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1. PLEASE PLEASE DO NOT POST SPOILERS.
2. Don't be rude toward the artists, their work, or other readers.
3. Disagreements are fine, insults are not.
4. Joking at the fairy tales silly nature is fine, crude jokes and comments are not. This is an all-ages site. Let's keep it that way.
5. Comments can be removed at moderator's discretion.
↓ Transcript
Children play at the foot of the old tower where Maid Maleen was imprisoned.
Children's song: Cling, Clang, Clum. Who's sitting there alone and glum? The princess sits without a key, the princess I can't see. The walls are thick and will not break. The stones won't move for heaven's sake. Come, little Hans, with your coat so gay, come follow me this very day.
Children's song: Cling, Clang, Clum. Who's sitting there alone and glum? The princess sits without a key, the princess I can't see. The walls are thick and will not break. The stones won't move for heaven's sake. Come, little Hans, with your coat so gay, come follow me this very day.
D’awwwwwww
“Maid Maleen” is a story I’ve never actually heard before, so I’m very eager to see what other stories you have in store! :D
**returns to lurking**
^_^ This was awesome. I’m trying to guess which story you’re going to do next. Of course I’ll likely be totally wrong but I don’t really care. :D I can’t wait to read more, you people are awesome.
This reminds me a lot of the story of the “Goose Girl”
I’m confused. Who are those girls? It looks like Maid Maleen and her servant but I haven’t a clue who is the blonde girl in the middle. Or are they just local peasant girls playing by the old tower?
Yup, random peasant girls playing by the old tower. That strange little poem was included at the end of the original story with no real context. We did this little interpretation.
It probably served the same function as Ring Around the Rosie did during the Black Plague. A mnemonic to remind the listener of the story and what it meant just like the nursery rhyme taught the signs to tell if someone had the plague…
That’s actually an urban legend. That particular interpretation of “Ring Around the Rosie” has only been around since the twentieth century. The poem itself is at least three hundred years older than the myth, ignoring the fact that the current version is very different from the original. Even today there are multiple variations, and only one (that I know of) has the shaky link to the plague.
For Brothers Grimm were ethymological researchers I would guess they placed this poem out of collectors interest.
Now I wonder if there is a story behind all this? An if, what might have happened?
If the source Brothers Grimm used was not identical with the rhyme, that would indicate there really had been an event with as much impact on folk lore to be delivered by two different ways.
An archeologist I listened to his lectures told us of a folk tale about a grave hill in the northern germany area, speaking of a house of the fairy folk in this hill, wich burnt down one night. An exvacation of the hill found that there had been a wooden grave chamber in the hill, and around AD 500 grave robbers had dropped their oil lamp and burnt it down by accident. which means 1500 years of continued oral tradition…
And this nursery rhyme reminds me strongly of the way known historical events and persons are dealt with in american folk songs like “John Henry”, “Railroad Bill”, “Casey Jones”, “Tippecanoe”, “Santa Anna”…
Maybe there is a connection to the “Brynhild/Gudrun”-Motif from the Nibelungenlied? In the norse variant Gudrun is sleeping locked away behind a firewall to be freed by Sigurd who later on betrays her and maries the wrong bride, bewitched by her evil magick, while in the german variant Sigfried disguises himself as his friend Gunther in order to win the bride (and later to consumate the marriage), Gunther not being man enough. Expecially the norse variant reminds me strongly of maid maleen, although there is no happy end for anybody, but a lot of slaughtering and butchering, wich would explain the fatal end of the false bride.
Hmmmm, I disagree Roland.
The saga of which you speak fits in with the Norse legends depicted in the Poetic edda, If I remember correctly. It is a warning to mortal men to accept their wyrd (fate) and not try to prevent it. It also serves as a warning to be honest in all your dealings otherwise things will go badly for you. My 2 cents
I don´t see the connection in the delivered moral but in the depicted events. every storyteller will adapt a story in order to fit it to his/her own moral settings. Yet if the story of Siegfried the dragon-slayer and his ill fate really is about arminius´victory over Varus and the roman legion and later the betrayal of his relatives, following in his own death, as latest studies indicate, and if the ill fate of the burgundic tribe is indeed a story about the battle of the catalaunic fields, then there might be some historic core to the story of the norse shield maid. And the fairy tale of maid maleen might indeed be the distant echo of what once was a record of historic events, too.
Awww, I love these obscure fairy tales :) I live in germany and they’ve taken to filming these fairy tales and making little one hour movies out of them and they’re just beautiful. I watch them religiously at 5am :P I think you guys should do Mrs. Holle (Frau Holle) if that’s what it’s called in English. Either way it’s a great story. Keep up the great work! :D
We generally call that one “Mother Holle”. I recently told that one at a meeting of a storytelling club I’m in.
it would be nice to update the “next” link to see the next tale… wonderful stories, thanks!! I’m not familiar with any of them :-)
A full critique: One word, nuts’. This is obuilvsoy out to appeal to two kinds of viewers. One, emo-jokers looking for a laugh, or two, hormonal young men with a goth/lez fetish. Silly plot balance aside, fairly well-filmed, not properly audio-fixed, but good for a home production. Lisa did a good job on cosmetics, hair, and costuming (though the character role was obuilvsoy not something that needed a lot of effort). Diana did the supporting act well. Audio track well-chosen.
Excellent story, you can strum the strings of love like a bard and his guitar. Despite my inability to feel anything, your stories have warmed the chasm that was once held my heart. I will be waiting to read your next heartwarming story. :)
She never thought to break out after a few weeks?
You mean when her father would have had her beheaded for breaking out of prison? They didn’t know the kingdom was in ruins until they DID break out rather than starve to death, remember.
I’ve never heard of these stories until happening upon the comic. It’s cute, I like it. I don’t understand why the “false wife” had to be ugly though. She’s pretty unlikeable as it is, the ugliness on the outside just kinda makes you feel sorry for her.
I think perhaps it was supposed to represent her corruption and evil on the inside being physically represented on the outside. SurLaLune has a fantastic analysis on Maid Maleen that discusses phrasing, metaphors, and customs of the time-period.