Did you know that fairy tales are indexed according to type? They are, and this knowledge comes in very handy for when you want to find variations of fair tales. Variations are replete in all of folklore for the simple reason that storytelling was an oral tradition for most of humanity’s history. Widespread literacy really took off in the 19th and 20th centuries. All the centuries before that? You’d tell stories, and even if you told that story one-hundred times, it was bound to change when your friend or family member cleared his/her/their voice and gave it a go.
Maybe the occasion called for a more sinister villain. Maybe someone demanded extra details. Maybe this person heard the story differently. Oral traditions can behave a lot like the game Telephone, changing a little bit in everyone’s mind, but eventually becoming something totally different.
(Yes, this song is stuck in my head now.)
Once upon a time, when I was illiterate and toting my battered anthology of fairy tales with me begging to be read to, my dad obliged me. And he gave the unnamed princess in the story _my_ name. “There the brave little tailor met Princess Amy and fell in love.” I was gobsmacked. What? The princess had my name? Did she really? I had pageboy hair as a preschooler and thought this excluded me from all present and future princess opportunities. But if the princess in that fairy tale had _my_ same name, maybe all hope wasn’t lost after all.
But where was I? Types, right. The Aarne-Thomspon-Uther Index is the system that scholars and fairy tale nerds use to classify folktales and fairy tales by type. If you were to land on the Wikipedia page of any popular fairy tale, you would see some where on that page the letters ATU, followed by a three digit (sometimes three digit plus one letter) code. This code is the start of some serious fun. This code is a means of discovering dozens and dozens of variations of a favorite fairy tale.
This weekend, I wanted to have some fun with the fairy tale, Rapunzel. It’s an Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 310, “the maiden in the tower.” I googled and fell down rabbit holes and learned that sometimes “the maiden in the tower” type is combined with ATU 432, “The prince as bird.” There are lots of delightful fairy tales, The Blue Bird being my favorite, where this happens. And it makes sense right? How else is the prince going to get in the tower if he can’t transform into a bird or dragon and fly on in? Not every princess has long, golden hair (remember my pageboy hair cut?).
It wasn’t long before I was reading about ATU 425 “the bridegroom as animal,” and all the amazing variations there are, including Beauty and the Beast (ATU 425C). But more than just bridegrooms can turn into animals. Father’s can transform too. This is how I stumbled on the Romanian fairy tale, “Ileana Simziana.” If you’ve never heard of this fairy tale, you are in good company. None of the professors, PhDs, and fairy tale aficionados that I know had either. And we eat fairy tales for breakfast, lunch, dinner, dessert, midnight snacks, linners, brunches, and elevensies.
You know who had heard of this fairy tale? Aarne, Thomspn, and Uther. “Illean Simziana” is ATU type 514 “the shift in sex.”
I’m going to retell this story in my own words, but if you wanna just read the synopsis on Wikepidia you can. I’ll see you at the bottom after the picture of Aspen in her boots.
Once upon a time there was an emperor with three daughters and no sons. And (shifting into present tense here. sorry not sorry) this makes the emperor sad. So his oldest daughter one day says, “Never fear father. I will become a brave solider.” The emperor turns into a wolf. The princess runs scared back home. Second eldest daughter tries to be the brave son her father lacks, but she too runs home scared. The youngest however takes her dad’s old horse and defeats him, first when the emperor is a wolf, next as a lion, finally as a twelve-headed dragon. The youngest travels to a new kingdom with a new emperor and saves the day by first rescuing the Princess Illean Simziana from an ogre, next herding a bunch of prize horses back to the castle, and finally by retrieving holy water that Princess Illean Simziana must have from the nunnery.
(Whenever anyone asks for water, this ditty starts up in my head.)
The youngest is successful, but a good monk who takes care of the roses at the nunnery prays to God, asking that the thief who stole the holy water become a man if he was a woman, and a woman if she was a man. So the youngest princess of the wolf/lion/12-head dragon emperor becomes a man. A handsome prince in fact. He marries Illean Simziana, and the two of them live happily-ever-after.
I love folklore, and I love fairy tales. I love that these stories were the entertainment and boon of the folk–which is to say all of everyone in society, but especially common people. I don’t often talk about why I believe so strongly in happily-ever-afters, but I do in the instance of this story. It matters very much to me that a holy, devout monk is connected to Illean Simziana and her handsome, heroic prince’s happily ever after. It matters very much to me that a prayer and the resulting divine intervention are the catalyst for the big HEA finish. I don’t think this intervention was strictly necessary given the work and self knowledge the handsome Prince and Illean Simziana did, that to me is transformative all on its own, but I like the support and affirmation that yes, transformations are absolutely possible.
I don’t have answers for the suffering we experience. I don’t have answers for why some are bestowed with all kinds of privilege at birth. I do believe that at some point, in ways that feel as magical and fantastic as a fairy tale, everything will be okay. And I define _okay_ as: “For the Lamb which is in the midst of the throne shall feed them, and shall lead them unto living fountains of waters: and God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes.”
Until then, I want to explore and tell stories that provide comfort, relief, compassion, and hope. I want to celebrate every member of our community. I want to do my best to wipe away tears and reassure that I see, value, appreciate everyone’s experience. I want to hold onto my belief in happily-ever-afters.
Tell A Fairy Tale Day is winding to a close, and I suppose what I want to say is it isn’t a failing that we all interpret a message in the game of telephone differently. It’s a feature. It’s something to celebrate. It gives us opportunities to connect and understand and empathize. That we have one-hundred-billion different retellings of Cinderella is cause for celebration. It means we can have one-hundred billion different retellings of any fairy tale. Maybe by this time next year we can add at least a dozen new reimaginings of Illean Simziana? If you know of any, let me know. I’d love to read them.
Happy Tell A Fairy Tale Day, everyone!