fate-magical-girls

[fate-magical-girls]

So in a lot of European cultures, from the Iron Age to the medieval era, there have been swords (as well as other weapons and jewelry) recovered from rivers and bogs that seem to have been ritually deposited. Plenty have even been decommissioned before being thrown in the water, purposely damaged in ways that render them unable to be used anymore. One theory is that these swords were sacrificed in thanks for victory in battle or paid as a toll for safe passage through the waterways.

Under this logic, Arthur could have sacrificed his sword to commemorate the victory over Mordred OR he paid his sword as ship fare to Avalon. The arm catching the sword was a way to say that the payment had been accepted.

Sources:

The Dedication of Roman Weapons and Armor in Water as a Religious Ritual

Ritually bent Bronze Age sword unearthed in Danish bog is 'very rare find'

The offerings in Vimose

Weapons in bogs and wetlands

From the source to the sea − A regional study of Bronze Age depositions from eastern Funen, Denmark

Marshlands and Monasteries

Celtic, Roman, and Everything in Between: The Evolution of the Sacred in Romano-Celtic Wales

The Relinquishing of Excalibur

(Source: Vulgate Cycle - Death of Arthur)

(Source: Post Vulgate - Death of Arthur)

So here are the two versions of how Arthur gives up Excalibur in the Old French cycles. And it's interesting to me how its presented here.

For one, I've held the notion that Arthur was returning the sword, presumably to the Lady of the Lake. This was probably something Modern retellings had me primed for.

This was not actually the case in the Medieval sources as shown above: Arthur is discarding Excalibur in a manner of Scorched Earth policy - to deny unworthy hands from taking the weapon. Arthur actually wishes Lancelot was there to give Excalibur to, since he thinks he was the most worthy to have it.

The mystical hand that grabs Excalibur does appear in both versions, but the way its treated is that its actually an omen of Arthur's incoming death:

The thing about the mystical hand is that a lot of people interpret it as the Lady of the Lake's hand reaching to take it back.

This is problematic because in Post-Vulgate, the Lady who gives Excalibur to Arthur dies in a feud with Sir Balin. Whilst the Lady of the Lake who was Lancelot's foster mother was never associated with Excalibur and appears much later than the Balin feud.

Meanwhile, in the earlier Vulgate cycle, Excalibur is the Sword in the Stone and was never recieved from the Lake:

So, in the end, that Mystical Hand that catches Excalibur is just one of those weird, enduring mysteries that the Medieval writers left in unanswered.

[fate-magical-girls]

Honestly, this is good, professional co-parenting from Tigra. Encouraging Hank to be part of his son's life without compromising her own self-respect or her right to move on.

McKay's Tigra is everything she should be: powerful, angry, independent, but also loving, supportive, and a good mom.

“Pool Party,” Moon Knight: Fist of Khonshu (Vol. 2/2024), #7.

Writer: Jed MacKay; Penciler and Inker: Domenico Carbone; Colorist: Rachelle Rosenberg; Letterer: Cory Petit

[fate-magical-girls]

Though given the Welsh material we do have, both regarding how Arthur and other Arthurian characters react to love triangles and infidelity, I can also see Arthur just swearing both Lancelot and Gwenhwyfar to secrecy.

Arthur: "Alright. This is clearly embarrassing for all of us involved. Pretend this conversation never happened and don't let me or anyone else catch you from now on. Otherwise you're both dead."

Gwenhwyfar: "Hear that? If you tell anyone else, I swear upon my own name as daughter of Ogfran Gawr, I'm going to kill you."

Lancelot: "..."

Lancelot confesses to Arthur that he and Guinevere are having an affair.

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Sorry a lot of rambling posts today but does anyone want a Rolan imagine? The man and his lack of swag is growing on me lmao

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are they stupid

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Whatever the decade, Emma is SLAYING IT with the fashion.

Honestly artists should spice up Emma's wardrobe with more "causal" high-end looks instead of defaulting to form-fitting spandex for her battle scenes.

Some early Emma Frost outfits

[fate-magical-girls]

Arthur roams around a fair bit in "disguise" in Welsh legends about him fighting giants. Personally, I think this disguise is the Mantle of Invisibility, and that it's also connected with the Great Enchantment that Uther cast on Tintagel to woo Igraine.

(Source: The Dream of Rhonabwy)

(Source: Nightbringer.org)

One of Arthur's lesser known items and one of the Thirteen Treasures of the Island of Britain: the Mantle of Invisibility (sometimes its a carpet like in Rhonabwy). He actually has a huge collection of magic items and weapons throughout the mythos but this is one of my favorites.

Honestly, I really want someone to write Arthur sneaking around like a ninja, observing his knights while unseen and/or just goofing around.

I actually remember that Kay might have invisibility as one of his powers:

Makes you think that, when they were young, Arthur and Kay messed with the other kids with this power.

[fate-magical-girls]

Both Mulan and Achilles were products of their times. The Northern Wei Dynasty was a relatively permissive time for women, with a big emphasis on athleticism for both genders. As a result, Mulan acquired the skills necessary to be a soldier, and was let off rather lightly for serving in the army in disguise. Her lack of love interest was retained by later retellings to emphasize her chastity. It's an attempt to fit her into the classic Chinese Confucian family values and downplay the transgressive elements in her story.

Also of note is that Achilles starts at the very top. He's the heir to his father's throne and the commander of the Pthian forces at Troy. However, Mulan is dependent on her commanders and her emperor for her promotion. She's a single soldier or petty officer in a professional army.

Achilles' story definitely comes in more versions, but that's because his story is just so, so much older than Mulan's. It would probably be more appropriate to compare him to Chinese Bronze Age heroes like Jiang Ziya or prehistoric heroes like the Archer Yi.

(Hector's name seems to be purely Greek and doesn't resemble any of the Hittite nobles found in archaeology of the period. Probably indicates traditions about him are actually younger than traditions about Priam or Paris.)

(Ironically I think if Mulan had to meet Trojan War characters she would get along best with Aeneas. His values in the Aeneid are the best match for Chinese Confucian values. Filial piety, placing duty above all, and showing proper etiquette toward the people he encounters.)

When you realize these two are the polar opposites!

Both influential figures from two great poems of their time that shaped generations and generations of their culture (China and Greece respectably) and arguably very influential and inspiring figures for bravery, heroism and glory.

They definitely are two characters with plenty of stuff in common such as the fact that they are posed to sigh sing and mourn (the difference is that Mulan mourns her father's upcoming fate in the Ballad of Hua Mulan while Achilles sighs and moans for the death of Patroclus), both figures also known for fighting at least a decade in a war (Mulan fought for 12, Achilles for 10) and many other parallels that they are way too similar.

However seeing their stories side by side they totally are polar opposites too! And here are some basic spots!

One is a woman, one is a man

One dressed up as a man, one dressed up as a woman

One did it to go to war, the other did it to avoid it

One was never discovered, the other was

One wanted to protect her father, the other was protected by his and his mother

One cut her hair to fight, the other to mourn

One didn't mourn a loved one at the war, the other one did

One didn't desire glory and fame, the other lived for it

One survived the war, the other didn't

One is part of a ballad poem influential to the east, the other from an epic poem that shaped the west

Like...please tell me I am not the only one who noticed these and I am not the only one who is weird nerd! XD

[fate-magical-girls]

The later dynasties in China (and in Japan post-Kamakura period) stopped makeup for men, or at least for adult men, as there was some leeway for teenagers.

One major similarity between Mulan and Achilles is that they're both young. Mulan, depending on her social situation (she appears to be middle-class minor gentry) might have not reached marriageable age, though she was still old enough to go to war. Achilles, meanwhile, always remains young, an object of desire for men and women. His libido and romantic yearnings are a big part of his character. On the other hand, Mulan not only has no love interest, but marriage and betrothal isn't even suggested for her in the ballad. Unless you count later additions where either the Emperor proposes to take her into the imperial harem or fake (or not so fake) marries a woman for REASONS.

(And getting into the etymology of names, there's the possibility of Priam being based on Piyama-Radu, who was a Hittite warlord and massive poop stirrer of the Bronze Age and ironically an ally of the Acheans, meaning a Trojan War might've been the Acheans actually come to his aid vs the Hittites. And Paris as Alaksandu was a legit king of Troy/Wilusa.)

When you realize these two are the polar opposites!

Both influential figures from two great poems of their time that shaped generations and generations of their culture (China and Greece respectably) and arguably very influential and inspiring figures for bravery, heroism and glory.

They definitely are two characters with plenty of stuff in common such as the fact that they are posed to sigh sing and mourn (the difference is that Mulan mourns her father's upcoming fate in the Ballad of Hua Mulan while Achilles sighs and moans for the death of Patroclus), both figures also known for fighting at least a decade in a war (Mulan fought for 12, Achilles for 10) and many other parallels that they are way too similar.

However seeing their stories side by side they totally are polar opposites too! And here are some basic spots!

One is a woman, one is a man

One dressed up as a man, one dressed up as a woman

One did it to go to war, the other did it to avoid it

One was never discovered, the other was

One wanted to protect her father, the other was protected by his and his mother

One cut her hair to fight, the other to mourn

One didn't mourn a loved one at the war, the other one did

One didn't desire glory and fame, the other lived for it

One survived the war, the other didn't

One is part of a ballad poem influential to the east, the other from an epic poem that shaped the west

Like...please tell me I am not the only one who noticed these and I am not the only one who is weird nerd! XD

[fate-magical-girls]

Mulan's era was the height of androgynous beauty in China, that is true! Men sometimes went around wearing powder and rouge, while women like Mulan were strong and athletic!

But Mulan's beauty is only emphasized once she returns to being a woman, and it's the typical stylish feminine beauty of the time. There is no description of how she appears as a man in the ballad proper. We can assume she must be dashing, because she's described as atop a handsome horse and urging it on with her horse crop, crossing hundreds of miles in a day, trading the lamentation of her family for the roar of cavalry horses. It's a very heroic image, but it doesn't describe Mulan directly.

Similarly, Mulan's heroism is seen as more akin to Joan of Arc or the Nine Female Worthies from medieval retellings of ancient legends or even the feats of Atlanta. They were women who rose to meet the occasion in an emergency. Their heroism is born out of desperation -- there are no men better suited for the role. And while admirable, they weren't to be imitated by later women unless it was in a similar moment of stress. On the other hand, Achilles was an example for all men of the Greek cultural sphere (when he wasn't sulking or mutilating corpses, that is).

Speaking of names, Mulan's name is an interesting one. In modern Chinese it's written with the characters for "magnolia", which gives the impression of a standard feminine name. However, Mulan's name is a Xianbei name being transliterated into Chinese. In the historical record, you find a bunch of men from the same era named Mulan, so in all likelihood, this was an unisex name. Mulan's era was also one highly influenced by foreigners from the Silk Road and beyond. It was the first height of Buddhism in China, with missionaries flooding in from India and Middle Eastern countries (until the emperor she served banned the religion and persecuted the faithful). As a result, many educated or powerful families of the period became multilingual, so people would bear Chinese true names and foreign language courtesy names. So we do know what Mulan's name means by looking at the alternate names for the men named Mulan. She wasn't named after the magnolia flower. Rather, she was named with a word that seems cognate to the Arabian "umran" -- "wealthy" or "thriving".

(In modern english, imagine her being named Danny or Terry.)

When you realize these two are the polar opposites!

Both influential figures from two great poems of their time that shaped generations and generations of their culture (China and Greece respectably) and arguably very influential and inspiring figures for bravery, heroism and glory.

They definitely are two characters with plenty of stuff in common such as the fact that they are posed to sigh sing and mourn (the difference is that Mulan mourns her father's upcoming fate in the Ballad of Hua Mulan while Achilles sighs and moans for the death of Patroclus), both figures also known for fighting at least a decade in a war (Mulan fought for 12, Achilles for 10) and many other parallels that they are way too similar.

However seeing their stories side by side they totally are polar opposites too! And here are some basic spots!

One is a woman, one is a man

One dressed up as a man, one dressed up as a woman

One did it to go to war, the other did it to avoid it

One was never discovered, the other was

One wanted to protect her father, the other was protected by his and his mother

One cut her hair to fight, the other to mourn

One didn't mourn a loved one at the war, the other one did

One didn't desire glory and fame, the other lived for it

One survived the war, the other didn't

One is part of a ballad poem influential to the east, the other from an epic poem that shaped the west

Like...please tell me I am not the only one who noticed these and I am not the only one who is weird nerd! XD

[fate-magical-girls]

The parallel is interesting, but sad to say, Achilles would be ANCIENT to Mulan. He existed in the Bronze Age, she was more medieval/Dark Ages according to European history.

(Also there was no detail about Mulan cutting her hair in the original ballad. Both Han and Xianbei men, the dominant groups in China at the time, had long hair. She could've wound it tight like a Han man or worn cornrows like a Xianbei man.)

Mulan's crossdressing IS her motif, and her ability to crossdress is counted as one of her heroic feats. Achilles' was one blip on his radar and not really celebrated. Similarly, Achilles' mourning is a major part of his story, but Mulan's mouring is only an initial motivator and not dwelled upon. And I wouldn't say Mulan didn't desire glory and fame. Her era was one that valued horseback combat and personal glory. But she would've had an ethos more akin to European knights or Roman pro soldiers -- a desire to achieve glorious deeds tempered by the need to show appropriate etiquette. She fought well and achieved multiple honors, but she gave up the rewards that came with the honors to go home and take off her disguise.

Their biggest similarity is their medium, and how they're both queer icons. China really doesn't have a long history of epic narrative poetry. Most of the narrative poems from the early AD centuries are about love and the aftermath of war, with obscure or anonymous protagonists, and most of the odes from this time period are about nature scenes or other bits of finery, with the exception of Cao Zhi's Ode to the Goddess of the Luo River which functions as a sort of hymn to the goddess. Further back, stories of ancient heroes exist in prose history chronicles and philosophical tracts. It's not until after the Mongol Yuan Dynasty that China starts producing epic poetry, and at the time it was considered crude pop culture. Mulan was awesome enough to outgrow her medium and become an icon, while Achilles has been helped along by his medium.

And Achilles is very much part of an ensemble cast. Interactions and fight with other epic heroes are part of his appeal. He's rooted firmly in his time period of late Heroic Age. Mulan exists in a little bit of a vacuum. In later eras, she would even be updated to different time periods depending on the story writers wanted to tell. It's not until the modern era that historians and writers really gave her a long, hard look and realized she was supposed to be a character from the Northern Wei dynasty. Still, she doesn't really interact with her emperor (called her Khan in the original ballads) or her fellow generals. Their feats are found in historical chronicles and Mulan is over by herself in an epic poem.

When you realize these two are the polar opposites!

Both influential figures from two great poems of their time that shaped generations and generations of their culture (China and Greece respectably) and arguably very influential and inspiring figures for bravery, heroism and glory.

They definitely are two characters with plenty of stuff in common such as the fact that they are posed to sigh sing and mourn (the difference is that Mulan mourns her father's upcoming fate in the Ballad of Hua Mulan while Achilles sighs and moans for the death of Patroclus), both figures also known for fighting at least a decade in a war (Mulan fought for 12, Achilles for 10) and many other parallels that they are way too similar.

However seeing their stories side by side they totally are polar opposites too! And here are some basic spots!

One is a woman, one is a man

One dressed up as a man, one dressed up as a woman

One did it to go to war, the other did it to avoid it

One was never discovered, the other was

One wanted to protect her father, the other was protected by his and his mother

One cut her hair to fight, the other to mourn

One didn't mourn a loved one at the war, the other one did

One didn't desire glory and fame, the other lived for it

One survived the war, the other didn't

One is part of a ballad poem influential to the east, the other from an epic poem that shaped the west

Like...please tell me I am not the only one who noticed these and I am not the only one who is weird nerd! XD

[fate-magical-girls]

Conversely, Gwyn ap Nudd's worship seems to have occurred more around Southern Britain and Wales proper, if the Glastonbury Tor legend is any indication. We have Gwythyr in the North and Gwyn in the south.

Also while almost all Romano-British deities -- that is, anyone who didn't make it into the Mabinogion or later fairy folklore -- would be obscure to us in the modern day, 40-odd shrines and a continued presence along Hadrian's wall would indicate Veteris was a fairly popular, if regional god. And almost all Romano-British deities seem to have been regional, strongly tied to land features or the people of a certain area, which is why invocations and mentions of them are so scattered.

If Gwythyr is Veteris, that means he was popular enough to be remembered even after centuries of Christianization, enough for a story about his rivalry with Gwyn ap Nudd to be recorded in written form.

Hmmm... a possible lead on the identity of Gwythyr ap Greidawl?

(Source: Wikipedia.org)

A man by the name of August Hunt made some claims, found HERE and HERE, over an obscure Romano-British God Veteres, identifying this figure with the character of Gwythyr ap Greidawl, rival of Gwyn ap Nudd and father of the second Gwenhwyfar, wife of Arthur.

Fo what it's worth, the locations where this deity is reported are all found in the areas near the Hadrian Wall in Northern Britain (Northumberland, Durham and Tyne-and-Wear).

In Culhwch and Olwen, Arthur is said to have travelled North to resolve the dispute between Gwyn and Gwythyr over Creiddylad:

[fate-magical-girls]

Including the Volsunga Saga material, Gernot's murder motive would be "Got High".

Also I think Kriemhild and Siegfried are the ones asking and Brunhild is the one telling them about her dreams. Or their dreams. But just given their setting, "revealed in a dream" is about the most valid answer and whoever says that is speaking on good authority.

Some Nibelungen memes:

Hot take or cold take? You decide in the tags/comments 🫵

[fate-magical-girls]

Your post about Geraint/Gwyar inspired me to make a list of all of Anna/Morgause/Gwyar's husbands or lovers throughout time.

Note that in some there are several sources but I only gave one or two

Lot, Obviously. Depending on the version they may be either a love match (De Ortu Waluuanii) or arranged by Uther (Malory)

In a welsh version of the birth of Arthur, Gwyar's first husband is Budic, by whom she has Hoel. By the time Igraine and Uther wed she is a widow who can be wedded to Llew.

Geraint, as your post says

In Parzival after Arthur frees her, Igraine, Clarissant, and Kundry from the Castle of Maidens there is a massive quadruple wedding where in Sangive (Morgause/Anna) marries a knight named Florant.

Jascaphin, Clarissant's father in Diu Crone. It's debated whether he's also Gawain's father and thus an alternate name for Lot or a second husband, thus explaining why Clarissant is considered the rightful heir to Orkney.

Arthur, infamously in the Vulgate and Malory

Lamorak in the Prose Tristan and Malory

In conclusion: It's completely possible to make Cador, Hoel, and Gawain all half-brothers. You just need to put your mind to it.

Morgause going through the men in her life...

There's a wistfulness to it. Given how many "canon" kids she has by Lot, it could be inferred Lot was the best of them.

And there's that theme of sexual liasons that somewhat pervades Igraine's side of the family: both Igraine and her sister Tywanwedd are known to have multiple partners themselves while Morgan le Fay is Morgan le Fay.

It's probably a sign of faeriehood.

[fate-magical-girls]

#art#collars#hanfu#kimono#hanbok#this is a general rule - there are some exceptions for hanfu#reference

The collar rule isn't a hard rule. That said, most exceptions happen with non-Chinese cultures adopting Chinese clothing, especially in the early years (Three Kingdoms Korea and Kofun Japan), and Chinese use of foreign clothing (usually Xianbei, Turkic, or Mongolic clothing). Otherwise, you see the wrong-side collars in Ming Dynasty overcoats.

The concept of clothing folded over the wrong side being exclusive to the dead is a more Japanese concept though. Historically, Chinese people associated folding clothing over the wrong side with barbarism, the idea of people being so ignorant they can't even fold the hems of their clothes correctly.

*gently taps the sign*

Useful post (mostly about hanfu but with a mention of kimono)

I’m not that confident about hanbok so feel free to correct me

[fate-magical-girls]

And what really appealed to the defecting legislators was the HUMANITY of their two colleagues. They were forced to understand that Zooey Zephyr and SJ Howell were just normal people who lived normal lives and shared their concerns. Evil is easy when it is depersonalized, when the people you hurt are unconnected to you, an unseen "enemy". But because these two legislators took a stand, their colleagues were forced to confront their own hypocrisy and understand they were wrong.

An amazing success story, one that we need more of.

Just wanted to share some shockingly good news in these difficult times. The full article is really worth reading. [Find it here]

[fate-magical-girls]

Every "original" Cinderella story has some cool features, which would be very different from what modern readers are used to when it comes to the idea of Cinderella. Grimm and Perrault's versions are just the most famous, so it inevitably comes down to modern audiences comparing and contrasting just these two versions.

Rhodopis' story exists in two versions, one where she is a courtesan who married a pharaoh, and another where she's a courtesan who marries a rich man. In the second version, she was best friends with benefits with the storyteller Aesop and her lover was brother to Sappho. Rhodopis wasn't exactly welcomed by her new family, as Sappho wrote satires about her. Nevertheless, she ended up a very successful and very rich courtesan who made huge donations to various sanctuaries.

Ye Xian is a story adapted from indigenous peoples from China's southwest. It shows a lot of continuity with the Vietnamese story of Tam and Cam. Both of these stories offer a postcript on what happens after Cinderella marries her prince. The Tam and Cam story uses the True and False Bride motif, where the evil stepsister kills the heroine and steals her identity until the prince can uncover the truth. Ye Xian's postscript is that her descendants eventually abuse her fish benefactor's gifts until the fish's grave stops responding, and their kingdom falls when their people revolt. Ye Xian's story was mostly concentrated around Southwestern China and was relatively obscure among Han Chinese until the modern era, when Western folklorists traced its connections to Cinderella. In traditional Han Chinese Cinderella stories like The Phoenix Returns Home, the emphasis is on the ugly stepsister trying to steal Cinderella's husband, and often the happy ending includes the stepsister being married to an ugly rich guy who wants to marry Cinderella.

There's also a tendency for Chinese writers to apply Cinderella motifs to historical people, with these stories often overlapping with the motif of the Calumniated Wife, where Cinderella is abused or abandoned by her family for marrying a man they don't approve of. Figures who receive this treatment are the wife of Tang Dynasty general Xue Rengui and Empress Li, the final empress dowager of the short-lived Late Han Dynasty of the Five Dynasties period, as well as the purely fictional spin-off fairy tale of Wang Baochuan. Another historical figure who fits the Cinderella motif is Wu Zetian, China's only reigning Empress. She and her mother were harassed by her older half brothers, who barely acknowledged them as their relatives, to the point that Wu Zetian embraced the chance to enter the Imperial Harem so she could be away from her brothers. Of course, since Wu Zetian was neither fragile nor saintly, it's hard to associate her with the image of Cinderella.

The Grimm and Perrault version of Cinderella, with the prominence of the tree and the lost slipper, as well as Cinderella's persecutors being her family, tend to reflect French and Italian story motifs, with the earliest versions cited as Giambattista Basile's stories and Marie de France's lais. In Northern European areas, this story motif is found the most in Ireland and Scotland. Scandinavia, England, much of Germany, and several Eastern European countries seem to favor other types of Cinderella:

Cap o' Rushes, where Cinderella's cinders are a disguise she willingly takes on to find work in a manor, as she's on the run from her family for whatever reason. Her dresses for the ball are pre-prepared and worn underneath her Cinderella disguise, and she goes to the balls with the specific goal of seducing the prince. Her persecutors are her employers or her fellow servants, and no false brides compete with her.

The Ash-Lad, where Cinderella is male, a youngest son underestimated by his family because social awkwardness, laziness, or slovenliness. However, when disaster strikes, he rises to meet the challenge. He usually marries his princess after rescuing her from danger. His persecutors are his family and a False Hero who tries to steal his identity and achievements.

Frau Holle, where marriage to a prince is optional, and the main plot is Cinderella passing the secret character test posed by supernatural forces and gaining riches, while her ugly and rude stepsister fails the tests and suffers disaster. (Though there is a Three Heads at the Well variant where the stepsister marries a kindhearted cobbler.)

My personal theory as to why the Grimm Brothers included the Ascheputtel version of Cinderella, despite it being full of foreign story motifs, is that they're trying to draw a connection between Cinderella's dead mother (the magical tree sprouting from her grave) and Svipdag's dead mother from Scandinavian legend, the witch Groa. Aschenputtel assumes the role of a pagan Scandinavian hero, calling up the spirit of a dead prophetess to aid her.

I’m tired of hearing people say “Disney’s Cinderella is sanitized. In the original tale, the stepsisters cut off parts of their feet to make the slipper fit and get their eyes pecked out by birds in the end.”

I understand this mistake. I’m sure a lot of people buy copies of the complete Grimm’s Fairy Tales, see their tale of Aschenputtel translated as “Cinderella”, and assume what they’re reading is the “original” version of the tale. Or else they see Into the Woods and make the same assumption, because Sondheim and Lapine chose to base their Cinderella plot line on the Grimms’ Aschenputtel instead of on the more familiar version. It’s an understandable mistake. But I’m still tired of seeing it.

The Brothers Grimm didn’t originate the story of Cinderella. Their version, where there is no fairy godmother, the heroine gets her elegant clothes from a tree on her mother’s grave, and where yes, the stepsisters do cut off parts of their feet and get their eyes pecked out in the end, is not the “original.” Nor did Disney create the familiar version with the fairy godmother, the pumpkin coach, and the lack of any foot-cutting or eye-pecking.

If you really want the “original” version of the story, you’d have to go back to the 1st century Greco-Egyptian legend of Rhodopis. That tale is just this: “A Greek courtesan is bathing one day, when an eagle snatches up her sandal and carries it to the Pharaoh of Egypt. The Pharaoh searches for the owner of the sandal, finds her and makes her his queen.”

Or, if you want the first version of the entire plot, with a stepdaughter reduced to servitude by her stepmother, a special event that she’s forbidden to attend, fine clothes and shoes given to her by magic so she can attend, and her royal future husband finding her shoe after she loses it while running away, then it’s the Chinese tale of Ye Xian you’re looking for. In that version, she gets her clothes from the bones of a fish that was her only friend until her stepmother caught it and ate it.

But if you want the Cinderella story that Disney’s film was directly based on, then the version you want is the version by the French author Charles Perrault. His Cendrillon is the Cinderella story that became the best known in the Western world. His version features the fairy godmother, the pumpkin turned into a coach, mice into horses, etc, and no blood or grisly punishments for anyone. It was published in 1697. The Brothers Grimm’s Aschenputtel, with the tree on the grave, the foot-cutting, etc. was first published in 1812.

The Grimms’ grisly-edged version might feel older and more primitive while Perrault’s pretty version feels like a sanitized retelling, but such isn’t the case. They’re just two different countries’ variations on the tale, French and German, and Perrault’s is older. Nor is the Disney film sanitized. It’s based on Perrault.