Cupid and Psyche

Hey everyone! This week I’m back to talking about mythology. I promised back when I did this post that I’d tell the story of Cupid and Psyche, due to its similarities to East of the Sun, West of the Moon. It also has a lot in common with Beauty and the Beast. The story of Cupid and Psyche is found within a Latin book called The Golden Ass; as(s) such, the gods are called by their Roman names. However, scholars think that the work was inspired by a similar Greek book that has been lost to time. Despite their Roman names, the gods within the story seem to resemble more their Greek counterparts.

Let me explain that a little more before I start the story. When you hear the name Cupid, you probably picture something like this, right?

 

I mean, those things are called cupids. Of course Cupid looks like a cupid!

In fact, the cupids modern society is familiar with bear little resemblance to the Cupid within this story. While later Greek art (mostly beginning in the Hellenistic period) and most Roman art depicts Cupid in a child-like, cherubic manner, that was not always the case. Instead of looking like this sissy thing:

Cupid in fact originally looked a lot more like this:

The Greek version of Cupid is called Eros; like Cupid, he is the god of love. In early mythology, Eros was depicted as being one of the first gods to crawl out of a swirling mass of chaos. He pre-dates Zeus, king of the gods. Later on the Greeks changed his origin story and made him far less powerful. They assigned Aphrodite (her Roman name is Venus) as his mother, and made her the goddess of love. Eros was left to be her glorified errand boy. It is this figure which is depicted as being a fat baby with a bow, and which carried over into Roman mythology.

As to the story of Cupid and Psyche - well, the Cupid it depicts looks an awful lot like the original Eros. If you go looking for additional pictures, you’ll no doubt find some really creepy ones with a cherub-like Cupid seducing an adult Psyche (spare yourself the horror. Don’t go looking!). However, most pictures show the adult form of Cupid.

With all of that out of the way, I’ll tell you the story! Despite the Greek similarities, I’ll stick with the Roman names for the gods found within The Golden Ass.

Once there lived a king and queen who had three beautiful daughters. Two of them were married, but the third - Psyche, the most beautiful - remained single. Her beauty was so great that the people of her parents’ kingdom began to worship her. They thought she was the reincarnation of Venus, or a child of that goddess. While they worshipped the daughter, they neglected to worship Venus. This did not escape the goddess’ notice...

Venus was filled with wrath at being ignored in favor of a mortal. Her son, Cupid, possessed a bow whose arrows made whoever he struck fall in love with the first thing they saw. Venus ordered Cupid to take his bow and shoot Psyche, forcing her to fall in love with a hideous creature.

Cupid hastened to fulfill his mother’s command. He traveled to where Psyche lived and prepared to shoot her - but the sight of her beauty stunned him, and the god accidentally cut his finger on the tip of his arrow. This small nick caused Cupid to fall in love with Psyche. He ignored his mother’s order and left without shooting Psyche.

Terrible events within her kingdom lead Psyche’s parents to believe that the gods are angry with them. Part of this conclusion comes from the fact that Psyche remains unmarried. They consult an oracle (a prophet who delivered messages from the gods) and are horrified by what they are told: Psyche will not bear a human son, but rather a strange, dragon-like creature that will be feared by even the gods and the dead. (Sounds like Daenerys’ child in Game of Thrones!)

To prevent this from happening, the king and queen make the only choice they feel they have. Psyche is dressed for a funeral and led to the nearby cliffs. There, she is exposed - tied to a stake and left to die. (While horrible, this was not at all uncommon in Greek or Roman mythology. Most heroes in the myths were exposed as babies, including Romulus and Remus, the founders of Rome.)

Luckily for Psyche, Cupid is watching out for her. He arranges for the West Wind, a being called Zephyr, to carry Psyche away from the cliffs and up to his home. Psyche falls asleep in beautiful meadows, and awakens to find a well-kept forest nearby. She explores it and soon finds a mansion made of fine woods, stones, and precious metals. A voice with no discernable source welcomes her and tells her to make herself at home. That night, a meal serves itself to Psyche while a lyre plays by itself.

After dinner Psyche is led to a bedchamber kept so dark that she cannot see. A man enters and introduces himself as her host - and her husband. They sleep together, and he departs before the sun rises. This happens every night, and Psyche is told that she can never look upon him. Soon she becomes pregnant.

Eventually Psyche’s sisters- who know that she did not die from exposure - begin to long to see her. After listening to many prayers, Cupid finally relents. Zephyr carries Psyche down to see her sisters. When they see the splendor of her clothing and jewelry they are struck by jealousy. In an attempt to ruin her happiness, they try to convince Psyche that her mysterious husband is a terrible winged serpent. She is unsympathetic to their pleas to look upon him during the night, until her sisters point out that the terrible serpent-thing might devour her child when it is born.

Psyche returns to Cupid not long after. One night, while he sleeps, she takes a dagger and a lamp from where she has hidden them in her room. She lights the lamp and moves to the bed, ready to kill her husband if he truly is a monster. Instead, she sees the most beautiful being she has ever beheld. Psyche is so distracted by his beauty that she accidentally cuts herself on an arrow from Cupid’s quiver, flung aside carelessly when he first entered her chamber. Struck with passion for her husband, Psyche accidentally spills hot oil from the lamp onto his skin.

Oddly enough, this wakes Cupid up! When he sees that Psyche has seen him he runs away. She tries to pursue him, but he flies away from her, leaving her alone in the wilderness.

Eventually Psyche goes to see her sisters. She tells them the identity of her husband, and they become even more envious than before. After Psyche leaves, the sisters separately try to offer themselves as replacements for her to Cupid. They go to the cliffs where Psyche was exposed and fling themselves off, counting on the mercy of Zephyr.

Zephyr doesn’t catch them.
They fall to their deaths.
Do we pity them?
Nah!

Back to the main story - Psyche wanders around the earth in search of Cupid. She comes to a temple of Ceres and finds its offerings in disarray. Psyche straightens things up and cleans the temple. Ceres takes note and visits her. Though she is moved by Psyche’s prayers for help finding Cupid, Ceres tells her that she cannot aid her against another goddess - Venus.

Psyche leaves Ceres’ temple and soon comes across a temple of Juno. Similar things occur, and Psyche is told once again that she will not find help against Venus from another goddess. Seeing no other recourse, Psyche decides to go and offer herself in service to Venus.

Venus is thrilled when the girl who was worshipped more than her comes into the goddess’ power. She orders Psyche whipped and beaten, and humiliates her over and over. (Remember, Psyche is pregnant at this point. Gotta hate Venus, right?) Eventually Venus declares that if Psyche can complete her tasks she will be reunited with Cupid.

The girl is thrilled at this promise, but horrified when she is given the first task. A hodgepodge of various grains and seeds are spilled around her. As Venus leaves for a party she orders Psyche to have them all separated by the time she comes back.

The goddess departs, and Psyche is filled with despair at the seemingly hopeless task. Luckily for her, a nearby ant takes pity on her. It offers to help, and summons its brethren to assist it in separating the grains from one another. By the time Venus returns, the ants have cleared out - leaving Psyche alone with neat, separated piles.

Enraged at Psyche having somehow completed her task, Venus assigns an even more impossible one the next day. She tells Psyche that she must collect the wool from sheep across a river. These sheep are the flock of Sol, god of the sun, and are carnivorous man-killers. Psyche knows that she cannot complete the task, and intends to drown herself in the river.

Again, outside forces intervene on her behalf. A reed within the river stops her from drowning herself, and tells her of an area where the wool of the sheep has been caught on nearby thorny plants. She is able to collect this wool, and it is enough to satisfy Venus’ demands - much to the rage of the goddess!

The third task is the most impossible of all. Psyche is given a container and told to go to a cliff from which pours two of the rivers of the Underworld. She is to gather their water and return to Venus. Inevitably, the task is more complicated than that. The waters are guarded by dragon-like creatures. Psyche climbs the cliff, but is unable to fend them off.

Jupiter steps in, sending an eagle that fights off the dragons. (Apparently a god can meddle in the affairs of a goddess!) Psyche returns to Venus with the waters of the rivers. The goddess then decides to make her last task truly unattainable.

If you’re familiar with the story, this is probably the task you best know. Psyche is sent to the Underworld with a box and told to ask Proserpina (the Roman version of Persephone) for some of her beauty. It is revealed that Cupid is within Venus’ house, and that she has spent so much of her energy tending to curing his “wound” (the burn from the hot oil) that she cannot replenish her own beauty. Since she must appear beautiful for a party, she needs to borrow some of Proserpina’s beauty.

Psyche knows that she doesn’t stand a chance of getting into the Underworld. She climbs a tower with the intention of flinging herself off of the top, but the tower speaks up and stops her. It tells her how to get to the Underworld, and to bring honeyed cakes and coins in order to survive the journey.

She travels to the place the tower told her of. Sure enough, therein lies the entrance to the Underworld. The honeyed cakes allow her to slip past Cerberus, the three-headed dog that guards the entrance. The coins pay for a boat ride with Charon the ferryman.

(Among the tower’s instructions is one important rule - Psyche must not talk to several people she encounters. One of these people is an old woman with a spinning wheel. This amuses me, since in East of the Sun, West of the Moon the heroine does talk to a woman with a spinning wheel!)

Psyche pleads her case to Proserpina, explaining what Venus requests of her. Proserpina willingly puts some of her beauty into the box, but warns Psyche that she must not open it. Psyche is then able to leave the Underworld without any problems.

She becomes quite excited as she travels back to Venus, for she knows that this is her last task before she’ll be reunited with Cupid. Then Psyche realizes that everything she’s gone through has her looking a little haggard. Not wanting to appear less than her best for her husband, Psyche decides that sneaking a little bit of Proserpina’s beauty couldn’t hurt. She cracks open the box - only to find that it contains not beauty, but a death-like sleep!

At this point in the story Cupid’s wounds have finally healed. He flees from his mother’s house and goes to find Psyche. When the god finds her lying on the ground he removes the sleep from her and puts it back into the box.

Cupid then takes her back to Venus’ house, where she presents the “unopened” box to the goddess.

Meanwhile, Cupid goes to visit Jupiter and strikes a bargain with him. In exchange for helping Jupiter with any future romantic conquests, Psyche will be freed from Venus, reunited with Cupid, and given immortal life. The story ends with Jupiter telling Venus to lay off of Psyche, and a wedding feast being given for the immortal pair of Cupid and Psyche.

That’s the story! I hope you guys enjoyed it. It’s amazing how similar the story is to East of the Sun, West of the Moon!

I’m still taking requests for different tales from mythology you guys want to hear. I’m open to any mythology! Please feel free to post below or email me with suggestions, or with questions/comments.

See you guys next week!

(Oh, and as a fun side note - Psyche is often depicted in art with either butterfly wings or a butterfly above her.  This was to symbolize her innocence.)

 

The Story of Hok Lee and the Dwarfs

I got a request over the weekend for a post about a fairy tale by George MacDonald. Unfortunately, I only own one of his books (The Princess and the Goblin), and its a full sized book. I’ve looked up his shorter fairy tales, and am highly interested in both The Light Princess and The Shadows, but I don’t have access to either of them. I don’t want to base my post off of just what I read on Wikipedia (which wasn’t much, in the case of The Shadows)...So, eldarai, I will remember this and write you a post about one of those two fairy tales - as soon as I find a print version of it! I’ll hit up some used bookstores this week.

Today’s post is on a shorter fairy tale, one that I absolutely adore. It’s a Chinese story called Hok Lee and the Dwarfs.

Once upon a time in a small town in China, there lived a man named Hok Lee. Hok Lee’s neighbors heaped much praise upon him, for he was an industrious man who worked hard at his trade. He had no wife, so Hok Lee also did all of his own housework. Because of how hard-working he was, the town held him in high esteem.

What they did not know was that Hok Lee was, in fact, a criminal! At night he joined up with a band of robbers and stole from the rich houses in town. Of course, no one would ever suspect Hok Lee of doing such a thing, so he was able to get away with his misdeeds for quite some time.

One morning Hok Lee woke up and went to the marketplace. While there, a neighbor commented on his face - one side of it was quite swollen! Hok Lee was surprised, but went home and bound his cheek in the hope of curing the swelling.

It was to no avail. The swelling became larger and larger each day, until one of Hok Lee’s cheeks was nearly as big as his entire head! Nothing could cure him!

Hok Lee’s cheek throbbed and ached, and the neighbors that had once respected him now laughed whenever they saw him. When a traveling doctor came to town, Hok Lee jumped at the chance to see him, hoping that he would have a cure.

The doctor Hok Lee saw specialized in charms as well as in medicines. After examining Hok Lee, he slowly said that he thought he knew what was wrong. The doctor was convinced that Hok Lee had done something wrong, something that had angered the spirits. It was they who had given Hok Lee his affliction; because of this, no medicine would cure him. The doctor did know of something that might help, but he would not part with it cheaply.

Hok Lee bargained for a time, but was still forced to give over much of his stolen money to the doctor in exchange for his secret. The doctor then told him of a tree nearby. On the night of the full moon, Hok Lee was to go to this tree and watch. Dwarfs and spirits would come out and dance; if Hok Lee joined them and danced well, they might be convinced to cure him.

However, the doctor warned, if Hok Lee danced poorly, they might make his affliction worse!

It was nearly the full moon, so Hok Lee didn’t have to wait long to test the cure. He set out before moonrise and found the tree, then climbed up into its branches. Not long after a large number of dwarfs appeared, dancing and capering about beneath the tree! Hok Lee was amazed to see them, and crept further out onto his branch to watch. Unfortunately, in his eagerness he went too far, and the tree branch gave a loud crack! beneath him.

The dwarfs immediately stopped dancing, and Hok Lee held very still. One of the dwarfs looked up and demanded that whoever was in the tree come down - or they would come up and get him!

Well, Hok Lee was very nervous at that statement. He immediately climbed out of the tree, but slipped and wound up rolling out in front of the dwarfs. He picked himself up and bowed before them, still shaking in fear.

The dwarfs demanded to know who he was and why he had come. Hok Lee explained what had happened to him, and begged the dwarfs to cure his face. They nodded their understanding, but demanded that he first dance for them. If he danced well, they might be willing to cure him - but, if he danced poorly, they would punish him!

Hok Lee found himself surrounded by a circle of dwarfs, all of them waiting and watching. They began to yell at him to dance. Poor Hok Lee tried, he really did, but he was so scared and shaking that he quite bungled every move he made.

When he had finished, the dwarfs were quite angry. They vowed that he should have two matching, swollen cheeks, and then disappeared.

The road home seemed very long to Hok Lee, who was quite nervous about the dwarfs’ statement.

Sure enough, the following morning Hok Lee awoke to find both of his cheeks swollen. The swelling squeezed his eyes mostly shut, leaving him mostly unable to see His neighbors laughed uproariously when they saw him. The doctor who had told him of the dwarfs had long since departed the town, so Hok Lee decided to wait until the next full moon and then try once more to convince the dwarfs to help him.

A month passed in abject misery, and then the night of the full moon was at hand. Hok Lee left early for the forest, and settled beneath the tree as soon as he found it. Not long after the dwarfs appeared, looking around uneasily as they approached. They sensed the presence of a human and said as much.

At this Hok Lee stood and bowed before the dwarfs, who cracked up at his silly appearance. They asked him what he wanted this time, and Hok Lee explained everything that had befallen him. He begged for one last chance to dance for their amusement. The dwarfs readily agreed, for they thought it would be amusing to see him try.

Hok Lee summoned as much cheer as he could and began a slow dance. Little by little he sped up, dancing as gracefully as he knew how. Soon he was leaping and bounding, creating new steps that the dwarfs delighted to see.

They clapped for him, and begged him to dance more. Hok Lee continued for as long as he could before collapsing in exhaustion, vowing that he could dance no more.

The dwarfs were well pleased with Hok Lee and told him that they would cure him in exchange for the dance he had given them. They vanished into thin air. A surprised Hok Lee put his hand to his face and found that his cheeks were no longer swollen! Overjoyed, he returned home.

The next day, the town was understandably curious as to how Hok Lee had been cured. He smiled at the questions, but refused to tell anyone what had happened - only that he had discovered a wonderful cure for any disease.

Hok Lee stopped his practice of robbing - but he soon found a new source of income. After a while one of Hok Lee’s neighbors, one who had been ill for many years, came to Hok Lee and begged him to tell him how he had been cured. The neighbor was very rich, and offered Hok Lee quite a sum of money in exchange for the information. After making him vow to remain silent, Hok Lee agreed and told him about the dwarfs and their moonlit dances.

The neighbor left and was cured by the dwarfs after dancing for them. Soon more friends began to come to Hok Lee, also swearing to secrecy and parting with a large sum in exchange for the information. This happened often enough that Hok Lee was soon a very wealthy man, and remained so for the rest of his days.

I hope you liked the story! I saw the picture before I ever read the tale, and I had to know what was happening. What did you think? Please comment below or email me!

As I said in my last post, this is my last fairy tale post for a time. (Until I find a George MacDonald book, at least!) For now, I’m going to be switching back to mythology. Next week’s post will be about Cupid and Psyche, as promised back in this post! Then I’ll be jumping around mythologies for a few weeks before finally doing a series on Celtic mythology.

Oh - and I've now gotten pageviews from 18 different countries! Welcome, everyone! Thanks a ton for being here! I hope you stick around.

I’ll see you guys next Monday!

Sleeping Beauty/The Story of Sigurd

Hey guys!

This week we’re going to be talking about Sleeping Beauty. A lot of you are probably familiar with the story, so please bear with me; I’ll also talk about a possible mythological origin of the fairy tale, and some of my favorite adaptations of it.

Ready? Lets get started, then! Sleeping Beauty was originally a French fairy tale published sometime in the 1600’s. The story was loosely based on an earlier Italian version called Sun, Moon, and Talia - which, frankly, is ridiculously creepy. That version of the story had a king have sex with Sleeping Beauty while she was still asleep. She remained in her cursed slumber while she gave birth to twins. The king, for the record, was already married. Lovely, right? I’ll move on.

The version of Sleeping Beauty that most people know is called Little Briar Rose. It was collected by the Brothers Grimm, and is an oral variant on the French Sleeping Beauty story. That is what we’ll be talking about today.

Once upon a time there was a king and queen who desperately longed for a child. Their wish was eventually granted, and a daughter was born to them. In their joy the royal couple planned splendid christening ceremony, and invited seven fairies to act as godmothers to their child.

The day of the ceremony began wonderfully - until the unexpected arrival of an eighth fairy. She had not been invited because no one had seen her for years and thought her dead. Of course, this isn’t the kind of thing you can explain to a fairy! Furious at having been forgotten, she watched as six of the fairies blessed the child with gifts - beauty, song, grace, etc. The forgotten fairy then stood up and gave the princess a gift of her own - a curse, that one day the princess will prick her finger on a spindle and die.

(I had to post this picture.  The eighth fairy just looks so dark and gorgeous.)

Naturally, everyone is horrified at this announcement. The fairy takes her leave amidst the chaos her “gift” has caused. Luckily for the princess, the seventh of her godmothers hadn’t bestowed her blessing before the curse was placed. This fairy does her best to mitigate the curse, changing it from death to 100 years of slumber, which can be broken by a prince’s kiss.

The king immediately forbids the use of spindles in his kingdom. It is at this point in the story that certain mainstream movie adaptations of Sleeping Beauty veer off the course of the fairy tale. In them, the princess is taken away to be raised by the fairies. However, in the original tale the princess remains at the castle, raised by her mother and father.

She grows to be sixteen without incident. Thanks to her godmothers’ gifts, the princess is beautiful, kind, and elegant. One day her parents leave the castle on royal business. The princess decides to explore, and comes upon a small room where an old woman is spinning.

Again, movie adaptations of the story vary here. The spindle is often placed there by the evil fairy, who has come to bring about her curse. In the original story, the woman weaving is honestly just an old woman - albeit a slightly foolish one.

The princess is enthralled by the unfamiliar act of spinning. After watching the woman for a while, she asks to try it.

The old woman allows her to do so (seriously! Foolish old woman! Does she not recognize the princess? Has she somehow not heard of the curse?!), and watches in horror as the princess pricks her finger on the spindle and collapses.

To her credit, the old woman immediately calls for help. Everyone tries to wake the princess, but to no avail. When the king and queen return and hear of their daughter’s fate, they are horrified. The king decides that it is destiny, and the princess is carried to a fine bedchamber. Her parents kiss her goodbye and leave.

At this point, the seventh good fairy intervenes. Deciding that it would be too horrible for the princess to wake up alone, she causes everyone in the castle to fall into a sleep just like the princess’. When she finally awakens, they will too. To keep the castle and its inhabitants safe, the fairy raises a great forest of trees and thorny plants around the castle.

Fast forward 100 years: A prince from a nearby kingdom is out on a hunting expedition when he catches a glimpse of a hidden castle through the woods. Upon returning home, he does his best to find out what the castle is. Eventually he finds an old man whose father once told him a story of a beautiful princess who was cursed to sleep for 100 years, only awakening when kissed by a prince.

Naturally, the prince is intrigued by this. He returns to where he saw the castle and makes his way through the fairy-summoned forest, which parts to let him through. Inside the castle he finds all of its inhabitants asleep. The prince ignores them, searching for the princess. He eventually finds her asleep on a bed, and immediately falls in love with her beauty.

The prince reverently kisses her, and the princess wakes up. They are married by the priest of the castle, who has woken up along with the rest of its denizens. Depending on which version of the story you read, they then live happily ever after.

That is the story of Sleeping Beauty! Slightly different than Disney’s versions, right? I hope there was something in it that was new to you guys.

I mentioned at the beginning of this post that there’s a story in mythology very similar to Sleeping Beauty. I’ve often wondered if it might have inspired the folk tales that led to the fairy tale. The tale is called The Story of Sigurd; it features a warrior and a Valkyrie, the Norse angels of the battlefield. It’s a tragedy, so don’t expect a hugely happy ending...there's fire and blood and murder within families, but hey!  Still fun, right?

 

I was going to write up a couple of pages about The Story of Sigurd...and then I realized that I already had! One of the characters in my book happens to be a descendent of the characters in the Story of Sigurd, and she explains her origins to her friends at one point. What follows below is an excerpt from Hammerfall; if you guys like what you see, you can buy it here.

(Please note: To the best of my knowledge, lifkyrs are an original invention. I have found no mention of them in Norse mythology. If you know of any references to a descendant of a mortal and a valkyrie, please email me! I’d love to find out that my idea was founded in mythology!)

“No,” she replied. “I am what is called a lifkyr.” Kieth nodded as she continued, “A descendant of a mortal and a valkyrie.”

“I thought they were a myth!” Elena exclaimed. Solveig shot her an amused look, glancing down at herself and then back up as if to say, Obviously not.

“You seem to be fond of stories,” she said with a chuckle as Elena blushed. “Let me tell you mine.”

“Many centuries ago there lived a valkyrie named Brynhildr. The valkyr were the angels of the battlefield, fearsome women warriors who could sense the approach of death and were tasked by Odin to aid his chosen side in battle. When a warrior died they bore him up to the Halls of Valhalla, the Hall of the Slain, where he would join the ranks of the Einherjar. There he would be waited upon by the valkyr and never know sorrow until the coming of Ragnarök.”

“Brynhildr, however, had disobeyed Odin’s command and allowed the wrong side to win. For this, she was condemned to marry the first mortal she saw. She begged Odin for mercy and eventually softened his heart; he agreed to lay her sleeping in a castle called Hindfell, hidden behind a wall of flame. There she knew that only the truly brave would travel – and if no one came, she would lie sleeping for all eternity.”

“So basically she was Sleeping Beauty?” Liam asked. “Would that make

Odin the evil queen?”

Solveig glared at him and he quieted, though the others snickered. “There are similarities, yes. Your culture has stolen much from the Norse. May I continue?” She waited a moment and then spoke on.

“Eventually a man named Sigurðr came over the wall on his horse, a descendant of Sleipnir and an ancestor of Gunnar. He had been on many adventures of his own prior to this, including the reforging of a magical sword named Gram.” Here Solveig patted her own blade.

Kieth nodded. “I called that one.”

She smiled at him before continuing her tale. “Sigurðr had also slain a mighty dragon and in the process acquired a cursed ring. He bore this ring when he entered the castle and met Brynhildr, which of course doomed their relationship from the start. Sigurðr awoke her and they swore to be wed. That night they swapped stories of their lives, sharing all – including Sigurðr’s only vulnerability. He then gave her the cursed ring as a sign of his love and left in the morning, vowing to return.”

“He didn’t know it was cursed,” Elena interjected, seeing the look on Liam’s face.

“Indeed. Their actions had far-reaching consequences - from their union sprang my ancestors, the descendants of a human and a valkyr. There are a few other family lines around the world, but not many. Any male born to the line has the potential to be a great warrior if he should so choose; any woman born is given a greater choice still.”

Here she looked down, and her far-off tone told the others she had given this a great deal of thought. “When we enter our teens we are given a few basic abilities – the knowledge of how to wield any weapon, increased strength, slowed aging, and the ability to fly. The more we use our powers the greater they become – the less we use them, the quicker they fade. We are marked with the sign of the valkyr when these things are gifted, and this mark informs us of how much or little we have used.”

Solveig lifted her sheet of hair and twisted, revealing a purple tattoo of two wings on her back. Liam blinked. “That purple light around you when you fight,” he asked. “Is that when you’re using your powers?”

She nodded. “However, we cannot have the best of both worlds. Eventually we are forced to make a choice – either give up our powers entirely, or embrace them and become a valkyr.”

“Was Gunnar a part of the deal?” Elena asked.

Solveig smiled, the expression fleeting but sincere. “No, he was a gift to me on my tenth birthday, before I received my powers. I do not know if he was a gift from Odin or from one of my ancestors, but he has been my faithful companion ever since.

Liam blinked. “How old are you, exactly?”

Kieth swatted him on the arm and Liam blushed, realizing that the question was rude, but Solveig answered without seeming to care. “I am twenty-six.”

“You’re joking,” Elena gasped. “You look way younger! How long does your kind live?”

Solveig shrugged. “It varies depending on what life path we choose. My mother was forty-seven when she chose a mortal life.”

“What about the sword?” Kieth asked after a moment of silence. “Where did you get Gram?”

“A family heirloom, passed down through generations. My mother gifted it to me before I left.”

Liam frowned, considering. “What happened to Brynhildr and Sigurðr? You said something about them being doomed?”

“There was tragedy, of course,” she replied. “They made an opera of it several years ago.”

Kieth took over. “Sigurðr was delayed in his returning by several months and wound up staying in a castle owned by a wicked queen. She fed him a potion that made him fall in love with her daughter, and he forgot about Brynhildr entirely. He married the daughter, and perhaps all would have been well for them if his bride’s brother had not heard of a maiden who dwelled behind a curtain of fire…”

Kieth trailed off as the others stared at him. “I’m a fan of the opera,” he offered as an explanation. They laughed, though Solveig looked at him thoughtfully as he continued. “Anyway, the brother convinces Sigurðr to go with him and try to rescue the maiden, and it turns out that Sigurðr’s horse Grani is the only one who can jump the fire. The horse, of course, won’t bear the brother, so Sigurðr puts on the brother’s armor and goes in his stead. He tells Brynhildr that he’s the brother – it’s funny, but his name was Gunnar too, now that I think of it.”

Solveig nodded, continuing the tale. “Brynhildr thinks that she recognizes him but he refuses to take off his armor until they’re over the wall again. She says that they have to stay the night because she is tired, and since she will not be swayed, he agrees. In the morning he wakes up first and sees her ring. No one is sure if he remembered something about it or simply acted on impulse, but Sigurðr takes the ring and pockets it.”

“Afterwards they jump over the wall of fire; Gunnar and Sigurðr change

armor out of sight,” Kieth added. “Gunnar walks up and makes a big deal of removing his helmet. They head back to the castle, and by the end of the ride Brynhildr is half convinced that Sigurðr was just a dream. She marries Gunnar and all is well for a while until Sigurðr’s wife hears the tale. She begs him for the ring he took, and he reluctantly gives it to her.”

“Eventually she and Brynhildr wind up bickering about something, and they begin to boast about their respective husbands…‘My husband is braver than yours’, and so on. Finally Brynhildr says something about how no mortal but Gunnar would dare to cross the flames that imprisoned her. Sigurðr’s wife, of course, says that he didn’t – that it was Sigurðr who did, and oh, here’s the ring to prove it.”

Liam grimaced, imagining the scene as Solveig finished the tale. “Needless to say, Brynhildr was furious. She demanded that Gunnar kill Sigurðr and tells him of his vulnerable spot, but he is too good of a man and refuses to murder his brother-in-law. His brothers, however, have no such morals and ambush Sigurðr, stabbing him in the back and killing him.”

“Gunnar orders that Sigurðr’s funeral be huge. Brynhildr watches from the battlements, and just as Sigurðr’s pyre is set alight, she leaps to join him, crying out for him to wait so that they might rise together to Valhalla.”

In the silence that followed Liam fought to regain his composure, coughing thickly before asking, “That’s it? What is it with people and tragedies?”

“Mythology – the original soap opera,” Elena added with a grin.

Kieth, however, shook his head. “It doesn’t end there. It is said that after the pyre was burnt out, Grani was found missing from the stables. And when the stablehands were questioned, one admitted to seeing a horse galloping into the sky – a horse with two riders upon its back.”

Elena shook her head. “That is a much better ending!”

Solveig laughed. “Indeed it is.”

So there you have the Story of Sigurd! I hope you guys enjoyed it, and the short look at Hammerfall. There’s definitely a lot of similarities to Sleeping Beauty. What do you think? Could the fairy tale we know and love have been based on an ancient myth?

As far as adaptations of Sleeping Beauty go...well, I have a LOT that I like. As in, I have a pile of books sitting by my computer as I type this so that I don’t forget to mention them...

For starters, there’s Beauty Sleep, by Cameron Dokey. This is the shortest of the adaptations I’ll be mentioning here, but it is well worth the read. I’m not hugely fond of the title, as it has almost nothing to do with the book, but the story is fantastic. I love the prince, I love the looming threat of the curse...it’s just a great book, and you should check it out.

Next up is The Gates of Sleep, by Mercedes Lackey. This is book three in her Elemental Masters series, but I read it before any of the others and absolutely adored it. It’s a good introduction to the world and to the magic system, while also being a ton of fun to read. It took me about a hundred pages to really get sucked into the book - but once I was in, I was in. That story got devoured quite quickly.

Then there’s another Mercedes Lackey story (not that I love her books or anything) called The Sleeping Beauty. This is also part of a series, one called The Five Hundred Kingdoms. In them, people are forced down the paths of fairy tales that fit their lives by a magical force called The Tradition. Fairy godmothers try to counter The Tradition and let people live normal lives. The Sleeping Beauty is my second favorite in the series because Mercedes Lackey blended the Sleeping Beauty story...with the Story of Sigurd. There are two sleeping maidens, two princes, and they end up crossing over into one another’s stories. I’m doing a lousy job of explaining it, but it is excellent and you should go read it.

Speaking of the Story of Sigurd: Did you know that J. R. R. Tolkien wrote a version of it? Yup. Tolkien. Need I say more?

Last up is what is probably my favorite book of all time - Spindle’s End, by Robin McKinley. McKinley and Lackey have their own shelf on my bookshelf, and just about anything they write is gold. Spindle’s End is a beautiful adaptation of Sleeping Beauty, but the princess is reluctant, the animals are all witty and loyal, and the love interest is just about the best thing ever. It isn’t a light read, and Robin McKinley likes to go off on rabbit trails that last for several pages and then abruptly come back to the original point - but if you’re ok with that, I totally recommend giving this book a shot. I just finished rereading it, which I do at least once a year. It always makes me laugh and makes me cry - which happens very rarely with me.

That’s it for today! I will be back next week, with what will probably be my last fairy tale post for a while. What story it is remains a mystery - to both you and me! (I guess I’d better get on that, right? Any suggestions? Requests? Email me or comment below!) After that I’m planning on doing several posts about various mythologies. Sometime in mid-summer I’ll do a concentrated series on Celtic mythology, which I’m really looking forward to!

I’ll see you guys next Monday!

Happy Mother's Day

There will be a normal post tomorrow, but I wanted to make sure and put this up today.

Lately I've been talking about fairy tales, and mothers tend to get a bad rap in them.  My last post talked about a wicked mother.  Other stories have wicked stepmothers, or mother-like figures, or godmothers, etc.

Mythology can be just as cruel to its mothers.  Greek mythology, for instance, has Hera dropping her own son off of a cliff; in another story, Aphrodite is the scariest mother-in-law ever.

But that isn't always the case.  In fairy tales, we talked recently about The Little Green Frog, which has two mothers who are ripped away from their children but love them nonetheless.  I did a post a while back about Hades and Persephone - what I didn't cover in that post is the fact that Demeter wanders the earth searching for her daughter, and is so deep in despair that she refuses to allow anything beautiful to grow.  This, ultimately, is why Persephone is returned to her mother.  There's not a huge amount of nice stuff you can say about Izanami, the Japanese goddess of the dead, but when she was still nice she sacrificed her own life to bring her son Kagutsuchi into the world.

People tend to focus on the bad parents within fairy tales instead of the good.  Today, I wanted to turn that on its head.  Fairy tales and mythology are brimming with wonderful examples of mothers (and of fathers)...you just have to be willing to look for them.

Happy Mother's Day!

One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes

May the 4th be with you, readers! If you’re looking for a more Star Wars themed post, you can check out a look at the mythology of the Force here.

Today we’re actually going to be looking at a fairy tale called One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes. The story is German in origin, and was collected by the Grimm brothers. A version of it called Little One Eye, Little Two Eyes, and Little Three Eyes appeared in The Green Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, which is the version I have. It’s an interesting tale, and I found a variety of pictures through Google that are just as interesting to go with it. I hope you enjoy - I’ll tell you some of what I like about the story after I’ve told it!

Once upon a time there lived a woman who had three daughters. The eldest of the daughters had only one eye, right in the middle of her forehead. The middle daughter had two eyes, like a normal person. The youngest daughter had three eyes, with two positioned as normal and a third in the middle of her forehead. They were named, accordingly, One Eye, Two Eyes, and Three Eyes.

The mother, One Eye, and Three Eyes quickly began to be cruel to Two Eyes - after all, she wasn’t special like her sisters were! They gave her all of the menial tasks and provided only the most meager of nourishment for her. The family was decently poor, which meant that Two Eyes often did not have enough to eat. They did have a goat, and it was Two Eyes’ job to take care of it every day.

 It’s a space goat. (I play a Draenei in WoW, so space goats have a special place in my heart.) It was totally necessary to include it in this post.  Don't ask me why they're aliens.

One day while Two Eyes was out letting her goat roam she began to cry. Her sisters had left her less than usual for breakfast, and she was starving. A wise old woman happened upon her as she wept and asked why she was crying. Two Eyes responded that she was immensely hungry. The woman looked at the goat and quickly gave Two Eyes a solution.

The old woman provided Two Eyes with a rhyme to say to the goat whenever she was hungry. The rhyme varies depending on which version of the story you have, but I like the one I found on Wikipedia best:

Little goat, if you are able

Pray deck out my table

Reciting this rhyme would cause the goat to magically summon a table full of food. When Two Eyes had finished her meal, she was to say
 

Little goat, when you’re able

Please remove my table

and the table would disappear.

As soon as the old woman left Two Eyes approached her goat and recited the first lines to it. A magical table appeared, and Two Eyes was able to eat her fill for the first time she could remember.

When she was finished Two Eyes recited the second rhyme and the table disappeared.

That night Two Eyes was still full, so she did not eat the meager scrapings her sisters had set out for her at home. This was true the next day, and the day after that - at which point her mother took notice.

The mother began to wonder why Two Eyes, who had always eaten everything they gave to her, was no longer starving. She surmised that Two Eyes must have been eating while out with the goat. The next morning she ordered One Eye to go to the fields with Two Eyes and find out where she was getting food.

One Eye was unaccustomed to work of any sort, and found herself exhausted by the long walk. Two Eyes sneakily began to sing to her, a song that asked:

One Eye, are you awake?
One Eye, are you asleep?

One Eye swiftly found herself lulled to sleep by the song. As soon as she was sure her sister was out, Two Eyes summoned the table from the goat, ate her fill, and then made it disappear. She then woke One Eye and the two walked back home.

Their mother was quite furious with One Eye for not having seen Two Eyes’ source of food. The next morning she sent Three Eyes with Two Eyes, with orders to keep a careful watch.

Three Eyes was also exhausted by the walk to the fields, and Two Eyes attempted to repeat her trick from the day before. Unfortunately, she messed up and sang these lines:

Three Eyes, are you awake?

Two Eyes, are you asleep?

Two of Three Eyes’ eyes fell asleep to this ditty, but the one in the middle of her head remained wide awake. It sneakily closed itself, but kept sneaking peeks to see what Two Eyes was up to.

Because of this, Three Eyes saw the goat produce a table filled with food - food that was better than what the girls and their mother ate at their cottage! When she reported all of this to their mother, she was filled with rage. She slaughtered the goat just to spite poor Two Eyes. (Seriously. WHY must so many animals in fairy tales die?!)

The next day Two Eyes went to the meadow and wept. She had been satisfied for the first time in her life, and now would have to go hungry again. As she cried, the old woman happened upon her once again, and asked why Two Eyes was crying. When she explained that her goat had been killed, the woman told her to ask for the heart of the goat and bury it outside of their cottage.

Two Eyes’ mother and sisters laughed at her when she asked for the goat’s heart, but they gave it to her since it wasn’t something good to eat. She buried it outside of the door and went to bed.

The next morning the family was shocked to find a tree with silver bark and gold apples growing outside of their door. Only Two Eyes knew that it was because of the goat, and she smiled to see it.

The mother swiftly ordered One Eye to climb the tree and pull off some of the gold apples. She tried, but every time she reached for one it twisted out of her grasp! One Eye eventually admitted defeat and climbed back down the tree.

Unwilling to give up, her mother sent Three Eyes up the tree, with the logic that three eyes would be better able to see the apples than one. Three Eyes was just as unable to grasp any of the apples, and finally climbed to the ground.

The mother was furious at their failure. She tried to pick the apples herself, but always found them just out of reach. She laughed scornfully when Two Eyes offered to try, but allowed her to climb the tree. Two Eyes was easily able to pick the apples, and climbed back down with a while skirt full of them to offer to her mother.

Unfortunately, this did not make her family like her any more. They were jealous that only Two Eyes could pick the apples, and so treated her even worse than they had before.

One day a knight happened to be riding past the cottage. When Two Eyes’ sisters saw him coming they hid her under an empty basket so he wouldn’t see her. The knight approached the tree and asked who owned it. The sisters claimed it as their own. The knight then asked them to break off a twig for him; if they could, he would give them whatever they wanted.

One Eye and Three Eyes were beside themselves at this offer, and attempted to grasp a twig to give to the knight - but, just as with the apples, they were unable to take hold of a twig. The knight remarked that it was strange that the tree’s owners were unable to do as he asked.

At this point Two Eyes became fed up with her sisters. There were several gold apples under the basket with her, and she rolled them under it in an attempt to catch the knight’s attention. He noticed them and asked if there was anyone else living at the cottage. The sisters were forced to admit that Two Eyes was there, but that they had hidden her because she only had two eyes, like normal people.

The knight demanded to see Two Eyes, who cheerfully came out from under the basket. She climbed the tree and easily broke off a twig with an apple attached.

When she presented it to the knight he asked her what she wanted in exchange. Two Eyes explained that her family was cruel to her and starved her, and that all she wanted was to be taken away from them.

The knight lifted Two Eyes onto the back of his horse and carried her off into the sunset. He took her to live at his family’s castle, where he gave her lovely clothing and as much food as she wanted. Two Eyes was quite happy there, and soon fell in love with the knight. They eventually married.

As for her family...well, they were furious that Two Eyes had been taken away to riches unknown, leaving them by themselves. The mother consoled herself with the knowledge that they would still have the tree. She planned to set it up as a sort of a tourist attraction that people from all around would come to see.

The tree had other ideas. When the mother awoke the next morning it was gone; it had flown away to live underneath Two Eyes’ window at the castle.

Years later, two poor women came to beg at the knight’s castle. Two Eyes recognized them as her sisters. Being kind, she invited them inside and made them welcome. They repented the way they had treated her, and became far nicer people.

That is the end of One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes! I hope you guys enjoyed this fairy tale. I wrote a post about it at the request of a reader, so I know at least one of you probably likes the story!

I love the fact that it is a knight who rescues Two Eyes instead of a prince. I also find it interesting that the story never mentions how many eyes the mother has, or what happens to her. Wouldn’t you think a two-eyed mother would love Two Eyes best? Strange.

What I love best about One Eye, Two Eyes, Three Eyes is the table. A similar table appeared in one of my favorite books as a child, a story called The Two Princesses of Bamarre. (The author, Gail Carson Levine, also wrote Ella Enchanted - along with a number of other stories that I love. Everything she writes is fantastic. Go forth and read!) This table would continue to replenish its food until told to stop - which meant that the table could overflow with food if no one ever spoke the proper words to halt it.

Similar events are found in a number of fairy tales from around the world. Sweet Porridge is one, as is an old Norse version that is similar to a Greek one called Why the Sea is Salt. There is also a Chinese variant of the story; I’m not sure which culture had it first. In each, the “table” (which is sometimes a bowl or mill) is never properly told to stop because it leaves its owner who knows the words.

I’ll end my post with that! I’ll be back next week with Sleeping Beauty - mostly because an adaptation of that fairy tale is my favorite book of all time, and I want to talk about it! I’ll see you guys then.