I have good news and bad news. The bad news: I'm sick :( The good news: because I am sick, I have more time to do things like make duct tape purses (I made 2 today, got an order for another one, and it looks like I'll have $60 by next Monday!) and, more importantly, read different versions of "Beauty and the Beast" online! Also, since yesterday I did the two least interesting versions of it (the Grimm Brothers version and the one that was originally published), now I'm going to move on to more interesting versions, and because i basically told every little detail of those stories, now I'll just focus on what makes them different from the other ones.
-The Basque version is very much like the French version, except for a few things. Let me start by saying that Belle's name in this story is Fifine and the beast is named Azor. Secondly, the beast is a serpent, not a beast. Thirdly, Fifine is a princess, so her father the king never loses his money. The way he encounters Azor is this: when he goes traveling, he always brings presents back for his two oldest daughters, but never paid any attention to Fifine, so one day he asks her what she wants and she asks for a flower. He sees Azor's garden and takes a flower, and Azor says "send one of your three daughters to me within a year or I will burn down your kingdom." Fifine is the only one who is willing to go. The serpent asks Fifine to marry him, and when she says no, he stops feeding her, so when he asks again she really has no choice ut to say yes. Then when they go to get married, the serpent sheds his skin and becomes a super-hot prince, and tells Fifine to burn the skin. It turns out he had 21 years left in his curse, and finding his true love had nothing to do with breaking the curse. So actually its nothing like the french version, and it's probably my least favorite version of this story that I've ever read.
-"The enchanted frog" is a German version of this story in which the father is a merchant who promises presents to his daughters. The youngest daughter, who happens to be his favorite, asks for a rose that is three colors instead of one. Of course, he can't find any, until he finds a HUGE rose garden with one growing in it. As soon as he picks it, a giant frog shows up and says "Because you picked my rose, I will kill ou unless ou send me our youngest daughter to be my wife." He soecifically asks for the youngest daughter. He tells the merchant that he'll be at his house in a week for his wife. The youngest daughter didn't exactly take the news well. She hides under the bed and the frogs servants drag her out, kicking and screaming. They take her back to the frogs house, which, instead of being a big fancy extravagant castle, is a little shack that happens to be next to a huge rose garden. That night when she's lying in bed, the frog appears outside of the shack and starts singing, and he soubds so good that she lets him in and pulls him under the covers with her (messed. up.). The next morning, he has turned into a prince.
-"The Singing Rose" is from Austria, and this one kind of made me go "what the Hell?" There was an old king who had three daughters and didn't know which daughter would get to take over the thrine when he died, so he told them that whichever one of them could bring him back a singing rose would get to be queen. The youngest daughter found a crusty old man sitting in a garden and he asked her "what is yoru wish?" she asked if he knew where she could find a singing rose. he told her "I have one growing in my garden, and you can have it if you agree to marry me in 7 years." Keep in mind, this guy is OLD, and she thinks he probaboy wont live 7 more years, so she agrees and brings the singing rose to her father and becomes queen, and she forgot about her promise to the old man until he shows up 7 years later and demands that she marries him. She lives with this crabby old man for a few years and one day she hears that one of her sisters is getting married and she asks him if she can go. He gets pissed and says "go, but if you laugh even once i will tear you to shreds." so she goes and doesnt laugh. then a few years later her other sister gets married and shes only allowed to go if she doesnt talk once the whole day. So basically the guy ruined both of her sisters weddings for her. Then a couple days later, the old guy tells her to cut off his head and tells her that when she does she can have all of his money. When she cuts off his head, instead of him bleeding, a key falls out of his head that opens all of the doors to every room in his castle. In the rooms she finds a ton of money and is rich forever.
Um, none of those versions actually included the moral of the story-that even if someone is super-scary looking, if you get to know them you might find that you love them anyway. Here's what I kearned from each of these stories...
-"beauty and the beas"t (basque version): if someone wont agree to marry you the first time you ask them, starve them until they agree. Also, sometimes the person whom yu have starved into being your spouse can help you weasel you way out of a curse thats supposed to nlast 21 more years so you dont have to go to the trouble of learning your lesson about being a bad person (which is pretty much always the reason why the beast has been turned from a human into a beast, for being a total and complete dick).
"The enchanted frog": If someone is a really good singer, no matter what, you should pull them into your bed and have sex with them. Even if they just kidnapped you and happen to be a different species.
-"the singing rose": Marry an old rich guy, even if he makes you miserable, because when he dies, which will most likely be soon, he will leave you a shitload of money.
But one good thing did come out of tonights research-I discovered that "Cupid and Psyche" is considered the aincent Greek version of "beauty and the beast". "Cupid and Psyche" is one of my favorite myths! I will talk about it next time, because this post is too long already and I want a snack. If anyone cares. I don't know that anyone is reading these extensive rants of mine about Beauty and the Beast, but i enjoy reading and writing about them, so I guess that doesn't really matter :)
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