This is one of the few tales where I think death was a bit harsh for the false bride. In other tales with a false bride figure, she is usually SHOWN to be evil and wicked. She usually does something violent against the female protagonist that makes her the villain. In this story, she is said to be as wicked as she was ugly, but we’re only shown that she was a liar and only then because she was afraid the prince would reject her. She did not forcefully, deceitfully, or magically try to take Maleen’s place as the bride. Though in that day and age, getting caught duping royalty for any reason would be considered treason, right?
EDIT: After reading some of the comments, I might have to concede. Emelia’s order to have Maleen killed (who was now technically the princess of that kingdom) was pretty evil. If she had just been honest from the start, Emelia might have become the princess. Instead, she chose deceit and lies. I guess I find death a really harsh punishment in general. And after watching the graphic nature of beheading in The Tudors, egh, it’s just scary and awful! O_O
I agree it would be harsh if it wasn’t that she was going to have Maleen beheaded first to cover her lies. The beheading is fair in that it was the fate she had intended for an innocent. Think of it as a punishment for attempted (and intended) first degree murder.
Seconded
Third..ed? :) (i agree. trying to behead an innocent seems like a crime worthy enough to be beheaded for.)
I think of the story of Haman and Mordecai in the Bible (book of Esther) Haman built some gallows intending to hang Esther’s uncle Mordecai and ends up hanging from his own gallows.
There ya go. There’s a definite resemblance between this story and the account in the Book of Esther.
I also think it’s a bit harsh, almost makes it seem like the moral of this story is that if you’re ugly you get punished for it.
I think the moral is more: If you are deceitful and untrue you will be punished, and true love always finds a way… Maybe if the woman had just been truthful she wouldn’t have suffered rejection, maybe things would have been fine, but then she lied and she also tried to kill an innocent servant girl, her willingness to do that alone shows how truly wicked she is.
I don’t think it was too harsh. Recall, she ordered MM to be executed. Technically she ordered this after the wedding, so it could be considered an attempted regicide which would be an automatic death sentence.
Hey, for the unibrow…a little cosmetic plucking might’ve done something. (Not too much and then painting them back on, tho’. That just looks unnatural.)
You know one thing I have noticed in most of Grimm’s fairytales the villain IS female. I wonder why that is? Very few times do I see a male villain, like in Snow White and Rose Red.
Well, almost all of the stories the Grimm brothers collected were from women. So perhaps that is why there are so many women characters, good and bad, in their fairy tales. A matter of telling what they know perhaps?
Women being villainous is common in fairy tales for a couple of reasons. One of the biggest was because women were considered tricksters, weak, and crafty due to the Garden of Eden. (Eve was the one who fell first, so thereby all women are weak and stained with some bit of evil.)
Women were also characterized this way because of their ability to use their feminine charms to trick men into doing bad things (cheating on your wife, revealing secrets, etc. etc.) and just generally being temptresses. (A good biblical reference being Delilah and Samson. You know, she beguiled him into to telling her how to make him weak for the Philistines.)
As a result, women were seen as mistrustful and needed a man to control them. Women who didn’t marry or were widows (or even just generally loners) were mistrusted and considered witches many times. (or sometimes worse.) The Catholic Church had a tendency towards propagating these ideas (see the reasoning above.)
There are a couple more arguments for why women were seen in such a way, but I won’t go into those, you can probably figure some of them out yourself. :)
I hope you don’t actually agree with that. Men are just as evil. Our job as humans is to accept that we are evil and try hard not to be and to live a righteous life.
Actually, if you look at it, Adam’s sin was greater as he wasn’t deceived like Eve was. He just took the fruit and ate it. Then shifted the blame later on. “This woman you gave me….” Oh, sure, he thought Eve was awesome til they got in trouble and then he couldn’t get rid of her fast enough. Typical guy.
Do you ever notice that there doesn’t seem to be any biblical record of where Adam was when the serpent was tempting Eve? Where was he? Defending Eve from the serpent’s wiles? Helping her respond wisely? Oh, no, that’s right. It’s very apparent that he just wasn’t around. I hope that, by the time I’m married, I can be more responsible with regards to my wife and kids.
I disagree. She technically committed treason and tried to get an innocent girl murdered, so it would make sense that the punishment would be death.
Moral: If you lie and try to deceive others, you will be punished. (Also that true love always finds a way, but that’s beside the point)
I do have to wonder what this False Bride’s role might have been, or rather, what her family’s role might have been, in either Maleen’s imprisonment or the destruction of her father’s kingdom… and how is it she came to be the prince’s bride after Maleen was walled away.
There are many morals in this story as I seem to notice that all the original (damn Walt Disney to hell) fairy tales have this trait.
For the father’s it is do not wall away your sweet darling daughter – marry her off quickly. Otherwise you might lose everything although how Maid Maleen’s country got destroyed would be a good story in itself.
For the girls, be practical, quiet and demure and you will prosper. Being a lying, cheating, arrogant bitch will get you head cut off.
I am sure there are others ….
I have to disagree.
The father should not marry off his daughter. She should have a choice.
The girls should not be evil, but they should be equal to men. What men have a chance at, women should have a chance at. The only reason a woman should not be allowed to do something a man can do is if she is incapable of it.
While I agree that the death seems a bit harsh, we do need to keep in mind that these stories were told to teach children to be moral. If you think that the consequence for lying is going to be death, you probably won’t do much lying! I must say, though, this death is far less creative than some of the others I’ve seen in fairy tales.
First off, I love fairy tales. Always have.
But when you get right down to it, a LOT of them have morals and ethics that are actually downright horrific.
– the true king/queen/etc. is alwys right, I suppose because your genetics give you Magic Morality??
– Pretty people are GOOD and unattractive people are BAD
– If you shut away your own needs and suffer enough, the world will magically give you happiness – but it really helps if you have that magic Royalty thing going on too. But if it doesn’ that is still Romantic and Wonderful.
– You are best off if you stick with that guy you fell in love with when you were about 15, even if he is total asshole. Don’t worry, your love will fix him!
– Getting married will make you magically happy
– Don’t get above yourself or defy royalty, particularly if you are servant. Violent death, blinding by birds, freezing to death, etc. are all fair & suitable punishments if you do.
Basically they are often horrible, horrible stories. Yet still we love them. I appreciate that the Erstwhile artists and authors are not trying to do the Disney thing and gloss all that over, couching it in terms that make it SEEM modern and reasonable, yet still conceal the same toxic ideas.
Most fairy tales promote a morality we can all be glad we have the ability to look beyond, and still enjoy a good story.
As far as the pretty=good/ugly=bad thing goes, I think that’s part of the charm of fairy tales. The stories are simple: what’s on the inside shows on the outside. The villains have to actively cover up their true ugliness, and it never lasts.
If only we could see everyone’s true selves here in reality. Sigh.
The stories had to be simple so that people could remember them. I know people are seeing flaws in these stories based on how we view stories now and seeing modern contexts. However, these stories came from a different time and were not created by professional writers who put lots of thought into this stuff. They were folk tales. Stories created by common, uneducated people and used largely to pass the the time of day. Some were to teach children lessons, others were just to waste time and entertain.
In terms of the ugly=bad thing, there are reversals on that idea. “Snow White and the Seven Dwarfs”, for example. The villianess is supposed to be one of the most beautiful women around. The Dwarfs, who were probably considered ugly back then because of how unusual they looked, were the heroes and protectors in that story. Sure, Snow White was “the fairest”, but she was little more than a victim or target throughout the tale.
Totally aggree with you here.
Of course there is Cinderella too where the main char was covered in ugly clothes and what not, yet in the end, she still managed to win a prince hehe.
And then there’s the lesser known tale that Erstwhile will do All Furr (sp?), but I won’t give anything away there.
I know that these fairytales are Grimm works, but The Nutcracker (Hoffman’s version) and Beauty and the Beast would be other examples of where someone isn’t lovely on the outside but has a good heart on the inside.
Correction: In the last paragraph I meant to say ‘aren’t Grimm Works’.
Something that bothers me about this story is when the seven years of imprisonment was over and no one came to get them out, they broke free themselves. Why didn’t they try breaking free earlier?
Loyalty and sense of honor. I didn’t say it was smart by our societies standards.
Because it was really hard. They didn’t want to it if they didn’t have to. Besides, escaping early might mean her father devising a new and worse punishment — she didn’t realize he had been conquered.
I can’t help wondering how her family responded to this. Surely she was someone worthy of being a prince’s bride, right? Which implies a powerful family. Wouldn’t they be more than a little upset over her being summarily executed like this?
Ah, but that was another story.
Ha, I wondered if the story was going to show what happened to Lady Emilia. Thanks for that.
As others have noted, it’s not such a harsh punishment when you consider it was the same thing she tried to do to Maid Maleen in order to hide her treachery. Then it’s just karma.
attempted murder its justified to me
My favorite interpretation of this tale is ‘Book of a Thousand Days’ by Shannon Hale. There are a select number of books that I call my ‘comfort books’ (my version of comfort food :P) and that one is one of them.
Beheading does seem rather harsh, but I’m still looking at it from a modern point of view. I’m sure that would’ve happened in the era that this story is supposed to take place in.
0.0
Whoa… Didn’t see that coming. I feel bad for the evil ugly chick, but I guess she had what she was coming.
I think I’ve actually read another version of this story where the princess was on her way to meet her future husband when her scullery maid tricked her and forced her to switch places, beating her all the way to the new kingdom. In the story I read, the princess’ horse could actually speak and as her ‘wedding gift’ the false princess had said horse beheaded, then had it’s head mounted over the castle gates. The princess would actually go out daily to speak to it, and it was found that the horses head could speak back. If I remember correctly, this was how the prince found out that he’d married the wrong woman, so he had his false bride tell him what she would do to someone who falsified their identity and basically stole from another. She demanded that the person be beheaded immediately, so he informed her that she had chosen her punishment and had her put to the death. He then had his true bride come forward and they lived happily ever after… with the horses head remaining where it was to spot evil doers.
The version you’ve done I don’t think I’ve actually read before, but it seems awfully familiar to this other tale.
Ah, the one you are describing is called “The Goose Girl” and was another tale collected by the Grimm Brothers.
Ah! Thanks!
After all the foregoing discussion, let me apologize for mentioning that (ahem) Emelia really lost her head. (Now, of course, I actually plan to read what other people have thoughtfully written.)
(So, after this, I did read through the foregoing discussion. I especially like that people brought up The Book of Esther and Adam and Eve, among other things.)
… and this is the hot coals moment