#the handless maiden

[thelastofthebookworms]

My tag for this series is 'fairy tales'.

[dykesynthezoid]

You know a princess that would be pretty down to join their cause is the one from Donkeyskin. Like. Can you imagine being in that position and finding out it was all for a story? That your suffering and humiliation was for entertainment?

This season is already packed with stories and idk if the cast would ever want to have to tackle the kind of subject matter in Donkeyskin (even in a horror season) but man. That would be something

[femmefataleart]

The Handless Maiden by Keith Garvey

[satanasvincit]

Jel Ena - “The Handless Maiden"

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Shapeshifting Dragons

I sometimes see people wonder if the idea of a dragon that can take on a fully human appearance is a modern fantasy invention. Or solely inspired by (East) Asian dragons, which are almost invariably noble and frequently appear human. Because European folklore is more well known for “dragon slayer tales”, in which the dragons are purely beastly. But! Slavic folklore absolutely has dragons who are capable of transforming themselves into (beautiful) humans!

The dragons from Slavic fairy tales still have typical “western” dragon characteristics (wings, scales, claws, maw), but they often act far more human than animalistic. They frequently live in castles, use weapons, sometimes even ride horses, write letters, or get married to humans. And some are described as fully shapeshifting into humans:

Dawn, Evening, and Midnight (Afanasev, 1866, trans. Guterman, 1946)

Three princesses are abducted by a whirlwind and three brave brothers Evening, Midnight and Dawn set out to find them. Dawn finds the youngest princess in an underground realm in a castle. She greets him, feeds him, gives him strengthening magic water and then: “At this moment a wild wind arose, and the princess was frightened. ‘Presently,’ she said, ‘my dragon will come.’ And she took Dawn by the hand and hid him in the adjoining room. A three-headed dragon came flying, struck the damp earth, turned into a youth.” The princess puts sleeping potion in the dragon’s wine, picks the lice from his hair (implies he is still human) until he falls asleep. She calls Dawn and he cuts off the dragon’s three heads (implies he’s full dragon again) and burns the body. He then rescues her sisters from a six- and twelve-headed dragon. The three princesses marry the three brothers.

The Footless Champion and the Handless Champion (Afanasev, trans. Guterman)

Two champions, Marko and Ivan, decide to steal a priest’s daughter to be their sister and housekeeper. Once they go on a week long hunt and when they return the girl looks ill and thin. “She told them that a dragon had flown to her every day and that she had grown thin because of him. ‘We will catch him,’ said the champions. (…) About half an hour later, the trees in the forest suddenly began to rustle and the roof of the hut shook: the dragon came, struck the damp earth, turned into a goodly youth, sat at table, and asked for food.” Ivan and Marko seize him and thrash him until he begs for mercy, promising to show them the water of life and the water of death. He tries to trick them into jumping into the lake of death, so they throw him in “and only smoke was left of him.” They do bring the priest’s daughter back home before carrying on with their other adventures. [The concept that a dragon’s presence can drain a maiden of her life force shows up in other stories too, but in this particular context it almost seems like the dragon is just? eating her portion of the food? Also the fact that she was abducted from her home by the two supposed heroes and the dragon is only visiting and asking for lunch really puts this into a weird perspective.]

King Bear (Afanasev, trans. Guterman)

A tsar’s son and daughter are abducted by the King Bear but eventually escape with the help of a magical bullock who conjures a lake of fire that the bear cannot cross. They live by its shore for a while in a fine house and Ivan hunts for their food. “Meanwhile Princess Maria went to the lake to wash clothes. As she washed, a six-headed dragon came flying to the other shore of the lake of fire, changed into a handsome man, saw the princess, and said to her in a sweet voice: ‘Greetings, lovely maiden!’ ‘Greetings, good youth!’ ‘The old wives say that in former times this lake did not exist; if a high bridge spanned it, I would come to the other side and marry you.’ ‘Wait! A bridge will be here in a trice!’ answered Princess Maria and waved her towel. In that instant the towel spread out in an arc and hung above the lake like a high and beautiful bridge. The dragon crossed it, changed into its former shape, put Prince Ivan’s dog under lock and key, and cast the key into the lake; then he seized the princess and carried her off.” When Ivan finds his sister missing and his dog locked up he goes to ask help from Baba-Yaga, finds the dragon, kills him, and takes his sister home. [This story ends with the standard “they began to live happily and prosper”, but it really seems like Ivan should have asked Maria if she was even in need of rescuing.]

So there we are! Proper folklore roots for all our mysterious strangers with a hint of scales around their flickering eyes~

[araekniarchive]

Can you do a web about the crossing of foreign languages, like two people of different translations meeting and communicating despite the barrier? Just generally linguistics I suppose.

Robert A. Johnson, The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden

Andrew Sean Greer, Less

Wiktionary definition of the Irish Gaelic word for ‘pulse’, chuisle

  Jack Gilbert, The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

Call the Midwife (2012–), 1x01

Andrés Neuman, ‘Translating Each Other’ in World Literature Today (trans. George Henson)

Erich Segal, The Class

Nizar Qabbani, Language

Love, Actually (2003) dir. Richard Curtis

Peter Newmark, A Textbook of Translation

Kim Thúy, Ru

 R. F. Kuang, Babel, Or the Necessity of Violence

Luigi Pirandello, One, None and a Hundred Thousand (trans. Samuel Putnam)

Sierra Demulder, ‘Heart Apnea’ from The Bones Below

Andrea Gibson, Maybe I Need You

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

[araekni]

Robert A. Johnson, The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden

Andrew Sean Greer, Less

Wiktionary definition of the Irish Gaelic word for ‘pulse’, chuisle

Jack Gilbert, The Forgotten Dialect of the Heart

Jeanette Winterson, The Passion

Andrés Neuman, ‘Translating Each Other’ in World Literature Today (trans. George Henson)

Erich Segal, The Class

Nizar Qabbani, Language

Love, Actually (2003) dir. Richard Curtis

Peter Newmark, A Textbook of Translation

Kim Thúy, Ru

R. F. Kuang, Babel

Luigi Pirandello, One, None and a Hundred Thousand (trans. Samuel Putnam)

Sierra Demulder, Heart Apnea

Andrea Gibson, Maybe I Need You

Walt Whitman, Leaves of Grass

[siamkram]

Let us keep in mind that the best cannot and must not hide. Meditation, education, all the dream analysis, all the knowledge of God's green acre is of no value if one keeps it all to oneself or one's chosen few. So come out, come out wherever you are. Leave deep footprints because you can. Be the old woman in the rocking chair who rocks the idea until it becomes young again. Be the courageous and patient woman in "The Crescent Moon Bear" who learns to see through illusion. Don't be distracted by burning matches and fantasies like the Little Match Girl.

Hold out till you find the ones you belong to like the Ugly Duckling. Clear the creative river so La Llorona can find what belongs to her. Like the Handless Maiden, let the enduring heart lead you through the forest. Like La Loba, collect the bones of lost Valuables and sing them back to life. Forgive as much as you can, forget a little, and create a lot. What you do today influences your matrilineal lines in the future. The daughters of your daughters of Your daughters are likely to remember you, and most importantly, follow in your tracks.

-Clarissa Pinkola Estés, Women Who Run With The Wolves

[ghostlykimiboo]

Grimm Fusion: The Wrathful Maiden (Mulan/Handless Maiden)

[annisrealandsoami]

One thing I would like to do or at least see is an adaptation of ‘the maiden without hands’ from the grim brothers.

Basically, her father mistakenly trades her life for riches. (Thought she wouldn’t be in the back yard when he got home). The wizard tries to collect her, but her tears make her hands untouchable. He demands that her father cut off her hands. The next day, she is still untouchable because she cried on the stumps. The wizard fucks off, and she runs away.

The prince finds her in a tree or whatever, and like, ‘this girl is hot. Must marry her.’ So yeah, they get married. He gives her golden/silver hands to replace her old ones.

They have a kid. Everything is great. The prince goes off to fight a war. He’s writing letters to his mother. The wizard comes back, and is like, ‘yo, this girl has a good life. Let me fuck that up.’ So he steals the letters, and tells the prince that his wife and son, hella dead. Tells the mom to kill the wife and kid.

The mom decides to just tell the girl to go. Your husband is fucking insane.

The girl lives in cottage in the middle of nowhere. Named her son something to spite the prince.

The prince finds out that his wife isn’t dead and they have been tricked. Goes on a quest to find her and finds her. Happy ever after.

I just want to rewrite it where the maiden has any kind of agency. Like, she goes with wizard, learns powers, and fucks off. Get with prince and starts living the royal life, but not surprisingly, her handlessness and peasant upbringing is a used against her at every turn. Then wizard does his letter shit, and the court is like, okay, didn’t like her anyways, and tries to kill her. She like fuck this, and leaves to be witch in the woods.

And just decides that she’s gonna kill that wizard. Also generally be a menace. Probably try to destroy the corrupt royal system. Whatever she felt like, honestly.

But I would hate to like write it wrong.

[bechdelexam]

At the same time, the king of Antioch comes hunting in the area. He follows a doe who leads him to the cave where he finds the beautiful maiden, Carcayona. Falling in love with her, he converts to her religion and takes her home as his wife. They also take the doe with them. Soon the new wife is pregnant, but her husband is called away to battle in a distant place. Once he has gone and a baby boy is born to Carcayona, a letter comes to her mother-in-law supposedly from her son, the king. “Dear mother,” the letter begins, “when this letter arrives, throw the witch out of my castle and my kingdom, for she has bewitched everyone, and has made us abandon our law, for that son that she gave birth to is not mine; and if you do not do what I command, you will never see me again.” Sorrowfully, the queen mother sends off to the wilderness her daughter-in-law, her grandchild, and the doe that had first led the king to rescue Carcayona.

this is part of a morisco story discussed in the handless maiden but perry doesnt talk abt where the story itself is from. understandable i guess but very annoying bc i read this and was like Wow! how similar to the breton lai emeré! and apparently this story of incest to exile to marriage to forged letters to second exile is actually a pretty common medieval story type.

[saharafoley]

Featured Free eBook: Silver Hands by Daphne Moore 

Fairy tale retelling meets cyberpunk a prequel to a science fiction retelling of the fairy tale the Handless Maiden What will you do to protect those you love? Sage lived like a pampered doll; her destiny an arranged marriage to a suitable mate to please her family and preserve their business and position in society. In a single life-shattering night, she accepted exile and sacrificed her hands…

[poeticnoumenology]

Robert A. Johnson, The Fisher King and the Handless Maiden

[dccomicsnews]

Zenescope Review: Grimm Fairy Tales #45

[othercat2]

The Most Horrifying Fairy Tale AU

Mo Dao Zu Shi/The Handless Maiden

For those not familiar with The Handless Maiden: A dude makes a deal with the devil that involves the devil marrying his daughter. (Accidentally via the "I didn't know the first being to greet me would be my [fill in the blank]" loophole.)

The daughter however is pure and sinless and the demon can't take her. From there the demon threatens the father into rendering her "dirty." This somehow leads to the father chopping off her hands (because she was keeping them clean.)

Eventually we have the daughter escaping and being guarded by an angel and so on. She gets silver hands, and marries a prince and of course the prince's mother tries to destroy their marriage because she's super suspicious of the handless maiden.

Wei Ying gets to be the handless maiden cultivator I have no idea of how I'd adapt this.

[harveylikestoart]

The Handless Maiden and Her Devil