Week 4- #GRIMMread2019

http://shonnaslayton.com/grimmread2019-week-4-challenge-and-linky-party-hansel-and-gretel-more/

This week contains a lot of 3's.

"The Three Little Men in the Woods": This tale has many elements of other Fairy tales, including "Snow White" (an evil stepmother, a kind beautiful girl, little men in a cottage in the woods), "Toads and Diamonds", (two sisters, one good and one selfish, one speaks gold and one speaks toads), and "Little Brother and Little Sister" (a sister is made queen, then killed by the stepmother, she returns in the form of a duck, she takes her own form at night to nurse her child, she is resurrected). Goodness is rewarded and selfishness is punished as per usual. Water and the color red seem to have significance in this story, but I haven't really figured out what that significance is. What is with the boot filled with water? Also, I've noticed that while stepmothers are bad in these tales, father's who are married to them no longer care for their children. They just let the abuse happen. 

"The Three Spinning Women": This one is odd, but funny. I literally laughed out loud at the ending. Still, it seems to me that laziness is rewarded, but perhaps the girl is rewarded because she is willing to look over the ugliness of the spinners, and make a deal with them? Of course this deal is beneficial to her. She also follows through with her promise to invite them to the castle and call them her aunts. Keeping promises is an important theme in these tales, so perhaps that is why she is rewarded? Perhaps she isn't as rewarded as she seems? She gets the prince, but he is vain. He would rather have her be beautiful than industrious. This is a similar tale to Rumplestiltskin, but the spinners are benevolent. The three spinning women bring to mind the Greek Fates. 

"Hansel and Grethel": Again, we have an evil stepmother and a father who fails to care for his children. He is actually complicit in abandoning them to save himself and his wife. The children are captured by the Witch because she is nice to them at first, and her house is oh so yummy! Sometimes people seem kind, but they are out to hurt you. Be careful who you trust seems to be the main theme of this story. Sister again saves brother. One curious detail is that the stepmother has died. This is mentioned when the children return home. Grethel had just killed the Witch. Could the Witch be the the evil stepmother? Could the father have been under a spell?

"The Three Snake Leaves": This one is very dark. The princess refuses to marry anyone unless he vows to be buried with her alive if she dies first. This reminds me of Egyptian burials. The soldier is so twitterpated that he agrees to this ridiculous vow. He is very faithful. He even goes above and beyond by protecting her corpse from being eaten by a snake. This is where it gets super weird. A second snake comes out with 3 leaves and heals the dead snake with them. Then the soldier takes the leaves and resurrects the princess. After that the princess has no interest in her husband. She takes up another guy, and they plot to drown the soldier. His servant saves him with the 3 snake leaves, and he runs to the king and tells him everything. The king puts the princess and her lover in a ship with holes in it and they sink into the ocean. Infidelity is punished. Keeping  promises is rewarded. I noticed that the story says that the princess had changed after she was resurrected by the snake leaves, but she didn't seem to me that she would have been very faithful anyway. She is incredibly self-centered. Is the story implying that the leaves somehow changed her, or were at least a catalyst for her growing infidelity? If so, why didn't the leaves change the soldier? Or did they? The soldier loses his twitterpatedness once she kills him, but that alone would be the most probable cause of this. Then again, he was so enthralled with her before that he didn't care that she wanted him dead and buried with her if she died. There is a lot to digest here.