Goose Girl and Weird Symbolism

If you're not familiar with the original story of The Goose Girl I highly recommend you go read my sarcastic summary of it in this other blog post. Things typically are a little weird in fairy tale stories but they get QUITE weird in Goose Girl.

I’m just going to put it out there, the symbolism and the moral of the original Goose Girl story is awfully muddled. In fact, it seems like the Brothers Grimm–who are usually quite clear cut in their morals–can’t decide if they are telling a coming of age story, or a tale to remind kids to listen to their elders.

Here’s my case:

So the old queen is sending her beautiful daughter off to a far away country to get married–a pretty clear transition from girlhood to adulthood, right? Well some of the weirder parts of the story drive that point home, specifically the handkerchief with the three drops of blood on it.

In my research I found several reasons for why the handkerchief was important–some explanations said it was divine proof of the princess’s royal identity, others say it places the princess under the old queen’s care and protection. But what everyone agrees on, is that the handkerchief ties the princess to the queen and by losing it, she severs the bond between them which is how the maid manages her takeover.

So let’s recap: The princess is traveling to a foreign country BY HERSELF to get married, but because she steps entirely out of her childhood she ends up dooming herself and the maid takes over. (That’s not exactly an encouraging coming of age tale.)

The princess’s continued action doesn’t make it any better either. When they arrive at the kingdom of her husband-to-be, she stands around in the courtyard and does NOTHING until the old King (not her intended) basically asks “Why is there a random girl doing nothing in my courtyard?”

Her inattention continues, even to the point where when Falada–who is called her faithful steed–is KILLED. Indeed, the princess shows no signs of growing up at all until Little Conrad tries to pluck her hair and she sicks the wind on him. After that, she grows a little more proactive, but she only speaks to the King because Conrad complained about her so if this really was a coming of age story it’s a pretty poor one. (“Sit on your bum, kids, and one day you too will be crowned princess because one of your co-workers complained to HR!”)

The Goose Girl by Walter Crane.

I did read a few explanations that argued that princess is displaying meekness and sweet temperament–which prove her divine status as a royal. These same explanations claimed that her return to her royal status just shows that nobility is more than just a title but is something you’re born with that will eventually reveal itself. Honestly I think that’s a load of horse droppings–birth does NOT make you better or lesser than someone. Plus this doesn’t really help the coming of age argument anyway, all it does is make a case for the many childish kings/queens from history.

On the opposite end of the spectrum, you have the actions of the old King that point to the story of being more of the “listen to your elders” instructive parable.

The King notices the princess when she arrives, actually listens to Little Conrad and then summons the princess, and he’s also the one who figures out how the princess can get around her vow by telling the stove, and he’s the one who handles the chambermaid when her betrayal is revealed.

But the whole bit at the start–where the old queen bids farewell to her daughter in what is clearly a bid for the childhood-to-adulthood-narrative–kinda messes up the King’s often overlooked wisdom and intelligence.

Personally, I’m more inclined to go for the ‘listen to your elders’ moral, but I admittedly have very little patience for heroines who aren’t proactive or even just productive.

But what do you think, Champions? Does the original story make a little more sense, now? What kind of story do YOU think it is?

If you're interested in reading my retelling of Goose Girl. (In which Falada does NOT die!) You can read it in Kindle Unlimited or in ebook and paperback!

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Until the next post, have a lovely day!

Twelve Dancing Princesses Retellings

Though The Twelve Dancing Princesses is not as popular as the many fairy tales Disney has adapted, it’s still a better known then most and has quite a few adaptions–both in book and movie format! Today I'm going to share some of my favorite books plus a bonus list of books recommended by my Facebook followers.

My top suggestions for Twelve Dancing Princesses Retellings:

The Princess Curse: By Merrie Haskell: This is undoubtedly the funniest–and in my opinion, the best–retelling of the original fairy tale ever! It’s very light on the romance due to the main character’s age and leaves you still wanting more when it’s done, but it presents a traditional melding of the two different versions of the 12 dancing princesses that are most known today. Seriously, you need to read it!!

Entwined: By Heather Dixon: This is a YA retelling that mostly revolves around the romance aspect but also demonstrates the super strong bond between the sisters (the princesses).

Princess of the Midnight Ball: By Jessica Day George: This book is from the perspective of both the princess and the soldier–which is always a plus–and to make it even better, the soldier is not the typical hero (he knits) which makes him really interesting! Additionally, The villain has a different motive that really stands out from the rest of the pack as well.

The Twelve Dancing Princesses: By K. M. Shea–that’s me, and yes this is a shameless plug: My version has a lot of battles and magical fights in addition to witty banter, elves, sweet romance, and more! My version switches the main characters to the female soldier trying to break the curse and the Elf King (who is enslaved along with the princesses).

Now it's time for the bonus list of Twelve Dancing Princesses fairy tale retellings recommended by my social medial followers. (I asked them for no spice and low language but check reviewers first if that is a concern for you.)

The Firethorn Crown by Lea Douge

A Dance of Silver and Shadows by Melanie Cellier

Pirouette by Kenley Davidson

A Branch of Silver a Branch of Gold by Anne Elisabeth Stengl

Moon Dance by Christine Pope

The Twelve Dancing Princesses by Jenni James

Wildwood Dancing by Juliet Marillier

The Door in the Hedge by Robin McKinley

The Thirteenth Princess by Diane Zahler

My Fairly Dangerous Godmother by Janette Rallison

The Night Dance by Suzanne Weyn

The Girls at the Kingfisher Club by Genevieve Valentine

The Phoenix Dance by Dia Calhoun

The Dancer and the Dragon Speaker by Laurie Lucking

Till Midnight by Arisa May

The Dark King and the Eternal Dance by Alesha Adamson

The Twelve Dancing "Princesses" by S.R. Nulton

Kingdom of Dance by Deborah Grace White

The Silver Prince by Lyndsey Hall

Sole of Secrets by Abigail Manning

Poison's Dance by Tricia Mingerink

I hope you find a book you love and share this post with any friends you think need more dancing princesses in their life. 😉

If you're looking for more book recommendations I have a whole series of these blog posts featuring lists of books vetted by readers! Click here to start reading or use the Book Lists category to filter them.

Twelve Dancing Princesses: The Moral & My Retelling

Normally I like to devote a whole post to the morals of the original fairy tale, but I’ll be honest…it’s pretty thin in Twelve Dancing Princesses. In fact, when I was researching the story I came across only a few resources that cited morals, and the best of them involved the German version with the soldier, not the French version with the gardener’s boy.

One proposed moral is that parents need to let their children grow up, and they cannot grasp them too tightly. This is displayed in the way the king/duke locks the princesses into their room and they still get away at night to do whatever they want.

Another proposed moral is something along the lines of listening to elders. Though many princes and nobles try, it is the wounded, middle-aged soldier who succeeds, and even that’s only because he listened to an old wise woman.

Some say that the French version encourages suffering and patience for the sake of love. (Why else would a shallow-boy have put up with the bratty youngest sisters’ antics?)

But as I read over all of these…none of them really appealed to me.

So before I even crafted Quinn, before I even introduced the elves in Swan Lake, I looked at my series (including all my planned books) and contemplated what I wanted a main theme to be for 12 Dancing Princesses. Often in my stories you’ll see lots of themes of friendship, loyalty, and sticking together. These things are great and important. (No matter who you are, you NEED support!) But there is a problem with that…sometimes we get so caught up in our friendships we make poor choices because of those important relationships. We allow others to influence us to do things we wouldn’t normally do or say because they’re our friends. So I decided 12 Dancing Princesses would be the story where I flaunt friendship…and then shatter it by making Quinn choose to do the right thing rather than choose to follow her companions.

One of the hardest things to do is to step away from your friends and family and do the right thing. It takes a lot of courage, because even if what you stand for is correct it doesn’t guarantee that your friends will understand and accept your decision. Personally, I’ve had several relationships crumble because friends have asked me to do things that I know are wrong. It’s hard, and it happens more often than you would think, which is why I felt it was important to address with this particular tale.

Which launches us into my retelling! As I mentioned in a prior post, for my retelling I decided to stitch the two versions together. Quinn represents the German tale, and Roy the French version.

There’s a few obvious hints. Quinn is a soldier, she takes the silver tree branch as evidence, she receives the cloak from Angelique whom she initially thinks to be an old woman (And yes, for you Stil fans out there, the cloak originally belonged to Rumpelstiltskin. It’s the one Pricker Patch ripped that Stil gives to Angelique after Gemma gives him a new cape.) and she approaches the venture more from a “we’re going to fix this” perspective than a lovesick motivation.

Roy on the other hand is the gardener’s boy (or at least he pretends to be), he hides the twigs from the beautiful trees in the bouquet for the eldest princess (eldest not youngest, because the youngest twins aren’t even teenagers yet, ewwwww!) and he appears to be stupidly in love/motivated by the chance to marry a princess.

You can see a nod to the tales in the way the princesses drug their victims (German) and that those who succeed in following them are cursed as well (French.) The silver, gold, and diamond trees are featured in my story and both the German and French version as well, but I chose to have the princesses cross a river rather than a lake (featured in both original versions) to get to the elves because I thought a river would be a better divider between the elf and human lands.

Additionally, my story includes the grand parties featured by both stories, and the philtre that serves as a plot point in the French version. (The curse being caused by the food and drink was also a subtle nod to the French version’s philtre.)

Even my choices of making the elves the hosts of the celebration was taken from one of the many other variations of the Twelve Dancing Princesses, in which the parties were hosted by fairies. (Pretty sure Emerys would slug me, though, if he knew he was the substitute for a fairy king.)

And that is the tale of the Twelve Dancing Princesses. I hope you enjoyed it, and that the story made you laugh and cheer.

And if you're now interested in reading my adaptation of this popular fairy tale here are the links:

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