This week I read about Britomart, a woman of Arthurian legends. I was so impressed with her because she seemed like such a modern heroine. Britomart was a princess who disguised herself as a knight and went on many epic adventures.
The thing I was most surprised about was how I have NEVER heard of this heroine until this class. Especially nowadays when there are cries for strong, independent female roles, how did this awesome character become so overlooked? Guinevere and Morgana are much better known than Britomart but now I can't seem to understand why.
I can't even think of a character that is more of a feminist. She held her ground with King Arthur himself, competed in tournaments and rescued villagers. I know that Morgana was King Arthur's villain but she never suited up as a knight and took on King Arthur herself. She mainly just used sorcery and trickery to mess with him and had others do her fighting. Guinevere was always more of a damsel in distress than an actual fully-fledged out character.
I feel like Britomart had a lot of qualities that are generally reserved for men, especially in Arthurian Legends. She is a true equal and a qualified knight. Britomart does set on a quest to meet the man who is supposed to be the love of her life, so it can be argued that she's centered around a man. But I would argue that this is a very common theme in Arthurian legends as most knights have sought out the women to be there wives. I really hope someone makes her story into an HBO show or an epic movie. We need more characters like her in the main stream media!!!
(Britomart 1900 Walter Crane | Oil Painting Reproduction | 1st-Art-Gallery.com from Pinterest.)
After completing this week's reading diary over Japanese Fairy Tales (Ozaki), I could draw one major theme from all of the different sections and stories. If you're a good person, you'll get your rewards eventually.
Since I grew up on sugared up versions of fairy tales thanks to Disney movies, I was not expecting this when I began reading this week. From Hase-Hime (who was very Cinderella like) to the Lord Bag of Rice, these characters all got their karmic revenge when it came to the fates of their enemies.
Speaking of karma, that's another thing that I found interesting. Although, India and Japan are technically on the same side of the globe, they don't share TOO much in common culturally. There are similarities but you often link together Japan with other Asian countries if you're tallying up the shared aspects of culture. That's what I was so interested to see the karmic theme in all the fairy tales. I've read plenty of Indian Fairy Tales after being in Epics of India last semester and I found the Japanese Fairy Tales to be way more uplifting.
My overall observation of the readings, is that there was an absence of tragedy for the main protagonist. And isn't that a good thing?
This week I read a collection of fairy tales all from Turkey. They were very entertaining and I feel like influenced a lot of other fairy tales that I'm familiar with. One thing I noticed is that a lot of the tales had some common themes or motifs within them.
Happily ever after was a major theme in most of the stories, which is something that I like to see when I read fairy tales. I found this interesting because when you compare fairy tale Disney movies to their origins they are often made much happier and kid-friendly.
For example, Sleeping Beauty is raped in the original and "The Little Mermaid" ends up committing suicide after the Prince chooses to marry someone else. Not in Turkish fairy tales though, these original fairy tales seemed to have plenty of happy endings. Which as a reader, I greatly appreciated because no one wants to find out the depressing origins of their favorite fairy tale characters after thinking they lead beautiful lives.
Another interesting theme I discovered is that in many of the different tales it had characters turning into animals, mostly birds. I LOVE this. It just makes me think that back in the day people thought the world was so magical and that people turning into animals was something that actually happened. Could you imagine looking at a beautiful bird and legitimately wondering if it was a bird or maybe a fairy in disguise? That might be a strange thought, but I really wonder what it would be like to grow up in a time when wizards, fairies and magic were all considered very real.
I thoroughly enjoyed this week's section and if I ever see some Turkish fairy tales at a book store I will be sure to check them out. I seriously think these have been my favorite readings thus far.
I've been thinking a lot this week about how classic tales from
ancient times influenced or became modern day fairy tales. After
reading the story of "Cupid and Psyche", one of history's first fairy
tales, I noticed many similarities that could've been tied to
modern day fairy tales like Grimm's or influenced aspects of pop culture.
For example, Venus
was the original wicked mother-in-law. I see so much of Cinderella's
step-mother in her but she is far worse! I mean she made Psyche go all
the way to the underworld to get her a box of beauty. Sending someone
to the land of the dead on a beauty errand is pretty much a a pure sign
of hatred.
Also, where does the pop culture image of
Cupid even come from? In this story he his far from the arrow-slinging
baby in a diaper that is depicted in so many images today. He's a
strong young adult and romantic lead in the story. It's funny to me how
different these characters can become! It's similar to how
Frankenstein's monster is a green zombie-like creature that doesn't have
any common sense. Whereas in the source material, Frankenstein's
monster is a smart and eloquent beast that is far more intelligent than
his creator.
When Psyche entered the enchanted castle and their were invisible servants, all I could picture was the scene from Disney's "Beauty and the Beast" where Belle enters the Beast's castle. That scene is so ingrained in my memory that is was difficult to picture anything else other than a clock and candlestick escorting a young woman on a tour of the castle.
It's amazing how over time stories can inspire or shift dramatically with each retelling. Every culture has their own "Beauty and the Beast" and "Cinderella" story, told in a variety of different ways. "The Story of Cupid and Psyche" just so happened to be a little bit of both.
