Hi everyone,
For
something a little different I thought I would write about using myths, legends
and fairytales as inspiration.
Of
course as writers we know that certain fairytales have become common tropes in
romance writing. And that is not a criticism by any means, just an observation
and a fact. Fairytales we see often are – Cinderella, Beauty and the Beast and
Little Red Riding Hood to name a few. There is something familiar and almost
safe about these stories. Perhaps it is because they trigger recognizable feelings
within us. We know deep down that when presented with another form of Cinderella,
good will triumph and our heroine will get the happy ever after or at least the
happy for now she deserves.
Beauty
and the Beast is another popular choice. We see it in many forms, from the
tortured bad boy to the emotionally scarred Lord of a period romance (oooh, I
love those ones!). Yet echoes of this tale can be found long before the
recognisable Belle and her Beast. The tale of Cupid and Psyche incorporate aspects
of the B&B formula.
Psyche
is given (to appease the gods) to an unseen bridegroom. Even though she can
feel his touch, the room is dark and she cannot see him. Her sisters, jealous
that their baby sister lives in such luxury tell her that her new husband must be
a monster (why else would he not show himself?) The result is Psyche follows
her sisters’ advice (silly girl), waits until he is asleep and brings in a lamp
and knife to kill him. Of course she is confronted by the beautifully handsome
Cupid and not a monster. As she had violated his trust, Psyche must endure
years of wandering and tribulation before she can be reunited with her love.
Another
fairytale which follows the same lines is Hans my Hedgehog. Our heroine, when
forced to marry Hans (a Grufflehog- a mixture of man & hedgehog) sees a monster. Yet as
days go by she realises that there is more to him, he is kind and gentle. Each
night he can remove his quills like a jacket to reveal a more than handsome
hero beneath the fur. The heroine believes that she could live with a monster
in the day and a handsome lover at night, but listens to her family. Break the
curse... burn his quilled jacket. She does and loses her husband and just like
Psyche she is cast out and must wander, and is tested until she can prove her
love.
This
choice of a ‘monster’ by day and a beautiful lover at night can also be seen in
the tale told by the Wife of Bath in Chaucer’s Canterbury tales.
Another
interesting aspect (at least I think so) is the way stories of the past were
shared. I don’t mean the evolving stories told by oral tradition but rather how
they were quite literally shared.
An
example of this is the awful, and I mean awful ‘Tale of Patient Griselda’.
Three versions of the same story; today it would have been a case for plagiarism,
but back in the 14th century apparently not so much. Most people
come by this story through ‘The Canterbury Tales’ (the Clerk’s Tale), however
there were two other versions circulating around a similar time frame. Each
story is slanted in a different way but the tale is generally almost word for
word. Griselda is the tenth story of the tenth day in Boccaccio’s Decameron (an
earthy telling), then Petrarch’s version (more spiritual) and finally Chaucer’s
version which seems to be a combination of the two.
And
why do I say it’s awful? Well, I hated that poor Griselda is plucked from
obscurity (the tiny village on the lord’s land) and married to Gualtieri the
Marquess on the proviso that she promises to obey him in every aspect – action,
word and even thought. To see that she stays true to her promise he tests her
constantly, even to the point of taking away their children and casting her
back to the village. After years of abuse he finally realises that she has not
only kept her promise but loves him (God, only know why because half way through
the story I was ready to drop him over the nearest cliff). Yet, no matter how
much I hated it (all three versions), it did have the whole trial and
tribulation that each hero/heroine must suffer through to earn their happily
ever after.
Perhaps
this is why the old stories endure and are reinvented constantly. They carry us
on the not only physical but emotional journey alongside our hero. We feel
their pain, learn through their adversity and finally celebrate in their triumph.
Talking
about different tropes, my ‘Cinderella’ story – Dancing on Air will be released
by Escape Publishing on the 1st of November.
Thanks
for stopping by.
Nicóle xx
Sources,
Metamorphoses
– Apuleiulus
Decameron – Boccaccio
The Canterbury Tales – Chaucer
Grimm Tales – The Brother Grimm.
Images
Bigstock - Cupid & Psyche
Hedgehog - free image
Girl - Frank Dogan Cowper (1877-1958)
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