#tatterhood

[princess-ibri]

How would you incorporate Mizrabel from the Castle of Illusion games into the Disneyverse?

Ok, I've been thinking on this for weeks now trying to figure out a good idea for this, i've thought out soooo many different things xD And I think I finally got one that I like:

Link to the fairytale mentioned in this so it makes sense if you don't already know it

Oh also Trigger Warning for Body Horror. Thats a first for this blog I think xD

Mizrabel is originally the adopted daughter in the Nordic faitytale Tatterhood. The child taken in by the childless king and queen, who only serves the purpose of befriending a wise woman's daughter so that the wise woman can tell the queen how to gain two biological daughters, who go one to be the actual main characters of the faitytale, and then the adopted one is never heard from again. I've ways wondered what happened to that poor girl...

And what happened was that, her heart broken by grief over her adopted mother basically abandoning her once her own twins were born, the young adopted princess Mirja goes back to the wise woman herself, demanding she be given something that will make her beautiful, powerful, noticed, loved.

The wise woman warns her of the dangers of such a request. Her mother asked for a child of her own, disregarding the one she had, and for the greed in her heart she did not follow the wise woman's rules and gained more then she asked for, and did not appreciate what she gained besides.

For the Queen ate, not one, but both of the magical flowers she had grown with the wise woman's guidance. She was warned to eat only one, but she hungered to ensure the spell would take, and so gained one beautiful daugher--and one wild one.

But the cast off princess doesn't care about the warning. For she wants to be More than both of the children the queen has gained combined.

The wise woman sighs, seeing the heartache of her child's friend, and gives her a seed to take and plant, which over the next year will grow into an apple tree that will bear a single fruit, a black apple that shines with all the colors of the rainbow. If she takes one bite of it, she will outshine both the children the queen carries, both in beauty and power.

But, like her adopted mother before her, Mirja does not heed the rules. Fearful that one bite will not be enough, she eats the full apple.

Her bones begin to crack, her skin to melt and merge. She has gained the ability to shift forms, to become anyone and anything. But she cannot yet fully control it, and horrified by the mass of shifting flesh she has become , she flees into the mountains.

There, she meets the witches and troll-folk of the mountain, who teach her greater magics, and she becomes a fearsome sorceress. Finally, after seven years she returns to her old home with her troll and witch companions to wreck havok on her mother's new daughters.

She did not count on the wild one being so fiercly protective of her beautiful sister.

Defeated by young Tatterhood, bound within the mountain, the witch-princess, now having cast off her old name for the name of Mizrabel--for so young Tatterhood taunted that she was--lives in lonely seclusion in the mountains, biding her time, learning deeper lore and magic that will allow her to escape and fulfill her obsesseion of outshining every princess in the lands of the EverRealm.

[patheticbatman]

My 55th Win A Commission contest was my adaption of the classic Norwegian tale, Tatterhood! If you would like to see my art in context with my version of the story, please

Thousands of years ago, on the very southernmost island of the land we now call Tierra de Fuego, there lived two Yamalim, a man and his wife.

The man had been married before and had no children. When his previous wife died, he quickly took her sister’s hand, as was the custom, and continued to have no children.

Unable to face the most likely reason, that he was the tumdgnnaka, the barren one, the man made his new wife’s life miserable, screaming at her and promising that life would be a lot better if she gave him a child, especially a son. But if she did not provide, then he intimated that her youngest sister would be next.

Her fear of her husband now far outstripping that of her fear of curses, she visited the local wizard, the Yekamu. Fingers fumbling, she presented as tribute a beautiful necklace of canelo, bone and abalone strung across its length.

The Yekamu emerged from his dwelling of grass and wood, and solemnly took her offering. “Watawineima knows what you seek,” he said, though she had not yet made her request known. “When your husband returns, you and he must accomplish three deeds. If you do, you will surely have a child before summer returns. First, take your coptdun, your canoe, out to sea on a clear hautvo-kipa night, a clear full moon night. Then, while you dive for a clam bearing a black pearl, he must catch you a fish. Swallow the pearl covered in its fats, and you shall be with child. But you must finish these tasks three before any clouds cross the moon, lest it all be for naught.”

Thanking him profusely, the woman returned to her home, and waited for her husband to get back, so she could explain it all. A full moon was tonight, and it was clear.

Unfortunately, he returned with his elder brother and wife in tow. The woman gently pleaded with her husband for privacy, so that she may tell of the solution without exposing the problem. But her husband, brash and belittling, did not heed her wisdom, and so loudly proclaimed that the news could be shared with all.

Hesitatingly, the woman shared the Yekamu’s words, embarrassing the husband when his brother intuited their troubles.

However, the brother-in-law rejoiced, for he and his wife were also struggling with conception.

So both couples set out and just one canoe that night.

Once in the water, the men turned to fishing with hook and line as the women dived for shellfish. It was night, but the women were used to diving in the dark, when the day was long and the sun unforgiving. It was early autumn, and so they were still in practice. The two quickly discovered a shellfish colony, and harvested there.

The brother-in-law was soon lucky, and caught a toothfish the size of a man.

The husband, eager to catch his own, did not help his own brother. He did not even help when the fish nearly dove back in, when its tail nearly extinguished the fire in their boat, or when it nearly knocked his own brother into the water.

But finally, the brother-in-law slew the creature, and began searching for a vein of fat.

The women were bringing in great amounts of shellfish, but when they took time to hop in the boat and open the shells in each of their piles, there were no pearls to be found.

But forsooth, she found a conch with two pearls! Ecstatic, she turned her husband – only to get pushed back into the sea.

The sister-in-law plucked out the only black pearl, leaving the other, a pink pearl, and quickly took it to the brother-in-law – who had not noticed the scuffle. Desperately, she coated the pearl in the toothfish fat, and popped it into her mouth, swallowing it whole. She felt no remorse, and convinced herself she was doing the woman a favor – for surely no child should be born into such a terrible house.

Gasping for air, the woman clawed her way back into the canoe. Shaking with fury, she turned her sister-in-law – only to notice a cloud drifting towards the moon.

“Husband,�� she cried instead. “The clouds approach! Have you caught a fish?”

The husband’s impatience had gotten the best of him. Envious of his own brother’s luck, he had not held the line steady enough for any fish to be caught. He cursed, and turned to his hunting dog, who laid quietly beside him in the canoe. Violently, he grabbed it, hooked its nose, and threw it in the water. As he dragged it back, he said, “There! Cannot a dog be a fish, if caught in the ocean by a hook?” With that, he slew the dog.

No one dared argue, though the woman shivered. How had her sister died? The woman had only briefly looked upon the body prior to cremation.

She cast her eyes to the remaining pearl. Surely a pink one found next to a black one would be magical, too, for twin pearls were rare indeed. Somehow, she kept her husband from seeing the pearl was pink, coated it in the fat of the dog, and swallowed it down just as the clouds covered the moon.

And with that, the group returned to the shore.

Nine months later, just before summer, both women entered labor at dawn.

At noon, before the woman’s child had even crowned, the sister-in-law easily gave birth to her own baby, a son. As it is ill luck to speak the dead’s name among the Yamalim, the boy shall be called Tdngiin-taalitas (or Itas for brevity), meaning Beauty, for he was a gorgeous child.

It was nearly sunset when the woman’s daughter was born.

The babe was tiny, even for their people, with a large head, swollen ears and small limbs, one of her legs ending in a club foot. Her dark eyes were serious but sweet, her hair wispy and soft, and she grasped her mother’s finger as soon as the woman reached down.

The woman, now the mother, loved her immediately, and brought her close to clean and nurse.

The husband, however, was no father. He raged, and screamed, and cursed the Yekamu’s faulty advice while he grabbed at his left arm. “A hautvola!” He cried. “A dwarf!” He knocked over the mother’s drinking water, necessary for recovering from such labor, and hit the walls of their house, causing the fibers to shake and separate, blades of grass falling upon the babe. Shaking off a blade that fell on his nose, the husband advanced, making to snatch up the child.

Weak but infuriated, the mother pushed his hand away. “We have what is promised,” she stated. “A child born before summer’s return. Let us thank Watawineima for his blessing!”

A vein bulged in the husband’s head. “How dare you-“ He raised his hand to strike the woman.

The woman held her babe with one hand, and grabbed a burning stick from the fire. “Get out,” she said, teeth bared. “I have given you all that you wish, and you dare to treat me this way? I am Yamana too! I am your equal!” She brandished the stick.

The husband‘s face began to change color, and he lunged towards her.

She thrust the fire straight into his face.

Howling, the husband stumbled out of their house, clawing at his eyes.

Other people, far enough away that they could not see the struggle - for Yamalim villages are spread out - but close enough to hear the screams, came running to see about the noise.

But just as the husband neared the woman again, he grabbed his chest, and fell over, dead.

Nobody liked the man much, so they helped the mother move into her brother-in-law’s house first, as was the custom.

The mother sat out of the funereal mock battle between the men and the women, nursing her daughter. Her sister-in-law also sat out, nursing her son, Itas. Neither looked at the other.

Finally, the husband was cremated, and rarely spoken of again. The mother was fine with that.

Her daughter grew to be close with her cousin. Before the age of seven, they were inseparable. Due to her short stature and clubfoot, the girl could not run and play as much as the other children, and so would spend more time at home, helping with the daily catches and making beads for necklaces. The boy would stay also, and his hands became nearly as nimble as hers.

The Aunt fretted, but it made her son happy, so she did not interfere.

The girl was even better at staying warm than the others in her family, despite the consistent sharp winds blowing off the ocean, because of her height. As such, she would rarely wear her cloak in the correct style. Combined with her odd gait, her cloaks often dragged at the bottom, often becoming tattered. As such, she was given a gently teasing nickname, Dop-agiiramma (Gii for brevity), or Tatterhood.

When the two were seven, the cousins split up for their education, after completing the Ciexuas rite. But while both had friends outside their family, they still were each other’s best friends. Gii’s aunt always had a strange look or an off remark to make about the girl, despite both Gii and her mother pulling their weight within the household. Her uncle was kind.

Gii was not the strongest or quickest swimmer, but she could swim deeper, hold her breath longer, and fit in smaller places. Her shellfish haul was always the best. It was no wonder that all the people in the village who liked shellfish kept on her good side.

Meanwhile, Itas soon became a skilled hunter, fisher, and gatherer. He trained a pack of dogs to help him catch aiapux, or otters.

Inspiration struck one day when one of his dogs became blinded in one eye during one such expedition. It could no longer keep up with the others. Itas told Gii, and she was ecstatic.

With permission from her mother and assistance from her uncle, Gii trained the dog to stand by her side.

This took some time, as the dogs that lived with the Yamalim had not descended from a pack canid, like the wolf, but from a more solitary sort. They were not prone to loyalty, but time and trust certainly helped.

Still, as soon as that dog, who shall be called Aki (a shortening of Yoaiaman-aki, meaning firstborn), was trained enough, Gii started training a pup – she did not want to be left in the lurch when the adult dog passed.

She and her uncle then took measurements of Aki, and carved a standing harness. Canes were often unwieldy or sometimes too heavy for Gii, especially due to her leg and foot pain. It did not bother her in the cold water of the ocean, but when she had to support herself on land, life became tough.

So one day, after two years of training and weeks of perfecting the harness, Gii was able to pull herself up, stabilize herself and walk with less pain with Aki’s help. Everyone rejoiced, even her aunt.

When Gii and Itas were adults, Aki now long gone, both were contemplating marriage. So they went on a trip in his canoe, as an excuse to talk things through. Both had people in mind, and wanted to get the outside perspective from their best friends.

As they talked, they became distracted, and the canoe floated south - more south than they had ever gone before.

But strong and confident, Itas just grabbed his oar and paddled north towards home.

It was summer, and so the days were long, warm and bright, and there was hardly any night at all. When she could, Gii would jump down and push the boat, to help speed things along.

Eventually, the two came to a small island, one that marked the edge of the horizon from the view of their current village site, for they moved often. As per usual, it was only visible during low tide, but today there was something on it.

“Wow!” Itas exclaimed. “A Kupat-enakamorana! A humongous whale!”

The Yamalim ate many marine animals, but rarely did they get an actual whale. The last one happened years ago, when someone had found an tosdg-unuina, a small toothed whale, with a chunk bitten out of its dorsal fin.

“Father will be so proud of me, bringing in a whale!” Itas said. He pulled the canoe up to the beached animal.

“Shouldn’t we go get the rest of the village, to help bring it in?” Gii said, eyeing the enormous animal. “I don’t think even you would be able to pull that thing by yourself.”

Itas laughed, and tied its tail to the boat. “No matter! I will tie it to the canoe, and when the tide washes in, we will both float to the cove via the current.

Gii was not convinced, but unable to do much else, returned to the boat. From that vantage point, she saw the whale’s blowhole expand and contract. “Cousin!” She cried. “It still lives, though barely. Should we really remove this noble creature from its chosen place to die?”

From the tracks still left on the sand, it was clear the whale had intentionally beached itself. Whether that was its own choice or some gift from Watawineima, Gii did not want to interfere.

But her cousin, usually so levelheaded, was enamored with the adoration he (and Gii) would receive from their family and possible fiancées if they brought such a bountiful harvest home. “It will be dead soon enough. And look! There is the tide!” He finished tying the whale to the canoe, and jumped in.

As he predicted, the currents carried them off the island and back to the cove. Itas paddled, and Gii kept a suspicious eye upon the whale, waiting for anything bad to happen.

Just as the canoe was about to cross into the village cove, Gii saw the whale thrash. “No! Itas, look! It it’s awake!”

But Itas was aware, and already struggling against the whale. “Gii! Grab the other oar and help me row!

Gii ran up and did her best. But the whale, awake and furious, was too strong. Slowly, but surely the canoe was headed out to sea.

“Itas, grab your knife! We must cut it loose, or we shall both be lost!”

Itas dithered for a moment, but as he watched their home cove get further and further away, he knew that they must at least make it home with the canoe. It was a work of countless hours, and the gift of a tree’s life. He grabbed his knife, and started sawing away at the rope.

But it was too late. With a splash and a ker-PLUNK, the whale pulled itself underwater and flipped the canoe.

Gii being the better swimmer, she dove out of the boat in time, but Itas, caught by surprise, did not. Instead, he hit his head on the now-roof of the boat, burned his face with the embers of the boat-fire, and fell unconscious.

When Gii did not see her cousin rise from the water, she dove back in, frantic. She found Itas floating face up in the water underneath the boat. She tried to grab him, but the whale, still attached, moved it away. Gii barely ducked in time for the canoe to pass over her head.

Gii returned to the surface to see both the whale and the boat pull her cousin south. Despairing, Gii grabbed a fallen oar, and swam to shore to get help.

Her aunt raged and screamed insults while her uncle and mother wept. The rest of the village prepared to hold the funereal traditions.

Upset, and unwilling to give up on Itas, Gii visited the Yekamu. She asked him what she could do, and offered all her previous day’s catch.

The Yekamu - a new one since the old retired - consulted Watawineima, and then said, “Gather three strong paddlers and head to south. Your cousin will be within a mountain of great ice, unable to leave due to the shifting of the long tunnel to the outside. Make him a bag full of air, and you should be able to guide him out.”

“How can I make a bag that can hold air?”

The Yekamu pointed a finger outside. “Like that.”

Gii stepped outside, and saw a child playing with a seal bladder, tied on the ends and filled with air.

And with that, Gii set off to tell the village the plan. Many thought her ridiculous, and refused to join her strange quest. But her mother, her uncle her crush, both she and Itas’s good friend, agreed to join. Her aunt was beside herself, and did not believe that she would get her child back, so opted to stay behind.

“Do not worry, Aunt,” Gii said, who was kinder to her aunt than the woman had ever been to her. “We’ll be back with Itas soon.”

And so the four set off, Sola (a shortened form of Yekaia-sola, or Pup) the dog riding along as well.

All had seen icebergs before, but none quite as huge as the ones they saw as they traveled further south. The Aurora Australis, bright in the short-lived night sky, and so much more common the further south they went, gave them light when they chose to paddle through the night.

At last, when it felt like they had reached winter again, the party arrived at a strange land, windy and bright with snow and sun at the same time.

None had seen land in their month-long journey down south, so when they reached the rocky shores, everybody jumped for joy at the feeling of earth beneath them. Sola immediately rolled in the pebbly dirt, which made everyone laugh.

The party soon caught some upoc-i, penguins, of similar varietals as they found at home, and ate their fill. Even seafaring people can tire of fish.

Gii stretched her legs – swimming regularly was not the same as walking regularly – and looked further south, where floated a large ice mountain in the middle of a little cove.

The party agreed that they would not bring the canoe there this late in the day, for they wanted to eat and sleep on dry land. Additionally, they feared those strange waters - they knew not what dangers lurked beneath.

Gii did not allow herself to express her fear. She had practiced swimming in these waters over the past few weeks, so frigid in comparison to those of her home. She was as prepared as she would get.

The next day, after an incredibly short and half-hearted spurt of darkness, her mother helped Gii grease her body with the fat from the penguins, to give her speed in the water and to keep the cold at bay.

“My brave girl,” Gii’s mother said. “I love you and your cousin.” She bent to whisper in Gii’s ear. “But if it comes down to saving yourself or him, I want you back.”

Gii nodded solemnly, hand tightly gripping Sola’s harness. Today of all days, her legs felt especially poorly. “I will, Mother.”

Her uncle fashioned a balloon out of their dinner’s bladder, cleaned with ocean water. “I weighed it down slightly with some rocks, so it does not tug away so easily or float as much. Is the weight all right?” He asked, holding it up by the string attached to one end.

Gii tied it to her arm. “You’re so thoughtful, Uncle, thank you. It’s perfect.”

They rode to the northern edge of the great ice mountain, which they discovered to be two icebergs, constantly crashing, bumping and floating together.

Both Gii’s mother and uncle looked stricken and afraid, but her best friend laid hand on her shoulder. “You’re the only one who can do this,” he said simply. “Bring him out.”

Gii laid hand on his shoulder. “I will.” Then she pulled him down and kissed him.

Before she lost her nerve, Gii patted Sola on the head, and dove down, down, down, into the blue.

The underside of the ice mountains were even more daunting, but she soon spotted a gap in the ice that felt just right.

She came back up for air, waved, dove back down, and entered the cave.

The ice groaned around her, and Gii was positive she had never been more cold in her life. How could water be surrounded by ice, and not freeze? And were the walls getting closer together? And was she going the right way? It was so bright, and the ice was endless – would she ever know if she had gotten turned around?

But with nothing left to do except block out the burning in her lungs with more swimming, she went on.

At last, the tunnel led up, and a strange sort of shimmering danced across her vision. The surface! Gii her way up, and with a gasp, survived the swim.

There, upon a small outcropping of ice and bone, laid the carcass of the whale, fashioned into a crude structure with the boat.

“Gii?” Itas crawled out of the structure, emaciated, left eye burnt, voice cracking from disuse and thirst, but alive.

She leapt up and hugged him, ignoring her aching legs and foot. “I’m here to rescue you!”

He laughed and seemed shocked by the sound. “But I’ve tried swimming out. Oh cousin, it is long and tight for a swimmer such as I. As a man, I never learned to hold my breath as a woman does.”

“Fear not!” Gii held up her bag, full of rocks and air. “You may take a breath along the way.”

“I will warn you then, that my strength may be diminished. I was confined in this small world of ice.”

Gii squeeze his hand. “We’ll make it through, especially since you’re so skinny now. What are you, an eel? Now, how about we put the last of this fat to good use?”

The cousins slathered themselves with the whale fat and jumped into the water.

The tunnel through the ice seem to have shifted a bit. Overhead, Gii heard a crack and everything shook for a moment. She nearly paused, afraid to go on, but then shook her head. Waiting would only waste more air, and they needed to keep going.

When they were about halfway through, maybe a little less, Itas tapped her foot, for he was behind her, and gestured to his mouth. She turned around and held the bag out to him. He sucked in a breath, and went on ahead. Gii took the meager remainder, and dropped the bag. It had served his purpose, and she didn’t need any more drag.

Itas was struggling by the time they reached the tunnel mouth. Smirking slightly, Gii pushed off the ice wall and sped for the surface.

When she breached, he wasn’t there. Panicked, she dove back down.

A alqfin-oma, a leopard seal, had Itas by the leg.

Blood was spurting into the water, and the beast was shaking him wildly. Gii was sure he’d pass out any moment.

“Mother!” She called, breaching the surface once more. “A huge seal has got Itas! Help!”

Without a second thought, her mother grabbed the two men’s spears and dove down into the water, stopping only to hand Gii one.

Itas was definitely unconscious, and the seal looked like it was about to swim off, perhaps to its lair. Gii’s mother burst towards the beast, and stabbed it in the tail.

It let go of Itas to snap around and go after her mom, so Gii tried to stab it as well. Her thrust lacking strength, it merely skittered along the side.

But all the same, the beast turned to snarl at Gii, teeth sharp and bloody.

Gii’s mother took that as an opportunity to grab Itas by the armpits and toss him up to the surface. He had lost so much weight in the cave, he had been sinking into the depths, no fat to buoy him up.

Gii did her best to hold the beast at bay in the meantime. It did not like her spear, but did not seem too afraid – perhaps it did not know to fear humans. Its teeth grew ever closer.

Heart beating nearly out of her chest, Gii kicked off the face of the approaching seal, flipping briefly out of the water and into the air. Its eyes opened wide in anger and surprise, and in that moment, Gii took a chance.

Grabbing onto its whiskers for leverage, she drove the spear down and in – right through the seal’s eye.

It thrashed wildly, and Gii got out of its way, though she was nearly tumbled by its force. She went back up for air.

Her uncle and friend were hauling Itas into the boat, her mother pushing him up. He had yet to regain consciousness, but she saw him breathing. She called, “Come help me. Seal’s back on the menu, boys!”

The party spent the next three days on land, resting and preparing the canoe for the long journey once more.

The group ate the leopard seal, and stored what they could as rations in the baskets that held food at the beginning of the trip. The men had discovered that the snow and ice on the land was freshwater, so they also packed much snow for the trip across the ocean. The canoe looked a little worse for the wear, but it would take them home.

And with the wind on their backs as they headed north, the trip was even faster.

Once the party arrived home, the village held a great celebration. They enjoyed the feast, but avoided fish and seal for quite some time after that, preferring land cuisine like birds, mushrooms, berries, and occasionally guanaco and otter.

Itas married the girl he had been contemplating that day they discovered the whale, and Gii married the brave friend who accompanied her on the quest. And they all lived happily till the end of their days.

Tatterhood Explanation

Ooooof! This one! I think this might be the one I had as a concept longest, and avoided the hardest. I wanted a story that featured the Yamala (which is plural for Yamana, and which is mistakenly called Yaghan in many English texts), the southernmost peoples of the world, located in what is now called Chile and Argentina, and that would possibly also feature Antarctica - the one continent this project had not yet visited. And I also wanted to have a story about Tatterhood, an ‘undesirable’ child turned hero. Eventually, I resolved myself to write it. I do not think it is the best representation of Yamana culture, and it is once again an European tale adaption, but I had fun making it. No excuses.

The Yamana people live on very windy and cold islands, but due to their use of animal fats as skin insulation, strategic sleeping arrangements, and placements of their homes in the lee of the wind, they did not have to wear many clothes. During the worst of the winter, or on especially windy days where they were required to be out, they wore capes, but that was largely it. European colonization took away this practice, nearly extinguishing their culture and language over the centuries, but the Yamana are back on the rise! Many kindergartens in the area are fostering new native speakers, and many are becoming scholars and preservers of the culture. I wish them well.

As for my story, I wanted the mistreatment and betrayal of Gii’s mother by both her husband and her sister-in-law to be clear and relevant. It takes cowardice to steal another’s chances, and to mistreat another human. The husband is like many other fairy tale fathers, and does not consider that he is the cause for childlessness - I had fun killing him. But I also wanted to acknowledge that many women betray other women, and so the sister-in-law stole the ‘right’ pearl. However, I also make it clear that while the events surrounding her conception and birth were troublesome, Gii was a gift all the same. She is her mother’s Gii’, and unlike the traditional Tatterhood, she is treasured and does not have to transform to be loved at the end.

I probably made Gii too-overpowered when talking about her swimming and food gathering skills, but I had fun making a person with diastrophic dysplasia a protagonist - I have wished to do so ever since reading the novel ‘Jepp, Who Defied the Stars’ by Katherine Marsh, featuring a dwarf man who struggles against fate, and drawing Snow White years ago.

The title picture was something I imagined years ago. As most of the Yamana were traditionally reliant on the sea for food and other necessities, I thought a conch was a fun idea. This one includes three languages, as all Yamana today speak Spanish, and because I still needed some English in there.

I drew these pictures after finishing the illustrations for Chantha Rasphone (hint hint wink wink for next month) so I knew to make a base picture on which I could reference Gii’s face. You can see it in the pictures on the next page. The Yamana wore facial makeup quite often, but the exact practices of markings have been lost to time. As such, I based her makeup off some pictures I found on the internet - they might not be super accurate but it's done now. Also I had to get really inventive with the cloaks and scenery to cover up Gii and Itas in the spots that are socially unacceptable to show in our culture. I personally would not be bothered, but as I post these stories to tumblr and show them to kids with parents of varying proprieties, I played it safe.

The second picture, of Gii and Aki, was the first I really drew outside of her title and the reference picture. I think she ended up looking a little same-facey with my other drawings - I may redraw her one day. Her proportions for dwarfism are off - I probably should have drawn her shorter and with shorter limbs. However, she does clearly look different from her cousin. I nearly forgot her clubfoot, but I did catch that in time. Her dog is based on an actual Fuegian dog - the Yamana actually domesticated a whole other type of canid, a jackal, to make their dogs. It is so cool! We made dogs twice! Unfortunately, they were hunted to extinction by colonizers, but they existed.

The third picture was drawn next. I had trouble conceptualizing the angle of the boat and the knot, as well as the fire pit - it is almost certainly inaccurate. However, I am satisfied with how both Gii and Itas appear. His makeup is definitely more accurate - I saw several different men with those stripes across his eyes.

The fourth illustration I drew last - my interest was waning. It was originally supposed to be the coolest picture, but I really like how the next one turned out. Yes. Ita’s facial burn looks similar to that of Zuko from Avatar: The Last Airbender. I wanted to show a pretty boy who stays desirable after a scar. In real life, scars are neutral, but in fiction and thus some people’s minds, they signify evil. Instead, its just the result of an innocent accident. Also, I wanted to pay homage to the fact that in the original story, Tatterhood’s sister (Itas’s equivalent) gets her head chopped off and her body stolen.

My last picture is definitely my favorite. I took a bunch of pictures during the process of drawing it because I think I really got the body and angles right. Sadly, I ended up deleting her love handle - I could not get the angle right. Still, I love this one. The fish are Antarctican toothfish.

Anyways, I hope you enjoyed Tatterhood!

[laurasimonsdaughter]

What if Disney adapted Tatterhood?

Well then I would be very nervous, because I love Tatterhood. And my sister and I both agree that Disney shouldn't adapt it, but Studio Ghibli. That being said, if I put the (modern) Disney Goggles back on:

First of all, like most adaptations, the beginning with the adopted child and the beggar woman from Asbjørnsen and Moe's version will be cut, and with good reason. (It's very folkloric, but has no bearing on the plot at all.) Instead, the story will start thusly:

Once upon a time (in a place that looks inspired by Norway) there were a King and Queen who longed to have children and sought the help of a wise fairy (no, sadly she can't be a witch). She teaches them some magic and warns them that two flowers will grow, but that the queen must only eat one of them.

They (the king has to be more involved than in the fairy tale) do the magic and find the flowers. One is a beautiful rose and one is oddly bright, with strangely shaped leaves that scream 'magical'. The king picks the rose and the queen eats it, but likes it so much she wants to eat the other flower too, so the king gives it to her. Some time later the queen gives birth to twins. One is as beautiful as the rose and the other is going to give the concept artists an absolute headache.

Because Tatterhood has to look different and not-princessy, while still being Disney princess material, and they also have to avoid any racial coding at all cost (as many adaptations sadly do not). In any case, they are adorable little Disney children together and the sweet little princess - let's call her Goldenlocks - adores her strange, wild sister, who rides around on a goat (like Esmeralda's, her trusty animal sidekick) and wears a tattered hood. They grow up together in a lovely montage with a song about sisterhood.

The random witch infestation in the castle from the original will probably get changed to something a bit more coherent. Maybe a sorcerer will come to ask for Goldenlocks' hand in marriage, or a witch queen will come to demand one of the sisters marry her son. Either way, poor princess Goldenlocks ends up cursed. I don't know if they will give her the calf's head, that might look too grotesque. She'll probably turn fully into a beautiful animal, like a deer.

Tatterhood will demand her parents give her a ship, so she can cure her sister and she sets off with her twin, acting very Mulan/Merida-ish. Tatterhood sings a very catchy song while she swings in the rigging, about her need to be free and her love for her sister. She confronts and/or tricks the sorcerer/witch who cursed her sister and manages to uncurse her, but as the two girls make their escape a magic storm blows their ship off course as revenge.

They get hopelessly lost and end up in the harbour of a strange kingdom. Of course having the widowed king marry Goldenlocks and force his son to marry Tatterhood is absolutely out of the question. Instead there is kind old queen ruling the country, and she has two sons: twin princes. Princess Goldenlocks happens to see the youngest and falls head over heels in love. She's so lovesick that Tatterhood resolves to make sure they can meet.

Luckily the queen is giving a great masquerade ball to celebrate her sons coming of age. Goldenlocks and Tatterhood show up to the ball. One ridden on a beautiful horse, the other on a goat, one in a glittering gown, the other in an outfit that is meant to look strange and wild but can still look very fashionable.

Their appearance causes a lot of confusion, and everyone wants to dance with princess Goldenlocks, but she will not accept any dance unless her sister has a partner too. The youngest prince begs his brother to ask Tatterhood to dance so he can dance with Goldenlocks, he agrees, and so the two princes dance with the two princesses. And because Goldenlocks and her prince are smitten already, they dance the entire night, and the other prince is stuck with Tatterhood. There is a song for this, consisting of two duets split across the two couples, one of which are falling in love, the other are snarky and almost antagonistic.

Now this is not easy to resolve, because in the fairy tale Tatterhood makes the prince question her about why she she rides an ugly goat, wears and ugly hood and has such an ugly face, and when he does she tells him that he is wrong and she is suddenly more beautiful than her sister, more richly dressed, and astride a beautiful horse. This will not do for a Disney ending. In many adaptations it is implied that Tatterhood's sister has always seen her "true face" and that it is now revealed to the world, which is still a bit unsatisfying. And of course we cannot get rid of the beloved goat sidekick. The best ending I can think of is this:

Everyone at court is enchanted with Goldenlocks but scandalized by Tatterhood, who does not behave like a princess ought and looks so Different and Wild. They laugh that the oldest prince has to spend the entire evening with her while his younger brother gets the beautiful Goldenlocks and this makes the prince embarassed and sulky.

When his younger brother tells him he wants to marry Goldenlocks, however, he puts his own feelings aside and is genuinely happy for him. Of course Goldenlocks wants to accept, but says they must first go to meet her father and mother. The foreign queen wants to give them a crew to man their ship, but Tatterhood insists that she does not need one, since she sailed the ship all alone before. To prevent the boat setting off with just the prince and three princesses on board, the prince's twin insists he come too, since surely the sisters cannot mean to separate him from his twin brother. They indeed do not argue with that and the four of them set sail.

Now we get a beautiful sailing montage where the Goldenlocks and her prince are cutesy and in love, but the focus is on the older prince, who sees Tatterhood magically sail the entire ship on her own and whose wildness is actually wonderful and free-spirited etc, etc. Tatterhood sings a reprise of her sailing song and the prince maybe gets a few lines too, to express his slow change of heart.

(Depending on who is on the creative team, the evil sorcerer/witch might attack one last time while they are at sea. Giving Tatterhood an opportunity to go full warrior princes and team up with the princes to destroy them once and for all. At the final moment Tatterhood trusts the younger prince to save her sister while she and the older prince kill the villain, who now probably has the shape of a sea serpent.)

They arrive back at the court and the king and queen are overjoyed to see their children back again. If there ever was any preference for Goldenlocks, it is now gone, they embrace both their daughters with equal joy. They immediately give their blessing to Goldenlocks' engagement, but to everyone's surprise the other prince suddenly begs for another moment of their time, turns to Tatterhood, and asks her to marry him.

She accepts, either immediately, and they will have a double wedding to end the movie on. Or she will archly tell him that he can court her first, in which case he will accompany her to their siblings' wedding. (The prince's mother will be there too, of course.)

Either way the good fairy is present at the royal wedding that ends the movie, to give her blessing, and say something meaningful about magic and love and destiny. There will be a hint of magic around both Tatterhood and the fairy here, betraying that her power comes from fairy magic, and that she is actually the coolest fae warrior princess ever. Her goat is the only one who notices.

They all live happily ever after, the end.

[the-swift-tricker]

i really really wanna play tatterhood in neverafter so here's my take on the spoon-weilding troll-beating badass princess

[evil-is-relative]

Tatterhood, as suggested by @afeleon276 ! This one is well worth looking up, trust me. To start with, there's a princess that rides around on a goat!

[fairytalemovies]

Die Hexenprinzessin, 2020

[senadimell]

I don’t have historical info on how this evolved, but while it’s accurate to say that saving-the-damsel is not necessarily the most common trope, it is really common for a woman’s hand in marriage to be an unquestioned prize for heroism, regardless of what the woman thinks (though there are a few stories where she resists this). I’d posit that this is at the root of some of the criticism, though as usual it’s easy to attack the cultural zeitgeist without realizing it doesn’t match the thing it claims to be.

There’s a whole family of tropes surrounding “princess won’t marry/laugh/do what she’s supposed to” that involve the eventual husband winning her hand not necessarily by courting her directly, but by proving his worthiness in other ways, often to important parental figures and especially to her father. Sometimes it’s by humiliating her, though more commonly it’s by being ridiculous or being magical or being tricky (and sometimes being good and kind). The woman-as-prize is fairly common, but man-as-prize is not. Even with Cupid and Psyche variants, the “marriage” usually takes place in an arranged fashion beforehand, and it’s only after she’s fallen for her husband that she must save him, so the “you’ve been good and therefore you deserve a rich man (because it is usually rich more than handsome” is not as common compared to the many stories involving the young man having grand adventures and then being clever/hapless/kind enough to be rewarded with a woman’s hand in marriage.

It’s also generally less common to have stories about young women going on adventures unless there’s a love interest involved, though there’s many stories about hapless young men going off to seek their fortune. (Not so clear where folk stories end and fairy tales begin).

The knight on the white horse has to come from somewhere, though, and I suspect it’s going to be something happening in-between 1840 and 1970 to blame but I don’t know where to point the finger. I think a lot of people are reacting to retellings of retellings and it’s not the stories codified during the romantic period that people are criticizing, but the way the people around them talked about stories.

It's so interesting to me that "the hero saves the damsel" in distress is pop culture's idea of a "traditional fairy tale", yet I can think of very few fairy tales that center around a hero rescuing a damsel in distress. There are several where he goes on quests for her sake--climb the glass hill to win her hand, or find the Water of Life to cure her illness--and plenty where she's a reward for success, but that's not the same thing as seeing the princess in trouble and heading out to save her from immediate danger. The closest ones I can think of are "Sleeping Beauty", and things like St. George and the Dragon. In "Snow White" he comes too late and saves her by accident. In "Rapunzel", he doesn't rescue her--he just keeps coming until he gets caught, and she winds up saving him. I suppose "Jorinda and Joringel" involves a man saving his betrothed, but "working for years as a shepherd until he gets the answer in a dream" is a much different structure than the "knight on a white horse saving the princess from a dragon" that we think of as the "tradtional" type of fairy tale. Meanwhile, I can think of several tales that involve a woman questing to save a man--"The Wild Swans", "East of the Sun, West of the Moon", "Tam Lin", "The Black Bull of Norroway", "The Snow Queen"--but this trope isn't nearly as commonly known.

So where does the "fairy tales are about men saving women in distress" come from? Is it a product of Victorian medieval romances--Ivanhoe and their ilk? Is it a trope from other classic tales? Because the gender balance of heroism is much more equal in traditional fairy tales, and it rarely takes the form of "noble prince riding to the rescue of the helpless maiden".

[thegeekytaurus]

Instead of focusing on making soulless and unwanted live action remakes of their animated movies here are some fairy tales/legends/myths/fables/folktales/literature and original ideas that Disney should focus on adapting into animated movies:

The Twins/The Boy who was brother to the Drague

2. Don Quiote

3. Little red riding hood

4. Puss in Boots

5. Tatterhood

6. Iron John

7. Ivan Tsarevich

8. Dobrynya and the Dragon

9. Rasputin

10. Journey to the west

11. Norse Mythology(Aesir, Vanir and Jotnar)

12. Cu Chulainn or Fionn mac Cumhail/Finn McCool

13. Till Eulenspiegel

14. Egyptian Mythology (Horus)

15. Nora of Kelmendi

16. Ibonia

17. Anansi

18. Epic of Mwindo

19. Epic of Gilgamesh

20. Momotaro

21. Aztec Mythology(Quetzalcoatl)

22. The Kalevala/Kalevipoeg

23. Ramayana/Mahabharata

24. Rostam

25. Kiviuq

26. Princess Bari or Shimcheong

27. The epic of king Gesar

28. the tale of Thanh Giong or the legend of Au Co and Lac Long Quan.

29. The story of bidasari

30. The legend of Mayari

31. a Maltese fairy tale or myth

32. Gothic fairytale story idea(one with vampires)

33. Steampunk/ Gaslamp fantasy story idea

34. A re-imagining of Moby Dick from the whale's perspective.

[i-think-just-got-a-story-idea]

My first Fancuries "For Your Consideration" post

Seasonal Sister Pretty Cure:

Themes: Sisters, fairytales, and seasons

I came up with Seasonal Sister Pretty Cure in 2021 and revamped it in 2022. It's about Aimee, who's from “Aurore and Aimee,” and her talking pink pomeranian, Acorn getting rescued by a woman named Katherine after her sister Queen Aurore of Champomme accuses her of kidnapping and killing her son. Katherine uses a magic book to take Aimee to a secluded forest where nymphs live. The fairytales were the nymphs’ history and fairytale authors based books on the history. Many Seasonal Sister teams lived in the town briefly before Aimee’s team. The team's enemies are Baba Yaga who wants to take the nymphs' magic, the knights of morning, day, and night, and the cures’ sisters. The power ups are themed after seasons and fairytale tropes. The weapons are fans.

The series movie will be about the cures and villains meeting the original versions of them that I made up in 2021 in an alternate universe.

Amelia “Aimee” Isaac/Cure Orchard:

Aimee becomes a cure in episode 1 and leads Seasonal Sister Pretty Cure. Fifteen-year-old Aimee and her twenty-five year old sister Aurore were raised by their mom, a famous actress named Fifi, in the early 1900s. Their dad went into a forest over a decade ago and died. Ten years before Aimee became a cure, Fifi got a chance to get a role that could help her be a famous actress liked she dreamed but she needed to lie that she was younger. She lied, got the role, and sent Aurore through the forest her husband died in to stay with her relatives. Aurore didn't come back and Fifi and Aimee thought she was dead. A lady named Carine took care of Aurore and taught her how to do magic. When she grew up, Aurore fell in love with the kingdom's young king. They got married and had a son, but he went missing. After they searched for him for two years, Aurore blamed Aimee.

Aimee loves shopping because she grew up in a city. She bakes often, especially desserts like caramel apples which her cure theme is. Aimee’s love interest is her sister's husband's younger brother, Florimond, who moves into the forest in episode 5. Aimee's the fall cure.

Princess Victoria “Tori” Bird/Cure Aquatic:

Tori becomes a cure in episode two and is the second in command. She's been Aimee's frenemy since 2021, but they'll also be best friends when the season ends. She's fifteen and the summer cure. Tori’s the Little Mermaid. Her grandma told her a false legend that a mermaid can get a soul by being in a relationship with a human. Liss the sea sorceress turns her into a human. Tori tries to date a prince on land named Finn, but he starts dating her slightly older sister, Lena. Katherine rescues her from needing to hurt Finn and gives her a potion to reverse Liss’s potion.

Tori loves singing and listening to 50s music because she lived in the 50s. She wants to start a band with the cures. Like Aimee, she doesn't like her fairytale. Tori’s theme is the ocean. Tori’s the summer cure.

Princess Geraldine “Deenie” Jang/Cure Meadow:

Deenie became a cure in episode 3. She's thirteen and Tatterhood. She and her twin sister Linda were born because of magic. Deenie was crazier than Linda. Her mom nicknamed her Tatterhood. On Christmas, witches attacked her palace. Linda's head got turned into a bluebell, but she joined the witches. Then, Katherine took Deenie and later on, her talking goat friend Astrid to the forest. Deenie’s from the 20s.

Deenie likes wild animals and riding horses. She practices fighting with a giant wooden spoon. Deenie’s themes are hyacinths. Deenie's the spring cure.

Gwendolyn “Gwen” Tighe/Cure Frost:

Gwen became a cure in episode 4. She's thirteen and Rose Red. Her sister Hally aka “Snow White” and she were nicknamed because of their hair colors. They grew up in a forest with their mom. They met a bear named Arthur and became best friends. Months later, Gwen and Hally tried to help Arthur and found out that an evil man cursed him. Hally became a witch and Katherine took Gwen, and after her, Arthur to the forest. Katherine wanted to help Hally and Gwen. Gwen’s from the 80s.

Gwen likes writing poetry. Tori wants her to join her band and write songs. Gwen gardens, too. Gwen's themes are frosted roses. Gwen's the winter cure.

Katherine Fernandez:

Katherine used to be a cure and takes care of Seasonal Sister Pretty Cure cures. She's from “Kate Crackernuts.”

The knights:

Quinn and Lacy are sisters and Silvia is their stepsister. They're Baba Yaga’s best trio. Quinn is the oldest and is more serious and empathetic than Silvia, who's bratty. They're from “Vasilisa the Beautiful.”

Fangirls! Pretty Cure:

Themes: Fandoms, fan work

Fangirls! is the team I want to revamp next. It's about four girls who are in a fandom that's popular. The mascot is a red poodle named Domi. The big good never is in contact with the cures, but it's implied it's the author of the books that started the fandom.

The cures:

Rosalind/Cure Fanfiction (will probably change her cure name, a pink cure)

Irene/Cure Silhouette (the blue fanart cure)

Joy/Cure Ship (a yellow cure)

Franchesca/Cure Hypothesis (the green theory cure)

The villains:

Mary Sue (the power desiring middle aged big bad)

Y/N (a girl stuck going between Y/N fanfictions and shapeshifting into the readers)

Break a Leg! Pretty Cure:

Themes: theatre, triple threats, Broadway

This is the one I'm most likely to write next. It's about high schoolers named Aviana and Carina being in the ensemble of their high school’s production of Wicked. Aviana is an actress and Carina is a singer and a popular girl. A dancer named Tegan is also in Wicked. She becomes friends with the cures. The mascot is a ferret named Thea. The transformation devices are scripts and highlighters. The power ups are Broadway pins.

Cures:

Aviana/Cure Skit

Carina/Cure Soundtrack

Hello Pretty Cure

Themes: Sanrio

It's getting revamped, but the main duo is a girl and her identical twin sister. Twin Star themed characters are the mascots. There are two subteams that fight villains in the town.

Cures:

Cure Kitty (lead)

Cure Mimmy (second in command)

Cure Cinnamorol (late joiner)

Cure My Melody

Cure Piano

Cure Maru

Cure Keroppi

Cure Usahana

Cure Button

Cure Hummingmint

Cure Lala

Cure Kiki

Sugarcoated Cake Pretty Cure

Themes: desserts and parties (I know Delicious Party did this before me)

Cures:

Candela “Candy” Casabuena/Cure Confetti:

She's eleven and a rainbow cure. She's the lead cure with a confetti cake and birthday party theme.

Power ups:

Candy: Jawbreaker

Cookie: Sugar

Donut: Sprinkle

Ice cream: Sherbet

Pastry: Toaster

Mira Lamour/Cure Bride:

She's twenty two and has been a cure before being in Sugarcoated Cake Pretty Cure. She's a white cure and the oldest cure in the team. She has a wedding cake and wedding theme. She's closest with Cure Petite

Power ups:

Candy: Salt water taffy

Cookie: Black and white

Donut: Jelly

Ice cream: Baked Alaska

Pastry: Cream puff

Layla Abrahams/Cure Slumber:

She's twelve and the closest with Cure Confetti. She's a pink cure. Her themes are brownies and slumber parties.

Power ups:

Candy: Smore

Cookie: Chocolate chip

Donut: Cream-filled

Ice cream: Float

Pastry: Cinnamon roll

Alani Chibashira/Cure Petite:

She's six and the youngest cure in Sugarcoated Cake. She's an orange cure and her themes are petit fours and tea parties.

Candy: Jelly beans

Cookie: Snickerdoodle

Donut: Hole

Ice cream: Soft

Pastry: Strudel

Cyrus Young/Cure Homecoming:

Cyrus is seventeen and the only male cure in Sugarcoated Cake. His theme color is black. His themes are cake pops and school dances.

Candy: Gum

Cookie: Whoopie pie

Donut: Funnel cake

Ice cream: Snowcone

Pastry: Pretzel

Spilled Milk Pretty Cure:

Themes: Milk, childhood

Cures:

Whitney Kidd/Cure Dairy:

Whitney is the lead cure. She's a blue cure with a white milk theme. She's in middle school.

Colette Suzukaze/Cure Cocoa:

Colette's the second in command and has a brown theme color and chocolate milk theme. She's Whitney's age.

Abigail Cabrera/Cure Peel:

Abigail's a late joiner. She has a yellow theme color and a banana milk theme. She's in late elementary school.

Blair Bayerstowe/Cure Straw:

Blair's the other late joiner and has a pink theme color and strawberry milk theme. She's in early elementary school.

Some Glitter Cure designs I made that I really like:

[deathsmallcaps]

GUYS. My Win a Commission project is finished!!!!! I still have four months of posting left to do but I wrote, edited, drew and explained EVERYTHING!!!!!

SEVEN YEARS. I started in August 2017 (I was sixteen!) and in August 2024 I motherfucking finished!

The next time I start a long project, it better fucking be a fetus or some shit because I don’t feel like doing something like this everfucking again.

I AM FREE

(If you’re interested in winning my next couple, look under the readmore for some hints. The majority are just reference drawings for the story, not the actual illustrations)

The two main characters for West of the Sun, East of the Moon, a modern retelling of East of the Sun, West of the Moon set in Alaska. Trans Sapphic love story

The main character Chantha Rasphone, for my gay ‘sequel’ to Childe Rowland. If you like Labyrinth, chances are you’ll like this. It’s the longest story I have ever written, at over 40 printer pages without the explanation, pictures or glass art. It’s even longer with those things.

Gii, the Tatterhood from my Yamana retelling. She has dwarfism and slays a leopard seal with a spear.

Billi, an intersex man and star of the Acacia Tree, my adaptation of The Juniper Tree set in modern Australia. (The picture here is based on Alan Scott’s 1970s picture ‘Face of an Aboriginal* Man, Alice Springs Area’, as shown below)

*Respectful term is the full ‘Aboriginal Australian person’, but I am just quoting the title.

These are not in release order! Next contest starts on September 10th!

[godzilla-reads]

📖 The Nixie of the Mill-Pond and Other European Stories (A Cautionary Fables & Fairy Tales Book) edited by Kel McDonald and Kate Ashwin

Rating: ⭐️⭐️⭐️/5

The third volume of the Cautionary Fables & Fairy Tales graphic novel series is a wild romp through some of Europe’s most famous fables and lesser known favorites, ranging from sly humor to dark fireside tales.

I really enjoyed the book in this series on Asian stories, so I thought I’d give the other books a read. I didn’t enjoy this one as much, a lot of the art was just ok and the stories felt like they went by pretty quick.

The three I enjoyed the best were “Hamelin’s Piper”(Germany) by Jose Pimienta, “Tatterhood”(Norway) by Kate and Shaggy Shanahan, and “Kid Brother”(Russia) by Carla Speed McNeil.

“Hamelin’s Piper” is about a Piper who is not rightfully treated after serving a great act, so he takes vengeance on the ones who mock him.

“Tatterhood” is about two sisters, one a perfect flower of a child, and the other a wild beastly thing. But they love each other and fight trolls!

“Kid Brother” is about a girl whose younger brother gets turned into a goat.

[princess-ibri]

Since you used elements from Tatterhood for your Disneyverse version of Mizrabel do you have any ideas of how you would adapt the actual full story into the Disneyverse?

Well for one thing I'd definitely change them marrying a father and son to a pair of brothers!😅😵‍💫

Honestly I think with the whole headswapping thing/abundance of trolls/witches, that if this were a real animated movie it might be better served by Don Bluth, I feel he could better capture the spooky Nordic feel of it.

Also if it were an actual movie for kids we'd need to either cut the adopted sister story bit or redeem the adopted sister by the end if she teamed up with the trolls so that thre isn't some sort of "non blood siblings/children don't really count" message happening :/

I don't think as I've set it up within the DisneyVerse it would work as a movie, as the movie stories would need to reach satisfying conclusions, but it works well within the historical context of the EverRealm as history never actually concludes, it ripples on forever outwards.

[lightningidle]

I’m verrrry curious whether or not the “ghillie suit” that Gerard found in/under the web has some relation to Cap-o’-Rushes (aka Donkeyskin, Catskin, the rest of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 510B.) That might be too obscure a fairy tale to use, but it’d be interesting if remnants and artifacts from even lesser-known stories popped into the main narrative. Anybody else holding out for Tatterhood or just me—

[laurasimonsdaughter]

There we are~

Okay, I’ll bite: what would a Studio Ghibli adaptation of Tatterhood look like?

Well, first of all it would be based on a specific Dutch translation of Ruth Manning Sander's version of the story, and the sisters would be called Ragebol (head of tangled hair) and Berenice. Second, it would be all the Ghibli vibes and visuals

Wait, let me call in my sister @badassindistress:

[ilikereadingactually]

After the Forest

After the Forest by Kell Woods

this was a really compelling fairy tale retelling, an exciting read in a very wide and sometimes samey field! it does several things that i really love in this genre: puts the fantastical elements in a real-feeling historical setting (think Naomi Novik's Uprooted and Spinning Silver), and combines a number of distinct fairy tales in interesting ways. we've got Hansel and Gretel here, represented in the traumatic past of protagonist Greta and her brother Hans; we've got some elements of Snow White, and Snow-White & Rose-Red, and maybe Tatterhood, and maybe a bit of The Wolf and the Fox? but they fit together in unexpected and convincing ways, which is fantastic to me. there's a history here, a wider scope than just Greta's post-gingerbread-house life.

and baking! there was baking! and some romance, which is not my thing generally but was charming enough in this case for me to appreciate. overall the story was a little more heteronormative and a little more predictable toward the latter half than i prefer, but i was very charmed by Greta even when she was making bad decisions, and i loved the resolution! also i spent most of the book craving fresh gingerbread more than i have ever craved it in my LIFE.

the deets

how i read it: an e-galley through NetGalley! i am still steadily building up some cred there, which is gratifying.

try this if you: dig underestimated women saving the day, like a villain with a backstory, got way too into the vicious and dangerous versions of fairy tales as a kid, or delight in household witchery, forest witchery, and animal witchery.

a line i really liked: this one's for the furries

Closer and closer it came, until Greta felt its warm breath, and smelled its earthy, animal scent. Her heart crashed against her ribs. Her body screamed at her to run, to get down the mountain and behind the safety of her own door. But she remembered tales from the hunt. Wolves, boars...any predator will attack when its prey flees. It is instinct; a command surging in the blood, nameless and ancient. To run is to die. The bear nosed Greta's sticky-sweet hand, licking the honey away. It was gentle as a lamb. And yet, one strike was all it would take. A single blow with one huge paw to kill her where she stood.

pub date: October 3, 2023!

[unloneliest]

assumed prince lindworm from that last post was in this book of folktales and in my defense. the art is so similar and the reigion is similar enough too.

anyways shout out to the folktales prince lindworm and tatterhood for having characters who consume roses to create new life. i'm putting that but with such a transgender spin on it into my original story