Halloween 2015: The Castle of Otranto and The Gothic

This is the first in a series of posts leading up to my favourite holiday, Halloween. The late 18th Century saw the rise of the Gothic genre, a reaction against the rationalism that had defined the century. Leading this trend was Horace Walpole, writer of what is considered the first Gothic novel, The Castle of Otranto. Like many of the novels published at the time, The Castle of Otranto was originally published with the claim that it was a true story, with the original full title being  The Castle of Otranto, A Story. Translated by William Marshal, Gent. From the Original Italian of Onuphrio Muralto, Canon of the Church of St. Nicholas at Otranto. In fact it claimed to be a translation of a recently discovered 16th Century Italian text, and it wasn't until the second and subsequent editions that Walpole claimed ownership.

"The following work was found in the library of an ancient Catholic family in the north of England. It was printed in Naples, in the black letter, in the year 1529. How much sooner it was written does not appear. The principle incidents are such are were believed in the darkest ages of Christianity ; but the language and conduct have nothing that favours barbarism. The style is the purest Italian. If the story was written near the time it is supposed to have happened, it must have been between 1095, the era of the first crusade, and 1243, the date of the last or not long afterwards."

 For anyone familiar with the basic plot it seems ridiculous for anyone at the time to actually think the story could be true. I encourage you to go read it if you haven't already because to a modern reader it's absolutely hilarious, it's every horror cliché crammed into around a hundred pages. But if you consider that nothing like this, at least in this genre, had ever been written before, and that all of the Gothic tropes that can be found in the novel were brand new, this isn't just a load of adults falling for ghost stories. It's a very clever writer writing in the dominant story-telling form of the age, and twisting it to tell a story that would captivate its audience by appealing to its darkest fears.

Possibly the most interesting thing about the novel is that it is the first time we see many of the Gothic tropes that we're still familiar with today. These include old castles, secret passages, and virginal maids pursued by evil villains.

Another thing that remained a trend in the Gothic is its not-so-subtle psycho-sexuality, for example a character is killed by a falling giant helmet, and this is continued further in other exemplary Gothic novels such as The Monk and Dracula (a piece dedicated to Dracula to follow.) Even today's horror films contain overtly sexual themes. The Gothic represented the hidden desires of the sub-conscience, and presented them to its readers in a way that horrified them.

I'd argue that horror still does the same today, but the use of the supernatural makes the horrors of humanity more palatable for the consumer. When the villain is a vampire, ghost, zombie, or a werewolf, we can walk away from the film safe in the knowledge that these creatures don't really exist.We can process the ideas that are being presented to us in a safe environment, without feeling any immediate threat. Often monsters represent the darker sides of the human psyche, and this is never more apparent than in the Gothic novel. Perhaps that's something to bear in mind as we read these novels. Perhaps the scariest monsters aren't the monsters in ghost stories, but the monsters in our heads.

BI VISIBILITY DAY 2015 | Aphra Behn

Today, September 23rd, is Bi Visibility Day. The fact that many of you reading this mightn't know this is probably why this day needs to exist. (Also, look at how pretty our flag is, we need a day dedicated to waving it unashamedly.) We often refer to ourselves as the silent B within LGBT discourse (the silent T often practically invisible), as it is important to remember that bisexual, pansexual, Trans* people, and anybody else under the LGBT+ umbrella often face issues that are separate from each other, and from those experienced by Lesbian and Gay people. All too often LGBT is used as a synonym for Lesbian and Gay, and whilst bi people obviously experience homophobia, we also experience biphobia, often facing discrimination from both within and outside of the LGBT+ community. The fact is, whilst we are a part of LGBT+ history and culture as a whole, us bisexuals have our own history, experiences, and issues that should be treated with as much respect and understanding. If you want to find out more please visit the following links. Otherwise, we'll get right on to talking about the total bae that is Aphra Behn.

http://www.bivisibilityday.com/
http://www.bisexualweek.com/about/
http://www.glaad.org/bisexual/bierasure
http://robynochs.com/biphobia/
Evan Rachel Wood on being bisexual

First of all, you should know that Aphra Behn was a badass. Interest in her literary works has recently reached new heights within academia, and rightly so! You see, there's this misconception that only rich men were writing popular fiction and poetry back in the day, largely because academia has chosen to dismiss the popular labouring class and women writers of the period (I could get into this more deeply, but if I get into a discussion about sexism within academia we might be here a while...)

So cutting to the chase, we don't know much about Aphra Behn's early life. We know that she was baptised on the 14th December 1640, spent some of her youth in the West Indies, was married in 1664 but divorced not long after, and she was a British SPY in Antwerp,1766 (her codename was Astrea. We definitely need a film about this.) It was imprisonment for debt, that she got herself into because the King wouldn't pay for her to come home, so she had to borrow money, that led her to start writing for an income. She also had a lover at one point named John Hoyle who was openly bisexual.

Aphra Behn wrote novellas, poetry, and plays, and her best known work is Oroonoko, the story of an enslaved African prince, and an important text in the history of the modern British novel. A personal favourite poem of mine by Aphra Behn, that I'm sure you'll love, is called 'The Disappointment', in which a woman in left sexually unsatisfied due to her partner's premature ejaculation. In fact, with all of the excitement, he cums in his pants.

In vain th' enraged Youth assaid 
To call his fleeting Vigour back,
No motion 'twill from Motion take,
Excess of Love his Love betray'd ;
In vain he Toils, in vain Commands,
Th' Insensible fell weeping in his Hands.

Great stuff isn't it? You can read the full text HERE.

Aphra Behn was an early feminist icon, and argued fervently through her writings for a woman's right to sexual pleasure. She talked frankly about sex, including sex with other women (see below, and also The Dream), and about having multiple lovers (On Her Loving Two Equally)

To the Fair Clarinda, who made love to me, imagined more than woman

Fair lovely Maid, or if that Title be
Too weak, too Feminine for Nobler thee,
Permit a Name that more Approaches Truth:
And let me call thee, Lovely Charming Youth.
This last will justifie my soft complaint,
While that may serve to lessen my constraint;
And without Blushes I the Youth persue,
When so much beauteous Woman is in view.
Against thy Charms we struggle but in vain
With thy deluding Form thou giv'st us pain,
While the bright Nymph betrays us to the Swain.
In pity to our Sex sure thou wer't sent,
That we might Love, and yet be Innocent:
For sure no Crime with thee we can commit;
Or if we shou'd - thy Form excuses it.
For who, that gathers fairest Flowers believes
A Snake lies hid beneath the Fragrant Leaves.

Though beauteous Wonder of a different kind,
Soft Cloris with the dear Alexis join'd;
When e'er the Manly part of thee, wou'd plead
Though tempts us with the Image of the Maid,
While we the noblest Passions do extend
The Love to Hermes, Aphrodite the Friend.

If you want to find out more about Aphra Behn, you can do so at the following links:
http://www.poetry-archive.com/b/behn_aphra.html (includes links to more poems)
http://www.uark.edu/campus-resources/lbrothe/shoup1.html
http://www.sappho.com/poetry/a_behn.html
http://writersinspire.podcasts.ox.ac.uk/content/aphra-behn
https://dramadaily.wordpress.com/2009/12/20/before-gaga-there-was-behn-or-liz-duffy-adams-bisexual-bombshell/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vIWqH8CYKuM

Do you have a favourite bisexual writer? Let me know in the comments below :) Also, if you're doing anything today to celebrate Bi Visibility Day, let me know what you're up to!

#PigGate | Pigs in 18th Century Political Satire

Thomas Rowlandson, 'The Wonderful Pig, 1785

Following what was easily the best couple of hours I have ever spent on Twitter, where pig puns could never get old, and we wondered how Hameron and his crew down in Number 10 would deal with all of the embarrassment, I started to wonder if there was any hilarity of this kind in 18th Century political satire. Well it turns out they never went full Black Mirror, but there's still plenty of laughs to be found. 

The Learned Pig

The illustration at the top of this post depicts a phenomenon that occurred in London society in the 1780s. Pigs were trained for the purposes of entertainment to pick up cards with their mouths in order to spell words and answer arithmetical problems. The original Learned Pig was trained by a Scottish shoemaker named Samuel Bisset, who ran a travelling novelty show. In fact, according to Jan Bondeson "The Wonderful Pig soon became the leading light in Mr Bisset's troupe. It could kneel, bow, spell out names using cardboard letters, cast up accounts, and point out married and unmarried people in the audience." Naturally, satirists saw an opportunity here, and ran with it.

It became a bit of the in joke to compare a writer or politician to a learned pig, and even the then Prime Minister of Great Britain William Pitt was referred to as "the Wonderful pig", and was depicted in a caricature with the body of a pig. (I'm led to believe that The British Museum may have the image, but unfortunately as I write this the Collection Online search on their website isn't working.)

The 'Swinish Multitude'

The complete reversal of the above, where the masses are characterised as the pigs, is also present in eighteenth century literature. In Edmund Burke's 1790 Reflections on the Revolution in France, Burke wrote "along with its natural protectors and guardians, learning will be cast into the mire, and trodden down under the hoofs of a swinish multitude." Naturally, the idea that revolutionary supporters were an animalistic and dangerous mob that would destroy any notion of civilised society and education caused some outrage. For many this highlighted how the upper classes were completely out of touch with the issues facing the working class.

Burke's comments generated plenty of commentary and satire. Thomas Spence wrote a poem narrated by an anti-revolutionary simply called 'Burke's Address to the "Swinish Multitude"', which is littered with piggish puns.

YE vile SWINISH Herd, in the Sty of Taxation,

What would ye be after?—diſturbing the Nation?

Give over your grunting—Be off—To your Sty!

Nor dare to look out, if a KING paſſes by:

...

Do you think that a KING is no more than a Man?

Ye Brutiſh, Ye Swiniſh, irrational Clan?

I ſwear by his Office, his Right is divine,

To flog you, and [...]eed you, and treat you like Swine!

...

Then no more about MAN and his RIGHTS,

TOM PAINE, and a Rabble of Liberty Lights:

That you are but our "SWINE," if ye ever forget,

We'll throw you alive to the HORRIBLE PIT!

Get ye down! down! down!—Keep ye down!

(You can read the text in its entirety HERE)

His satire points out that this kind of language is designed to keep the lower classes down and remind them that they are a "lesser" than the men of nobility. And it struck me reading this poem how incredibly relevant it is to recent events. If the pigs are the working masses that are continually put down by an oppressive form of government, then #PigGate seems too perfectly crafted a satire to be true. To those of us who feel we are being continually fucked over by David Cameron and his party, we are that pig. 

Find out More:

Thomas Hood, 'The Lament of Toby the Learned Pig'

Christopher Machell, The Politics of Beastial Imagery in Satire, 1789-1820

Jan Bondeson, The Feejee Mermaid and Other Essays in Natural and Unnatural History

On Clarissa | Part 1, Background

'The Harlowe Family' by Joseph Highmore'

[CW: This novel contains rape as a main plot point, and so my posts about the novel may contain discussions about sexual violence within the narrative.]

Those of you who follow me elsewhere may know that I'm in the process of reading Samuel Richardson's 'Clarissa', the longest novel in English Literature. Those of you who know me personally may also know that despite three years of study as an undergraduate, I'm a pretty slow reader. Suffice to say, I still haven't finished reading it, and certainly won't finish it any time soon. And so I thought perhaps I'd dedicate a corner of my blog to my thoughts whilst reading the novel, whilst hopefully staying as spoiler free as possible.

I'm reading the Penguin Classics edition which is the first edition of the novel, although apparently not the longest (because apparently 1499 large pages with small font isn't big enough.) The novel was edited for future editions and a few more letters were added, and that edition is said to be closest to what Richardson intended. I'm reading the novel for my own personal enjoyment however, not for any scholarly work, so none of this really mattered to me. It's something to bear in mind though if you're buying a copy for yourself.

The blurb reads:

"In Clarissa, one of the greatest European novels and its author's triumph, Samuel Richardson had the luck or prescience to hit upon a story that became a myth to his own age, and remains so now.

How Clarissa, in resisting parental pressure to marry a loathsome man for money, falls prey to Lovelace, is raped and dies, is the bare outline of a story that blossomed in all directions under Richardson's hands. He was, self-confessedly and happily, 'a poor pruner'. Written in letters, the novel contains all the urgency and tension of personal communications set down 'to the moment', compelling our confidence but also our distrust. Its rich ambiguities -- our sense of Clarissa's scrupulous virtue tinged with intimations of her capacity for self-deception in matters of sex; the wicked and amusing faces of Lovelace, who must be easily the most charming villain in English literature -- give the story extraordinary psychological momentum. In that fatally attracted pair, Richardson created lovers that haunt the imagination as Romeo and Juliet do, or Tristan and Isolde.

This Penguin Classic makes the first edition of Clarissa available for the first time since it appeared in 1747-8. The editor, Angus Ross, has provided an excellent introduction and notes."

For those who've suffered through Richardson's earlier novel Pamela, and are put off from reading Clarissa because of the similarities between them, I can assure you that they are vastly different novels beyond the basic premise.

So what's similar? Well both are epistolary novels about a young girl being pursued by a sexual predator. The bulk of Pamela's letters are to her parents, whilst Clarissa's are mostly to her best friend Anna Howe. The main difference in plot is that Pamela ends up falling in love with and marrying her attempted rapist (?!?!?!?! I know), whilst Clarissa is unable to tame the beast, and is raped, later dying of venereal disease. Both are bloody awful outcomes, but barely 200 pages in Clarissa is already a far more satisfying read. That's mostly down to Clarissa being a far more realistic female character, rather than a caricature of what an eighteenth century man might think a virtuous woman should be. Her friendship with Anna is charming too (and I'd argue very gay, but let's save that for another time), and Anna is fast becoming one of my favourite female characters in literature. She's Moll Flanders if she was born into a wealthy family and didn't have to resort to crime. She's passionate, demands to be heard, and loves her best friend dearly, so much so I'm convinced she'd kill for her (silently wishing she chops Lovelace up with an axe at the end.) In fact if anyone wants to write a fan fic where Anna Howe is a vampire slayer, I will read that in a heart beat. (Send me all your Clarissa/Anna slash fic as well.)

Both novels, like most novels of the period, were published with the claim that they are true stories, notice how the title page of Clarissa says it's from the EDITOR of Pamela, not the author. They also claim to be published for moral guidance rather than for raw entertainment, so all this must be taken into account when we read the novel, as contemporaries wouldn't have the wealth of information surrounding it as we have today. Perhaps for that reason I should leave it there.

If you're going to be reading along with me, let me know in the comments below. If not, you can read my posts so you can talk about the novel and pretend you know all about it without actually having to read the whole thing (I wouldn't judge.) Also, I promise to blog more frequently from now on! So until then, bye for now :)

Frederick Prince of Wales - The Greatest King We Never Had

'The Music Party', Frederick Prince of Wales and his
sisters, Philippe Mercier, 1733

It's Sunday night as I sit down to start writing this, after a busy week of taking my boyfriend on days out to the zoo, the aquarium, Speke Hall, and all the fun things there is to do in Merseyside when you've seen all the sights in Liverpool. I also forced him to sit down and watch last year's The First Georgians: The German Kings who made Britain, which has been rerunning on BBC Four. I mean he has to know what I'm talking about when I get all emotional about the Georgians, right? Re-watching the series I was reminded of everything that made me fall in love with the Eighteenth Century in the first place. It also helped me rekindle my love for my sweetheart, Frederick Prince of Wales. Rebel, lover and supporter of the Arts, and "People's Prince", Frederick is one of my favourite historical figures, never mind favourite royals. And so in this post, at risk of having turnips thrown at my head by angry Jacobites, I'll attempt to give a brief history of this Hanoverian Prince, as well as defend my firm belief that King Frederick I would of been one of the greatest monarch's Britain had ever had. 

Please remember that I do not claim to be an expert, and I appreciate any feedback you may have.

Childhood

Frederick, Prince of Wales was the oldest son of George II, born in 1707, and therefore would have been king after his death, had he not died before him, allowing Frederick's son to take the crown and become George III, commonly known as the 'mad king.' But before all that, I'm going to start at the early years. 

Christian Friedrich Zincke (painted when Frederick
was about seven)

The father/son relationships of the Georgian kings were notoriously terrible. George II had a terrible relationship with his father George I, after all his mother had been imprisoned for adultery, never to see her son again. And tensions began with Frederick and his father in the formative years too; he was left at the age of seven in Hanover to act as a figurehead while the his parents were in Britain. Frederick grows up in Hanover and doesn't see his parents for 14 years, until he joins them in England upon his father's ascension to the throne in 1727. It's upon Frederick's arrival that their hatred for each other really started to grow.


Frederick and George II

It all starts to go downhill after George II only offers his son an allowance of £50,000, just half of what he'd been expecting, It sounds like petty rich kid drama, and it is when you put it simply, but Frederick probably took this as a deliberate insult, and possible attempt to limit his freedom by limiting his expenditure. 

The family of George II, William Hogarth, 1731-2
(Frederick is on the far right)

Frederick also opposed his father politically. A group of politicians branched off from the Whig party calling themselves the Patriot Whigs, and Frederick was heavily involved with them, earning their support. The Patriot Whigs were troubled by the idea of a "prime" minister, one man having too much power. While George II was away in Hanover, Robert Walpole took it upon himself to hold cabinet without him. Due to their support of Frederick against his father, the issue of the allowance was raised in parliament, causing further irreparable damage between father and son.

The final straw was when Fredrick's wife, Princess Augusta of Saxe-Gotha, went into labour. To stop the King and Queen being able to witness the birth of their grandchild and possible future heir, Frederick took his wife off from Hampton Court in a carriage in the middle of the night to St James' palace, where she would give birth. This not only offended the King and Queen, but the people of Great Britain, who were outraged at what seemed like Frederick's readiness to endanger his wife and unborn daughter in order to get one up on his dad. Even his supporters had to admit this was an immature and unwise move. It was also a move that got him banned from court.

So why was he so great?

Jacopo Amigoni, 1735

So far I've probably painted a picture of a bratty, immature rich kid, and that might be true to some extent, but dear old Frederick was so much more than that.

I've already touched on his political leanings, but what's most striking about this is that Frederick actually seemed to care. It's easy to be cynical about this, after all you could argue his involvement with the Patriot Whigs was just his throwing a tantrum at his dad. But compared to George I spending most of his time in Hanover, he would have stood out as a different kind of ruler. He was progressive, preferring a government where power was shared more equally within parliament, and was also a great supporter of the Arts.

Anonymous print of office-seeker kissing
Walpole's enormous buttocks

If the Georgian age saw the rise of the middling class, and more and more people being able to sell their work for profit through the support of subscribers, and not just a commission of an aristocrat, this was a time that saw a surge in creative freedom. Artists and writers were suddenly able to produce satire in great volumes after a law hadn't been renewed in parliament, because someone had forgotten to put it on the parliamentary timetable. Indeed, Frederick even wrote a satirical play himself under a pseudonym, although it was reportedly terrible and only got two performances. Nevertheless Frederick revelled in this new creative freedom, whilst Sir Robert Walpole and George II had to laugh along at drawings of their exposed buttocks'.

The portrait at the beginning of this post depicts Frederick playing the cello in front of a window, and this he did regularly, so that passers by could hear him play. Whilst it's true he probably loved the attention, it also shows how he placed a heavier weight of importance on pleasing the people, that on out-dated notions of propriety. He really took the biscuit with this during the gin riots when he entered a pub and ordered a pint of gin, thereby showing the people his support for them, and his opposition against the gin tax. He was a much more likeable and sociable figure than either his father or his grandfather therefore, he could be seen out in the public, instead of always locked away in a palace or over in Hanover.

St James' Park and the Mall, 1745 (Frederick is right of centre)

Frederick set himself apart by interacting with the people, and becoming one of them, he can be seen in this painting on the right surrounded by people of all walks of life. Like his mother Queen Caroline before him who was noteably on of the subscribers to Alexander Pope's translation of the Iliad, Frederick was an important and influential supporter of the Arts.


The importance of this support for the arts cannot be underestimated, after all it is the writers of this era that dominate in our understanding of the Eighteenth Century, as opposed to the kings. Frederick would have been a Hanoverian monarch who had finally gained the love and trust of the people, and I believe it would be him, as opposed to Victoria, that we would identify as the monarch to bring us into the modern age had he ruled.

!!! BLOG RELAUNCH !!!

You'll probably have noticed major changes to this blog before you started reading this. That's because I'm having a complete makeover. I've realised that what I really want to be spending my time researching and writing about is the Eighteenth Century, and that's really what I've been doing when I should have been posting here.

So here I am with a new theme and new URL, but not so new passion. I've already started writing my first post, about the fabulous Frederick Prince of Wales, so that should be up within the next few days. 

I'm super excited about this change, and I hope my enthusiasm for the literature and history of the century comes across in my posts, and makes them as fun as they are informative. 

If I don't post within a week, I'll probably be down the gin bar talking about Mary Davys to anyone who'll listen, so please do drag me back and remind me I have a job to do ;)

My Book of Shadows: The Personal Practice of a Green Witch

This is my Book of Shadows, or as I prefer to call it, my witch's journal. As cheesy as the use of a Slytherin notebook may be for this, it's a beautiful little thing, and a reminder that the magic of stories is just as powerful as the magic of the witch. As promised, I'm going to share with you how I use my journal, what goes into it, and how it helps focus my practice. Before I start I'd like to make a note that this is just an insight into my personal practice, not an instruction manual, and there is no right or wrong way to use your book of shadows, you can use any tatty old notebook if you like, or use the notes on your phone if you want something discreet. And any king of spellcraft, or any religious beliefs that you follow alongside your craft, are all equally valid. Here's a masterpost of many of the different kinds of witches and magic.

Spell Book  The obvious primary use of a book of shadows is a spell book, and all of my spells involve the use of natural ingredients. For me, the simpler a spell the better, relying on the power of the ingredients themselves rather than on ritual surrounding them. 

As I'm not a qualified herbalist I would never brew my own teas for ingestion (although I could never deny the power of a good witch's brew), and so a spell bag, to be carried or placed in a relevant position in the home, is my favourite method of spellcraft. I use little organza bags that can be found in craft shops (I got 10 for a pound at The Works), but an alternative I'm keen the try is little glass bottles that can be turned into necklaces. How the herbs and plants are stored isn't what's important here therefore, but they must be individually charged. This charging is as simple as holding the pile of the dried herb you are using and concentrating your energy into it, feeling it flow down your arms and charging the herbs as you concentrate on what you want to spell to achieve. Another of my trademarks when writing a spell is that there should be FOUR ingredients, one for each of the four elements; earth, air, water, and fire. Below is a transcription of the spells above;

Nightmare Banishing

Lavender (Mercury/ Air)

- sleep, depression, wish, divination

Rosemary (Sun/ Fire)

- under pillow ensures good night's sleep and drives away nightmares

- under bed protects against all harm.

Vervain (Moon/ Water)

- chases away evil spirits and malignant forces and calms emotions

- drives away nightmares

Thyme (Venus/ Water)

- under pillow ensures peaceful sleep and no nightmares

1. Charge individually

2. Put in herb bag

3. Place under pillow

Attracting Love

Rose petals (Venus/ Water)

- used in love spells for hundreds of years

Daffodil (Venus/ Water)

- on altar or carried for love spells. 

- Fresh flowers in bedroom increase fertility 

- plucked or worn next to heart for luck

Orange peel (Sun/ Fire)
- peels and seeds added to sachets for love magic. Flowers to those sachets lead to wedded bliss.

Apricot stone (Venus/ Water)
- carried to attract love

1. Carry all in herb bag to attract love.
2. If you want to encourage a certain someone to make their feelings known to you, place the ingredients out on the altar next to a small dish or cup of water and a lit candle and think of them as you hover your hands of them, before placing the ingredients in the bag.

Flower pressing

My book of shadows is also a record of my natural environment, and flower pressing is my main method of creating this. It is important to learn what kinds of plants grow around you as some of them may come in handy for a spell. Whilst I do use an Encyclopaedia of Magical Herbs, a Green witch must also rely on their instincts, and take note of what kinds of magical properties speak to them when they encounter a plant in the wild.

The quotes I have jotted down on these pages are;

"A garden must combine the poetic and the mysterious with a feeling of serenity and joy." 
- Luis Barragan

"Those who do not believe in magic will never find it."
- Roald Dahl

Research

This is the research that is likely to form the basis for posts on this blog, but the reason that my research on folklore, magical creatures, and witchcraft ends up in this book is that I believe it is important to learn of the history of these Pagan beliefs, and to allow this to inform my practice. If you have access to Jsor, there are some intriguing articles in the Folklore journal, but sacred-texts.com has a wide array of primary sources that you may find interesting. Fae magazine is a quarterly publication that also publish relevant articles.

For the beginners amongst you, below are a few of the books I'd recommend. They are by Wiccan writers, but these particular books seemed to have more of a secular approach so I still found them accessible and relevant. Whilst they helped me to get started, I'd still say to take anything you read in books about practising Witchcraft with a pinch of salt. You are your own authority and teacher when it comes to harnessing your power, so trust yourself, you're as much a part of nature as the plants in your spells, and you are just as powerful.

   

Thanks for reading! I'm going to be blogging regularly from now on, so expect another post next Monday! See you then :)

Disney Origins: Sleeping Beauty

The source materials for Walt Disney’s 1959 animated classic Sleeping Beauty are widely known to be Charles Perrault’s ‘Sleeping Beauty’ (“La Belle Au Bois Dormant”, 1696) and The Grimm Brothers’ ‘Little Briar Rose’ (“Dornröschen”, 1856) with music from and inspired by Tchaikovsky’s ballet (first performed 1890). However, in true fairy tale tradition, versions of the story existed long before any of these were written, and have evolved into various new versions since.

A tale with key elements from this story appeared as early as the 13th century, though there may be earlier texts lost to us today, or versions that were shared by word of mouth alone. Indeed times that we deem today as “prehistoric”, are times when histories were heard rather than read. The Icelandic Völsunga saga and the Old Norse Poetic Edda both contain the story of Brynhildr, who is condemned to live as a mortal woman by Odin, as punishment for choosing Agnar as the victor of a battle over Hjalmgunnar, the king who Odin preferred. She is imprisoned in a remote castle atop a mountain, sleeping in a ring of flames, until she is finally awakened from her deep slumber;

"Sigurd now rode a long way until he arrived right up on Hind Fell and turned off south to Frankland. On the fell he saw a bright glow ahead as if there was a fire blazing, and it lit up the sky. And when he got up to it he saw before it a fort with a banner out on top. Sigurd went inside the fort and saw a man there, asleep and lying fully armoured. First he removed the helmet from his head and saw that it was a woman. She had on a hauberk and it was as tight as if grown into the flesh. Then he sheared right down from the neck, then right along both sleeves, and the blade cut in as if cutting cloth. Sigurd said she’d been asleep too long."

Harry George Theaker, 1920

In the Poetic Edda, finally transcribed by the Icelandic between 1000 and 1300 BC, Brynhild sings;

"Long have I slept
And slumbered long,
Many and long are the woes of mankind,
By the might of Odin
Must I bide helpless
To shake from off me the spells of slumber.

"Hail to the day come back!
Hail, sons of the daylight!
Hail to thee, dark night, and thy daughter!
Look with kind eyes a-down,
On us sitting here lonely,
And give unto us the gain that we long for."



[Content warning: the following stories contain incidents of rape, scroll to the next emboldened line to skip this section]


Now some of you may have heard that an early version of Sleeping Beauty involves the rape of the sleeping princess, but perhaps less of you will know that this occurs in two separate tales, one of which proceeds the infamous 'Sun, Moon, and Talia'. 'The story of Troilus and the Beautiful Zellandine' takes place in Book Three, Chapter 46 of the Perceforest, a history of Britain before King Arthur. The story at first seems to closely resemble the story we know and love today, as goddesses come to offer gifts to the newborn child, but one is offended, and curses the child to prick her finger on a spinning wheel and fall into a deep sleep. As long as the splinter is stuck in her finger, she cannot be awakened.


Before Zellandine pricks her finger she meets and falls in love with Troilus, but she must wait a while to be with him as Troilus has some business to attend to first. Of course, before he returns, the princess pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep, after which her father, King Zelland, places her naked in a tower that can only be entered by its one window. After Troilus returns and is informed as to what has happened to his beautiful Zellandine, a spirit named Zephir carries him up to her window. Upon seeing her naked body, and encouraged by Venus, he rapes the sleeping woman, impregnating her, before exchanging rings and swiftly leaving. Zellandine sleeps through the ordeal and does not awaken until nine months later;

"And then, one evening at the end of the nine months, fair Zellandine gave birth to a most handsome son. Just after the delivery her aunt came to visit her as usual and found the lovely child beside his mother, who was still fast asleep as ever. The lady was utterly amazed, even more so when she saw the newborn child stretching his neck upward as if seeking his mother's breast, and in doing so finding her little finger and starting to suck upon it eagerly. He kept sucking till he began to cough, and the lady, feeling very sorry for the child, took him in her arms and said: "Ah! You poor little thing! No wonder you're coughing: there won't have been much milk in there!" At that very moment the girl awoke and started flailing her arms in bewilderment."

Zellandine grieves for her lost virginity, both her and her aunt unaware of who impregnated her. Matters only get worse for her however when a bird-like creature swoops in and steals her new born child. It is only after this that she sees the ring on her finger and realises it is her beloved Troilus who took her virginity, and he shortly returns, taking her back to his kingdom.

Those familiar with ‘Sun, Moon and Talia’ will recognise the similarities between the two tales. Giambattista Basile’s fairy tale was published posthumously in Italy 1634, in his Pentamerone, just over a century after the Perceforest was printed in Paris in 1528. Despite the King learning of his daughter's fate not from a curse, but from a prophecy, the tragedy cannot be prevented, and the King believes Talia to be dead as he leaves her in one of his country mansions and closes the door forever.

Gustaf Tenggren

It is not a prince who comes along next but another king, and upon seeing her he is overcome with lust, 

"Crying aloud, he beheld her charms and felt his blood course hotly through his veins. He lifted her in his arms, and carried her to a bed, where he gathered the first fruits of love. Leaving her on the bed, he returned to his own kingdom, where, in the pressing business of his realm, he for a time thought no more about this incident."

Talia, like Zellandine, becomes pregnant, and nine months later gives birth to a son and a daughter whom she named Sun and Moon. And just like Zellandine's child, one of them mistakes her finger for a nipple and sucks on it, removing the splinter, and waking her. It just so happens that shortly after, whilst hunting, the King remembers her and goes back for a visit, finding her awake with his two children. Talia doesn't seem upset in the slightest when the King explains what happened, and the they share a few days together, long enough for his wife to grow suspicious. Upon hearing where the King had been spending his time while he was away, she sends a secretary to the house to tell Talia that the King would like to see the children, and to send them to the palace. This she does happily, completely unaware of the Queen's evil plan...

The Queen orders the cook to murder the children, and to cook them in delicious meals to be served to the King. Instead however, the cook takes the children to his home and asks his wife to hide them, while he prepares meals from two lambs instead. These meals the King enjoys, and so the Queen, thinking she has won, sends for Talia, again the message being that the King wants to see her. It is the Queen who greets her however;

"Welcome, Madam Busybody! You are a fine piece of goods, you ill weed, who are enjoying my husband. So you are the lump of filth, the cruel bitch, that has caused my head to spin? Change your ways, for you are welcome in purgatory, where I will compensate you for all the damage you have done to me."

The Queen doesn't accept the princess's explanation that she is not at fault, and is about to have her thrown into a fire, but her husband arrives just in time. The Queen tells him of her wickedness, and in his rage, he has her and the secretary thrown into the fire instead. He is about to do the same to the cook, but the cook explains that his children are in fact safe, and he is saved. So the King goes on to marry Talia, and they live happily ever after with their two children.

William Arthur Breakspeare

Before we examine Perrault and The Grimm Brothers' tales, there is one more obscure variant of the fairy tale left to take a look at. This is the story of Sittukhan in 'The Ninth Captain's Tale'. Now this appears in J.C. Mardrus's French translation of the Thousand and One Nights (published 1898 to 1904), but does not appear in the Arabian Nights manuscript. In fact, it was apparently lifted out of Guillaume Spitta Bey's Contes arables modernes (1883), a collection of Egyptian folk tales unrelated to the collection of stories that Mardrus was trying to pass it off as being part of. Nevertheless, it is interesting to see how the fairytale has been told in other parts of the world.

We are firstly introduced to a woman who is unable to have children, and prays to Allah that he might let her have a child, even if she be allergic to flax. Of course years after Sittukhan is born she comes across a spindle, and after some flax is caught under her fingernail, she dies suddenly. Now an old woman tells he parents that she is far too beautiful to be buried in the ground.

"What shall we do then?" they asked, and she replied, "Build her a pavilion in the midst of the waves of the river and couch her there upon a bed, that you may come to visit her."
So they built a pavilion of marble, on columns rising out of the river, and planted a garden about it with green lawns, and set the girl upon an ivory bed, and came there many times to weep."

The old woman also tells the prince, who had seen her one day while she was alive and fallen instantly in love with her, of her passing. He goes straight to her and weeps by her bed. As he reaches for her hand to kiss it he notices the flax under her fingernail and removes it, from which she wakes up. They embrace and sleep together, and he stays with her for 40 days and 40 nights. He goes to leave a few times but always turns back, until eventually he one day decides he must return home and tells her he can never see her again. Sittukhan goes off weeping and wandering, and stumbles upon a ring. After rubbing it she is granted a wish, and she wishes for a palace next to the prince's, and to be even more beautiful than before.

After her wish is granted, the prince sees her and, not recognising her, falls in love with her. He sends his mother to her with gifts in exchange for her hand in marriage, but Sittukhan uses the fine fabrics as rags, and the emeralds as bird feed, and tells his mother that for her hand in marriage he must fake his own death, and they must wrap him in linens and hold a procession for him around the city, before burying him in her garden. The prince agrees to this, and afterwards Sittukhan goes to him and mocks him. After realising the lengths he will go to for the woman he loves, they are finally together again. 

Gustave Dore

And now we finally arrive at the variants of Sleeping Beauty more recognisable to a modern audience. The first came from Charles Perrault, and it plays out similarly at first to the Disney version, except their are seven fairies invited to the Christening rather than just the three. When the princess is older, she comes across and old woman with a spinning wheel who has never heard of the spinning ban, and after asking to try herself, she pricks her finger and falls into a deep sleep. The good fairy whose wish stopped the princess from dying from the curse is called, and she arrives in a fiery chariot drawn by dragons. She puts the rest of the palace in the same deep sleep (except for the King and Queen), and protected the palace by growing an enchanted forest around it.

100 years later, the son on the reigning King (of another family) is out hunting and sees the old castle. He makes his way through the woods and to the princess's chamber, who has already awakened. He marries and has children with her in secret, going home frequently and pretending that he had gotten lost each time he was away. This is of course where Disney, Grimm, and Tchaikovsky part ways with the story, preferring to omit the second half of the tale which, like 'Sun, Moon, and Talia', involves a cannibalistic Queen, this time an ogress. The King has since died, and our prince is the new King, but he goes away unaware of what his mother will plan to do. Being an ogre, she has quite a taste for little children, but the cook deceives her and cooks her lamb instead. She then wants to eat the new Queen but she is again deceived. It is not until she hears a baby crying that she realises what the cook has done.

"The ogress presently knew the voice of the queen and her children, and being quite mad that she had been thus deceived, she commanded next morning, by break of day (with a most horrible voice, which made everybody tremble), that they should bring into the middle of the great court a large tub, which she caused to be filled with toads, vipers, snakes, and all sorts of serpents, in order to have thrown into it the queen and her children, the clerk of the kitchen, his wife and maid; all whom she had given orders should be brought thither with their hands tied behind them."

The King arrives just on time of course, and the ogress throws herself in the tub instead. The moral reads:

Hans Zatzka

"Many a girl has waited long
For a husband brave or strong;
But I'm sure I never met
Any sort of woman yet
Who could wait a hundred years,
Free from fretting, free from fears.

Now, our story seems to show
That a century or so,
Late or early, matters not;

True love comes by fairy-lot.
Some old folk will even say
It grows better by delay.

Yet this good advice, I fear,
Helps us neither there nor here.
Though philosophers may prate
How much wiser 'tis to wait,
Maids will be a sighing still --
Young blood must when young blood will!"

Edward Frederick Brewtnall

The Grimm Brothers' 'Little Briar Rose' is the closest to the story we know and love today. The most noticeable difference is that there are twelve fairies, and the thirteenth isn't invited because they don't have enough gold plates. 

Other variations of Sleeping Beauty from around the world were translated into English in the 20th century, and you can find out more, and find out where to read them, here!

Lord Alfred Tennyson also adapted the tale into a poem he called 'The Day-dream' in 1842. (Full poem here) The narrative focuses on the castle after the curse is under way, and everyone in it is asleep, frozen in place, until the prince arrives, and wakens the princess with a kiss.

"A touch, a kiss! the charm was snapt.

There rose a noise of striking clocks,

And feet that ran, and doors that clapt,

And barking dogs, and crowing cocks;

A fuller light illumined all,

A breeze thro’ all the garden swept,

A sudden hubbub shook the hall,

And sixty feet the fountain leapt."

Imperial Ice Stars, 'Sleeping Beauty on Ice'

Now it is time to look at how the tale has translated into other mediums. The first opera 'La Belle au Bois Dormant' appeared in French in 1825, composed by Michele Carafa. The German opera 'Dornröschen' was composed by Engelbert Humperdinck in 1902, and the Italian opera 'La bella dormente nel Bosco' was composed by Ottorino Respighi in 1922.

Tchaikovsky's ballet, which we can thank for inspiring the much loved 'Once Upon A Dream' was composed in 1890, and this has even been adapted to a ice show.

Sleeping Beauty, under the name Briar Rose, appears in the popular comic series 'Fables' from Vertigo comics. Beginning in 2002, it features characters from fairy tales who are forced to live in New York when their homelands are conquered.

The popular fairytale has also been adapted countless times on the screen in multiple different languages. It even has a Barbie and a Hello Kitty version!

Of course Sleeping Beauty's most recent appearances on screen have been in ABC's 'Once Upon A Time' and Disney's 'Maleficent'. Whilst Disney produced the most loved and most famous version of the tale, I hope I have shown that the story has had so many variations going back hundreds of years, that we'll never be able to pinpoint an exact "origin". What's more, I'm sure we'll see the story adapted for audiences of the future, although I do hope the all alien cast production happens sooner rather than later!

Thank you for taking the time to read my first blog post! Comments are welcome, and if you liked this format and have a favourite Disney film you want me to write a similar post for, let me know below!

References:

Online:
Völsunga saga, <http://vsnrweb-publications.org.uk/Volsunga%20saga.pdf>
The Story of the Volsungs (Volsunga Saga) which excerpts from the Poetic Edda, <http://www.gutenberg.org/files/1152/1152-h/1152-h.htm>
Sleeping Beauty tales of Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 410 translated and/or edited by D.L Ashliman, June 2013 <http://www.pitt.edu/~dash/type0410.html>
The Ninth Captain's Tale, <http://www.maerchenlexikon.de/texte/te410-001.htm>

Books:
Perceforest: The Prehistory of King Arthur's Britain, trans. by Nigel Bryan, (Cambridge: D.S Brewer, 2011)
Jack Zipes, The Enchanted Screen: The Unknown History of Fairy-Tale Films, (New York: Routledge, 2011)
Ulrich Marzolph, The Arabian Nights Encyclopedia, Volume 1, ed. by Ulirch Marzolph, Richard van Leeuwen, Hassan Wassouf (California: ABC-CLIO, 2004)