#Kate crackernuts

[enchantedbook]

'Kate Crackernuts' a Scottish fairytale, illustrated by Morris Meredith Williams (1881 - 1973)

[mikinikiart]

Kate Crackernuts is a Scottish fairytale and it is WILD. Think gender swapped 12 Dancing Princesses, except plus stepsisters who actually like each other and a sheeps head curse 😂 this was so fun to illustrate!

[laurasimonsdaughter]

What if Disney adapted Katie Crackernuts?

I love Kate Crackernuts, so the urge to keep the whole fairy tale intact is very strong, but I think the plot is a little too multi-stage for a true Disney animation (especially since it partly resembles Tatterhood, which we’ve already given a Disney treatment), so lets put on some Renaissance Era (Little Mermaid, Beauty and the Beast etc.) Disney Goggles:

There will be no sister Anne, only Kate, who gets the full Snow White treatment and will be a beautiful princess with an Evil Stepmother who has wickedly enchanted her father into loving him. This isn’t Snow White’s era anymore though, so Kate will be outspoken and stands up to the queen. We see her horseback riding, being kind to people, and being lively and smart.

The nuts need to be more of a reoccurring motif in the story, so Disney will take inspiration from Grimm’s Snow White and The Juniper Tree and show that Kate’s kind mother was buried by a hazelnut tree, under which her daughter finds solace.

Of course the Evil Stepmother is a witch, and she curses Kate, who becomes unrecognizable to everyone who cares for her. Of course we the audience can see she is still our beloved princess, but her own father banishes her when he finds a strange, disheveled girl in his daughter’s bed.

She flees, only stopping at her mother’s hazelnut tree before she goes, roaming around until she passes through a kingdom and happens to see the king, who reminds her of her own father and who looks so sad that when she finds out this is because his only son is dying of an unknown illness, she goes to the palace to find out what is going on. She offers to sit up with the ailing prince.

The prince is very handsome and very vulnerable (think Prince Eric about to drown). Kate sits near his bed, cracking hazelnuts from her apron pockets, and the prince will say something about how no one ever dares to sit up with him. Kate says she will not leave him. She watches him sleep until the clock strikes twelve and the prince suddenly rises, dresses and slips out of the room (looking entranced like Aurora under influence of the spindle).

Kate follows him unseen to the stable and when he takes a horse she takes one too (she does not jump on his horse) and she chases him all the way through a dark wood to a dark, grassy mound.

The three nights will be condensed into one, and to keep the rule of threes there will be inspiration from The 12 Dancing Princesses: the prince will dismount and pass into the hill, over a bridge and through a gate, each time saying “let through the prince, where none will find him”. But each time there will be a hazel tree for Kate to pluck a golden nut from and she will add: “and let through his lady behind him”.

This way they arrive in an underground fairy realm, but the fairies can’t be too pretty nor too demonic, so they’ll probably look impish and a bit grotesque, or very much like whirling spirits. They will dance with the prince and probably sing ominously about dancing yourself to death as you waste away.

The plot with the fairy baby is a bit...odd? It’s adorable, but lacks narrative weight. So Kate will find out that the prince will surely die unless the enchantment on him is broken. But that this will never happen because no one would dare to crack a golden fairy nut to feed it to another.

The poor prince looks very bad when they return at sunrise, despite the glamour over him he nearly falls off his horse, and Kate has to take the reigns of his horse as well as hers to lead them safely back to the castle. The prince still doesn’t notice a thing, he returns to his bed, but when he wakes without the glamour in his eyes, he will see Kate still cracking nuts. She’ll ask him if he wants one. He’ll say no. She’ll show him a golden nut. He’ll protest against cracking it. She’ll crack it anyway and he will be healed, suddenly remembering how he was enchanted and how she bravely followed him.

He will ask her how he can repay her. She will give him a nut and ask it to crack it for her. He does. The enchantment on her is broken and he will have a startled moment where he first sees her as a beautiful princess and ask her if this is still the sweet Kate Crackernuts who followed him into the fairy hill.

They will go to his father, who weeps for joy. The prince will ask if he can marry Kate, the king says he will gladly allow it if Kate wants it too. Kate says she needs to go see her father first.

They go to Kate’s kingdom, the Evil Queen is horrified to see the enchantment was broken on Kate, but she still has the King under a spell. There is a terrible confrontation, and then Kate cracks the third golden nut for her father and he is freed too.

The witch flees, possibly chased, possibly dies. Kate marries her prince. There’s a sweet wedding with music. The end.

Darn, I forgot her animal companion. Ehm….squirrel, big eyes, also likes hazelnuts, runs amok among the fairies for comic relief, there we go.

[joemerl]

Faebruary/Februfairy 2024: "Dance"

Author's Notes: Based the fairy tale "Kate Crackernuts."

The first thing that Prince Malcolm noticed as he woke up was the pain in his swollen legs. Unfortunately, that had become quite familiar by now. Still, he laid there with his eyes closed for a long moment, before finally letting out a groan and turning onto his side with a groan of agony.

The girl named Kate was sitting in the chair beside his bed, watching him with a curious expression.

"What are you doing here?" he mumbled.

She spoke carefully, as though weighing every word. "Your parents told me to watch you. Do you remember that?"

"Yes. But..." He reached out to rub his eyes, wincing as the movement sent a spasm of pain through his legs. "Everyone else they hired disappears," he said, hissing the words between his teeth.

Kate didn't answer, and Malcolm was hardly in the mood to prod her.

"Could you go and get the doctor, please?" He was breathing hard, his brow damp. "My legs—hurt worst of all in the morning."

The girl nodded, though she said "Funny, that. You'd think they'd be better...after a night's rest."

She rose slowly and moved toward the door. She paused with her hand on the latch, then turned back to him.

"Do you like to dance, Prince Malcolm?"

"What?"

"Dance."

Between the sleepiness and the pain, it took Malcolm another moment to collect himself. "I do, actually. Though I obviously haven't been able to—since this all started."

She absorbed his answer gravely before slipping out of the room.

[softlytowardthesun]

Curious: what are your favorite type of fairy stories listed in the Aarne-Thompson enciclopedia classification?

First off, it's nice to meet you and thank you for asking! Secondly, I want to preface this: I'm not a student or a scholar of folklore as a genre, and my knowledge of ATU is limited to what I've managed to find online over the years. More often than not, it's either something I've found on JStor in college, something in a Maria Tatar book, or this website.

Still, I love seeing these stories and all their variations across times and places. Without further ado:

306: The Worn-Out Dancing Shoes: I love the mystery element of this story, and I'm forever intrigued by all the variations of the other world the women travel to, whether it's the palace of Indra, the court of Satan, or something else entirely. Many versions attribute their actions to some curse that must be broken to achieve a heterosexual happy ending, but it's in the in-between that this story really sings to me. And a not-quite-variant of it, "Kate Crackernuts", may just be my favorite fairy tale of all time; how often is the ugly (or at least, "less bonny") stepsister the hero of her own story?

310: The Maiden in the Tower: I'm a sucker for a magical chase, and Rapunzel's relatives absolutely provide. My favorites include "Snow-White-Fire-Red", "The Canary Prince", and "Louliyya, Daughter of Morgan".

311: Magic Flight: Stories of magical escapes from dire situations, like "Sweetheart Roland", "The White Dove", "The Fox Sister", and "The Tail of the Princess Elephant".

407: The Flower Girl: Plants who become women or vice versa, often coupled with an escape from an abusive romance. I love these stories purely for the folkloric weirdness factor: "A Riddling Tale" (shout-out to Erstwhile for introducing me to this one), "The Gold-Spinners", "The Girl in the Bay Tree", and "Pretty Maid Ibronka".

451: Brothers as Birds: This one's purely on my love for the Grimms' "Six Swans" and "Seven Ravens". I love a resilient heroine who draws her strength from her family. I admittedly haven't read many others, but these two mean so much to me they get a place here entirely on the strength of these two.

510B: All-Kinds-Of-Fur: The story of a woman's escape from her incestuous father who then gets a Cinderella ending. I admire the heroine's courage in face of an all too real type of monster. Grimms' is a favorite, as is "Florinda" (which could also qualify as 514), "Princess in a Leather Burqa", "The She-Bear", and "Nya-Nya Bulembu".

514: The Shift of Sex: I first came across this story when I stumbled on Psyche Z. Ready's terrific thesis some years ago and I haven't been able to get it out of my mind since. All of these variations from all over the world -- I find it cathartic to know that we've been asking these questions about gender and sexuality forever, and a happy ending is an imaginative possibility.

709: Fairest of Them All: This I owe squarely to Maria Tatar's anthology from a few years ago. Unfortunately, this also means that there are several I can't find online, including "Kohava the Wonder Child" (a rare Jewish heroine in a genre infamous for how it absorbs anti-Semitism) and "King Peacock" (one of the few African American fairy tales I know, also included in Tatar's collaboration with Henry Louis Gates). I love "Princess Aubergine", "Little Toute-Belle", and especially "Gold-Tree and Silver-Tree" - my little bi self was elated to stumble across a princess who lives happily ever after with her kind and gentle limbo husband and her cunning and resourceful wife.

Even as a hobbyist, I love folklore and fairy tales. I love these little glimpses into other cultures, and I love the way these story structures act as magnets for so many nuances of people's lives across history. Still, I hope this answers your question, gives a glimpse into my experience with fairy tales as a genre, or (at the very least) gives you some new and interesting stories to read!

[enchantedfrogprince]

I'm currently in the process of writing some short DnD sidequests for my Feywilds campaign where the party gets to engage with some pretty wild fairytales I have picked out.

For something a bit more particularly scary and unsettling I am writing up some more dark folk horror type encounters for tales like:

-- Long Tom

-- The Hobyahs

-- Kate Crackernuts

I would also like to have the party come across an abandoned church based off of St. Trinian and let them defend it from a buggane attack during the middle of the night...

Are there any other obscure fairytales or folk horror you can think of that would make a fantastic DnD encounter?

[imsupposedtobestudying-whoops]

The call is coming from inside the painting

[katriniac]

OMG you are in folk fairytales and legend Please can you tell me some of the cuteer ones you found even better if involving bears ? I loved interact with your OC too thanks fir joining and pls relax too from time to time and do not rush in answering me either 🙏🙏 I wish you a wonderful day 🤗🤗😘😘

Yesssss, I love them! Since a very young age I have been an avid reader/student of folklore, fairy tales, myths, and legends. 

Below I talk more about my personal history/feelings on the topic, and end with my three favorite fairy tales. I hope they are “cute” enough for you!

But first I wanted to answer your question about stories featuring bears.

I tried to think of one in my memory where a bear played a prominent part, but turned up empty. I mean, yes, there is the standard “Goldilocks and the Three Bears”, but I assumed you wanted to hear about something off the beaten path. 

So I dug around and found this one for you:

"The Bear in the Forest Hut". 

It is a Slavic folk tale about a prince who was cursed to take the shape of a bear, and the brave and kind woman who helped him out of that curse. She had the typical misfortune to have a stupid father and an ‘evil stepmother’ who tries to stop anything good from happening to the heroine. 

I liked this one because there is plenty of detail about the trials and tests the girl goes through in order to earn the bear’s trust and break his curse. Even more unique is how the story doesn’t just end right when the curse is broken (like so many folk tales). Instead, it goes on at length about how the two get married, travel over his kingdom, and what happens to the stepmother and stepsister.

@queengiuliettafirstlady What are some of your favorite fairy tales and myths?

How did I come to love fairy tales so much?

I think I can trace it back to my godmother, who was an amazing storyteller. She was Irish, so most of the tales she told me came from the British Isles and dated back to the 12th Century or earlier. The stories I most vividly remember her telling me were about the 3rd Century charismatic (but slightly foolish) folk hero Finn MacCool (or Fionn mac Cumhaill) and his very very clever wife Sadhbh. 

As I entered my preteen years (1990s, pre-internet era) a library was built within a 15 minute drive from our rural town. I had never had such a frequent exposure to books before that, except our small school library. My mom would take me to the new public library often and I devoured every book they had on fairy tales and legends.

When I started college, the trend of turning ancient folktales into modern, dark retelling had begun to rise in popularity. Not only was my backpack full of those every week, but now I also had access to scholarly papers through our inter-collegiate online system! I could read published research on people all over the world, those who retraced Charles Perrault’s steps, or compared similar narratives, or discovered a new translation of an old work. It was also during my college years that I discovered The Aaarne-Thompson-Uther index, which categorizes the plots and themes of fairy tales. 

When I learned about Perrault and the ATU Index, it changed my self-image.

Of course kids like fairy tales, but we are expected to grow out of those stories as we mature. I still had a deep love of folklore and myths well into my 20s and that made me feel a little silly and childish. But when I discovered that Charles Perreault (a historian in the 17th Century) believed the stories being shared in the oral tradition were important enough to be written down for posterity, that boosted my spirits. And when I stumbled across the ATU Index (begun in 1910, and continues to be updated annually still to this day), which took fairy tales seriously as anthropological artifacts, I was vindicated even more. 

These historical efforts were proof that folk lore, legends, and fairy tales weren't just for children. 

This short article is a MUST-READ for anyone who wants to have their love for storytelling rekindled and get pumped up to talk about fairy tales. It’s all about hope and courage.  I especially appreciated the excerpt from Katherine Rundell when she talks about “the hope that is sharper than teeth”

As I studied more and more obscure stories from around the world, I soon had a list of my top 4 favorites that I came back to:

Katie Crackernuts

The Twelve Dancing Princesses 

Beauty and the Beast 

The Myth of the Selkie

The middle two I have owned a few printed copies of. They are quite common and have many retellings/variations. But Katie Crackernuts was a story I could only read online; I had never seen it in print. 

There are actually similarities between parts of all three stories, which is probably why I love them so much.

I know you asked for ‘cute’ ones, but I don’t know if these really are that adorable. They all have happy endings for the heroines. Does that count? LOL

Katie Crackernuts (collected by Andrew Lange, first printed 1889)

This is a Scottish story about two sisters, one plain but clever (Katie) and one beautiful but simple (Anne). Despite this difference, they loved and supported one another as much as two sisters could. Through no fault of her own, Anne was cursed (you guessed it, by an evil stepmother) with the head of a sheep (or sometimes a donkey or goat, depending on the version) because the stepmother was jealous of her beauty. Katie put a hood over Anne to disguise her and left the house together, never to return.

They eventually came to the kingdom where there was a sick prince. His parents offered rich rewards for anyone who could heal his mysterious disease. Katie knew there had to be a reason normal medicine wasn’t working. She thought perhaps he was under a curse, too. Yep, he was going out at night in a trance to go under a hill to dance with fairies. So she watched and listened and investigated until she discovered the cure and how to administer it. Turns out the way to lift her sister’s curse was under that hill, as well!

She out-smarted the fairies, collected the items from them, and followed the instructions precisely. He grew well and discovered he loved her during all their time together while she was patiently investigating. When she used the cure on her sister, Anne’s sheep head turned back into a human one and the prince’s brother fell in love with her on the spot (of course he did). It was a lovely double-wedding. 

The Twelve Dancing Princesses (collected by the Brothers Grimm, first printed 1812)

This is about twelve sisters who are constantly tired and ruining their expensive shoes every night, and no one can find out why. The king has offered rich rewards and even marriage to the most beautiful of his daughters, but any man who steps up to the challenge either dies, fails the task, or is never seen again. Until one clever man (who has been watching this happen over and over) decides to try solving the mystery. The eldest sister (the most intelligent and haughty of the siblings) tries to stop him each time, but he outsmarts her as he follows the princesses into a fairy forest where they dance all night until their shoes fall apart and they drop from exhaustion.

Just like Katie in the story before, he is observant and waits until he has all the information and proof he needs to confront the princesses. He convinces the king, who is angry that his daughters were escaping every night. The man explains they were under a spell that compelled them to sneak out. The king offers him the most beautiful daughter (who is also the youngest and the most silly), but the man opts to marry the eldest because she was the only one who came close to matching wits.

Katie Crackernuts has much in common with The Twelve Dancing Princesses.

Both have very strict rules for entering into the world of fairies, and the “wasting sickness” that comes upon a human who spends too much time in that world (which is also a metaphor for other maladies that were rampant during those centuries, such as tuberculosis). I enjoy that theme of “Good luck if you’re beautiful because your looks won’t save you. You need to be wise, patient, and clever in this world.”

Beauty and the Beast

This was one of my favorites long before Disney made their movie. Almost everyone knows how the story goes, so I won’t make this long post even longer by summarizing it here. The bravery and selflessness of the heroine was very inspiring to me, and I loved the idea of being surrounded by talking furniture and not a single human! I was a very introverted kid. And I guess I loved the idea of a sad prince in an unloveable disguise who needed to feel loved.

Another thing I think is neat about that story is there is an actual author: Gabrielle-Suzanne de Villeneuve, published the story in 1740. Most folklore and fairy tales have a shared origin and no single creator. Not so for Beauty and the Beast. This one has a bonafide author, which makes it unique. Not only that, but the author was a woman! 

What Beauty and the Beast has in common with Katie Crackernuts is charity, mercy, humility, and selflessness.

The heroine not only saves herself, but she saves those who are entrusted to her. Who needs a prince, right?? Katie didn’t have to leave home to take care of her cursed sister, but she did. She didn’t have to agree to help the sick prince, but she did. Belle didn’t have to sacrifice herself in her father’s place in that unreasonable pact, but she did. She could have been disagreeable, rude, and throwing herself a pity party the entire time she was captive in the Beast’s castle, but instead she did her best to keep her spirits up and not hate her captor. (Readers: don’t come at me with the whole “Stockholm Syndrome” comment trying to be witty; it’s an old joke that was never funny in the first place.) Katie also tried hard to make the best of an awful situation, and she was never resentful to Anne or put her on a guilt trip. I was inspired by the important values and virtues portrayed by these two heroines.

The Legend of the Selkie

You asked for ‘cute’ stories, but this last one is anything but cute. The Celtic legend of the Selkie is heartbreaking, and there is hardly ever a happy ending. I heard briefly about it as a kid, but never found a published story to read. The oral tradition of the tale goes back to the 13th Century, but it didn’t make it into many books. Then the movie The Secret of Roan Inish came out in 1995. I was 15 at the time and didn’t have my driver’s license yet, so I begged a family member to bring me to the only theater in the entire state that was showing this independent film, over an hour away. It was magical. I bought the DVD as soon as it was available. It was the only thing I could find at that time (remember, the internet wasn’t really used for entertainment in 1995 like it is now) that displayed the Selkie myth, which is:

There are some special seals in the sea who can shed their seal-skin and turn themselves into human women. They are beautiful, quiet, and hard-working. And therefore they are much sought-after as wives by the lonely fishermen of the islands. The legend says that if you find a Selkie in her human form and take her seal-skin away from her, she is yours for the rest of your life. You can imagine the life of servitude that awaits the poor woman! She is usually desperate to turn the house inside out looking for her seal skin and return to the sea, or if she doesn’t find it she will murder her husband.

Fascinating!

Oof, okay. That post went on really long. Sorry. When I start to talk about fairy tales and folklore, I have a difficult time keeping it short, lol. And I didn't even get into the Greek myths! Yikes.

[fairytaleslive]

Anne with Hazel Nuts - a film summary

Following our discussion about Kate Crackernuts adaptations, I want to talk in detail about the Czech TV film based on it, which is called "Anička s lískovými oříšky" (literally "Anne with Hazel Nuts"). You can watch it here on YT.

Because no subtitles (English or other) are available at the moment and I honestly don't know if/when I'll get to doing them (I am working on subtitles for Czech 1969 Cinderella at the moment which is taking longer than I expected...), let me just really quickly sum up this adaptation, so you can follow at least a little bit what's going on.

Young King Štěpán ("Stefan"/"Stephen", played by Jan Čenský) gets lost in the woods during a hunt and finds an old fortress. In it he meets two sisters: Anička ("Anne", played by Linda Rybová) and Katka ("Kate", played by Kristina Jelínková). He and Anne fall in love at first sight, he introduces himself and when the Stepmother (played by Jana Brejchová) appears, he asks for Anne's hand in marriage. He also tells Anne he would always recognize her by her beautiful eyes.

The Stepmother is shocked that he wants Anne and not her own daughter Kate, but hides her displeasure and asks for some time to prepare Anne's dowry before she goes to the castle. Anne asks Stefan for a wedding dress for herself and a dress for Kate and the King is amazed at their bond. She also asks him for a keepsake that would remind her how he got to her and he gives her a branch with hazel nuts that he picked earlier in the forest.

After he leaves, the Stepmother wakes Anne up in the middle of the night and puts a curse on her - to make her ugly (hence the sheep head), mute and unlucky. Kate, who secretly followed them, is horrified, but her Mother doesn't listen to her pleas and wants Kate to replace Anne as Stefan's bride, which she refuses. Kate then takes Anne and they escape the fortress because the Stepmother said that only the King can break Anne's curse by recognizing and marrying her. Angry at Kate's disobedience, the Stepmother curses her too: if Kate says or even hints at Anne's true identity, the curse will be permanent.

At the castle, Kate introduces Anne as her "sickly brother" and names her "Nikdo" (= "Nobody") and they are accepted as new hearth sweepers. The King waits in vain for Anne's arrival, his men come back alone, saying that the fortress was empty when they came. He finds both Kate and Anne familiar but Kate lies to him and says that they never met because she and her "brother" grew up in a mountain cottage. Meanwhile, Kate falls in love with the King's brother, Prince Jaromír (played by Martin Stránský), who walks as a silent ghost during the day and disappears at night. Nobody who guarded him was ever seen again.

Anne thinks that she is the right "Nobody" to succeed in this task. She follows the Prince one night and finds that the Prince disappears into a fairy castle hidden in a mountain. The dragons guarding it let Anne through, as they are not sure whether she is human or an animal. In the fairy castle, the Prince dances all night with the Fairy Queen (played by Gabriela Filippi, singing voice Věra Špinarová) while Anne discovers that her voice is back in the fairy world. The Fairy Queen promises the Prince that he will be able to stay forever once the "goblet of oblivion" is full and he drinks from it, leaving the human world completely.

Anne listens to two elderly fairies (who seem to give her hints on purpose!) who think that the Prince is weak and that he'll have it easier with them in the fairy world. However, they say that if someone who loved him came for him and took him out, the spell that bewitched him would be broken. But to do that, that someone would need a "golden rose" that would protect them from the dragons. Anne exchanges some of her hazel nuts for a golden rose that the son of the Fairy Queen is playing with.

In the morning, the King is surprised that Anne and Kate are alive and Kate claims that the Prince slept all night - as they did. The following night, the King wants to guard his brother with them but Kate gives him a sleeping drink. She then dresses in the gown that she was to wear for Anne's wedding. Her Mother appears, asking Kate to cooperate, to bound the King to herself with spells and to close the door behind the Prince and Anne, so they can never leave the fairy world. Kate bravely resists her, saying that she doesn’t need magic or power, because she has something better (i.e. love).

Kate then follows Anne and the Prince and uses the golden rose to get inside the fairy castle (at which the two elderly fairies loudly marvel :)). She then introduces herself to Jaromír and takes him away. Meanwhile, Anne hears the fairies talking about the "golden spikelets" the Fairy child is playing with. Apparently, Kate is supposed to make a flat cake from them and give it to the Prince, if she wants to keep him in the human world. Anne again barters with the child and in the morning, Kate gives the flat cake to the Prince.

The King is amazed that his brother is smiling and talking and the Prince asks Kate to marry him right away (those royal brothers don't waste any time :)). During the wedding, Anne is laughed at by the other guests and called names. She takes her wedding dress and leaves for the fairy kingdom. The King is suspicious of Kate and Anne's identities and angrily questions Kate who denies everything. But then he finds a branch of hazel nuts in place of Anne's wedding dress. Kate begs him for forgiveness for lying and explains that she mustn't say anything otherwise there will be no cure.

The King looks for Anne and follows her to the fairy kingdom. He fights with the dragons before finding the golden rose Kate left there, so he is let in. In the fairy castle, Anne offers herself as a new subject to the Fairy Queen who is ready to kindly accept her and gives her the "goblet of oblivion" to drink from. Stefan comes right in time, smashes the goblet and tells Anne that he recognizes her (f**king finally!!!). When he kisses her cheek, the spell is broken and they find themselves back in the castle, with overjoyed Kate and Jaromír. The Stepmother tries to get into the fairy kingdom (possibly to stop Stefan) but without the golden rose, she is killed by the dragons. Both couples celebrate their weddings while the Fairy Queen, seemingly content with love prevailing, sings.

THE END

[tromroan]

🌺🥀🌹🌷🔪💐🌸🌼🌻

[bookshelf-in-progress]

What I think is going to happen in Lent: Cutting down on mindless scrolling means I will actually finish the stories on my to-do list.

What actually happens during Lent: Cutting down on mindless scrolling time means that I look back at old WIPs and get distracted by wanting to write those, and then I don't finish anything.

[poncivalpishpuff]

My NeverAfter OC (warning spoilers up to ep 6ish)

Princess Catrìona

 Sister of Kate Crackernuts

  (Kah-tree-nah) The Scottish Gaelic name for Katherine (Kate)

The story of Kate Crackernuts

"Kate Crackernuts" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Andrew Lang in the Orkney Islands and published in Longman's Magazine in 1889. The tale is about a princess who rescues her beautiful sister from an evil enchantment and a prince from a wasting sickness caused by dancing nightly with the fairies.

In the original version, both sisters have the name “Kate” and are the same age.

First Neverafter (Ep1-3]

Closely follows the original tale, with the dark times coming after their story ‘ended’

Both grew up in a Small forgotten kingdom bordering Jubilee

Catríona is the daughter of the King and Kate Crackernuts is the daughter of the new Queen (The Stepmother)

The Hen-wife and the Stepmother on the third try trick her into losing her beautiful head and switching it for a sheep’s one when she is 18

Kate grabbed Catríona's human head and they ran away to fend for themselves, where they came upon the kingdom of Jubilee

Kate finds that one of King Cole’s sons is sick, and goes on to watch him for three nights, following him to the Green-hill where faeries force him to dance the night away

Over three nights Kate gets the cures for her sister and the prince

Kate Crackernuts reunited Catríona with her human head and healed King Cole’s sick son from the wasting

The sick, now healed, son marries Kate and the good son marries the ill, now healed, Catríona [Their Happily Ever After]

As the war came to Jubilee they fought alongside their husbands and died on the battlefield at the age of 24

Present day post merging of the two lives:

The faeries of the Green-hill bring back Catriona into the new world

as something (the Stepmother) has reached Kate first,

they didn’t want to summon either of the princesses, but the princes have disappeared, due to Jubilee not existing, in this new version

the Mother Goose putting Old King Cole in the book, and his kingdom disappearing from the Neverafter [fairies and Catriona don’t know this]

in this world the Stepmother has stolen her human head and locked Kate away somewhere, stopping them both from escaping together

The second world Catriona had left her father’s castle on her own scared of her Stepmother who stole her head and of what the people would say of her sheep head.

Neither sister completed their set stories

Fairies task Catriona with finding the source of the stories going missing and bring it to them, for Catriona and Kate cannot have their happily ever after if their princes doesn’t exist

Throughout her journey in her second life, she has started to doubt the sincerity of the fairies, but for the major part still sees them as the preferable side and an opponent to The Stepmother

Returned around the same time as PCs despite dying much earlier than the group, the faeries were reluctant to employ a princess and spent more time trying to find other methods, the reluctance is noticeable to Catriona when she is in the in-between with the faeries of the Green-Hill

we'll see what happens in Tuffeton, but I think she would be tailing the party after hearing news of the disappearance of the massive spider that had taken the village previously

Her new body/skills

the stepmother still has her human head and in turn, Catriona now has the head of a ewe with curling horns she can use to ram her opponents. [Minotaur reskin]

she speaks with a sheepish lisp as she had to reteach herself how to speak common as she initially could only bleat when her head was stolen

she can speak to any type of sheep, and understands some goat tongue

This Catriona has been wondering the Neverafter after running away, studying magic as a force to rescue her sister, and combat the Stepmother [3rd level Fighter Eldritch Knight]

Break down of her Image

The head is of a Scottish Blackface sheep, where the ewes also have horns The armour is believed to be dated around 1515 from Greenwich, England, and belonged to Henry VIII The sword is a European sword dated around 1400AD The page is from a 16th Century manuscript written in Latin, Scots, and Gaelic

Again all original art and character designs are by Giuseppe Lama

[eruanna1875]

Four Loves Challenge: Kate Crackernuts (Storge)

So I was really excited about the Four Loves Challenge, put on by @inklings-challenge, but what with life and sickness and new projects collaring me in a dark alley and dragging me away, I didn't have time to finish the project I was hoping for. I'm still hoping to complete and post it at some point, though.

BUT, I still wanted to do something, so I decided to make a bit of art. In the past week or so, I found this really interesting fairy tale. Since it had such a strong familial element, I decided to pick that!

The story is "Kate Crackernuts", an old Scottish story, and it's about two sisters named Kate and Anne. When the jealous queen enchants Anne's head into a sheep, the sisters go out to seek their fortunes together. They find a castle where two brothers live, and one of them is very sick (whoever watches over him at night vanishes). Kate offers to stand watch, and discovers that he is hypnotized by the fairies into riding out and dancing all night in their rounds. So she has to find a way to cure both him and her sister (it ends up involving a fairy baby and, you guessed it, some nuts).

This one really caught my eye. I loved the fact that it had so much emphasis on these sibling relationships - that would be a huge focus in a retelling for me, deepening those even further, and even contrasting them. Plus, the fact that it's a fairy baby that holds the solution could potentially play into more themes of family.

Well, I hope y'all like it! I wish I could've done some writing, but I'm pretty happy with this moodboard anyway. :)

[pedantedecabraowo]

Some Eah Oc’s scetches.

1-Rusty, son of the Brother Fox from Uncle Remus, rebel. He’s silly

2- Thistle Little, son of the fairy baby from Kate Crackernuts, royal. Nerdy nerd. He has a cat-e-pillar who’s name is Leaf and she’s giant baby with fur hugs.

4- Regina Ros-ban-dearg, daughter of Russian Princess from The Remarkable Rocket, royal and gorgeous

[adarkrainbow]

It is quite fascinating how the United-States formed their own little corpus of “classic” fairytales that is basically a mixed salad, or - just like their country - a melting pot. 

Basically, Americans selected a few of each fairy tales from the “great groups” and knows these fairytales by heart, while completely ignoring the other fairy tales that came with them.

Americans know very well the Three Billy Goats Gruff, or “East of the Sun, West of the Moon”, but do not have any idea of who Asbjørnsen or Moe are. Maybe if they hanged out a bit on the Internet they’ll have heard of Prince Lindworm, and if they are a diehard fan of Tolkien they’ll know of Soria Moria Castle - but that will be it. On the 150 Norwegian fairytales collected by the “Grimms of the North”.

Similarly, Americans will know by heart a trilogy of English fairytales: Jack and the Beanstalk, Goldilocks and the Three Bears, and The Three Little Pigs. But all the other stories collected by Joseph Jacobs are ignored by the general American audience - Cap O’Rushes, The Buried Moon, Kate Crackernuts... 

And of course, same thing with the French stories. Every “general” fairytale book in America will have Perrault’s Cinderella or Puss in Boots, all the while ignoring his other stories (that are known by every kid in France) such as Donkeyskin or Little Thumbling. 

There’s a truly “pick and choose those you’ll like best” mindset in the American perception of fairytales. Even with the fairytales Americans know the best about - like the Grimm fairytales. On the hundreds of stories, it all gets down to Snow-White, Briar Rose, Rapunzel, The Frog King (well, Prince as most people make the mistake), Hansel and Gretel, and maybe a few others.

And by selecting this handful (or sometimes less of a handful) of fairytales from each country, from each author, from each era, Americans formed together a sort of given set of “classic” fairytales they keep rehashing and repeating and reusing and re-deconstructing throughout their fictional works. 

[softlytowardthesun]

Fictional character ask: Kate Crackernuts?

Favorite thing about them: Her ingenuity and cleverness. She wins because she is observant and quick-thinking, but always compassionate and caring towards others.

Least favorite thing about them: She doesn't have as much interiority as other fairy tale characters, so it's harder to get a read on the nuances of her character at times.

Three things i have in common with them:

I have sisters, and I'd put everything on the line for them.

I am no good at parties and mostly keep to myself (which she uses to her advantage at the fairy balls in the mound).

I like to think I'm clever and good at problem solving.

Three things i don’t have in common with them:

I'm on great terms with my parents.

I have a much less easy time finding employment.

I'm not sure I could be as bold as she is.

Favorite line: Kate doesn't get many lines in her story (tying back into the problem under "least favorite thing").

brOTP: Her step-sister Anne. The only other example of step-sibling solidarity I know of in fairy tales is "The Juniper Tree".

OTP: Her prince. Granted, they don't spend much time together, but she did save her life, and I guess they bonded while cracking nuts together.

nOTP: idk.. her father-in-law? the fairy court?

Random Headcanon(s):

Kate knew about her mother's plot from the beginning, and she interfered to make sure Anne didn't show up at the hen wife's hut on an empty stomach.

Kate grew up a peasant and her mother became queen thanks to the hen wife. That's why she has knowledge of the local plant life and geography, essential survival skills in challenging times.

This story would blend well with "The Tale of the Hard Nut" from "The Nutcracker", Grimms' "Snow White and Rose Red", and the Norwegian story of "Tatterhood". I'm hoping to write a crossover some day.

Unpopular Opinion: Since this story isn't nearly as well known as it deserves, I don't really know what the "consensus opinions" are on it. I guess I just want it to be better known.

Song i associate with them: There's this song I found on Spotify a few years back, and "Dance of the Dolls" from Nutcracker Fantasy, which is part of why I made the connection in the first place.

Favorite picture of them:

The classic image of her in her hiding spot, tempting the fairy baby:

And this one of the sisters on the run, from @sashacrackernuts