#Renfri is snow white

[a-kind-of-merry-war]

If i see another person claiming that The Little Mermaid was invented by Disney I'm going to start biting

Hans Christian Andersen did not create a story of queer yearning and alienation to be insulted like this!!

[stromuprisahat]

Genya's story could esily be re-written into Snow White. Renfri of Grishaverse with the King instead of the huntsman, if you will:

‘Geralt,’ she said, ‘I used to be a princess. I had everything I could dream of. Servants at my beck and call, dresses, shoes. Cambric knickers. Jewels and trinkets, ponies, goldfish in a pond. Dolls, and a doll’s house bigger than this room. That was my life until Stregobor and that whore Aridea ordered a huntsman to butcher me in the forest and bring back my heart and liver. Lovely, don’t you think?’ ‘No. I’m pleased you evaded the huntsman, Renfri.’ ‘Like shit I did. He took pity on me and let me go. After the son-of-a-bitch raped me and robbed me.’

Another change would be the Queen needs to keep the "Princess" around for some reason, only in much humiliated state.

And the Prince wouldn't save her with a kiss (Let's be honest- probably not his first thought.), but his wits concocting the antidote for the poison the Queen eventually uses on her.

It would also offer them something to bond over.

edit: The poison's made by Genya herself. Either intended for the Queen and stolen, or the Queen tricked her to make it as if for someone else and gave it to her secretly.

[inexplicifics]

I just wanted to stop by to say that I’m on some uncounted re-read of AWAU and I only just now put it together that That Is Born Out Of Agony is also a retelling of Snow White! 😅 Now I’m going to go wonder what else I’ve missed 😅

Thank you for all you do! I love your work!

Renfri's original story is Snow White But Bleak, so I took it and made it Snow White But With More Agency. I'm glad you enjoyed it!

[adarkrainbow]

The fairytale world of The Witcher

The Witcher is first and foremost a work of fantasy and as such, of course, when looking at the inspirations of Sapkowski, we have to look at fantasy works. For example the early worldbuilding and characters of The Witcher world bear the heavy mark of D&D (Jaskier is a cliche D&D Bard, the classification of elemental genies is traight out of D&D, there's the handlings of "druids", etc...), while the main character clearly has parallels with Moorcock's Elric (white-haired wanderer-warrior who knows magic and uses elixirs, drugs to maintain his fighting abilities, philosophizes a lot about the ending of an age and the future of humanity and the doom he is condemned to). However, The Witcher is also, primarily, a fairytale work.

[EDIT: So I am used to call Jaskier "Jaskier" but in English he is called Dandelion apparently... So know that when I talk of Jaskier, I'm talking about Dandelion]

And I am not just saying that in the way that almost all major fantasy works are inspired by fairytales, no. It tends to be lost on people due to how they usually know derived incarnations of this series, but The Witcher stories started out as full on fairytale rewrites. More precisely: subversives parodies of fairytales using dark humor, a gritty tone proper to dark fantasy, and fantasy tropes in general mixed with some folklore sprinkled here and there.

Of all the Witcher books, the first two are the ones where this logic is on full display, forming the core of each tale. If you ever missed it, here is a little list of the fairytale references in them. [Note: I am using the French translation so I might miss some stuff or write them strangely for those used to the English translations or the original Polish]

Book 1: The Last Wish

Many people might be surprised to learn that the first story, "The Witcher", is actually the parody of a specific fairytale. It might seem to be just a take on the vampire as it appears in Eastern European folklore, but in truth Sapkowski rewrote a tale that you probably do not know. Why? Because none of the "great" collectors or writers have it: it doesn't appear in Andersen, Grimm, Perrault, Aulnoy, Basile, Straparola, or whoever else you might name. It is however a fully classified fairytale-type that is VERY present and popular in Eastern Europe, hence why it appears in The Witcher: the Aarne-Thompson classified it as type 307, "The Princess in the Shroud/The Princess in the Coffin". The closest thing you'll find to a version of this in the "classical" corpus is a Danish fairytale that Andrew Lang placed in his Pink Fairy Book: The Princess in the Chest (and Paul Delarue centered his own French-specific classification of this type around the story "La Ramée and the Phantom"). In interviews the author explained he took "a Polish fairytale" where "the royal daughter transformed into a monster because of the incest of her parents, as a punishment", but I don't known which story prcisely he used.

The second story, A Grain of Truth, is much more obvious, as it is a farcical take on Beauty and the Beast (with some flavors of Undine in it).

The third story, The Lesser Evil, introduces the Curse of the Black Sun, which is the in-universe existence for the "maidens in the tower" and all these princesses that princes have to rescue from doorless buildings (interwoven with the figure of Lilith). The cases of Fialka and Bernika are obviously inspired by the tale of Rapunzel. However the real character of the story, Renfri, is The Witcher's dark take on Snow-White.

A Question of Price is a large mix. The storyline is actually a retelling of Hans My Hedgehog, but exploring the fairytale trope that in Witcher terms is called "the law of surprise" - the episode of someone in need striking a deal with a supernatural being for help, and unwillingly selling away their children (it is most famously illustrated by Grimm's "The Girl without Hands"). One of the "historical" illustrations of this trope in the Witcher universe is a version of Rumplestiltskin (queen Metinna and Rumplestelt). There's also references to great heroes that served as an example of such "fate-striken children" sold to a mysterious stranger - but if there's a cultural nod there, I didn't get it. Finally several fairytales are referred during the discussions: Baba-Yaga and Cinderella are briefly said to exist while "A Question of Price" takes place. And Pavetta's magic is not related to fairytales, but rather to the strange cultural motif of "puberty-induced or virginity-linked psychic powers" found from poltergeists to Carrie.

The fifth story, The Edge of the World, is the only one of the collection not dealing with fairytales. It is rather a tale mixing on one side rural folklore, farming superstitions, field spirits and harvest gods, with on the other an exploration of the fantasy trope of "disappearing elves".

The sixth story, The Last Wish, is all about wish-granting genies, with a strong influence from the tale "The Fisherman and the Jinni".

Book 2: Sword of Destiny

The first story, The Bounds of Reason, is not deconstructing a fairytale per se, but rather the entire myth of the dragon-slaying. You find references to many elements of said myth: "You must kill the dragon to claim the princess", the saint-knight figure interpreting dragons as pure evil, the band of dwarves famed for slaying a dragon seem to me a nod to The Hobbit. But mainly, we see that the tale begins as a subversion/expansion on the legend of Smok Wawelski, the Dragon of Wawel, known to some as the Dragon of Cracovia. There's also a mention of bridge-trolls (The Three Billy Goats Gruff).

The second story, A Shard of Ice, is not linked to fairytales per se, but uses a motif taken directly from The Snow Queen (and in-universe, the fairytale of the Snow Queen is said to be an embellished version of the Wild Hunt).

The third story, Eternal Flame, has no fairytale theme, it is just a pure fantasy story.

The fourth story, A Little Sacrifice, opens and closes on the in-universe love story that caused the story of The Little Mermaid to exist (turns out it is a ballad by Jaskier, the actual romance went much happier, though not smoother). Also, the under-sea city is explicitely compared to the city of Ys, which is a big legend of France.

With the fifth story, Sword of Destiny, we go back into a lot of fairytale nods (it helps that it is a direct sequel to "A Question of Price"). The "Last Forest" of Brokelion is a nod to Brocéliande, the legendary forest of Arthurian legends. Geralt tells Ciri the fable of the Fox and the Cat. Freixenet turns out to have been the inspiration for the fairytale of "The Wild Swans", which in-universe is a ridiculous exaggeration and mistelling of what truly happened.

The sixth story, "Something More", only is "fairytale-y" as it reuses the saw "surprise-child/law of destiny" elements already prepared and presented by A Question of Price and Sword of Destiny.

Afterward, from what I understood (I haven't read the third book onward), the fairytale elements are dropped to rather put focus on the exploration of the fantasy and folkloric elements - but it is always useful to know that it started out as basically a dark humor /dark fantasy take on fairytales.

[asarum-aurum]

Things I have learned while reading The Witcher series

Anyone who thought netflix was confusing because of different timelines. The first two books/short story collections are just like that.

I significantly prefer the book version of how sorcerers don’t physically age and how they loose reproductive ability

Every story is a dark version of a fairy tale. Ciri is little red riding hood, Renfri is Snow White, etc.

I love Renfri no matter the media

Jesus Christ the smell of lilac and gooseberries is mentioned any time Yennifer is even mentioned

I am still very pro yen/geralt/jasiker

[this-will-get-messy]

the good and the bad part II

and then there's the netflix-Witcher writing decisions I cannot abide by

like omitting the fact that Renfri slept with men for a warm meal, presumably in an attempt to "take her seriously", when that was one of the things that actually made Renfri, who was a Snow White parody in the book, a Serious Character (TM) at least to me

[oh2e]

I enjoy how Renfri’s story is very much influenced by Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, but I can’t unsee Joan of Arc in her either.

[bylightofdawn]

So I started a rewatch of Witcher Season One because it's been a hot minute since I watched it. Pretty sure I only watched it when it aired so my memory is definitely not as great as it should be. Things standing out to me:

1) I still continue to detest the hefty garbage bag armor Cahir/Nilfgaar soldiers where in this season. It is such a STRANGE choice. Yes, boiled leather armor did exist (Which I'm assuming is what this is supposed to be yet why they go from this to plate mail for the other seasons is beyond me) but it I've never seen an example that looks like that. But boiled leather armor that was embossed and sculpted is a thing that happened in history so I'm willing to admit it might be out there but holy shit it looks like wrinkled up black garbage bags. It's also shit armor compared to the plate armor Cahir is rocking in later seasons but that's neither here nor there. LOL I wonder if there's some behind the scenes stuff with the series armorer about the choices they made. I'd actually be interested to see that. I geek out over historical armor in case ya'll can't tell.

2) I forgot how much I DETESTED the random way they were jumping all over the timeline and how fucking LOST I was the first time through. There's really no reason to literally have three+ parallel time lines running all at the same time. It CONFUSES your audience. Especially when you get to the flash back scenes where Geralt ends up in Cintra for Duny's whole Law of Surprise thing with Pavetta before Ciri is even born yet we're following Ciri in the same episode. I just....that was a Choice. A ballsy one and one I question even now. Especially since they immediately do a switch to a pretty linear timeline for seasons 2 & 3.

3) Rewatching the stuff with Duny and Pavetta now knowing what I know about Emhyr is just.... SO ICKY AND UNCOMFY. The whole 30 year old man marrying a 15 year old is hard enough to swallow but he clearly spent a year seducing her and it's just.....BLECH. I try and put aside modern sensibilities as much as I can when engaging in historical fiction but that one is pretty hard to swallow. And then of course the incest and yeaaaaah there's a lot of uncomfy stuff in this series. I was talking to Lisia about how I keep forgetting how grimdark and bleak the show is in between seasons only to get smacked in the face with it.

4) I really want a spin off series with Renfri. She is such a FASCINATING character and APPARENTLY, she was a bastardized version of Snow White??? Fuuuuuck I want more of that but alas, I know that's just a pipe dream doomed for failure.

I'm only on episode 4 so we'll see what I pick up in the second half of the series. I'm sure I will have some more lukewarm takes.

[ackermental]

All of that plus I love how this bitch is acting like if nobody has ever thought about twisting Snow White fairy tale during those 85 years. As if we didn't get perfectly enjoyable Snow White and the Huntsman or absolutely badass Renfri from Lesser Evil. You are inventing nothing. You are giving art culture nothing. You are giving little girls shit. Shut your stupid mouth.

I Hate How She Talks About Snow White

"People are making these jokes about ours being the PC Snow White, where it's like, yeah, it is − because it needed that. It's an 85-year-old cartoon, and our version is a refreshing story about a young woman who has a function beyond 'Someday My Prince Will Come. "

Let me tell you a little something's about that "85-year-old cartoon," miss Zegler.

It was the first-ever cel-animated feature-length full-color film. Ever. Ever. EVER. I'm worried that you're not hearing me. This movie was Disney inventing the modern animated film. Spirited Away, Into the Spider-Verse, Tangled, you don't get to have any of these without Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs (1937.)

It was praised, not just for its technical marvels, not just for its synchronized craft of sound and action, but primarily and enduringly because people felt like the characters were real. They felt more like they were watching something true to life than they did watching silent, live-action films with real actors and actresses. They couldn't believe that an animated character could make kids wet their pants as she flees, frightened, through the forest, or grown adults cry with grieving Dwarves. Consistently.

Walt Disney Studios was built on this movie. No no; you're not understanding me. Literally, the studio in Burbank, out of which has come legends of this craft of animated filmmaking, was literally built on the incredible, odds-defying, record-breaking profits of just Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs, specifically.

Speaking of record-breaking profits, this movie is the highest-grossing animated film in history. Still. TO THIS DAY.

In fact, it made four times as much money than any other film, in any other genre, released during that time period. It was actually THE highest-grossing film of all time, in any genre, until nothing less than Gone With the Wind, herself, came along to take the throne.

It was the first-ever animated movie to be selected for the National Film Registry. Actually, it was one of the first movies, period, to ever go into the registry at all. You know what else is in the NFR? The original West Side Story, the remake of which is responsible for Rachel Ziegler's widespread fame.

Walt Disney sacrificed for this movie to be invented. Literally, he took out a mortgage on his house and screened the movie to banks for loans to finish paying for it, because everyone from the media to his own wife and brother told him he was crazy to make this movie. And you want to tell me it's just an 85-year-old cartoon that needs the most meaningless of updates, with your tender 8 years in the business?

Speaking of sacrifice, this movie employed over 750 people, and they worked immeasurable hours of overtime, and invented--literally invented--so many new techniques that are still used in filmmaking today, that Walt Disney, in a move that NO OTHER STUDIO IN HOLLYWOOD was doing in the 30's, put this in the opening credits: "My sincere appreciation to the members of my staff whose loyalty and creative endeavor made possible this production." Not the end credits, like movies love to do today as a virtue-signal. The opening credits.

It's legacy endures. Your little "85-year-old cartoon" sold more than 1 million DVD copies upon re-release. Just on its first day. The Beatles quoted Snow White in one of their songs. Legacy directors call it "the greatest film ever made." Everything from Rolling Stones to the American Film Institute call this move one of the most influential masterpieces of our culture. This movie doesn't need anything from anybody. This movie is a cultural juggernaut for America. It's a staple in the art of filmmaking--and art, in general. It is the foundation of the Walt Disney Company, of modern children's media in the West, and of modern adaptations of classical fairy tales in the West. When you think only in the base, low, mean terms of "race" and "progressivism" you start taking things that are actually worlds-away from being in your league to judge, and you relegate them to silly ignorant phrases like "85-year-old cartoon" to explain why what you're doing is somehow better.

Sit down and be humble. Who the heck are you?

[super-oddity]

Fairytales of The Witcher

Adda the White → The Princess in the Coffin

Princess Adda the White of Temeria was cursed while in her mother’s womb. Her and her mother died during labor and were buried in a double coffin beneath her family’s palace in Vizima.

Years later, the curse was realized when Adda awoke as a striga and killed everyone in the palace. She went on to terrorize the townspeople, at which point Geralt was brought in to deal with her. Adda attacked at night, and Geralt was told that if someone could keep her from returning to her coffin past the third crowing of the rooster then she would be cured.

Renfri Vellga → Snow White

Nehalenia’s Mirrors are used by prophets and oracles to predict the future. Herself in possession of one, Queen Aridea (Renfri’s stepmother) learns that a horrible death will come to her and a great number of others at Renfri’s hand. To prevent this, Aridea hires a huntsman to take Renfri into the forest and kill her, instructed to return with her heart and liver. Instead, the huntsman rapes her and is killed himself.

Another attempt on Renfri’s life is made using an apple seasoned with nightshade. She is saved by a gnome, one of seven she would come to live with and whom she convinces to assist her robbing merchants rather than continuing their work in the mines.

Now seventeen (four years after the huntsman’s death), Renfri is believed to be responsible for killing her stepmother, father, and eldest half-brother. The wizard Stregobor turns her, fallen into a lethargy, into a slab of mountain crystal.

Renfri is discovered by a prince, who reverses the spell and takes her home to his kingdom.

A Grain of Truth → Beauty and the Beast

The beast in question is Nivellen, who raped a priestess of Coram Agh Tera and was subsequently cursed with the appearance of a humanoid creature with a gigantic, hairy, bear-like head and strong paws to match.

Once cursed, Nivellen’s home does whatever he wishes; conjuring food, drink, clothes, clean linen, hot water, soap; opening and closing windows and doors; lighting fires; such small tasks.

One day Nivellen caught a trespasser stealing a rose from his aunt’s bush. Enraged, he confronted the man; remembering stories from his youth about love breaking curses, he proposed a trade for his stolen property: “Your daughter or your life.”

Nivellen began taking in merchants’ daughters for a year at a time, during which they would grow accustomed to his appearance and live comfortably. Nivellen came to realize spending the night with a virgin maiden would lift his curse; ultimately, it was only possible with true love, which he found with the bruxa Vereena.

Duny of Erlenwald → Hans My Hedgehog

Duny, the Urcheon of Erlenwald, was cursed as a child to look like a humanoid hedgehog. Some years later he came upon the wounded King Roegner of Cintra. After saving him, he invoked the Law of Surprise: upon returning home, King Roegner will owe Duny what he finds yet did not expect. This could be anything from a bountiful crop to a living person. When King Roegner retured home, he found his wife had given birth to Princess Pavetta.

Duny began meeting with Pavetta in secret, and the couple fell in love. At a feast meant to honor Pavetta’s fifteenth birthday, Duny presented himself to the queen and declared that declared that Pavetta was his through the Law of Surprise. Queen Calanthe’s violently opposed the couple, but ultimately they were wed and Duny’s curse lifted.

Rumplestelt → Rumplestiltskin

Queen Zivelina of Metinna achieved her position with the help of the gnome Rumplestelt, and in return promised him her first-born.

Prince Hrobarik → Prince Charming

Prince Hrobarik tried to hire Geralt to look for a girl who had fled the prince’s ball (and his advances), leaving behind a glass slipper.

Ratcatchers → The Pied Piper

For a period of time, ratcatchers with pipes were in high demand. Everybody was fighting over their services. Their business was eventually foiled by alchemists and their poisons.

Geralt → Aladdin

Geralt finds a lamp and frees a djinn from its confines who in turn grants him three wishes; the first for the djinn to “get out of here and go fuck yourself”, due to a mistranslated exorcism; the second for a prison guard to burst, which he promptly does; and the third, for something unknown that ultimately ties his fate to Yennefer’s.

Villentretenmerth → Wawel Dragon

In Barefield, a dragon (Villentretenmerth) has been eating sheep from the pasture. Sheepbagger, the local cobbler, has an idea kill a sheep, stuff it with poison, and hide it among the sheep in a herd. The dragon swallows the bait and flies off in pain.

A hunting party forms under Prince Niedamir and guided by Sheepbagger with the intention of killing the dragon and stealing its hoard. In the party there is Borch Three Jackdaws and his Zerrikanian bodyguards, Téa and Véa; Geralt the witcher; Dandelion the bard; mages Yennefer and Dorregaray; Yarpen Zigrin and his company of dwarves; Sir Eyck of Denesle; and famed dragon hunters, the Crinfrid Reavers.

Queen of Winter → The Snow Queen

Elven legend dictates that there is a Queen of Winter, who travels the realm during the blizzard on a sleigh with two white horses. While travelling she scatters shards of ice; woe will become of the man who gets a shard in his eye or heart, “for he is lost”.

“Nothing will be able to cheer him; all that is not the pure white of snow will become for him ugly, hateful, disgusting. He will not know peace and, forsaking all, will follow the Queen in pursuit of his dream and his love. Of course, he will never find it and will die of sorrow.”

Sh’eenez → The Little Mermaid

Duke Agloval of Bremervoord wishes to marry the mermaid Sh’eenez, but only if she agrees to drink a magical potion that would change her tail into human legs. The Duke goes as far as hiring Geralt to help convince her. Sh’eenez disagrees and instead offers Agloval a similar deal: with a sea witch’s help, he may give up his legs to live with the mermaids. Algoval rejects her proposal.

After a new underwater species is found to be responsible for the deaths of several local pearl divers, a war was at risk of breaking out between the people of the sea and the land. It was avoided thanks to Sh'eenaz, who finally agreed to give up her tail and walked to join Algoval in marriage.

Freixenet the cormorant → The Six Swans

Freixenet, Baron of Hamm, was cursed and turned into a cormorant. His sister, Queen Eliza of Verden, tried several myths to reverse the spell; one of which involved dressing him in a shirt made of nettles. Alas, Freixenet remained a bird. Queen Eliza’s husband (King Ervyll) paid Geralt to lift the curse, which he did so successfully.

[fadeintobackground]

Snow White Renfri

[tallgreenlady]

Oh god I dropped the Netflix The Witcher after S1 because it was so outright disrespectful to the source material. I didn’t realize it was so bad that their lead actor left lmaooo

[mythosblogging]

Based on an award-winning book series and popular video game series, Netflix’s ‘The Witcher’ officially burst onto the small screen in 2019, where it quickly climbed the ranks to become Netflix’s second most-watched show (though it has since been dethroned). The creator of the original book series is Polish author Andrzej Sapkowski, and clear influences from European folklore and fantasy have made their way from the book into the show.

The series follows protagonist and titular Witcher, Geralt of Riviera, a man mutated by science and magic to give him the strength and skills to fight the terrifying monsters that prey on humanity. In addition to a slew of potions which (among other things) allow Geralt to heal faster and see in the dark, Geralt also carries two swords – one made of steel for fighting men, and one made of silver for fighting monsters.

Keep Reading 

[edgepunk]

need to write this down before I forget but Fables inspired Yenalt AU where Geralt used to be the Big Bad Wolf and Yen was Snow White but got screwed over many times and decided to become a sorceress to kick ass anyway this is all I got will come back to this

[makiruz]

So in addition to having written the Little Mermaid, Jaskier wrote Snow White?

I’m in

No but what if Renfri lived and when Jaskier meets Geralt he also meets a Princess with swords in her hand. She still has rage, she will always have rage but she has honed her targets now.

Or what if the song that Jaskier sings about Renfri is her story, in her words.