of Magic.25 Fairy tales are conversely imbued
with magic, supernatural creatures, transformations from human beings into animals, talking objects and gratified wishes. The fairy tale plot generally concerns extraordinary tale structures, such as encounters with dragons, rescuing a princes, or poor girls whose fortune changes by the intervention of magic.26 Scholarly terminology accepted these tales of
magic to belong to the fairy tale genre. 27
22 Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, A New History, Albany: State University of New York Press 2009, p. 3.
23 Ibid. p. 4.
24 Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, p. 4.
25 Tales of Magic is a distinct classification on its own under which a broad variety of tales, wisdom tales, exotic oriental tales are grouped together, a complete list can be found in the Aarne-Thompson-Uther Types of International Folktales, 2004.
26 Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, p. 5.
27 The fairy tale genre or the magic tale was also known as zaubermärchen. The term
märchen originates from the Old High German mâri, mérs in Gothic and märe in Middle
High German, which originally implied news or gossip. The term volksmärchen, folk tales, indicates that the tales originated among the folk. The French introduced a relatively modern term in the seventeenth century, the contes de fées, derived from
conte tale, and conter, which means to tell. Mme d’Aulnoy’s publication in 1697/1698 of
the book Contes de fées was soon after publication translated in English into Tales of
the Fairys. But it was not until 1750 that the term “fairy tale” was adapted in the Oxford English Dictionairy. Jack Zipes, The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales, Oxford: Oxford
University Press 2000, p. 175; Zipes, Breaking the Magic Spell, p. 27.
Folk fairy tales is a highly disturbing term, other names for this category are real, pure, uncontaminated, or original fairy tales, implying that the fairy tale is invariable and
Within the fairy tale genre another distinction of terminology needs to be explained in order to be able to grasp the complexity of this subject. The
restoration tale and a rise tale, which are both considered to be part of
the fairy tale genre, differ significantly in regard to the subjects they discuss. The restoration tale, based on romances from medieval times, begins with a royal character that loses his position and is only able to restore this by successfully carrying out tasks, tests or trials. The restoration tale starts high, then falls low, and ends with returning to its original position.28 The “Twelve Brothers” by the Grimms is an example of
a classic restoration tale.29 The rise tale starts with a poor character who
climbs up the social ladder, the life of the protagonist is full of tasks, tests, and trials until magic intervenes and secures happiness, in most cases through a royal marriage.30 “Rumpelstiltskin” is a classic rise tale.31
In the 1800s this concept became immensely popular which led to rewriting restoration tales into rise tales, which happened to “Cinderella”.
Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, pp. 6-7.
28 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 168. 29 For summary see annex 1.
30 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 168. 31 For summary see annex 2.
1.2 The origin of the fairy tale genre
The manifold repeated traditional interpretation of the fairy tale origin, that proclaims that they were invented by unlettered tribes who passed them along orally from generation to generation, or as a presentation of the disintegration of ancient myths, made sure that the fairy tale has become elusive. This concept of the fairy tale as an oral narrative originating from the folk became acknowledged in almost every discipline, history, literature, children’s literature, psychology and folklore.32 Resulting in a theory that attributes fairy tales with concealed,
integrated, or hidden ancient wisdom.33 Zipes connects the literary fairy
tale genre to ancient storytelling, and therefore states, “its roots lie at the time when people gained the capacity of speech.”34 A great narrator
would have functioned as the transmitter of these oral folk tales, which purposes would have been to gather, unite, and create harmony among the folk. Most of these stories offered vital information concerning living situations, gave warnings, or explained the inexplicable, such as the change in weather and seasons, through the use of magic.35
The oral origins of fairy tale belief can be described as the remainder of pagan beliefs, or imaginary remnants of unexplainable secular phenomena. The similar aspects of magic and supernatural beings with extraordinary power indicate that the precursors of the fairy tale were the Greco-Roman classical myths.36 Zipes attributes the survival of fairy
tales to brain modules, or memetics, meaning that over time they evolved
32 The term literary fairy tale can be understood as a reworking of orally composed and transmitted tales, the reworking process has been carried out by literary authors. This term implies that there exists another sort of fairy tale, which is categorized as the oral
fairy tale. The oral fairy tale is assumed to live among any folk, but due to lack of
evidence this can neither be demonstrated, nor overthrown. Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, pp. 7-8.
33 Ibid. p. 1.
34 Zipes, Fairy Tale as Myth, p. 10. 35 Ibid. p. 10.
36 Géza Róheim is considered one of the most important anthropologist-psychoanalysts. Róheim stated in a nutshell the difference between folktale and a myth, in which we can consider the folktale as a fairy tale: “A folktale is a narrative with a happy-ending, a myth is a tragedy. A god has to die before he becomes divine.” Géza Róheim, “Myth and Folk-Tale,” American Imago, no. 3 (1941), p. 276.
into classical fairy tales. This process is called ‘mythicization’, and is both applied to classical myths and classical fairy tales.37 Opposing factors like
the absence of evidence of fairy tale existence in the ancient or medieval world makes it impossible to prove or disprove that fairy tales are as archaic as we would like to believe.38 No matter how feeble, this
long-held belief that fairy tales have been passed on from generation to generation, crossing borders and different languages is stronger than the lack of evidence, and therefore receives general acceptance.
Scholarly recognition agrees that the oldest documented story collection that falls in line with the tradition of the fairy tale genre is the Indian
Panchatantra, a collection of animal fables based on oral stories, dating
back roughly two thousand years.39 Written form enabled traditional
fables, such as the Panchatantra or the later medieval romance
Decameron by Boccaccio, to overleap the boundaries of its native culture
and penetrate a foreign culture, where the tales would be read and recounted to an entirely new public.40 Fairy tales are, and always have
been, interchangeable and subordinate to the time and social conditions in which they appeared.41 Within the literary fairy tale discipline there
are two contradictory camps to be detected, one that holds on to the theory of oral transmission, and the other that relies exclusively on literary texts. Fairy tales are embedded with various ancient motifs, making the assumption of a shared similar past not implausible but
37 Zipes, Fairy Tale as Myth, p. 6.
38 Ruth Bottigheimer, “France’s First Fairy Tales: The Restoriation and Rise Narratives of Les Facetieuses Nuictz du Seigneur Francois Straparole,” Marvels & Tales, no. 1 (2005), p. 19. Referring to: Maren Clausen-Stolzenburg, Märchen des Mittelalters,
Deutsche Märchen, Heidelberg: Universitätsverlag C. Winter, 1995; Albert Wesselski, Deutsche Märchen vor Grimm, Vienna: Rudolf M. Rohrer, 1942.
39 D.L. Ashliman, “The Panchatantra: a selection of tales from ancient India,” University of Pittsburg 2002, http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/panchatantra.html accessed on: 11-09-2013.
40 Nancy L. Canepa, From Court to Forest: Giambattista Basile’s Lo Cunti and the Birth
of the Literary Fairy Tale, Detroit: Wayne State University Press 1999, p. 16.
written tales were only available to literary persons, who most likely enjoyed wealth, money and status.42
1.3 The publishing history of fairy tales
Social studies of the past twenty years reveal that it seems unrealistic that country folk invented folk tales, because the earliest versions of the literary fairy tales are entrenched with indications of city life.43 The
publishing history provides tangible evidence and answers to how fairy tales were distributed on the European continent and to the colonial parts of Europe. Retracing the fairy tale publishing history helps to understand how fairy tales were passed on from generation to generation until the tales became the subject of interest for folklorists of the nineteenth- and twentieth-century. Three different phases can be detected that will be outlined further in this chapter but the rise of the literary fairy tale started in Italy in the late fifteen hundreds until halfway the seventeen hundreds. The second stage was in France during the second half of the seventeenth-century, and subsequently the third phase took place in Germany in the beginning of the nineteenth-century.
During the Renaissance in Italy young people moved to big cities such as Rome, Naples, Bologna, Milan and Venice, in search of their fortune. Especially in cities in Northern Italy, young boys and girls were taught to read and write in schools, resulting in a high percentage of literate inhabitants.44 Venice, after a period of prosperity and flourishing wealth
suffered an economic downturn in the middle of the sixteenth century. The socio-economic status was decreasing, markets shifted, cheaper goods from abroad forced out local economy and unemployment grew.45
It was within this mental and social environment that a new kind of story
42 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, pp. 60-61. 43 Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, pp. 17-18.
44 Canepa, From Court to Forest, p. 16. 45 Ibid. p. 38.
line with the intervention of magic was created, the fairy tale, and in particular the rise tale (see 1.1).46
A leading figure in this matter is the Italian Giovanni Francesco Straparola (1480-1557), who lived in Venice and is known as the (god)father of the literary fairy tales.47 Straparola was born some years
after the printing press had made its entrance in Europe in 1450, when books and pamphlets were suddenly available to a broader public, and since nearly all books were sold unbound they became accessible for rich and poor.48 His work Le Piacevoli Notti, (or The Pleasant Nights) was
published between 1550 and 1553 and enjoyed great popularity.49 One
could argue that his rise tales were inflicted on himself since he had moved from a small town to the big city to try his luck. The successful rise and magic tales included suffering protagonists who were very desperate and used magic to (re)gain wealth or marry high up restoring their royalty or honour.50 In Straparola’s tales marriage to a wealthy,
noble or royal person, was equivalent to a happy ending.51
Another author who can be attributed with the invention of the early modern fairy tale tradition, is Straparola’s compatriot, Giambattista Basile (1566-1632). Basile’s tale collection, Lo Cunto de li Cunti overo lo
Tratteniemto de Peccerille or Il Pentamerone, was published after his
death between 1634-1636 in Naples, under the pseudonym Gian Alesio Abbatutis.52 It was not uncommon for authors in that time to borrow
46 Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, p. 20.
47 Ruth B. Bottigheimer, Fairy Godfather: Straparola, Venice, and the Fairy Tale
Tradition, Philadelphia: University of Pennsylvania Press 2002.
48 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 21.
49 Giovanni Francesco Straparola, Le Piacevoli Notti, volume 1&2, Biblioteca dei
classici Italiani,
http://www.liberliber.it/mediateca/libri/s/straparola/le_piacevoli_notti/pdf/straparola_le_p iacevoli_notti.pdf accessed on: 13-11-2013.
50 Ruth Bottigheimer, “France’s First Fairy Tales,” p. 26.
51 In 1520 a law in Venice was ratified prohibiting marriages between noblemen and commoners. This impossibility in real life but salvation in fantasy became the central point of Straparola’s rise tales. Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, pp. 20-21.
52 Giambattista Basile, Lo Cunto de li Cunti (Il Pentamerone), ed. Benedetto Croce, Napoli: Biblioteca Napoletana 1891. archive.org/stream/locuntodelicunti accessed on:
stories from earlier collections or other writers, which they updated with the correct spelling and different endings, all shaped after conventional formation.53 An overarching narrative frame was to contribute to the
believability of the story collection, a remainder of medieval novellas. It is assumed that Straparola and Basile both drew their inspiration from the marvellous and magical national ballets and theatres that were being held during the sixteenth and seventeenth century at the Italian court and their tales were purely meant for entertainment.54
These tale collections were anticipated to the appropriate audience with the help of the printing press. Editions for scholars, educated priests and government officials were printed in Latin, while editions for lay people were translated into vernacular languages, which resulted in an increased popularity for the fairy tale genre.55 With the tales written
down on paper the former communal aspects of the fairy tale disappeared and became privatized into an individual experience. In addition the fairy tale moved to a different social class because it was written as an intellectual tour de force and became an elite affair.56
Inconsistently one could argue that with the arrival of chapbooks (cheap books), the distribution of the fairy tale spread rapidly and became accessible for the average worker.57 This shift, from the oral tradition
towards the printed literary tradition, was conceived both positive as violent by nineteenth- and twentieth-century folklorists.58
25-10-2013.
53 Straparola and Basile both based their frame structures on Decamerone by the Italian Giovannis Bocaccio. Boccaccio’s influences are also visible Canterbury Tales by the English writer Geoffrey Chaucer, a collection of Mid-English literature. Bottigheimer, Grimms’ Bad Girls & Bold Boy: the Moral & Social Vision of the Tale, New Haven: Yale University Press 1987, p. 2.
54 Nancy L. Canepa, The Tale of Tales: or, Entertainment for the Little Ones by
Giambattista Basile, Detroit: Wayne State University Press 2007, p. 1.
55 Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, p. 78. 56 Zipes, Fairy Tale as Myth, p. 13. 57 Ibid. p. 12.
58 The written aspect of the fairy tale has set off an entire discourse within the folklore discipline called fakelore. See: Richard Dorson, Folklore and Fake Lore: Essays toward
a Discipline of Folk Studies, Cambridge, Mass.: London: Harvard University Press 2007;
Richard Dorson, “Folklore and Fake Lore,” The American Mercury, no. 3 (1950), pp. 335-342; U.C. Knoepflmacher, “Introduction: Literary Fairy Tales and the Value of
The second decisive stage that significantly influenced the literary fairy tale genre can be traced back to seventeenth- and eighteenth-century France, or Paris to be more specific. Charles Perrault (1628-1703) was a prominent collector of some of the most-loved and best-known fairy tales in Western Europe. Perrault considered “Sleeping Beauty,” “Little Red Riding Hood,” “Blue Beard,” “Puss in Boots,” “Cinderella,” and “Little Thumbling” to be typically French, or folklorique.59 In the days of
Perrault, the narrated Italian fairy tales had to be remodelled after the boundaries, concerns, tastes and functions of the French salons, parlours, bourgeoisie and aristocratic courts. This ‘new’ genre was given a different aspiration, besides entertainment it also became a literary masterpiece symbolizing the aesthetic and social ruling standards of civilité, proper behaviour, and taste.60
For centuries, the general accepted assumption was that the French literary fairy tales travelled from the countryside to the salons in Paris though oral storytelling tradition. Peasant nursemaids contracted by the wealthy and elite French upper class exchanged these tales in the spinning chambers or at the hearth of the homes.61 The adherents of the
oral storytelling theory were convinced that link between the bourgeoisie and the upper class was solid, however, Rudolf Schenda, an expert in folklore, narrative, and literary research, was not able to find any evidence advocating a transmission from the folk to the bourgeoisie, or from the bourgeoisie to the nobility.62 Schenda was not the only one who
could not substantiate the oral theory where spinning chambers were the natural habitat of fairy tales. Ruth Bottigheimer draws our attention to recent social historical studies demonstrating that wet-nursing,
Impurity,” Marvels & Tales, no. 1 (2003), pp. 15-36; William S. Fox, “Folklore and Fakelore: Some Sociological Considerations,” Journal of the Folklore Institute, no. 2/3 Special Double Issue: The American Theme in American Folklore (1980), pp. 244-261. 59 Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, p. 54.
60 Zipes, Fairy Tale as Myth, p. 11.
61 Bottigheimer, “France’s First Fairy Tales,” p. 18.
particularly in France, did not take place under parental roof, but was outsourced.63 It is undeniable that servants from the lower class were
well represented within wealthy households, but the stories that they told show an absence of fairy tales.64 The printing press provides evidence
demonstrating that the conteuses and conteurs in Paris got most of their tales from the Italian tale collections.65 This explains why some distinct
features from Straparola and Basile can be detected in the tales of Perrault, d’Aulnoy, de Murat, Leprince de Beaumont, Lhéritier, de la Force, le Noble, de Mailly, de Villeneueve, and Hamilton.66
By the time the brotherly scholars Johan (1785-1863) and Wilhelm Grimm (1786-1859) started working on their fairy tale collection, they were able to continue with the material the previous French and Italians collectors had left behind on paper. At that time the French language was the lingua franca of the upper class, wherefore most educated Europeans mastered French fluently.67 A further comment can be given which
explains the theory of oral transmission by the emigrant Huguenots who were spread out all over the European continent and had brought their French customs, traditions and tales with them.68 The primary aim of
Johan and Wilhelm Grimm was to create a scholarly collection of German folk tales, in which they would be able to determine a consistent grammar for the German language, and show their compatriots how to be a true German.69 The Brothers designed the term ‘Naturdichtung’,
63 New-borns from wealthy homes were send off to the countryside to be fed by a nursemaid. These peasant nursemaids in most cases were saddled with several babies simultaneously, leaving them little time to tell stories to infants who only stayed as long as they required milk. This can be counteracted by the argument that sometimes nursemaids were introduced into a family home, but even then they stayed as long as her milk was needed. Bottigheimer, “France’s First Fairy Tales,” p. 19.
64 Ibid. p. 20.
65 “Basile’s donkeyskin tale was raunchily suggestive and Straparola’s stylistically rough, whereas Perrault’s writing was sexually modest, socially decent, and, in the end, highly moral.” Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, p. 58.
66 Zipes, Breaking the Magic Spell, p. 26.
67 Barchilon, “Adaptations of Folktales,” pp. 355-356. 68 Barchilon, “Adaptations of Folktales,” p. 357.
69 They inserted several catholic features in the tales, and entrenched them with German culture and moral values. Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 104.
creating the illusion that their tales were purified German.70 It was at this
stage that the elusiveness of the fairy tale image started to arise, by making use of the clever incidental circumstance and giving the tales an extended history that went beyond the Middle Ages into the Ancient world making its origin untraceable.71
The Brothers Grimm published a total of seven different editions of the Grimms’ Kinder- und Hausmärchen, from 1812 until 1857. Within this timeframe the brothers edited and altered the tales collected in their books considerably. The first two editions from 1812-1815 and 1819 were barbarous and cruel and show a remarkably high resemblance to the Italian and French collected fairy tales. It was not until later editions that these tales were customized and modified for a young audience.72 The
vulgar language had to be sanitized and a male point of view was practiced. Fairy tales are attributed with the possibility of adapting to socio-economic environments, however the German phase produced a shift into a product manufactured by gifted male writers, which generated a problem concerning the female image.73
1.5 Resumé
Fairy tales are not static, they are prone to change and capable of absorbing cultural, social, and historical elements and influences. Remarkable is that every phase shows the typical tendency of interpreting these literary fairy tales as their own cultural belongings. The theory of oral transmission remains cherished, despite its low compatibility and contradicting evidence provided by the printing press.
70 According to Jacob Grimm märchen were a natural phenomenon. “They were plants whose seeds had fallen into hedgerows or hidden places and had managed to survive an all-destructive storm of political events and social change.” a coded reference to Napoleon’s invasion and occupation of the Germans. Bottigheimer, Fairy Tales, p. 33. 71 Ibid. p. 36.
72 “The same purity that makes children seem so miraculous and soulful to us perfuses these poetic creations. The tales have the same milky-white, unblemished, shining eyes.” Ibid. p. 34.
73 Jack Zipes, “A Second Gaze at Little Red Riding Hood’s Trials and Tribulations,” The
The theory of literary transmission is verifiable and the first traces of entertaining fairy tale literature can be found in sixteenth- and seventeenth-century Italy. The second notable transformation period was in the elite salons of Paris in the seventeenth-century, where morals and codes of conduct were intertwined and fairy tales were given a more intellectual status. The third literary turning point was in the eighteenth-century in Germany who was in need of a unifying cultural artifact. This appropriating or stealing has not only left marks on the fairy tale, but it also influenced the different characters inhabiting these tales. The fairy and the witch are both familiar and ancient figures and the next chapter will demonstrate how these two archetypes evolved into two distinct markers within the fairy tale symbolism.
II
The friendly fairy and the wicked witch
Our popular perception of the words ‘fairy’ and ‘witch’ is inextricably bound up with good and evil, without explaining, defining, or considering the history or the corresponding perceptions of society and the world in which they were created. The twenty first-century fairy archetype is associated with every good quality and the modern witch archetype is attributed with every bad character trait. Witchcraft and fairy belief are to be observed as cultural phenomenon’s rooted in intellectual discourses and cultural beliefs. This chapter will evaluate various perceptual filters these two archetypes went through and demonstrate how visual vocabulary is crucial to witchcraft and fairy belief as a social and cultural reality.74 The imaging of the fairy and witch archetype will be traced back
to its origin considering the different appearance and appreciation and in particular their symbolic significance through time that constitute the grounds for our present view on fairies and witches.
2.1 Ancient motifs and Medieval images
Fairy tales are born out of conflict, and the same can be said with regard to fairies and witches. Conflicts between men and women form the grass roots of the fairy and witch characters. Fairy tales include various ancient motifs, similar to the fairy and witch archetypes, who can be connected to the Greek fates Moirai and the Roman fates Parcae.75 These
mythical divinities are the predecessors of fairies and witches, whose symbolic significance was transmitted memitically through time and cultures.76 The Bona Dea (he theos gynaikeia, feminarum dea), or good
74 Charles Zika, “Images of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe,” in Levack, Brian P.,
The Oxford Handbook on Witchcraft in Early Modern and Colonial Amerika, Oxford:
Oxford University Press 2013, p. 155.
75 Laurence Harf-Lancer, Les Fées au Moyen Âge: Morgane et Mélusine. La naissance
des fées, Paris: Honoré Champion 1984, p. 42 (cited in: Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 31.)
goddess, has ancient Roman roots and was identified with chastity and fertility, but her cult was also associated with eroticism and wild nature.77
Another name for Bona Dea was Fauna,78 who was considered to be the
goddess of women, prophecy and fruitfulness, with strong connections to nature.79 The Roman view of feminine chastity prohibited her, and thus
all women, from undiluted wine and sex and restricted her to passive behaviour.80 As was often the case with goddesses and divinities, Fauna
has a split image, caught for infinity between the role model of humility, modesty and chastity but was simultaneously associated with eroticism and free sex.81 The ancient comparison between the female gender and
the earth was based on the aspect that both women and nature are capable of giving life.82 The production of harvest and bearing children
seemed to be products of the supernatural, wherefore women became inextricably included within the category of magic.83 Healing powers,
granting wishes, fertilizing infertile couples, guiding young adults through initiation rituals, offering protection against calamities, provoking favourable conditions for hunting, farming, and harvesting, making prophecies and determining the future of new-born’s gave these women a prominent, but simultaneously a dangerous and feared position in society.84
77 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 29.
78 John Scheid, “The Religious Roles of Roman Women,” in: red. Ruby, Schmitt Pantel, Perrot, A History of Women in the West: From Ancient Goddesses to Christian Saints, Cambridge: Harvard University Press 1994, p. 391.
79 The names Fauna derives from the Latin faveo, meaning to befriend, support or back up, which developed into our favour. Another etymology is fari, or fando, which refers to her prophesy abilities. Piere Klossowski, Diana at her Bath: The Women of Rome, New York: Marsilo, 1990, p. 107.
80 Scheid, “The Religious Roles of Roman Women,” pp. 392-393. 81 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 29.
82 Scheid, “The Religious Roles of Roman Women,” p. 389. 83 Bovenschen, “Contemporary Witch, p. 99.
84 Diane Purkiss connects this image to the Greek Medea who was known for her great knowledge of herbs and was capable of raising the dead, but she was also feared because she had killed her own children. Diana Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” in Levack, Brian P., The Oxford Handbook of Witchcraft in Early Modern
A common mistake is the accusation of Christianity being solely responsible for the creation of witches and incriminating fear for women. Obviously Christianity contributed generously to demonizing the female gender through witch belief and the creation of the devil,85 but Charles
Zika emphasizes that witch images were depicted as early of the Greek and Roman period.86 Women were often portrayed in an erotic depiction,
either as seductresses or enchantresses. Diane Purkiss complements this argument by referring to medieval literature and romances in which the motif of a woman overpowering a knight and using him as love slave or toy was very common.87 When Roman Catholicism had started their
campaign to demonize all pagan rituals, beliefs, and customs during the fifth century their first attempt was to fade out all belief in fairy and witchcraft.88 When pagan belief showed to be resistant the main purpose
of the second plan of attack became to discredit all women and make them responsible for evil.89 The invention of the dogma of the duality of
body and soul formed the grounds for demonizing women, and in particular witches.90 The emphasize was placed on all that was wrong
with women, the sins of the flesh, female sexual functions and connected it to the colour ‘black’,91 which came to depict ‘the evil women’ or ‘witch’
in service of the apostate angel, Satan. Mary became the ultimate portrayal of the colour ‘white’, the glorified and idealized image of purity. She was completely denaturalized, desensualized, and even desexualized through the concept of immaculate conception, and thus created a completely unattainable status since women stayed responsible for
85 Rosemary Ellen Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches, Witchcraft & Wicca. Third
Edition, New York: Facts on File 2008, p. 98.
86 Zika, “Images of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe,” p. 142. 87 Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” p. 124. 88 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 59.
89 Bovenschen, “Contemporary Witch,” p. 102.
90 Eve represented the body, which stood for evil, while her companion Adam represented the soul, which stood for the spiritual principle, and therefore could not be anything else than good. For a long time there was no agreement among church fathers if women even had a soul. Ibid. p. 103.
91 A small reference must be made to the striking number of witches with black hair, black clothes, a black cat or a black raven.
reproduction.92 The Madonna cult, which celebrated its heydays in the
Middle Ages, can be pointed out as the grounds for the persecution of witches and with this invention all women could be coloured in black, and caused legitimacy to condemn any woman as a witch at any time.93
The Middle Ages was not merely a dark period hunted by witches, there was also room for fairies. To be specific the Middle Ages knew two different types of fairies, one originated from the classical Roman fates and the other originated from the image of women and her close ties to nature, which was the ‘lady of the forest’ type. In the thirteenth century these two fossil folklore types would melt together into “an enamoured goddess and a mistress of destiny” and by the end of the Middle Ages this new image would gain a fixed form.94 Their behaviour depended on their
mood and it is important to acknowledge that fairies, in all their different forms, have never been considered wholly good or altogether evil. Beholding the fairies as former goddesses who were worshiped by followers and were bound to certain rules regarding their worship, the consequences of obeying these rules would have been pleasant, but when the rules were broken, the follower could anticipate his god would punish him.95
By the end of the Dark Ages showing faithfulness towards witchcraft or sorcery had become a dangerous matter. The remainders that had escaped the first round ups became officially listed as “evil spirited” and therefore a repudiation of the holy religion.96 Christianity had usurped its
92 Mariology was a form of vengeance on the memory of pre-Christian prophetesses, the lasting after-image which implicitly called in question the sacralised patriarchal system of power. Horkheimer and Adorno notify that later on, the Madonna cult would epitomize as proof of glorification and worship of women by the Christian Church, which ironically, was created with complete opposite intentions. Max Horkheimer, Theodor W. Adorno, Dialectic of Enlightenment: Philosophical Fragments, Stanford: Stanford University Press 2002, p. 87.
93 Bovenschen, “Contemporary Witch,” pp. 103-104. 94 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 31.
95 Theresa Bane, Encyclopedia of Fairies in World Folklore and Mythology, North Carolina: McFarland 2013, p. 6.
power and successfully associated the witch character with the devil.97 The Malleus Maleficarum (Hammer of Witches) was published in
1485-1486,98 and contributed in defining a witch with detailed descriptions.
According to Malleus Malleficarum there were three different kinds of witches, one that can hurt but cannot help, one that cannot hurt but can help, and the third that can both help and hurt.99 Witches were believed
to be appointed with different powers, such as controlling thunder and lightning, become invisible, enchant animals, travel through the air without being seen, penetrate the minds of judges, cause miscarriages etc.100 Crucial was that all witches were not without harm for society and
the best solution therefore was to destructively dispose of them.101
Christian domination practically ruled out all pagan and superstition in magic, however a significant influence remained existent within the early modern popular culture.102 The thought of spirits and cunning women
remained acceptable in literature and superstition.103
96 Emma Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy in Early Modern England and Scotland,” Folklore, no 2 (2000), p. 294.
97 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 59.
98 Heinrich Kramer, James Sprenger, The Malleus Maleficarum, (1485-1486) trans. Montaque Summers, New York: Cosimo Inc. 2007 (reprint).
99 “…witches, are women which be commonly old, lame, bleare-eied, pale, fowle, and full of wrinkles; poore, sullen, superstitious, and papists,” Reginald Scot, The Discoverie
of Witchcraft. (Being a reprint of the first edition published in 1584), London: Elliot
Stock 1886, p. 5.
100 Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft, p. 7.
101 Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” p. 132.
102 A controversy arose between believers in witches and magic, primarily protestant clergy: Jean Bodin, On the Demon-Mania of Witches (Démonomie des Sorciers), (1580) trans. Scott, Randy A., Toronto: 1995; Kramer, Sprenger, Malleus Maleficarum, 2007; George Gifford, A Dialogue concerning Witches and Witchcrafts, London: Percy Society reprint from the edition of 1603; Henry Holland, Treatise of Witchcraft, Cambridge: Legatt 1590; William Perkins, “A Discourse of the Damned Art of Witchcraft, So Farre forth as it is revealed in the Scriptures, and manifest by true experience,” published 1618, 55 pages, A Division of Rare and Manuscript Collections,
http://ebooks.library.cornell.edu/w/witch/browse_author_o.html accessed on: 13-12-2013; King James the first, Daemonologie, (1597), www.sacred-texts/pag/kjd/kjd00.htm
accessed on: 13-12-2013;
And the sceptical side who rejected magic by reason and who believed that probably all cases of alleged witchcraft resulted from delusions of the alleged witch, rather than actual voluntary cooperation with evil: Johann Weyer, De Praestigiis Daemonum, Basileae: Oporinus 1566, Bayerische StaatsBibliothek digital http://reader.digitale-sammlungen.de/de/fs1/object/display/bsb10192571_00007.html accessed on: 13-12-2015;and Reginald Scot, The Discoverie of Witchcraft. 1886
2.2 Contradictory images
This presents two puzzling contradictions in comparison to our twenty first-century associations with the archetypal fairy and witch. Within Medieval Folklore, the fairies were the secular complement to angels and demons. These fairies belonged to the witches of the mundane realms with their supernatural complements.104 Note their capability of
benevolence and malevolence, and the fact that both the fairy and the witch, were accused of sudden inexplicable calamities, whilst in our popular perceptions only the witch would be accused of being the malefactor. Sudden changes in weather, socio-economic conditions, and mental or physical wellbeing of humans and animals, were attributed to both the archetypes. Extreme whirlwinds were thought to be troops of fairies passing by and what we today know as a stroke, was originally called a fairy stroke.105 Another accusation both archetypes were charged
with was stealing milk from humans or animals, and fairies, not witches, were blamed of drinking human blood.106 Despite the two-sided character
of the medieval fairy, Leslie Ellen Jones points attention to a minor shift concerning the valuation of the witch and fairy. Medieval stories about a male groom who turns out to have married either a fairy, which was cherished, or to a witch, which had a negative outcome.107 However the
witch persona may have gained an apparent shape in legal, critical and demonological writings, the witch image remains devilishly complex since it consists of the stereotypical Christian witch figure and the erotic portrayals, but also of popular literature.108
104 Leslie Ellen Jones, “Fairies,” Medieval Folklore: A Guide to Myths, Legends, Tales,
Beliefs and Customs, Oxford: Oxford University Press (2002), p. 128.
105 A Dictionary of Celtic Mythology, fairy stroke: “Abrupt, seemingly inexplicable changes in mental or physical wellbeing of both humans and animals were once popularly attributed in many nations to the fairy stroke. Most often the fairy stroke denoted a paralytic seizure […] Sometimes it was held that the victim had been carried away and a simulacrum, e.g. an infant, or aged fairy or carved figure, substituted.”
http://oxfordindex.oup.com/view/10.1093/oi/authority.20110803095808779 accessed on: 10-09-2013.
106 Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy,” pp. 295-296. 107 Jones, “Fairies,” p. 128.
The formerly acknowledged three types of witches decreased within early modern literature into two, the malevolent and the lucrative kind known as cunning women or wise women. There was an abundant collection of names in use, including beldam, hag109, wizard, enchantress,
sorceress, she-devil, madam Hecate, lady Proserpine, cunning woman, and mother midnight.110 These old wives’ occupied themselves with
simple remedies, herbal lore, and healing.111 Despite of their innocent
appearance, they were also suspected of doing work for the devil.112 Vain
attempts influenced by geography, education and religious perspectives were made to define and label the fairy and the witch.113 The fairy had
also collected an abundant list of names, fay, fae, faery, faerie.114 The
physiognomy of the fairy in early modern literature was extraordinary, either it was extremely small, or gigantically tall, abnormally dark, or glowing with light, some even claimed they had a hollow back. In most cases these creatures looked like ordinary humans or animals, with barely visible abnormalities making recognition practically impossible.115
The result of these numerous efforts of identification was that they caused these archetypes to become even more indefinable. Overall agreement states that the majority of fairies and witches were considered feminine, and that the social career of such a woman would not have been a constant factor, but presumably moved up and down the good and bad continuum (see table 1).
109 “The idea of a hag, an elderly, immortal, ugly, witch-like woman dates back to ancient Egypt and Greece, as Hecate, as well as in ancient Celtic lore. The term is used in both fairy lore and in reference to witches, although the later is considered to be a derogatory term. In the fairy lore of the British Isles hags are fairy beings; likely at one time they were ancient goddess. In the winter months the hag is depicted as being old and ugly but as the season changes it becomes younger and more attractive as spring nears. Sometimes the hag is said to be cannibalistic. […] In Irish and Scottish lore the hag is also an ugly being, blind or one-eyed, hairy chinned, hunchbacked, and decrepitly old.” Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches, p. 152.
110 Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” p. 137. 111 Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy,” p. 292. 112 Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” p. 135. 113 Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy,” p. 284. 114 Hults, The Witch as Muse, p. 3.
Table 1:
Basically good Generally bad Completely bad
(good) cunning woman (bad) cunning woman witch
(good) fairy familiar (bad) fairy familiar witch familiar
A significant element to consider is that these titles would not have been used consistently. From the Middle Ages onwards, women accused of working with magic, would have been judged based on their actions, logically, performing beneficent acts, would gain a positive title whilst carrying out malevolent actions would result in a negative name. The clearest distinction, which is between that can be made is that the cunning woman and the witch were both human, however the familiar could take possession of humans and animals.116 The fairy familiar and
the witch familiar are thus to be understood as “personal helping spirits” in the service of their master, the cunning women or the witch (see table 1).117 Formulating a clear distinction between the fairy and the witch
familiar based on their characters is hard because both were attributed with acting good and evil.118 However, the witch familiar is fully
submissive to the witch, and the fairy can also act independently. The distinction between a witch and a bad cunning woman is paper-thin and one could even be accused of being both.119 Coherently the familiar would
have been classified depending on actions of the owner.120
116 Ibid. p. 284.
117 “In folklore, the cat is one of the favoured animal companions of witches, sorcerers, and fortune tellers. The cat was sacred to the ancient Egyptians, who associated it with the Moon and Bast, the goddess of marriage. It was also associated with the Mother Goddess, Isis. According to lore, virtually every sorcerer, witch, and Gypsy fortune teller was supposed to have a cat, and sometimes an owl and a toad as well. During the witch-hunts, cats were familiars, they embody demons who performed the witches tasks of Maleficia against their neighbours Black cats were said to be the devil himself. Throughout Medieval Europe, black cats were routinely hunted down and burned, especially on Shrove Tuesday and Easter.” Guiley, The Encyclopedia of Witches,
Witchcraft & Wicca, p. 52.
118 Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy,” p. 297. 119 Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” p. 137. 120 Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy,” pp. 300-301.
The fairy familiar is of no further interest for this thesis except for the fact that they show a remarkably high resemblance to the fairy. The familiar and the fairy were considered capable of helping a suffering human being, although the familiar’s main concern was offering her powers to the witch. Fairies were primarily associated with the ability to divine the future or seek out lost goods. The ability to identify criminals however attributed to both but was in most cases associated with the familiar.121 Fairies and witches in early modern literature should be
considered as demonic spirits, sometimes working together, sometimes working against each other, and both capable of doing good or harm, depending on how they were treated. In general they were both kind hearted and looked after the members of society, but when they were crossed their revenge was bitter.122 For that reason fairies and witches
were to be avoided by humans at all costs.
Fairies and witches were also known for the theft of new-borns for which they would gain magical power.123 A telling reference to this superstition
can be found in Shakespeare’s early modern literature “Macbeth”. This fairy lore derived from the long sustained interpretation that fairies were actually souls of the dead, and fairyland was a different segment of the afterlife. Living beings could visit the fairy realm forced or voluntarily, but when they were caught and unable to leave fairyland their mortal body would die. Humans, in return for a ticket to fairyland, offered their soul to the fairies, resembling the agreement the devil signed with the witches. The theft of new-born’s was ascribed to fairies who actively attempted to enter human souls in fairyland.124 One distinct difference
between the witch and the fairy was that witches were branded by the devil and thus witches were recognizable by the mark, a birthmark or a scar.125 The stereotype of evil and malicious witch images prevailed
121 Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy,” p. 285. 122 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p.57.
123 Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” p. 132. 124 Wilby, “The Witch’s Familiar and the Fairy,” p. 292. 125 Purkiss, “Witchcraft in Early Modern Literature,” p. 132.
during the witch-hunts.126 However, in paintings and illustrations dating
from the sixteenth century, witches were more imbued with anxiety about female power and sexuality.127. In most paintings witches were depicted
engaged in rituals and magic. The German painters Albrecht Dürer (1471-1528) and his student Hans Baldung Grien (1484-1545) were fascinated by witches and their paintings are known for characteristically portraying the valuation and understanding of witches in their time in Germany, fearful and threatening, but also powerful and erotic.128 In the
early seventeenth-century this erotic image became connected to violence and death, emphasising the fear for these creatures.129 During
the Victorian period, painters became more inspirited by the divine and enchanted aspects of witches.130
The Baroque was a flourishing period in Italy and is mostly remembered for the Court’s entertainment ballets, opera’s, masquerades and shows. This enchanting environment became the ideal breeding ground for supernatural beings such as fairies, witches, wizards, gnomes, gods, ghosts, ogre’s and devils.131 Remarkable is the fact that the literary fairy
figure really started to develop in the Age of Reason where ignorance, superstition, tradition and dogmatic faith were countered and opposed by science and objective reasoning.132 The fairy was attributed with a
dominant role within the fairy tale genre, which can be ascribed to the many salonières who transferred a feminine outlook on these tales and emphasized on the importance of the midwives, nannies and godmothers during that time.133 These fairies did not act rightfully or just, they had
split personalities and were capable of mean and almost witchlike actions.134 Another outcome of the Enlightenment was an end to the
126 Hults, The Witch as Muse, p. 2.
127 Zika, “Images of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe,” p. 149. 128 Hults, The Witch as Muse, p. 88.
129 Zika, “Images of Witchcraft in Early Modern Europe,” p. 149. 130 Hutton, The Triumph of the Moon ,p. 136.
131 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 26.
132 Barchilon, “Adaptations of Folktales,” p. 356. 133 Zipes, The Irresistible Fairy Tale, p. 24.
witch-hunt, however this objective approach was not decisive enough to put an end to all belief in witchcraft.135
The Romantics considered women living beyond the restrictions of domestic life, such as the old cunning woman in the woods, a positive thing. This new outlook on nature epitomizing the principle of universal divinity had a significant effect on fairy and witch lore. Women belonging to, and living with, the cultural nature movement gained more social status and influence than women in other circles. The fairy and to a large extent the witch, experienced a transformation from the previous bad categorization to a positive appreciation.136 The witch figure had only a
short period to enjoy this new status, she was quickly put back in her old place. Fairy belief and the fairy figure on the other hand became the ideal figurehead for a nostalgic longing of the past. The image created during the Industrial Revolution, of the fairy associated with a permanent state of childhood innocence, remains vibrant up into the twenty-first century and thus, fairies became innocent and good and witches as their opponent became bad.137
2.3 Resumé
Fairies and witches, do not have one single origin, instead it is a representation of disparate elements derived from ancient myths into folk belief and influenced by literature and illustrations through time. Among the years these two archetypes collected a great variety of names, and also a great variety in degree of valuation. At first the fairy and the witch were both considered to be malevolent and benevolent, their appreciation on the good/bad scale depended completely on their actions, and was not yet determined by their given title. How the title of the fairy eventually became a pleonasm for good and the word witch
135 Hults, The Witch as Muse, p. 2.
136 Bovenschen, “Contemporary Witch,” p. 112.
137 Juliette Wood, “Filming Fairies: Popular Film, Audience Response and Meaning in Contemporary Fairy Lore,” Folklore, no. 3 (2006), p. 281.
became to embody bad was made definitive in the modern era. In the next chapter the evaluation process of the fairy and the witch will become visible in the literary fairy tales.
III
A historical overview of the three tales
Fairy tales are not static, each tale cycle contains a long history of narrative combinations and contaminations, and the version that we recognize today is simply the one that dominates all others. The three tales that proved suitable for this thesis, “Rapunzel,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Cinderella,” have been around for centuries, Cinderella topping them all by having literary antecedents that harken back to the medieval times. Qualifying the degree of familiar likeness and defining the conditions and categories within the narrative cycle proved to be painstakingly difficult and time-consuming. To prevent unclear results and to demarcate this mountainous pile of tales into a functional case study, the ATU classification system based on recurring plot patterns, will serve as guidelines. This chapter will unfold the rich layers of retellings of the classic fairy tales “Rapunzel,” “Sleeping Beauty,” and “Cinderella” and will describe their narrative cycles through three decisive geographical stages.
3.1 Rapunzel
Images of a beautiful girl with long golden hair, locked up in a tall brick tower immediately rise to the surface when the name Rapunzel is mentioned. This instant conceptualization is the result of the many (children’s) books, movies and toys that made the “Rapunzel” tale part of our popular culture. Not only the multiple retellings of “Rapunzel,” but also her re-emerging character in the animation-movie Shrek the Third (2007), the Disney animation Tangled (2010) and Mattel’s Barbie version of Rapunzel contribute to the liveliness of this tale.138 Even though this
tale did not enjoy as many re-retellings or reinterpretations as other
138 Shrek the Third (2007), animation movie, Chris Miller, Raman Hui, California: Dreamworks. Tangled (2010), animation movie, Nathan Greno, Byron Howard, Los Angeles: Walt Disney Animation Studios.
