#bluebeard retelling

[cmrosens]

The Dangers of Blue Beards (in Books)

Bluebeard Retellings and Reimaginings As I’m sure you all know I’m not a folklorist or anything like that, but I LOVE folktales and stories, and I think in worldbuilding one of the best and most fun ways to get to grips with a culture is by imagining what stories people tell about themselves and their world. In The Crows I made up local legends and sayings, and put out a little eBook collection…

[measureformeasure]

Can you recommend some of your personal favourite retellings? I'm also looking for exciting and original ones and you sound like you've done your research

hell yeah i can. here are some personal faves

Iphigenia and the Furies (on Taurian Land), Ho Ka Kei (which comes in an anthology with his antigone: 方, which is also worth reading but is also I think theatre for young audiences so it doesn't make this list on its own)

Wrath Goddess Sing, Maya Deane

The Greek Trilogy of Luis Alfaro (warning: changes you on a chemical level)

The Nightingales in Plátres, Natalia Theodoridou (and while you're at it read his newest one, Aktis Aeliou, or The Machine of Margot's Destruction)

The Suitors of Helen, Stephen Squibb

Salvage the Bones, Jesmyn Ward (very loosely, but it counts)

Oresteia, Robert Icke

Autobiography of Red, Anne Carson

Cassandra, Christa Wolf

Clytemnestra, Gania Barlow

Dioscuri, Dante Émile

I don't know if I can like actively recommend Caridad Svich's Iphigenia Crash Land Falls on the Neon Shell That Was Once Her Heart but it is a favourite.

Extending to Ovid: The Names of Women by Natalia Theodoridou and If We Were Birds by Erin Shields (which is on the internet archive iirc)

looking for more? here's my spreadsheet. many of these i have not read or are not my favourites but you can poke around and see what strikes your fancy

[theboarsbride]

[Introducing Edith Doe and Samson Swinton, characters from my Gothic thriller retelling of Bluebeard's Bride with the working title "The Boar's Bride."🐗🩸🔎]

A young journalist seeking her due recognition.

An eclectic artist seeking his perfect muse.

A mutual obsession.

This idea is not even a day old, these characters are younger, and I love them dearlyyyy....so much gruesome imagery and eerie scenes are being schemed and heeehee...this will he a fun WIP to develop further 🤭

[bilightningwhumper]

Working on what I'm going to do after Mangst 2024 finishes up, mostly because as I do these, I'm developing the world for The New Eden Institution more. Poll first, context underneath.

(Okay to reblog to increase voting pool)

Basically, I'm trying to figure out more male whumpees for the New Eden Institution series. Most fairy tales have female MCs, at least the well-known ones. I considered adding Snow White to this list, but I have a mild plan with a female whumpee there, so I'll keep it that way.

While looking at these, I found others that I may keep male or change to female, but curious on this for now.

-

Current potentials for these:

Goldilocks- orphan who ends up turned in by one of the families they break into the home of; they're just going after homes where the families are supposed to be on vacation to have a decent place to sleep for the night; turned into the Institution

Bluebeard- buyer of omegas who's abusive and kills them when he's bored of them; MC ends up contacted by the investigation shutting down the New Eden system (they were also bought from the Institution)

Maid Maleen- similar to the Swan Lake and Rapunzel stories I have, though their 100%* isolation is because their parent is trying to protect them and their sibling (adopted, step, half, or full); ends up failing and Maleen character in Institution while sibling is bought (ends up being a mix-up; soulmate thought sibling was Maleen because it was a soulmark purchase; whumper thought Maleen was sibling and kept them on purpose)

Thousandfurs- whumpee nearly abused by father; runs away and ends up kidnapped from the streets and put into the Institution; one of Robin's escapees maybe

Sleeping Beauty- whumpee has Sleeping Beauty syndrome and their whumper takes advantage of that

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Again, just potentials. But I'm curious what people think, mostly to gain more ideas if nothing comes of these at all.

A lot of what I'm coming up with for the whumpees that are bought or just plain kidnapped is very much influenced by BBU stories I've read in the whump community.

[fictionadventurer]

Poem:

"How the Helpmate of Blue-Beard Made Free with a Door" by Guy Wetmore Carryl (1902)

Just for something a bit fun.

What a fun poem! I adore the rhyme scheme and rhythm and playfulness of it.

As far as single lines go, describing "With eyes as bright as phosphorus" instantly charmed me.

[aliteraryprincess]

Bluebeard // The Bloody Chamber by Angela Carter

"Here," said he, "are the keys of the two great wardrobes, wherein I have my best furniture; these are of my silver and gold plate, which is not every day in use; these open my strong boxes, which hold my money, both gold and silver; these my caskets of jewels; and this is the master-key to all my apartments. But for this little one here, it is the key of the closet at the end of the great gallery on the ground floor. Open them all; go into all and every one of them, except that little closet, which I forbid you, and forbid it in such a manner that, if you happen to open it, there's nothing but what you may expect from my just anger and resentment."

[bookshelf-in-progress]

Purity of Mind: A Bluebeard Retelling

Dora looked so innocent, asleep on her bed. The fresh white bandages binding her crown looked more like a mark of holiness than disaster. The doctor claimed she'd fallen from a balcony and hit her head upon a stair rail. Adam thought it seemed too suspicious an accident. A disaster on the one day he'd left the house? His sure-footed little wife wouldn't have stumbled like that--not unless she were nearly out of her wits. Perhaps fleeing from some great terror.

"She'll wake soon," the doctor assured him. "Her body's healed enough, but with a head injury like that, there's no telling what state her brain will be in."

The state itself, Adam thought, would be telling enough.

As if roused by the doctor's words, Dora's eyelids fluttered. She sat up, pale and trembling. Her gaze landed upon Adam, and she started to scream.

"Who are you?" she shrieked, gathering the bedclothes to cover herself. "What are you doing in my room?"

Adam had steeled himself for the usual accusations, but this left him off-balance.

Finally, he managed to say, "Dora, it's just me. Adam. Your husband."

"I have no husband!"

"We wed six months ago."

"Liar!" she shrieked. "I'd never marry a man with such an awful beard!"

Adam stroked his blue-black whiskers, neatly trimmed for his homecoming. A deep chuckle rumbled in his throat; after months of her tiptoeing around him, her frankness was amusing. "I paid your parents richly for the privilege."

Dora paused at that. The mercenary child of mercenary parents--the tale would ring true, no matter her objections to his facial hair. Yet the bewilderment didn't fade from her face. "I've never seen this house before."

"You've been mistress here six months."

"I don't believe you."

"Whether you believe me or not, it's true. You fell from a staircase and hit your head."

Her eyes were fire. "I'll bet you pushed me!"

"I was away from home. I only just returned." He would never have opted for such an impersonal death. It was much more satisfying to feel the life draining away beneath his fingers.

The thought brought him back to reality. No need to wrestle with her delusions; only one truth mattered.

"Dora," Adam asked. "Where are the keys?"

"What keys?"

"I left the keys of the house in your keeping. I'll need them returned."

"I never had any keys!"

Adam looked to the doctor, who said, "We've found no keys on her person."

Missing? Impossible. Adam stormed from the room and set the servants searching for the keys. Nothing in her wardrobe. Nothing in the rooms. Nothing in the gardens.

The door on the third floor was locked, with no signs of entry.

Adam returned to the sickroom as the sun was setting. Dora sat quietly on her bed, having been calmly convinced of her new reality, completely unaware of the turmoil she'd thrown his life into.

He could have torn her limb from limb right there, but he had no proof yet she was deserving of it. For the moment, his strategy was gentleness.

He sat on the bed beside her. "Dora, my dove, think. Can you remember where the keys might be?"

"I can't even remember you."

Adam examined her in every detail--the tips of her fingers, the whites of her eyes, the curl of her lips. No signs of deception.

"You truly can't remember anything?"

Tears glittered in her eyes as she shook her head.

She looked as innocent as a newborn babe. The timid little fool he'd married couldn't fake such total ignorance. If she'd peered behind the door, she'd lost the memory of what she'd seen. If she'd disobeyed, he had no way of knowing.

A new twist to the game--a second chance.

Adam left the room in a state of contentment. He could get new keys made. His secret was safe--locked away either behind the door or in his wife's blank mind.

And if her memory returned? If she had memories of that bloody chamber?

He could always kill her later.

[princess-ibri]

Working on some early ideas for a Bluebeard retelling, so here’s some concept art (subject to change) Lucretia our Heroine

And Bluebeard our Villain

I’m basing their looks/names/time period off of what I could find from what Disney already had Bluebeard wise. Which was a tombstone with the names of Bluebeard’s previous wives and their/his date of death and a portrait of Bluebeard in Jake and the Neverland Pirates 😅

Plus some 1440s historical inspo. But yeah we’ll see how this goes!

[dilfsisko]

Not enough Bluebeard adaptations or retellings

[haveyoureadthishorrorbookpoll]

Have you read...

From familiar fairy tales and legends - Red Riding Hood, Bluebeard, Puss in Boots, Beauty and the Beast, vampires and werewolves - Angela Carter has created an absorbing collection of dark, sensual, fantastic stories.

submit a horror book!

[stromuprisahat]

Reading The Bloody Chamber, and I’m pretty sure LB got some inspiration there, except she didn’t allow her heroine to be young and horny, and had Baghra swoop in to save Alina’s precious virginity. A lot of passages read like what would Shadow and Bone want to be read as, but cannot.

I think I’m gonna post those passages that made me think most of Darklina later, though I'm not sure how much will I bother with coherent post. Also kinda fun how sweet is Carter’s “Mal-wannabe”. But, y’no... blind and not a warrior, so not nearly as cool as The Blade Boy...

[theboarsbride]

random asf but seeing Hannibal fanart reminded me of my (kind of?) Hannibal fic (and this blog's namesake lmfao) and it's making me think about how I want to turn it into an original book-

[bilightningwhumper]

Making a new poll, mostly because everyone who's picked "More than one" on my other poll hasn't actually specified which and that doesn't help me, lol. Also revising the summaries for further clarity.

Need more male whumpees in my New Eden Institution series. Either as Institution "patients" or as "birds" (pretty doll whumpees who are either used as breeders or as decorative for their whumpers)

I've already genderswapped other fairy tales, so these are the female protags to male protags potentials:

Goldilocks- orphan who ends up turned in by one of the families they break into the home of; they're just going after homes where the families are supposed to be on vacation to have a decent place to sleep for the night; turned into the Institution (ends up becoming part of the "underground railroad" to get out)

Bluebeard- "bird" MC ends up contacted by the investigation shutting down the New Eden system as they were bought from the Institution from an aggressive alpha who's psychologically abusive (charming in public and at first to the MC, gaslighting and physically abusive later on) and kills omegas like the MC when he's bored of them

Maid Maleen- similar to the Swan Lake and Rapunzel stories I have, though their 100%* isolation is because their parent is trying to protect them and their sibling (adopted, step, half, or full) from the Institution/"bird" owners; ends up failing and Maleen character in Institution while sibling is bought (ends up being a mix-up; soulmate thought sibling was Maleen because it was a soulmark purchase; whumper thought Maleen was sibling and kept them on purpose)

Thousandfurs/Allerlirauh- whumpee nearly abused by father; runs away and ends up kidnapped from the streets and put into the Institution; either also helps with the "underground railroad" or becomes a "bird"

Sleeping Beauty- "bird" whumpee has Sleeping Beauty syndrome and their whumper takes advantage of that (either through the illness or by being drugged and told by Whumper that it was the illness causing them to sleep again); would most likely be a noncon nsfw story (though primarily from the whumpee's pov, not the whumper's)

-

Again, just potentials. But I'm curious what people think, mostly to gain more ideas if nothing comes of these at all.

A lot of what I'm coming up is very much influenced by BBU stories I've read in the whump community.

Previous poll if you want to vote on that as well

Mangst 2024 masterlist with samples of my current writing for TNEI

Ao3 for the New Eden Institution series

[fictionadventurer]

If you're still doing the three-sentence fairytale retelling thing: how about Bluebeard as a comedy of manners?

SETTING: Parlor in an elegant mansion. A large window overlooks a sunny rose garden.

BLUEBEARD, a young man of somewhere less than thirty, so-named for the cyan tint to his whiskers (it's a long story), stands before the window, speaking to ARTHUR, a man of about his age. A black cat with white paws sits on an armchair.

BLUEBEARD: It's very simple. Aunt Augusta doesn't know I'm married, so she's preparing a wedding for me. Genevieve, the chosen girl, showed up this morning with six bridesmaids. I couldn't send them away, so I've locked them safely away in one of the upstairs rooms.

ARTHUR: And your wife has the key?

BLUEBEARD: She has all the keys. But don't worry, I've already solved that problem. I've told Catherine to never, under any circumstances, open that door.

ARTHUR: [after a stunned silence] You, my friend, are doomed.