Of Witches and Fairy Godmothers

So I read through the short stories provided on the resources webpage because I thought those were the ones we were supposed to be reading. If they weren't well...they were about witches. Some of them. The first set of stories seemed to be different versions of the classic Cinderella. I'm not well versed enough on fairy tales to tell which of these is closest to the original telling, so like every child raised on Disney movies I compared it to Disney's Cinderella. No doubt that these stories were certainly a little darker or simply not 'Disney' quality. From whatever region these short stories were made, they differ in focus, details, and sometimes even the subject at hand. I thought it strange that we were given these Cinderella stories to read, considering that if there was a fairy godmother in the stories, she was just that. A fairy godmother. How that's different from a witch--I don't know. Ask Salem.

So the Cinder Maid story sounded closest to the Disney version. There's this daughter and you know the story; her stepmother and stepsisters are cruel and her father is either dead or might as well be dead. Instead of a fairy godmother sort of creature, her wishes are granted by this tree she sits under occasionally. It's pretty much the same story though, with the magic number three order going on that most fairy tales have {you know, the first time, the second time, and then the glorious third that takes the cake}. This story was I guess supposed to be the widely European-known version. The next was Irish, and unlike the first it was more descriptive about the people {so far as giving them names} and the story actually focuses a little more on the princes or royalty fighting over this wonder chick and then at the end the spoils of victory in having won {wife and kids and whatnot}. Instead of a tree, a henwife {whatever that is} is able to grant this Cinderella's wishes {or rather 'Trembling'}. It still doesn't deviate enough from the fairy tale we all know enough to be unrecognizable. The Baba Yaga story...I don't even know. It was cool, it was Russian, and it follows the outline of the Cinderella setting {the unloved child and the mean stepmother} though it seems more...Hansel and Gretel in its structure. I actually liked this story a bit, though it seemed to be a mutt puppy of Mother Goose tales. It actually tapered off to be nothing like Cinderella aside from the cruel stepmother, which was decent for a change {I was getting tired of reading the same story over and over again}. The Wicked Stepmother...had little to do with the Cinderella story as well. It simply took the whole 'evil stepmom and forgotten mother' approach. By the time I read this far through these stories I can see why people flinch when I mention my stepmom {who is quite wonderful actually}. It's from Kashmir and I guess it might have been one of those 'grapevine' twists on a story. How can I explain...er...when a story travels and needs to be translated for other people and to be better understood by a different culture, the story changes to fit their way of life better. What do people in Kashmir care about royal families, princes searching for princesses, and all that like? Don't they have other things that are more important to worry about? What sort of values do they care to impart to their children through these stories?

I know this week was about witches, but when it comes to fairy tales, I can't focus on a witch alone. Fairy tales are sort of like cautionary tales of moral guidelines. 'Don't eat apples given to you by strangers', 'be good to all', 'play fair', 'be polite', 'brush your teeth before bed'{?}, etc.

The Glass Slip-Up was kind of funny though. Here they seemed to play off the American/Disney Cinderella by adding the 'what happens after' and revealing to the reader yet another lesson in life that one shouldn't just ride on beauty alone. Cinderella, or Rell as she prefers to be called, is a crude and pompous lass that brings embarrassment to the royal family, annoying Prince Charming to the point where he's willing to marry this crazy godmother woman at the end rather than remain married to the woman he thought he'd love. This seems to be more of those anti-fairy tales; the sort that takes a fairy tale and shows it up for being too superficial, mostly poking fun at those who were 'fairest in all the land' by giving them an overlooked character flaw that takes away most if not all sympathy you might have had for this character before. I guess you can consider Rosa as a bit of a witch here. Fairy. Whatever. I don't know the difference as I've said before.

Red as Blood was a confusing sort of story that looks like the dark cousin of Snow White and might just be the original. Most fairy tales were actually dark to start with as if they were intended to scare sense into children. I'm not sure if everyone in the story hails Satan or just the Witch Queen. Christ didn't seem to have a great effect on Bianca anyhow. Then the last story about The Faery Handbag just seemed a bit...sad. The person telling it was pretty casual about it, though she went through some very strange crap, and she lost the boy she was starting to love and can't find him now because he's stuck in a purse somewhere.

Witches...

In these stories, they all seem to have a feminist touch. No one can quite tell them what to do and if they can, they'll manipulate the situation to work in their favor. Good or bad, witches know how to perform magic and they do it with both a consideration for those they cast it upon and themselves. After reading these short selections, they seem to be more selfish sorts, but in other stories I have read that also counter the fairy tale stereotypes {or movies that I've watched}, witches can be nice. Does that make them fairies? No. It doesn't. Fairies are different creatures altogether. They're synonymous with natural forces and more unpredictable while having a tendency to cause general mischief. They answer to no one, or they may answer to nature itself. Witches are more human in a sense. They look out for themselves, they might look out for the greater good if they're one of those 'anti-stereotypical' kinds, and they can strike fear into mortal man by merely existing. They are the symbol of feminism in fairy tales, so it's no wonder that in early tales they were made out to be negative.