For someone who spend almost a year reading books by the Brothers Grimm, I can be dense sometimes. Except for the fact that before I put pen to paper I switched the number from 12 to 16, Fairytale Princess is a retelling of the fairytale The Twelve Dancing Princesses.
While Wikipedia was a great source for general information, once again I realize they are morons. In a year of reading nothing but fairytales recorded by the brothers Grimm, I never once read the same story twice. This included multiple different versions of the Dancing Princesses (princes, three, four, one, cursed, not cursed). I am working on the tenth chapter. Have written more than 36k words, and finally I realize: Hey, this story is the dancing princesses.
Well, one version anyway.
There is a version I am aware of that included a Gypsy camp at the end of the mystical woods. The hero joins in the dancing, spending twelve nights dancing with first one, then another of the princesses. Each night, a Crow tells him that he has not picked the real princess, and each morning he wakes up alone in the forest. There was a similar version with a Golden throne, but that was one of the rare Fairytales with a heroine. Regardless. The hero will be killed unless he can pick the true princess among all the fakes before the end of the twelfth night.
The Crow is the real princess.
So, this is a blending of a number of different versions into a single modern retelling. The prince is really a princess, and is unknown to the other dancers. She is looking for the true prince to set her free. The true prince is the Crow.
It was only recently that I realized that the Mansion was the Forest. Karl was the wise woman who provided the invisibility cloak/dancing shoes/fine clothing/AKA camouflage. It is kind of obvious to me when I stopped to think about it, but then I'm one of the only people I know whose ever heard of "The Sun, The Moon, and The Stars."
Maybe I should change my signature to: My glass shoes said "Tinkle" and then said nothing more.
Sorry. I'm just being a little bitchy now. Ignore me ;)
Comments
Neat glimpes into how you create a story
Thanks for sharing ... and you are reading the ORIGINAL Brothers Grimm? Not the watered down stuff?
YIKES!
These were esentially collected folk tales and many were quite dark and cruel.
Hardly *fairy tales* for kids. More like cautionary tales for adults or even horror stories.
Or so I have been told.
Have fun.
John in Wauwatosa
John in Wauwatosa
No, they are not stories
No, they are not stories you'd want your children reading, and I was sixteen when I read them. Some are horror stories. All are cautionary tales.
Think about how many fairy tales have a Forest in them.
Now, consider that the Forest is a symbolic representation of Sin and the Devil.
And now, think about the musical "Into the Woods"
:)
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage
The Sun, The Moon, and the Stars
Which version? Or the novel by Steven Brust, which I have but haven't read all the way through, which makes it like the only Brust I haven't read, pretty much.
I've read a fair amount of Grimm, and also read through Andrew Lang's colored fairy books, as well as a lot of others in the 398 classification (Salem (Oregon) Public Library had the most awesome Children's Library!)
Yours,
JohnBobMead
Yours,
John Robert Mead
Version
The original named, as opposed to numbered, Grimm version of the story.
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage
He entered the hall to get warm. She left it two hundred years later.
Faeriemage