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adarkrainbow · 2 years ago

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The Ultimate Fables Catalogue (C)

I know, I know, I haven’t released part “B” yet. But as it turns out, I finished the part C long before the part B, so I will release this one first.

In this continuation of the “Ultimate Fables Catalogue”, I will cover a part of the spin-offs. To be precise I will take a look at the two Cinderella spin-offs (Cinderella: From Fabletown, with love ; and its sequel Cinderella: Fables are Forever), and the entirety of the Fairest series (including its graphic novel, Fairest: In All the Land).

SPOILERS AHEAD! SPOILERS AHEAD!

The Cinderella spin-offs

Cinderella: From Fabletown, with love

# The title of the series is an homage to the James Bond novel “From Russia, with love”. Cinderella’s own adventures as Fabletown’s spy evoke those of James Bond and of the Bond girls. The writer of this series, Chris Roberson, evoked the two main influences of the plot by describing the comic as “On Her Majesty’s Secret Service meets Sex and the City”.

# Crispin Cordwainer is the shoemaker from the Grimm fairytale “The Elves and the Shoemaker”. His name comes from saint Crispin, patron of cobblers and leather-workers.

# Cinderella mentions “an ogre and a talking cat”, referencing Charles Perrault’s “Puss in Boots”.

# Among the magical items found among the Mundies, Beast mentions the “seven-league boots” (from Charles Perrault’s Little Thumbling), a “horn of plenty” (the Cornucopia), a magical flute (I don’t have any specific reference for this one) and a “singing sword” (I don’t have any clear reference, though the “singing sword” concept appears here and there - it is the name of an Arthurian novel by Jack Whyte, and an episode of the cartoon “The Legend of Prince Valiant”, among many other things).

# The silhouette of the tourists are seen, and while we already know of Mowgli and Cinderella, we will discover the other two to be Feathertop (see later) and the... what was originally planned to be the Huntsman and then became a Woodsman apparently (it is one of those unclear points). Cinderella in turn has her group of three spies: Puss in Boots (who likes to be known as the “Marquis of Carabas”), from Charles Perrault’s fairytale of the same name ; Dickory, the mouse that ran up the clock, from the nursery rhyme Hickory Dickory Dock, and finally Jenny Wren, whose lover Robin Redbreast was murdered - from the cycle of nursery rhymes surrounding Cock Robin (”Cock Robin Got Up Early ; Who killed Cock Robin? ; Jenny Wren Fell Sick).

# Aladdin, and the djinn of the ring, are both from the “Aladdin” story of the One Thousand and One Nights. I suspect his driver, Farid, to be the prince Farid from the One Thousand and One Nights story “Farizad of the Rose’s Smile” - given it is the only Farid character in the Arabian Nights I know of.

# The ghuls are creatures of Arabian folklore.

# Ultima Thule (named after the legendary island of Thule that cartographers of Antiquity believed to exist north of England) is the realm of Scandinavian fairytales, especially Norwegian, filled with trolls and talking polar bears and giant elks. Its former ruler was king Valemon, from the fairytale “White-Bear-King-Valemon”. Other inhabitants of Thule include the widow Gudbrand (wife of Gudbrand from “Gudbrand on the Hill-Side”), Askelädden (the famous Norwegian folktale character known as “Ashlad” in English), Little Freddy (from “Little Freddy with his fiddle”), Little Annie the goose-girl (from the fairytale of the same name), Butterball (from the Norwegian fairytale of the same name), as well as the ram and the pig, from “The Ram and the Pig who went to live in the woods by themselves”.

# The Fairy Godmother is here another “archetype character” in the likes of Frau Totenkinder, Prince Charming or Jack of All Tales. She was the fairy godmother of Cinderella, but also alongside her sisters the “good fairies” of the Briar Rose/Sleeping Beauty fairytale, and she secretly worked to help Rapunzel by sending the prince rescue her. The Fairy Godmother’s perpetual fight against Frau Totenkinder has notably been the source of numerous of the fairytales: it seems to have started out by Frau Totenkinder “ruining” the fate of Briar Rose by playing the role of the “wicked fairy/angered wise woman” in the tale, only for the Fairy Godmother to retaliate by sending the prince of Rapunzel (whose witch-adoptive motive was Frau Totenkinder). The evolution of her role throughout the fairy tales is also explained by this perpetual duel: after sending Prince Charming to save Briar Rose from Frau Totenkinder’s curse, the witch fought back by killing the Fairy Godmother’s two sisters with poisoned apples (evoking Snow-White), which is why she was alone when helping Cinderella ; and the reason her spells only last to midnight is because her powers were weakened due to her actions in the Rapunzel story, all of her efforts exhausting her spells so that they could only work for a day and no more. It is also confirmed that the prince of Rapunzel is NOT prince Charming, as the Fairy Godmother “reused” the same prince to save both Briar Rose and Cinderella.

The Fairy Godmother is also very clearly an homage, or rather a dark parody, of the fairy godmothers of Disney movies. Her being part of a trio of benevolent fairies looking like little grandmothers at the times of Briar Rose’s birth is a nod to Fauna, Flora and Merryweather, the three fairy godmothers of Disney’s Sleeping Beauty, while her being the kind, elderly, grey-haired, plump godmother of Cinderella is an obvious nod to Disney’s interpretation of the fairy godmother of Cinderella.

# The palace being made of glass is of course a nod to the glass slippers of “Cinderella”, but I wonder if it isn’t a reference to the Norwegian fairytale “The Princess on the Glass-Hill”, or something similar...

Cinderella: Fables Are Forever

# The title of the series is again a James Bond reference, this time to “Diamonds are forever”.

# The “Shadow Fabletown”, the Soviet community of Fables living beyond the Iron Curtain and opposing the American Fabletown, is composed of Ivan Durak (Ivan the Fool, a folk character of Russian fairytales), Tugarin Zmeyevich (the Slavic character known as Tugarin or Zmey Tugarin), Meng Chiang-Nu (the character of the Chinese folktale Lady Meng Jiang), the Seven Chinese Brothers (see below), and Anansi the spider (a folkloric character from West African tales and legends)

About Tugarin Zmeyevich, the Fables Encyclopedia explains a bit more the process behind choosing this character that turns into a dragon: they explain Tugarin Zmeyevich started out as the antagonist of a folktale where he was opposed to the Rusian folkloric hero Alyosha Popovich - and in the oldest/”first” version of this folktale Tugarin Zmeyevich was “merely” a man as tall as a giant, riding a horse that had fire coming out of its nostrils and smoke from its ears. However, throughout adaptations and expansions of the tale, Zmeyevich inherited the “breathe fire and smoke” traits of his horse, and then from a fire-breathing man became a dragon. So, for the Fables comics, they decided to have Zmeyevich look like a man at first, but be able to turn into a dragon at will.

As for the Seven Chinese Brothers, the Fables Encyclopedia also brings more information: they are actually part of a popular Chinese folktale merely known as “The Five Brothers” - which became well-known in the West thanks to Claire Huchet Bishop’s “Five Chinese Brothers” in the 30s ; but there are several variations of the story where the number of brothers change, up to seven or ten. And the idea of the five brothers being actually seven was also popularized in the English-speaking world thanks to Margaret Mahy’s “Seven Chinese Brothers” at the end of the 19th century.

# Dorothy Gale, aka “Silverslipper” is from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”, by L. Frank Baum. Beyond her first nickname (evoking the magical “silver slippers” of the book), she is also called “The wicked bitch of the east” (a nod to the Wicked Witch of the East from the book). Numerous other characters and entities from the Oz books appear: the Tin Woodman and the Cowardly Lion (from “The Wonderful Wizard of Oz”), the Chiss, Bungle the Glass Cat (”The Patchwork Girl of Oz”) and the Spoon Brigade (”The Emerald City of Oz”). We also see in the flashbacks all four witches of Oz (Good witches of the North and South, Wicked witches of the East and West), alongside the Munchkins and the Scarecrow.

# Other pop culture references include the line “Cheshire cat got your tongue” (referencing “Alice in Wonderland”), “Are you done quoting Donny and Marie?” (the television series of the same name) and Cindy describing the relationship of Bigby and Snow White as “That whole Cheers things”, paralleling the couple with the characters of Sam and Diane from the “Cheers” show

FAIREST

Wide Awake

# The main character is Ali Baba, from the One Thousand and One Nights story “Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves”. Morgiana of the same story is briefly mentionned in flashbacks. Interestingly, in the Fables universe Ali Baba went from a thief killer to the “prince of thieves” himself, something pointed out as weird in-universe. I believe it is a reference to how in American culture at the time of the comic’s release, the name of Ali Baba was so strongly associated with thieves you often saw it being reused for a thief character.

# The many modern USA culture references made by the Bottle Imp are too many for me to record them all.

# The fact of having the two “Sleeping Beauties” be a red-clad Briar Rose and the white Snow Queen isn’t just some fancy aesthetic choice. This plays on a common duality in fairytales between white and red that the comics itself already illustrated throughout the duo of Snow-White and Rose-Red. More interestingly, Ali Baba describing one as “the color of winter snow” and the other with “the color and heat of the first days of autumn” seems to be a play on the “seasonal” reading of the fairytale “Sleeping Beauty”, this analysis and belief that the fairytale actually depicts a metaphor for the cycle of seasons, Sleeping Beauty herself embodying nature falling asleep during the winter, and her awakening symbolizing spring.

# The version of Sleeping Beauty’s backstory here is quite interesting because it clashes with the one presented by the Cinderella spin-offs - a “retcon” here that is present inside the main series itself, since it began with the implications that Frau Totenkinder was the one who cast the curse, being the “evil witch” against the “three good fairies” (a la Disney), but then switched to make this new backstory canon. In this version of the story, we are more faithful to Charles Perrault’s version of the tale, since we have seven fairies gifting the child and the evil fairy being the eighth. The fairies here are actually a mix between the actual “fairytale fairies”, as in French fairytale fairies, and British fairies of folklore and legends. The seven gifts here are as such: beauty (for Katrya the Pure), wit (for Sofiya the wise - though it is the “wit of an angel”, so it is actually naivity), elegance/grace for Nyura the Graceful (which is extended to being graceful and elegant in all things... including the bedroom), walth for Ionna the Gifted, the talent of singing for Alyas the Noble (though it is “singing like a nightingale”, quite literaly, so singing like a bird), the talent of writing good songs and playing music perfectly for Yeva the Lively. The last gift of not dying but falling into an eternal sleep is given by Leysa the Defender against the curse of the evil fairy, Hadeon the Destroyer - and here, as with all magic process, we receive an explanation for the why: as it turns out, Leysa could only “split” the death curse across so many people the death became a “mere” endless sleep.

Beyond this, each of the fairy embodies a specific concept associated with fairies in general, or magic beings. Katrya the Pure is focused on purity and chastity (since her magical waters heal all knights chaste and noble) ; Sofiya the Wise is noted to have written a very famous grimoire ; Ionna the Gifted represents the “benevolent” fairies associated with darkness, since she is a daughter of the night who tames and traps nightmares (as opposed to Hadeon the Destroyer who is an “evil” fairy of darkness, shadow and fogs that rules over a typical “evil, nightmarish forest”), Yeva is strongly associated with music, merriment and parties, etc... The habit of Hadeon of turning her former lovers into objects she uses later (like into a boat) is also a very typical trope of fairy tales.

# In a flashback, Ali Baba is seen stealing from Abd al Quadir. He is a character from the One Thousand and One Nights story “Ala al-Din Abu al-Samat” (253rd night).

Lamia

# Lamia is of course the legendary monster/bogey-woman of Greco-Roman culture.

# Saint George, his sword Ascalon and the village of Silene are from the legend of “Saint George and the Dragon”. Saint George seems to embody here the archetype of the “dragon slayer-hero” since he lists other famous dragons among his list of kills: the Chimaera (not an actual dragon, but the fire-breathing Chimera of Greek mythology, killed by the hero Bellerophon), Illuyanka (a Hittite dragon killed by the god Tarhunz), Tiamat (the Mesopotamian goddess-dragon killed by Marduk) and finally Vritra (the Indian reptilian demon slain by the god Indra).

# When Beast lists the various fictional characters he becomes “like” during his various hunts for the Lamia, he mentions in order Auguste Dupin (created by Edgar Allan Poe), Sherlock Holmes (created by Arthur Conan Dole), Hercule Poirot (created by Agatha Christie), Sam Spade (from “The Maltese Falcon”) and Philip Marlowe (created by Raymond Chandler).

The Hidden Kingdom

# The three movies seen at the theater at the beginning are “Bunny Lake is Missing” ; “Don’t Look Now” and “Picnic at Hanging Rock”. Rapunzel later compares the flying origami attack to Alfred Hitchcock’s “The Birds”.

# This is I think the first time paintings are hidden around in the background. In Rapunzel’s flat there are two pictures on the walls: one is the poster for Kubrick’s “Clockwork Orange”, another is a reproduction of “The Lady of Shalott” by Waterhouse. Frau Totenkinder rather has in her flat Fuseli’s “The Three Witches”.

# Frau Totenkinder here appears mostly in her role of “the witch/adoptive-mother of Rapunzel”. Interestingly however, while Totenkinder is the witch that locked Rapunzel in a tower, and banished her after she slept with the prince, in the Fables continuity of the role of the witch in the Grimm fairytale got split with... the Fairy Godmother, who is revealed to have been the one preventing Rapunzel’s prince from returning to her.

# In the Japanese realm of Fables, the main characters include Mayumi (who is the Kuchisake-onna of Japanese ghost stories), Tomoko (a kitsune), a bakeneko (that just goes by “Neko”) and Katagiri (a kappa). Other supernatural beings coming from “The Hidden Kingdom”, the Japanese Homeland, include: funayûrey (ghosts of the drowned at sea), tanukis, a noppera-bo, a rokurokubi, an oni, an hitotsume-kozo, several kirin...

# When Neko first appears to Rapunzel, he imitates Totoro, from “My Neighbor Totoro”.

# Rapunzel briefly prays to the Jizo Bosatsu.

# Rapunzel, in her numerous travels throughout the Homelands searching for her missing babies, adopted several different identities. In the Hidden Kingdom she was Okiku, the famous Japanese “ghost” in the well. In the Ancient Greece equivalent in the Homelands she also played the role of Theseus, by slaying the Minotaur. And she is noted to have assisted to the “birth of an empire” by seeing twins by a she-wolf: they are Romulus and Remus, the legendary founders of the Roman Empire.

# The treacherous shogun Ryogan actually fulfills the role of both the jealous samurai who mutilated the Kuchisake-onna and the samurai that killed Okiku.

# When the Hyakki Yagyo, the “Night Parade of the One Hundred Demons” is invoked, we also see among the numerous yokai tengus, chochin’obakes, an hebi, the wanyudo, and a nue.

# Jack ends up thrown into the claws of the famous Japanese movie monster, Gdozilla.

# Lauren Beukes, the writer of this arc, listed her several inspirations as: the manga Tekkonkintreet, “The Pillow Book” ; the movies of Kurosawa, Miyazaki and Miike ; the work of the three Murakami (Haruki Murakami, Ryu Murakami and Takashi Murakami) ; “The Tale of Genji”, “Tokyo Vice” (no, not the television series, but the memoir of Jake Adelstein), and “The Illustrated Night Parade of the Hundred Demons”.

Aldered States

# The various suitors of Princess Alder include Mr. Pickles (from “The Magic Fishbone” by Charles Dickens), Trotty Veck (from “The Chimes” by Charles Dickens) as well as Farmer Giles (from Tokkien’s “Farmer Giles of Ham”).

The Return of the Maharaja

# Nalayani is actually the past life of Draupadi, from the Indian epic “Mahabharata”.

# There is a LOT of characters from Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book here: Tabaqui the jackal ; the dholes ; Nathoo ; Buldeo ; Pudmini...

# Prince Charming makes a reference to the “golden ticket”, from Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.

# Among beings from Indian folklore, beliefs, folktales and Hindu mythology/religion we have the asuras, the pishachas, as well as a host of Hindu gods - Rama, Ganesha, Manasa, Kamadhenu, Nandini... The Trishula trident is also important for the ending of the story.

Of Men and Mice

# The very title is a reference to the story “Of Mice and Men” by John Steinbeck.

# The cubs are being read one of the Harry Potter books - Harry Potter and the Chamber of Secrets to be precise.

# At Cinderella’s ball, the transformed mouse ends up seducing Lady Isabelle du Lac, daughter of Lord and Lady du Lac. I wonder if it is a reference to Edmund Dulac...

# I also believe the giant sentient humanoid rat-ninjas might be a reference to “Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles”.

# The “King’s men” are the same from the nursery rhyme “Humpty Dumpty”.

# Rama is the divine hero of Hindu mythology/religion, while Varuna is... I am a bit confused because to my knowledge Varuna is an Hindu god, not a tiger-headed fish... The only tiger-headed fish I know of is the Japanese Shachihoko... This leaves me confused.

# The Rodgers and Hammerstein’s version of Cinderella is explicitely referenced here.

Clamour for Glamour

# Lady Maeve of Dunhollow seems to be Maeve/Mebd of Irish mythology.

# Mary, after losing her little lamb, took up gardening - and thus became the Mary from the nursery rhyme “Mary, Mary, Quite Contrary”.

# There is an entire section of the Farm called André’s Garden, where the Mean Sunflower Kid/Mister Sunflower lives, and we see here five other Fables living in this area: Snapdragon, Old Maid Hollyhock, the Dormouse Juggler, Alderman Poppy, and a woodpecker. Given this is the living area of the Sunflower, and named “André’s garden” I am pretty sure they are meant to be part of this same Victorian book of nursery rhymes written and illustrated by R. André/R. Andre from which the nursery rhyme “Mister Sunflower” comes. The problem is that I cannot have access to this specific book, which seems to not be easily available anywhere, so I cannot actually check...

In case you want to know, I will place here the Mister Sunflower nursery rhyme as it was revealed in the Fables Encyclopedia:

In your dress of brown and yellow

What a stiff-necked

Long legged fellow!

Must you stare, although the bees,

Settle on your face and tease?

Can’t you turn your big flat head

Till the sun has gone to bed?

Fairest in All the Land

# This is where Mrs. Ford was confirmed to be “the old woman at the ford in a river”, the deadly and ghostly “washing woman” from Irish beliefs and folklore.

# While not an exact reference, the seven magical swords kept in the office named after concepts (Mercy, Justice, Regret, Rage, Judgement, Love and Wisdom) are part of a long tradition in fantasy of magical swords with meaningful names (for example, take Tad William’s trilogy “Memory, Sorrow and Thorn”). The powers and nature of Maerorgladi, the Sword of Regret, is especially interesting, as its “hunger” forcing it to take a second life for each kill is clearly inspired by a famous trend of “sentient, soul-hungering swords” in fiction which was started by Poul Anderson’s “The Broken Sword” and Elric of Melniboe’s famous sword, Stormbringer.

# Hautboy/Cendrée, the wizard that created the seven magical sword, is confirmed to have lived in the Dark Tower, from “Childe Roland to the Dark Tower came”, before Roland actually arrived to said tower. The fact his main feats were creating buildings, magical chariots and magical weapons, makes him part of a long line of legendary magical smiths - in Fables, the main series, we already saw Weyland Smith and Daedalus appear, but I can also mention the Greek Hephaestus or the Finnish Ilmarinen. The Ilmarinen comparison is especially interesting, since the mythical ancestor of the evil swords I talked about (Moorcock’s Stormbringer, or Tolkien’s Gurthang) is a sentient, talking sword from the Kalevala. I have however very curious about the names chosen for him, both very French in nature... I think they might have been chosen at random (especially since “Cendrée” is actually the FEMALE form of the adjective “Ashen”/”Cindered”, the proper male form would have been Cendré), but maybe there is some obscure reference I am missing... though I slightly doubt it.

# The topic of “swords that must kill” is also very frequent in Norse sagas: to quote TV Tropes, “Tyrfing of the Saga of Hervor and Heidrek, the sword of Bodvar Bjarki in the Saga of Hrolf Kraki, and Dainsleif from the Prose Edda”. Which brings me to the hero the Sword of Regret was built for, Turgo of Nor, who is the stereotypical “Norse barbarian”. He likes in a world shaped after Ancient Norse society, and he is a muscular, bearded warrior always eating and drinking, but going berserk every time he drinks too much (which is often, since he is a drunkard). However, the fact that he keeps flying into mad rages he then regrets, and that he wears a hood made of animal pelts, make him VERY similar to Herakles of Greek mythology.

# The coat of Padarn Beisrudd is one of the “Thirteen Treasures of Britain”, part of Welsh folklore.

# The Blue Fairy mentions the “Unseelie Midwinter Ball”. The Unseelie Court is one of the two fairy “courts” or fairy “hosts” of Scottish legends, alongside the Seelie.

# I can’t help but wonder if Hadeon’s role as a sentient, magical but malevolent red car isn’t meant to be a nod to Stephen King’s Christine.

#fables #the ultimate catalogue #fairest #cinderella #cinderella from fabletown with love #comic #cultural references #fairytales #myths #folklore #cinderella fables are forever

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sailormoonfangirl · 8 months ago

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I draw Princess Serenity and Prince Endymion from Sailor Moon. This is based on my friend fanfic story The Polar Bear King that is a Sailor Moon version of it. Serenity and Endymion are playing the roles of the Princess and King Valemon in his polar bear form from The Polar Bear King 1991. This is the cover art that I made for her. She’s one of my friends on deviantart. If want to please feel free to check out her drawings. The link to her profile is down below:

P.S. planning to make this into a comic later on in the future someday too. :)

The Polar Bear King belongs to Ola Solum, Peter Christian Asbjornsen, and Jorgen Moe. :)

Sailor Moon belongs to Naoko Takechui. :)

I only own the artwork. :)

If you want to please feel free to check me out on my other socials.Here is the link to my linktree that has all of my socials together: https://linktr.ee/SailorMoonFanGirl

#fanart #digitalart #Sailormoon #Princessserenity #Princeendymion #crossoverfanart #thepolarbearking

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whatsoeverislovelyandpure · 7 years ago

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The Polar Bear King / Kvitebjørn Kong Valemon (1991)

#The Polar Bear King #The Polar Bear King 1991 #East of The Sun West of The Moon #Kvitebjorn Kong Valemon #Fairytales #My GIFs #White Bear King Valemon

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fairytale-idylls · 4 years ago

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Norway.

#Winter #Norway #The Polar Bear King #Kvitebjorn Kong Valemon #East of The Sun West of The Moon #Fairytales

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thesinglesock · 5 years ago

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speaking of fairy tales, one day I’m going to make some kind of adaptation of the norwegian, more feral version of beauty and the beast and no one can stop me

#vitalks #the princess in it is Amazing #the king's Disgraced daughter (disowned for being a Furry) forges metal Claws to climb a whole mountain #in order to chase after her Idiot of a polar bear monster husband #because he refuses to tell her what's going On #yes this is about kvitebjørn kong valemon #it's Such a Mess and I love it #shoutout to the freia fairy tale chocolate wrapping for not even writing her Cunning Plan to save him #sure they had to cut some parts to get it to fit on the wrapping paper but like #if they Had included it they would probably get in trouble with some angry parents #anyways it's 3am #bye

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fairytalemovies · 3 years ago

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One of the better Nordic fairytale movies. :)

The Polar Bear King (1991)

#the polar bear king #isbjörnskungen #kvitebjorn kong valemon #kvitebjørn kong valemon #der eisbärkönig #white bear king valemon #east of the sun and west of the moon

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fairytalemovies · 11 days ago

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youtube

Kristine Kujath Thorp - Flaske, duk og saks

#kvitebjørn: østenfor sol og vestenfor måne #valemon: the polar bear king #the polar bear king: east of the sun and west of the moon #east of the sun and west of the moon #white bear king valemon #kvitebjørn #music #odd nordstoga #kristine kujath thorp

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konglindorm · 3 years ago

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White Bears

So the other day I was flipping through my Kay Nielsen-illustrated “East of the Sun and West of the Moon” collection with my mom, because she’d never seen the illustrations before, and they’re some of my favorites. And we weren’t actually reading the stories this time; we were just there to look at pretty pictures.

The book starts with the titular “East of the Sun, West of the Moon,” and therefore some illustrations of white bears. And then we keep going through a few more pages, and suddenly there’s another illustration of a white bear, and at this point I’m thinking “oh, right, ‘White Bear King Valemon.’ Huh. It’s kinda strange that there would be two Norwegian enchanted bridegroom stories where the bridegroom is specifically a white bear.”

And then I flip to the next page, and, granted, at this time I haven’t read “White Bear King Valemon” in a few years, but the next illustration was not at all consistent with what I remembered. So I went back a few pages to discover that this set of white bear illustrations was actually for “The Blue Belt,” and this collection didn’t even include “White Bear King Valemon.”

So let’s talk today about the enchanted bridegroom subset “white bears in Norway.”

Now, the reason I'd forgotten about the white bear bit of "The Blue Belt" is that it's largely inconsequential, just another crazy element in a story packed with crazy. The main character is never actually turned into a bear, but does convincingly disguise himself as one to meet the princess he loves in secret, allowing him to collect insider information to win her hand. The main thing about this story is that, as irrelevant as his white bear disguise is to the plot as a whole, it has resulted in a couple of fantastic illustrations that can easily be used for bear-based enchanted bridegroom stories. But primarily we're here to talk about "East of the Sun, West of the Moon" and "White Bear King Valemon," which are very similar but also completely distinct stories. You can read all about "East-West" here, and this post will be mainly running through how "King Valemon" is different and why we care.

So first off, this is another of those stories where youngest kid is best kid and therefore wins, and specifically the kind of story where it's not something you really want to win - in this case, the right to be kidnapped by a polar bear. All three sisters are princesses, and the bear deemed the older two unworthy to be kidnapped, possibly because they had brains in their heads, which our girl does not seem to.

Bear whisks girl away to palace, joins her in bed at night in human form. And, okay. Remember how in "East of the Sun, West of the Moon," the girl and the enchanted bear have to share a bed for a year, and we really don't know exactly what all they're doing in that bed?

In "White Bear King Valemon," we know exactly what they're doing, and it's exactly what you think. She lives with the bear for three years, and in that time she has three babies. All of whom the bear whisks away immediately. Which, dude, yikes.

I mean, ambiguous bed-sharing with a stranger for one year is already a little, um...well. But getting knocked up by a stranger? Three times? And having all the babies kidnapped by the same white bear who kidnapped you? Who you may or may not have gathered by now is also the stranger who knocked you up? (My money's on not gathering that, because our girl doesn't strike me as the brightest, so far.) Again, yikes. I'm just, like, I'm at a loss for words. "Yikes" is all I've got, guys.

Why does she keep having sex with this man? Does she have a choice? Is this consensual? Why isn't she questioning this man about what on earth is going on here? Why is she not having an enormous fight with the bear and demanding her children back? Why is she allowing herself to become pregnant again when she knows that the baby is going to be taken away by the bear? What does she even think the bear is doing with the babies?

There comes a time when you just have to say, okay, either the sex stops or we explore period-appropriate alternatives to birth control, because I refuse to bring another child into this world to be eaten by a bear.

After three years and three stolen babies, the girl convinces the bear to let her visit home. Where her mom does the whole "You're doing what? With who? You haven't even seen his face?" bit, only she's even more justified in her concern than the East-West mom, because her daughter is reproducing with this man and then allowing her grandbabies to be taken away and possibly eaten by a talking bear. Like, yes, mom, you tell her; she should absolutely be gathering more information about this situation. There is a time and a place to go with the flow, and that is not here and now, sweetheart.

So she goes back with the white bear and lights her little candle, and he wakes up when the tallow drips on him and acts like this is some great betrayal, and not the sensible thing she should have done two and a half years ago when she realized she was pregnant the first time.

He is, like in East-West, just one month from the curse being broken, and I would like to just take a moment to say that is not fair, the troll who cursed him is not playing by the rules, everyone knows the time frame in situations like this is a year and a day, what is this slightly over three years crap?

Bear switches from hot guy back to bear and runs off to where he's supposed to meet the troll or whatever, idk - the girl grabs his fur and tries to go with him, but falls off in the forest somewhere.

She does her best to catch up with him on foot, and on the way she meets three little girls, living with three old women, and each of these girls gives her a gift; these gifts are what she will trade to the troll for three nights with the white bear - well, with King Valemon, now that his bear-curse is over. He's drugged on the first two nights, and they can finally talk on the third, just like in East-West. But instead of Fun With Laundry, in this story they make a trap door for the troll to fall through when she's walking down the aisle. Which. Lame.

With the troll handled, King Valemon takes our girl home, but on the way we stop to collect the three little girls who helped her. Because those are their kids, who he, get this, "had taken so they could aid in her quest." The quest that didn't exist yet at the time, because he hadn't been taken by the troll yet, and had no reason yet to suspect that she would look at his face - I mean, the girl was having babies with him and not bothering about the face, so I would have considered it a safe bet that she would continue not bothering, and taking the babies was definitely overkill.

Also, like. She lived with him for three years and had three babies. After three years, she visits her parents, and then she looks at him with the candle; this all seems to happen pretty quickly. Which means the oldest girl might, maybe, possibly be as old as three, but probably she's younger. We should have an age range of infant to toddler here. And yet all three are described as little girls, not babies, and all three seem able to effectively communicate. So that's a bit of a plot hole. Gotta love timeline inconsistency.

In conclusion: "East of the Sun, West of the Moon"? Beautiful, meaningful story, perfect, magnificent, 25 out of ten. "White Bear King Valemon?" Garbage story full of garbage characters who make garbage decisions, not worth the paper it's printed on, only redeeming feature is mom not putting up with her daughter's absolute idiocy.

#East of the Sun West of the Moon #asbjornsen and moe #white bear king valemon #folklore #fairy tales

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pink-floydian-slip · 4 years ago

Photo

Illustration for the Norwegian fairy tale "The polar bear king Valemon"

Now, once upon a time there was, as well there might be, a king. He had two daughters who were ugly and mean, but the third was as pure and blithe as the clear day, and the king and everybody loved her. Once, she dreamed of a golden wreath, which was so gorgeous that she could not live unless she possessed it. And when she couldn’t have it, she grew gloomy, and grieved in silence.

The king heard that she grieved for the wreath, and he sent messengers to goldsmiths in every realm, with a pattern of the wreath the king’s daughter had dreamed about, to see if they could furnish one that was identical. They worked both day and night, but she rejected some of the wreaths, and refused to even look upon others. Once, however, when she was in the forest, she saw a white bear that had the wreath she had dreamed of – playing with it between its paws. She wanted to buy it.

No, it was not for sale for money; she could have it if only he could have her for himself.

Well, life wasn’t worth living without it, she said. It didn’t matter where she was or who she was with, so long as she had the wreath. And so they agreed that he should come for her in three days, on Thursday.

When she came home with the wreath, everyone was glad she was happy again, and the king didn’t consider it too difficult to stop a white bear.

On the third day the entire militia was ordered to surround the castle, to receive him. But when the white bear came, no one could resist him, for nothing hurt him; he beat them down on every side, until they lay in heaps. The king didn’t think things were going well, so he sent his eldest daughter, and the white bear bore her away on his back.

When they had travelled far and farther than far, the white bear asked:

“Have you ever sat so softly; have you ever seen so clearly?” he said.

“Yes, I sat more softly on my mother’s lap; and in my father’s courtyard, I saw more clearly,” she said.

“Well, you’re not the right one,” said the white bear, chasing her home again.

The next Thursday he came again, and things went the same way. The militia was out to receive the white bear, yet neither iron nor steel hurt him, and he knocked them down like grass. The king had to ask him to stop, and then sent his next eldest daughter, and the white bear bore her away on his back.

When they had travelled far and farther than far, the white bear asked:

“Have you ever seen so clearly; have you ever sat so softly?” he said.

“Yes, in my father’s courtyard, I saw more clearly; on my mother’s lap, I sat more softly,” she said.

“Then you’re not the right one,” said the white bear, chasing her home again.

The third Thursday he came again. He fought even harder than at the other times. The king thought that he mustn’t let him beat down the whole militia, so he gave him his third daughter in the name of God.

He bore her away on his back, and travelled far and farther than far, and when they were lost in the forest, he asked her, as he had asked the others, if she had sat more softly and seen more clearly.

“No, never!” she said.

“Yes. You are the right one,” he said.

Then they came to a castle so fine that her father’s was, in comparison, as the ugliest of smallholdings. Here she was to stay and live well, and she had no chores other than to make sure the fire never died. The bear was away during the day, but at night he was with her, and then he was human.

Everything was well and good for three years. Each year she bore a child, and he took it with him as soon as it had come into the world. She grew more and more gloomy, therefore, and asked leave to go home, to visit her parents. Well, there was no reason why not, though first she must promise that she would heed her father’s advice, not that which her mother would offer.

So she came home, and when they were alone with her and she had related how she fared, her mother would give her a candle so she could see what he looked like. Her father said no; she shouldn’t do it: “only harm will come of it, nothing good.” Yet however it happened, she had the stub of a candle with her when she left.

The first thing she did as soon as he had fallen asleep was to light the candle and hold it above him. He was so handsome that she felt as if she could never look upon him enough. As she held the candle, however, a warm drop of tallow fell on to his forehead, and he awoke.

“What have you done?” he said. “Now you have made us both unhappy. There was less than a month to go. Had you but held your peace, I would have been saved; for a troll-hag has enchanted me, so that I am a white bear by day. We are in danger, so now I have to go to her, and kill her.”

She wept and wailed, but he had to journey and journey he would. She asked if she might go with him. That was not possible, he said, but when he set off in the form of a bear, she grasped hold of his fur anyway, threw herself up onto his back, and held fast.

They travelled over scree and rock, through holt and thicket, till her clothes were ripped off her, and she was so exhausted that she let go, unconscious. When she came to, she was in a great forest, so she began to walk again, though she did not know where she should go.

After a long while, she came to a cabin, where sat an old woman and a beautiful young girl.

The king’s daughter asked them if they had seen the white bear, King Valemon.

“Yes, he passed by here early this morning,” they said, “and he was in such a hurry that you’ll never catch him up”.

The young girl snipped and played with a pair of golden shears, which made silken cloth and velvet ribbons fly about her as she snipped in the air. There was no want of clothes, wherever they were to be found.

“This woman who is travelling so far and on such a difficult journey is going to have a rough time of it,” said the girl. “She will have more need of these shears than I, to snip clothes for herself,” she said, and she asked permission to give her the shears. Yes, of course she might.

So off the king’s daughter travelled through the seemingly never-ending forest, both day and night. And the next morning she came again to a cabin. Here there was also an old woman and a young girl.

“Good day,” said the king’s daughter. “Have you seen anything of the white bear, King Valemon?” she asked.

“Perhaps it is you who should have him,” said the old woman.

It was.

“He passed through here yesterday, and he was travelling so swiftly that you’ll never catch him up,” she said.

The girl was playing on the floor with a bottle that was such that it poured anything one desired; where it was, there would always be something to drink.

“This poor woman who is travelling so far on such difficult roads, I think she may grow thirsty, and suffer many things besides,” the girl said. “She will have more need of this bottle than I,” she said, and then asked if she might give her the bottle. Yes, she might.

So when the king’s daughter was given the bottle, she took her leave, and set off again through the same forest, both that day and the following night. On the third morning, she came to a cabin where there also was an old woman and a young girl.

“Good day,” said the king’s daughter.

“Good day yourself,” said the old woman.

“Have you seen anything of the white bear, King Valemon?” she said.

“Perhaps it is you who should have him,” the old woman said.

Yes, it certainly was.

“Well, he travelled through here yesterday, and he was travelling so fast that you’ll never catch him up”, she said.

The girl played on the floor with a tablecloth that was such that you could say to it: “Tablecloth, spread yourself and set yourself with dishes of all that is good,” and it would do so; where it was, there was never a want of good food.

“This poor woman who is travelling so far on such bad roads,” said the girl, “she may yet starve or suffer many things just as bad, so she may need this tablecloth more than I,” she said, and asked if she might be allowed to give it to her. Yes, she might.

So the king’s daughter took the cloth, and took her leave, and travelled far and wide, through the same dark forest, all through the day and the following night. And in the morning she came to a sheer rock face that was as steep as a wall, and so high and broad that she could see no end to it. There was a cabin there, and when she entered, the first thing she said was:

“Good day, have you seen if the white bear, King Valemon has travelled this way?”

“Good day to you, too,” said the woman, “perhaps it is you who should have him,” she said.

It certainly was.

“Well, he climbed the rock here three days ago, but nothing that doesn’t fly can get up there,” she said.

This cabin was full of small children, and all of them hung upon their mother’s skirt, crying for food. The woman put a pan of small pebbles on the hearth. The king’s daughter asked what this should be good for. They were so poor, said the woman, that they had neither food nor clothes, and it was painful to hear the children crying for something to eat. But when she put the pan on the fire, and said, “the apples will soon be boiled ready,” it was as if it dampened their hunger, and they were of good cheer for a while.

It did not take long before the king’s daughter brought out the cloth and the bottle, to be sure, and when the children were full and happy, she snipped them clothes with the golden shears.

“Well,” said the woman, “since you have been so heartily kind to me and my children, it would be shameful if we didn’t do what we can to try to help you up the rock. My husband is a true master smith; just be content to wait here until he comes home, and I shall have him forge claws for your hands and feet, so you may attempt the climb.”

When the smith came home he began on the claws straight away, and on the second morning, they were finished. She had little time to tarry, but thanked her hosts, and hacked and crept and scurried with her steel claws all day and night, and when she was so tired – so tired that she believed she could not lift a hand more, and wished to slide down again – then she had reached the top.

At the top was a plain, with fields and meadows so large and wide that she never had imagined such wide and even spaces. Close by, there was a castle full of working folk of every kind, who laboured like ants in an anthill.

“What is going on here?” asked the king’s daughter.

Well, here was where the troll-hag lived, who had enchanted the white bear, King Valemon. And in three days, she would hold a wedding with him.

She asked if she might speak with her.

No, that would simply be impossible.

So she sat outside the window, and snipped with the golden shears, so that velvet and silk clothes billowed like a blizzard.

When the troll-hag saw this, she wanted to buy the shears, “for however hard the tailors toil, it doesn’t help,” she said; “there are so many people to clothe.”

They were not for sale for money, said the king’s daughter, though she would give them to her, if she were allowed to sleep with her sweetheart tonight.

Yes, well she might, said the troll-hag, but she should be allowed to lull him to sleep, and awaken him, herself.

When he had retired, she gave him a sleeping draught, so that he would not awaken, no matter how the king’s daughter wept and cried.

The next day, the king’s daughter walked by the windows again, and sat to drink from the bottle. It flowed like a brook, with beer and wine, and was never emptied.

When the troll-hag saw it, she would buy it, “for no matter how they toil to brew and distill, it doesn’t help; there are so many who will need to drink,” she said.

It was not for sale for money, said the king’s daughter, though if she were allowed sleep with her sweetheart, then she would give it to her.

Yes, well she might, said the troll-hag, but she should be allowed to lull him to sleep, and to awaken him, herself.

When he had retired, she gave him a sleeping draught again, so that this night resembled the last; he did not awaken, no matter how the king’s daughter wept and cried.

That night, however, one of the artisans was working in the next room. He heard the weeping, and understood how things stood, and so the next day he told the prince that she must have come, the king’s daughter who should save him.

That day, things went much the same way with the tablecloth as with the shears and the bottle. When it was dinner time, the king’s daughter went outside the castle, took the tablecloth out and said, “tablecloth, spread yourself and set yourself with dishes of all that is good,” and so there was food, and enough for a hundred men besides, but the king’s daughter sat alone at the table.

When the troll-hag saw the cloth, she would buy it, “for no matter how they cook and roast, it doesn’t help; there are too many mouths that shall have food,” she said.

It was not for sale for money, said the king’s daughter, though if she were allowed to sleep with her sweetheart tonight, then she would give it to her.

Well she might, said the troll-hag, but she should be allowed to lull him to sleep, and to awaken him, herself.

When he had retired, she came in with the sleeping draught. But this time, he was cautious, and tricked her. The troll-hag did not trust him one bit, though, for she took a darning needle and stuck it right through his arm, to see that his sleep was heavy enough. Yet no matter how much it hurt, he did not move, and thus the king’s daughter was allowed to come in to him.

Then all things were well and good, and just as soon as they were rid of the troll-hag, he would be saved. So he had the carpenters make a trapdoor in the bridge that the wedding procession would parade across, for it was the custom there that the bride should ride first in the procession.

When she was upon the bridge, the trapdoor opened under the bride and all the troll-hags who were her bridesmaids. Then King Valemon and the king’s daughter went back to the castle and took all they could carry of gold and money, and travelled to his country, to hold the proper wedding. On the way King Valemon stopped off and took with him the three small girls. Now she could see why he had taken the children from her, and placed them out – it was so they might help her reach him. And so they drank to the wedding, stiff and strong.

#cant find the artist but i found the story behind it #The polar bear king Valemon #Norwegian #norse mythology #Norway #polar bear #those were my favorite animals as a kid

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