So, I'm currently tackling The Raven (By the Brothers Grimm) for a rewrite, so i can tell the story. It's a *really* good candidate for one. A lot of things happen in the story, and a LOT of them just don't make any sense. I mean, more than normal for a Fairy Tale.
The Raven is this generally normal Hero Redemption Quest kinda story. This Hunter finds a raven who says she's a princess, and if he does this task, she'll be free and will marry him. Being a generally good guy, he tries to do this thing, but fails, only to take the clues and gifts she leaves behind to find her in fairyland. Roughly.
The problem is that the story forgets that she's stuck as a raven about quarter of the way through, we have a serious avoidance of the word fairy through the whole story, and we have the whole "Good Christian" thing tacked on the very end. It's one of those stories that feels like it's changed both orally, and through politics of a time or another. The story really does scream FAIRIES, but not a single case of fairy is mentioned through out the story, even though it has all the trappings. Food that puts people to sleep. Old Women who tempt. Mysterious Forces that take children. So on and So On.
SO, I am rewriting it. Or at least, in the brainstorming phase of writing, which is about the same for me, at times. The big issue, is I am trying to untangle and make sense of the Fairy's Motivation here, and what the Princess is really looking for.
In the original story, the Princess is a reward. She's not really a person, just this thing that is stuck in fairyland, that might as well be *part* of fairyland, for she just ends up marrying this random hunter and becomes the new queen in the glass mountain kingdom. In the retelling I'm working on, I'm going to give her stronger motivation. She's *stuck* with this thing, and she doesn't want to be in it anymore. In order to be free of it, though, she has to get a person who wants to meet her to meet her face to human face. It's the only way to break the 'curse'.
This original 'curse' is an oddball, for really, it's a blessing, with a way to withdraw from the blessing given to the Queen Mother. However, the Mother never persues looking for the child (From the start of the story), and misfortune just befalls the kingdom. However, since the story is *not* about the Queen, it's all really prologue and footnote.
Here is the thing. The Fairies took the child as a Blessing to the Queen during a thoughtless moment where the Queen wished that the Princess would never bother her again with her crying. So the fairies turned her into a raven, and the raven flew away.
So, the story *IS* about two things. This child that is cursed by the fairies, and the hero who breaks the curse, and even though the story is consistent about that, what it's not consistent about is why the fairies do what they do.
....
Actually, I've had to invent a lot of rules about the curse, because I need some rules on why she is a Human forever more after the one time she was a raven. It just did *not* make any sense to me. The curse basically restricts her to two things. It prevents her from crying near the queen, and it forces her to be a raven when the light of the sun touches the ground. (I've decided that normal shadows don't count, but shades of setting suns off mountains do). So, she is allowed to be human at night. This is why the carriage always stopped at midnight at the cabin that the old woman owns.
However, what still is not very clear is *why* the fairies keep her cursed. Why is she a prisoner at a very distant castle. Why is she the ruler of that castle? Why is she forced to drive around that castle in a carriage every night? Why was she so far away that first time we meet her?
The Fairy want to keep her. That's obvious from the first trial. They place temptation right before the hero, and the hero doesn't have enough character to not take it, so he fails the test. However, the Princess really really wishes to be free, and leaves tools to go find her.
...
This is truely a case where there may be no answer. The story it started out to be might not have been the story that it ended up becoming, and the real motivations are lost. However, I am determined to make it work. The Old Woman obviously is Fairy in Disguise, so I need to make her a real character, and probably the force behind the 'curse'. She needs a real motivation. Obviously, she can't just let our Raven free, for is she did, she would break the promise of that foolish wish that the Queen uttered. However, it is safe to say that she didn't want to steal the life and comfort of the child and it's position, for it makes a place that fills the purpose. However, it's a child reflection, with plenty of servants, and a few very strict rules.
...
The Carriage also needs to be explained. For the carriage seems to be a very important item in the story, and is the one real resource that the princess has.
...
Arg! I'm sorry. Babbling. I'm just trying to figure out the role of the Fey here. They are carekeepers? Guardians? Wardens? Really Guilty? Unguilty? I don't understand what in *this* story they are trying to accomplish, or why. I need to create something, or there really is no point in rewriting the story. I just am not sure which way to tilt, here.
(For those wanting to see the original story, you can read it here.
http://classiclit.about.com/library/bl-etexts/grimm/bl-grimm-raven.htm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
