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mask131 · 2 years

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Magical summer: Carabosse, or the Wicked Fairy

CARABOSSE

Category: French literature / French fairytales

I) The original Carabosse

When it comes to fairytales, long before the Brothers Grimm in 19th century Germany, there were the French authors who popularized the fairytale as a literary genre. It was the end of the 17th century, and among the dozens of French writers who wrote fairytales, two names are mostly remembered: Charles Perrault and Madame d’Aulnoy. Perrault is even more remembered than Aulnoy, in fact whenever you think French fairytale you think Perrault (the most well-known versions of Cinderella or Puss in Boots for example were written by him), but Aulnoy was much more productive than him, much more renowned than him in his time AND actually wrote the very first French literary fairytale, just before Perrault.

And one specific creation of Madame d’Aulnoy stuck in popular culture: the fairy Carabosse.

Carabosse is one of the antagonists of the literary fairytale called “La Princesse Printanière” (Princess Mayblossom in English) and was one of the numerous characters embodying the fairytale archetype of the “wicked fairy”. It begins with a queen falling pregnant, and summoning all the nurses of the country in order to choose one for her future child (by nurse understand women that just gave birth to a baby and so have enough milk to breast-feed the baby). One of these candidates turns out to be particularly horrible: she is a hunchbacked and ugly woman with “skin darker than ink”, crossed eyes and twisted feet who speaks an unknown language. Even more grotesque is that the baby she is breast-feeding upon arriving is actually a baby monkey, and she is brought to the queen in a wheelbarrow pushed by two dwarves. The queen takes offense to the ugliness and rudeness of the monstrous nanny, who she chases away – but as it turns out, every time the queen chooses a new nurse, a disaster happens to her. One is bitten and poisoned by a snake, another has her skull broken when an eagle let a turtle fall on her ; a third falls down in a thorny bush and loses her eyes… And after three dead or maimed nurses, the ugly hunchbacked woman reappears to laugh at the queen before waving a magic wand: her wheelbarrow becomes a flaming chariot, the two dwarves become two griffins, and she flies into the air while screaming and shouting threats at the queen. Under this new form the king suddenly recognizes her: she is the wicked fairy named Carabosse, and she deeply hates the king because, when he was a child he played a prank on her. Ever since she has been trying to get her revenge, and it seems she decided to wait for his wife to be pregnant to strike.

To escape her wrath, the king and queen organize in secret a party for when the baby will be born, where they will invite all the fairies of the land (except Carabosse) to give their blessings. Despite inviting many fairies, only five come. Each one gives its gift to the little newborn girl: one gives beauty, another spirit, a third singing talent, a fourth writing talents… But before the fifth can speak Carabosse suddenly arrives, falling down a chimney like a big rock, and covered in soot she curses the baby with bad luck until her 20th birthday. The other fairies plead with her to undo the curse, but the ugly Carabosse refuses – so the fifth fairy tries to soothe the curse by gifting the young girl a long and happy life once Carabosse’ spell is dispelled, but Carabosse merely laughs at that and climbs back up the chimney while singing “twenty ironic songs”.

After that, Carabosse only reappears a bit before the princess’ 20th birthday – as she is about to get married with the boy she fell in love with. Everyone sends her gifts, and the five good fairies do too… and so does Carabosse. She sends before the wedding more than a thousand “crows, owls and other birds of bad omen”, and one of these owls, said to be enormously big, places on the princess’ shoulders a dark scarf made of spider’s web and woven in bat patterns. The queen tries to remove it, but can’t – it is stuck to the princess’ shoulders. A nasty trick of Carabosse, and a bad omen reminding them that her curse isn’t lifted yet and bad things can still happen. We also learn at this occasion that before that the queen tried to appease the wicked fairy by sending her lot of food (ham, sugar and jam in enormous quantities), to no use. And when the princess leaves with her lover on a boat to go to his kingdom, Carabosse twists the weather so much that it becomes windy, rainy, stormy, and the princess ends up shipwrecked with her lover on a deserted island.

After more adventures and dangers, the princess suddenly sees in the sky a fairy battle. On one side is the Queen of Fairies, that comes to help and defend the innocent princess: opposing her is the wicked Carabosse, that tries to maintain her evil control over the princess. In this battle, Carabosse flies in the sky in a chariot/carriage/cart with six bats instead of horses, and with a crow and a snail instead of regular coachmen. Here Carabosse is described as a “magotine (which denotes a grotesque figure, usually short and ugly, originally bearing a resemblance to tailless monkeys), and is said to wear a dress made of snake’s skin and a toad for a hat (more precisely she wears the toad in a “fontange” hairdo, very typical of France in the 17th century). She is also said to hold a rusted spike as a weapon, but she ends up defeated by the good fairy/queen of fairies and it is the last we see of her.

Carabosse became quickly one of the most emblematic and remembered examples of the “wicked godmother” in fairytales, if only for her iconic name that can be interpreted in many different ways and perfectly rolls on the tongue when you're French. Carabosse has “bosse” in it (a hunched back, a lump of flesh) and it could mean “enormous hunchback” or “great hunchback”. It could also be from the greek word “karabos”, which means “snail or beetle”, or a mix of “bosse” for her hunched back and “kara” as “black” for her very dark skin.

Anyway, the name of Carabosse became so iconic in the world of fairytales that she ended up being fused and confused with another famous wicked fairy, this time written by Charles Perrault: the wicked fairy from “Sleeping Beauty”.

II) The extended Carabosse

The confusion between the two was actually settled by a famous Russian 1890 ballet, by none other than Tchaïkovski: the “Sleeping Beauty” ballet, an adaptation of Charles Perrault’s version of the tale, but which gives names to each of the fairies (something Perrault never did). And the wicked fairy in it is called “Carabosse”, and thus equated with the wicked fairy of Madame d’Aulnoy’s tale.

But if we return to the origins of it all: who was the wicked fairy of Charles Perrault’s “Sleeping Beauty” (La Belle au Bois Dormant), before being fused with Carabosse? Well in the original tale, when the queen and king have a baby daughter they invite all the fairies in the land to be its godmothers. They invite seven fairies in total, preparing for them sumptuous gifts (plate, fork and knife of gold incrusted with gems notably)… But when the party happens, an eighth, unplanned, uninvited fairy shows up. We don’t know her name, but what we know is that she is a very old fairy, and that she wasn’t invited because everyone thought her “dead or enchanted” – she had went up a tower fifty years prior and hadn’t gotten out of it since. The king, embarrassed, prepares a place for her at the table, but she gets regular plate, fork and knife, nothing of the fancy gold-and-gems ones the other fairies get. As a result, the old fairy believes she is being insulted and disdained by the royals, and starts grumbling between her teeth all sorts of threats (in fact, the youngest fairy, hearing these threats, decides to hide behind a tapestry so that she can give her gift to the baby after the old fairy, to counter all the evil she could do). You know the rest: all the other fairies give wonderful gifts, but the old angry fairy decides to doom the baby to certain death by pricking herself on a spindle. The young fairy than pops up, and while she isn’t powerful enough to undo the spell she can soften it in a magical sleep.

You might hear people talk about the “thirteenth fairy” when it comes to Sleeping Beauty, but this expression actually denotes a confusion between Perrault’s and Grimm’s tales. In Perrault’s tale the godmothers are fairies, but they are not thirteen: they are eight in total. The twelve godmothers plus one wicked comes from Grimm’s version, in which the godmothers aren’t fairies but rather “wise women”, whose wishes and predictions have some effective powers (they are more of a cross between oracles and witches). In fact, you might also remember the story as “the wicked fairy being angry because she was not invited”. Again, it is a confusion: in Perrault’s tale the wicked fairy is not offended because she wasn’t invited, but because she didn’t get the golden plates/knifes/forks like the others ; in the Grimm version, the 13th wise woman is very offended to not have been invited and this is why she curses the baby – but she wasn’t invited in the first place because the king only had twelve golden plates and didn’t want to offend the 13th woman by giving her something lesser.

Anyway, after Tchaïkosvki became Carabosse even more popular, she started to “get a life of her own” and develop herself as a unique “wicked fairy” character among new legends and tales (especially in the 19th century), to the point that nowadays when there’s a wicked fairy or wicked witch in children tales, she can have the now-generic name of “Carabosse”

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Interesting fact: Tchaïkosvki's ballet version of "Sleeping Beauty" actually was one of the main inspirations behind Disney's version of "Sleeping Beauty". The ballet version of the wicked fairy, due to being fused with the very iconic and wicked Carabosse, made her stand out as a spiteful and evil creature - and even more, the ballet version was the first one that fused together the wicked fairy and the old spinner woman in the tower, on the spindle of which the princess gets pricked. In Perrault's original tale, as well as in the Grimm version, the old woman is simply just an old isolated woman not aware of the news, never leaving her room and that everyone forgot about. It us the ballet that introduced the idea that she could be the wicked fairy in disguise, trying to enact her curse. Of course, the ballet's version of Carabosse was then retouched and evolved by Disney, who took this character, fused it with their succesful Evil Queen from Snow-White and then... tadaa! Came Maleficent, one of the most iconic Disney villains of all time.

#magic #summer #fairy #wicked #fairytale #fairytales #carabosse #sleeping beauty #french fairytales #princess mayblossom #magical summer

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princess-ibri · 1 year

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Does the French fairytale Princess Mayblossom exist in the Disneyverse?

Eh, I was tempted for a bit as it is where the og name Carabosse comes from, but ultimately I decided that it was 1. A little too close to what we already have with Sleeping Beauty (hence why the name travled over into the Sleeping Beauty Ballet and became ubiquitous with the Wicked Fairy until Maleficent's portrayal gained prominence)

And 2. Its just a little bit too silly? Well not silly so much as tounge in cheek, which was very common for the salon fairy tales/ conte de fees before the Brothers Grimm's more folkloric style gained popularity (one of the reasons Beauty and the Beast has managed to become a staple when so many of the other salon takes have faded was because Beaumont's version reworked it into this folklore style)

And while I can definitely appreciate the tounge in cheek aspect and actually enjoy it from time to time my personal tastes run more towards Grimm's style.

#asks #princess mayblossom #conte de fées #brothers grimm #madame d'aulnoy #jeanne marie leprince de beaumont #madame beaumont #fairy tales #DisneyVerse #carabosse #sleeping beauty ballet #sleeping beauty

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mythologymatrix · 3 years

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So you want to read… Madame d'Aulnoy

Where do I start?

Marie-Catherine Le Jumel de Barneville, Baroness d'Aulnoy coined the term ‘contes de fées’ of ‘fairy tales’, publishing her collection of the same name in 1697. A lot of them, including La Belle aux cheveux d'or (The Girl with Golden Hair) and La Grenouille bienfaisante (The Benevolent Frog) bear a strong resemblance to fairy tales better known amongst English-speaking readers (Goldilocks and The Princess and the Frog respectively). Others will often be much more unfamiliar. They’re a fun read as children’s stories and lcassic fairy tales, but are also super interesting from a literary history standpoint.

Translations, Editions, and other Originals

The original French texts are available on Project Gutenberg here and here. A full list of the texts is available here, and almost all of them can be found individually online.

The texts are collected and explained wonderfully in Jack Zipes’ The Oxford Companion to Fairy Tales.

Theory and Analysis

I really recommend this Guardian article as a write-up of Madame d’Aulnoy’s treatment in English. The Oxford University Press Blog also has a wonderfully sourced post on her life and works.

Modern Interpretations

Not many modern adaptations focus on d’Aulnoy. Grimm and Perrault are more popular when someone wants to go back to an ‘original’ text, and most fairy tale stories aren’t hugely rooted in the original sources.

Graciosa and Percinet is adapted by James Planché, as part of his Fairy Extravaganza, as were Princess Rosette, The Blue Bird, The Benevolent Frog, The Golden Branch The Girl with Golden Hair, The Yellow Dwarf, The White Doe, Belle-Belle, The Imp Prince, The Bee and The Orange Tree and The Princess Mayblossom. Many were also translated by Laura Valentine in The Old, Old Fairy Tales, which you can listen to for free here.

The Benevolent Frog has influenced a number of adaptations of stories like The Princess and the Frog.

The Ram is not nearly as popular as other similar stories in modern versions of Beauty and the Beast, but the visual appearance of a ram has influenced many of the lead roles’ design. Cocteau’s classic film in particular owes a great deal of its visuals to Madame d’Aulnoy.

The only straight adaptation I could find based entirely on one of Madame d’Aulnoy’s texts was this episode of a Hungarian cartoon, which is based on The White Cat. Honestly, it’s kind of cute.

#q #madame d'aulnoy #french literature #mythology #fairy tales #reading list #beginner's guides #reading #french

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mythgirlimagines · 5 years

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You know how you did the SDR2 cast's favorite fairy tales? Can you do the DR1 cast's favorite fairy tales?

Sorry this took so long!

Makoto Naegi: Misfortune

Kyoko Kirigiri: Judgement of Paris

Byakuya Togami: King Midas

Toko Fukawa: Cinderella

Aoi Asahina: The Little Mermaid

Yasuhiro Hagakure: The Tortoise and the Hare

Sayaka Maizono: Rapunzel

Leon Kuwata: Puss in Boots

Mukuro Ikusaba: The Snow Queen

Chihiro Fujisaki: The Twelve Months

Mondo Owada: King Arthur and his Knights of the Round Table

Kiyotaka Ishimaru: Goldilocks and the Three Bears

Hifumi Yamada: The Three Little Pigs

Celeste Ludenberg: The Star Money

Sakura Ogami: The Ballad of Hua Mulan

Junko Enoshima: The Princess Mayblossom

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ainhoahan · 2 years

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#pegatinas #sticker #stickers #little dragon sticker #pegatina de dragon #little cute dragon #dragon echando fuego #fire breathing dragon #little purple dragon #pequeño dragón #chinese artist #Chinese artist illustration #fairytale stickers #cuentos de hadas #Children’s book illustration #Children’s book sticker #fantasy creature #medieval fantasy

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jana-hallford · 7 years

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May Birthstone and Flowers

Elegant Emerald

The rich green emerald, a favorite of famous female rulers Cleopatra VII and Catherine the Great, is the birthstone for May. A form of the mineral beryl, emeralds are rare gemstones mined primarily in Colombia, Brazil, Afghanistan and Zambia. The name is derived from the Greek smaragdos, meaning “green stone.”

With its vivid color strongly associated with Spring, the emerald has long signified rebirth, fertility, and love. In Ancient Rome, the gem was dedicated to Venus, the goddess of love and beauty. According to The Old Farmer’s Almanac, today it stands for wisdom, growth, and patience.

The poem “Fantasia” by Duncan Campbell Scott begins with the line:

Here in Samarcand they offer emeralds, Pure as frozen drops of sea-water

In literature the word “emerald” often refers to the color of the stone rather than the gemstone itself. Ireland is known as “The Emerald Isle,” a reference to its abundant green hills and vales. The phrase first appeared in print in a 1795 poem entitled “When Erin First Rose” by Belfast-born poet, physician, and political activist Dr. William Brennan. A supporter of civil rights and Irish independence, he co-founded the Society of United Irishmen, but parted ways with the group when it turned to violence. The line reads

Let no feeling of vengeance presume to defile The cause of, or men of, the Emerald Isle.

In Frank. L. Baum’s “Land of Oz” series, the Emerald City (sometimes called the City of Emeralds) is the capital city in the fictional Land of Oz. The Emerald City of Oz is also the title of Baum’s sixth book in this series, in which Dorothy brings Uncle Henry and Aunt Em to Oz.

Lily of the Valley and Hawthorn

The May birth month flowers are the lily of the valley and the hawthorn.

The lovely lily of the valley stands for humility, chastity, and sweetness, and has a long tradition as a bridal flower. Princess Grace of Monaco and Catherine, the Duchess of York, each carried wedding bouquets featuring lily of the valley. Tsar Nicholas II gave a very famous Fabergé egg with a lily of the valley design as a gift to his wife, the Empress Alexandra, in 1898.

Lily of the valley (Convallaria majalis) is native to Asia and Europe, thriving in the cool temperate Northern Hemisphere. The small bell-shaped, sweetly scented flowers usually appear in late Spring.

Pollen studies indicate hawthorn trees (Crataegus monogyna) have existed in England for thousands of years – since before 6,000 BC. Given such history it is not surprising that the hawthorn found its way into English lore and literature down the ages.

The hawthorn tree is associated with duality and balance. Hawthorn blossoms have five petals, are white or pink, and grow among the tree’s formidable thorns. The height of their bloom is in May, so the connection to this month is very strong (although a type of common hawthorn found at Glastonbury, first mentioned in the early 16th century Lyfe of Joseph of Arimathea, had an unusual trait: it flowered twice a year). Alternate names for hawthorn include may, mayblossom, and maythorn.

Chaucer wrote:

Mark the fair blooming of the Hawthorn Tree, Who, finely clothed in a robe of white, Fills the wanton eye with May’s delight.

And an old rhyme says:

The fair maid who, the first of May, Goes to the fields at break of day, And washes in dew from the hawthorn tree, Will ever after handsome be.

The emerald and the hawthorn are shown on this “Your Fortune if Born in May” postcard from 1910. It shows an emerald, the symbol for the zodiac sign Gemini (another duality symbol) next to a hawthorn blossom, and lists traits and lucky days and months. (There is a lot going on in this card!)

1910 “Fortune Series No, 37″ May birthday postcard, postmarked August 7, 1911.

The E. Nash 1908 “Birthday Greeting” postcard for May in their Gem Birthday Series shows a round-cut, rather light green emerald earring (looking more like a peridot) and, surprisingly, tulips rather than hawthorn flowers or lily of the valley, beneath the gold star featured in this series. The verse (in which “foretells” is spelled “fortells”) reads:

The Emerald success in love, The Tulip self reliance. Thy radiant star up in the sky Fortells courage and defiance.

This E. Nash 1908 May birthday postcard in my collection, marked “GEM BIRTHDAY SERIES NO 1″ was never used and is in excellent condition.

Happy birthday to all born in May. This month I will remember my father on his birthday, and celebrate my own.

#May Birthstone #May birth month flowers #emerald #lily of the valley #emerald city of oz #emerald isle #l frank baum #farntasia #duncan campbell scott #william brennan #chaucer #hawthorn #antique postcard #nash postcard #nash gem birthday series

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mask131 · 11 months

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Seasonal theme: Magical summer (beginning)

This summer will be a season of wonders and enchantments, of spells and wizards - a magical summer!

Here is a list of beings, entities, objects and concepts you can check out if you want to add some magic to your summer:

In the myths, legends and so-called “real” world...

In the Arthurian literature: Merlin the enchanter, most famous of all wizards, derived from the legendary Welsh figure of Myrddin. Morgan le Fay, the ever-so-ambiguous enchantress of Arthurian mythos. Excalibur, the greatest and most iconic of all magical swords.

In Greek mythology: Hecate, the goddess of magic and witches. Circe, the divine enchantress of the Odyssey. Medea, the most frightening sorceress of the Greek legends. Lamia, a Greco-Roman bogeywoman that medieval times assimilated with various monsters and witches.

In Norse mythology: seidr, the old Norse magic, and its patron goddess Freya. Loki, expert shapeshifter and trickster supreme.

Christian legends, myths and beliefs: the Malleus Maleficarum, the unfamous manual used by many witch-hunters during the great witch hunts throughout Europe - a manual which was not accepted by the Church, unlike what many people believe. The Ars Goetia, both the art of invoking demons and the grimoire containing the secrets of said art. Astaroth, a demon often associated today with witchcraft. The famous witches sabbath, that was the great terror and fantasy of devil-fearing men of the Middle-Ages and the Renaissance. The paintings of Goya, which illustrated the various superstitions and beliefs surrounding witches in Spain.

The folklore of the British Isles: the British Grimalkin, with its cousins the English King of Cats and the Celtic Cat-sith. Lugh, the Irish Celtic god that mastered all of the arts, including magic.

Vaïnämöinen, the great bard-enchanter of Finland, and one of the sorcerer-heroes of the Kalevala alongside the magical blacksmith Ilmarinen, all fighting against the evil witch-queen Louhi.

In fairytales: the fairytales of the brothers Grimm brought many of the famous fairytale witches, from the evil queen with her magic mirror in Snow-White to the witch living in a house of bread and sugar in Hansel and Gretel. In Slavic fairytales, the great and iconic witch is the dreaded Baba Yaga. The French fairytales also brought the archetype of the fairy godmother: Cinderella, Toads and Diamonds, Donkeyskin, Cunning Cinders, The Hind in the Woods/The White Doe, Prince Marcassin... And let’s not forget Carabosse, the wicked fairy of the fairytale Princess Mayblossom, that became thanks to Tchaïkovsky’s ballet the old antagonistic fairy of Sleeping Beauty. Plus: the seven-league boots, one of the most famous magical items of French fairytales, appearing in Little Thumbling or The Orange Tree and the Bee.

The world of alchemy: the famous philosopher’s stone, elixir of life, and panacea that formed the ultimate goals of alchemists. Hermes Trismegistus, the mythological patron and ancestor of all alchemists (himself a mix of the Greek god Hermes and the Egyptian god Thoth). Nicolas Flamel, the 14th century book-seller everybody believed to be the discovered of the philosopher’s stone.

Some famous grimoires of our world: The Book of Abramelin, a tome of sacred Jewish magic. The Lesser Key of Solomon, a demonology grimoire of the 17th century inspired by the older book of sacred spells known as The Key of Solomon. The very famous duo of French grimoires known as the Grand Albert and Petit Albert. The Book of Shadows, a type of grimoire originally part of the Wicca religion, and that became popularized in America media thanks to the television series Charmed.

Principles, beliefs, personalities and practices of our world (which, as you will note, frequently mix magic with religion and folk-healing): Nostradamus, the great French prophet. The magi of Persia, Zoroastrian priests and astronomers that gave birth to the concept of the “mage” as we know it today. The original mana - not the video game mechanic, but the supernatural force of Oceanian beliefs. The Celtic druids and the most famous of their sacred sites: Stonehenge. The marabout, a type of Muslim holy man from Africa to whom was attributed some magical powers in folk-belief. The shamans of Siberia, the ones from which the very principle of “shamanism” was codified in the West. The medecine people of the First Nations in Northern America. The sangomas of Southern Africa, one of the most famous types of African “witch-doctors”. The Haitian Vodou and the Louisiana/New-Orleans Voodoo, folk-religions and magic beliefs deriving from the Vodun religion of West Africa (not to be confused with their various “cousins”, such as the Vodu of Cuba, the Jejé of Brazil or the Hoodoo).

More general magic tropes and concepts: the magic potion. The flying broomstick. The magic wand, or its variation the wizard’s staff. The familiar of the witch. The trope of the wizard duel, which, despite its prominence in modern literature and contemporary folk songs, has roots in ancient mythological fights and legendary magic hunts. The tempestarii, or the belief in weather-influencing, weather-changing sorcerers.

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