A Short Essay on Fairytale Retellings

There's been a resurgence of mythos retellings over the years. From oral lore turning into stories like those of The Brother Grimm or Hans Christian Anderson, to modern-day novels spun from the research of other cultures, all of these tales draw in readers. But whereas in the past these types of books have focused mainly on retellings of European myths, such as Greek, Roman, or Norse lore, some stories in recent years have taken a turn into less commonly known folktales. Two such books come to mind, both inspired by Russian myth: The Bear and the Nightingale by Katherine Arden and Spinning Silver by Naomi Novik. Both books draw from classic fairytales. The Bear and the Nightingale uses the plot from its original sources, making it a "retelling", and Spinning Silver takes the morals from its sources, making it "inspired by".

Before we can delve into how these books use the fairytales they are based on, we must first define the parameters of fairytale retellings. To do this, we go to New York Times bestselling children’s book author MarcyKate Connolly, who distinguishes retellings from books that draw inspiration from lore. She explains that, “the most critical part, in my experience, is finding just the right combination of the familiar tale and your own original story” (Connolly). Authors must decide if they want to do a "proper" retelling or just have it inspired by the tale. For a "proper" retelling, the plot points and characters in the original will often match up to an authors own story. If they only pull inspiration from the fairytale, it's more likely the themes, motifs, and morals will be present instead.

Spinning Silver uses the characters and morals behind the tale Rumpelstiltskin, but doesn't stick to the format of the original tale, making it inspired by—not a retelling of—that myth. There are many versions of Rumpelstiltskin, but the most well-known is by The Brothers Grimm. There are several common details that appear in almost all versions of this story though. The first is a girl from a poor family (generally a miller's daughter). She's wedded to a wealthy man because of a lie someone told him about her accomplishing great feats (generally spinning straw or skeins, often into gold). The second commonality is an imp or demon aiding her. The third is the repetition of the number three (three times she must spin gold, three times she tries to guess the creature’s name). The last is the creature, Rumpelstiltskin, gloating and revealing his name so he loses his bargain.

These similarities to the original play in greatly to the importance of deals within Spinning Silver, because the point of the story is a girl accomplishing a deal her parents made so they aren't killed, making bargains with Rumpelstiltskin himself, and eventually getting out of those bargains. That could be why the Staryk king in Spinning Silver is so firm about no debts. The parallel with Rumpelstiltskin also explains why Miryem and Irina make deals in many different forms. An example would be Miryem turning silver into gold three times, where the Staryk king himself reiterates the rule of three by saying, “A power claimed and challenged and thrice carried out is true; the proving makes it so” (Novik, 106). The heroine in the original Rumpelstiltskin tale is forced into three deals: one of marriage versus death, one of giving away her firstborn versus no gold straw, and one of guessing a name versus losing her child.

The girls in Spinning Silver are all different forms of the heroine from the original story, all different parts of her. Wanda is the miller’s daughter who is hungry and eats pies from the version of Rumpelstiltskin called Tim Tit Tom, yet she's not the one who can turn things to gold. Irina is the one forced into a marriage she didn’t ask for. Miryem is trying to not lose what she holds dear, such as her self respect. We even see the deal with the imp aka the Staryk king, but instead of the heroine getting out of the deal by learning his name to keep her firstborn child, the Staryk king himself is the one trying to protect those he cares about by nobly trying to keep his people from melting. All these parallels show the morals behind the source fairytale, but spin it in a new way, focusing on the themes rather than plot. They reference the classic, but instead of recreating it, the author takes the tale in her own direction.

The Bear and the Nightingale keeps to the main plot points of Vasilisa the Beautiful and Father Frost, but refreshes the old myths with new twists. From Vasilisa the Beautiful, Arden retains the protagonist’s name, as well as many of the characters’ arcs. In the original tale, Vasilia’s mother dies at a young age and her father remarries a stepmother who dislikes her. This aligns with the tale of Vasya in The Bear and the Nightingale.

But after this, we start getting changes from the original tale. Instead of the stepmother sending Vasilisa into the forest to die by the hands of Baba Yaga, Anna hatches a plan to send her away by convincing the village that she's a witch. Vasya escapes into the forest of her own choice. Instead of misfortune befalling the stepmother when Vasilisa returns, Anna is killed by Medved, the stand-in for Baba Yaga as the demon who eats people.

We also get other lore popping up in smaller form through the environment of the stories. In The Bear and the Nightingale, we learn about creatures common to Russian folklore through the household and nature spirits, such as the domovoi who cleans, mends, and lives in the oven. We see something similar in Spinning Silver, where we meet Chernobog the fire demon. Both retellings give us insight into the lore and creatures outside of the chosen set of fairytales, yet they depict very different representations of those creatures. The domovoi shows the warming of fire, how it can heat a house and cook food for a family, whereas Chernobog shows how fire burns, destroys, and consumes. Both books manage to spin these creatures into an interesting point of view that is dependent on the unreliable narrator. Vasya from The Bear and the Nightingale has seen magic her whole life and kindly asks the rusalka to not hurt people, yet Wanda only sees the destructive nature of the Staryks because they attack her brother when he poaches one of their white animals. These contrasts are present in Spinning Silver too, like Miryem and Irina each with a supernatural husband causing issues, but defending their husbands to one another despite neither wanting to be married.

Both Spinning Silver and The Bear and the Nightingale allude to the Russian myth of Father Frost, but in very different ways. In The Bear and the Nightingale, we get plot points and descriptions that line up directly with the original folktale. Vasya ends up in the forest and is saved by Father Frost (Morozko), whose “voice was like snow at midnight” (Arden, 21). Her step-mother dislikes her and tries to get her killed, and then in the end pays for it by a life being lost, though in The Bear and the Nightingale it's the step-mother who dies rather than the daughter.

In Spinning Silver, we get the morals behind the tale being played upon rather than the plot itself. Wealth surrounds Miryem after her contact with Father Frost (the Staryk king). But then she's wed to him, which doesn't happen in the original tale. Rather than the step mother being selfish and losing a child, we get morals of greed and honor. In this way, The Bear and the Nightingale is closer to a retelling of Father Frost than Spinning Silver is, though both novels have elements from the myth.

However, neither The Bear and the Nightingale or Spinning Silver are retellings of their source fairytales as defined by Connolly. She defined a proper retelling as including, “the major plot points and characters” and stories merely inspired by folktales as being focused on, “themes, motifs, character archetypes, and plot points” (Connolly). While The Bear and the Nightingale does play upon the major plot points and characters of both fairytales it references, it doesn't stick to either one of the tales exactly. Instead, the novel falls more into the category of a story that follows new plot points and character archetypes. Spinning Silver retains the original themes and motifs more. Neither book is a proper retelling, especially considering each contains multiple myths, and is unable to mirror any single source story without deviating from the other.

Both forms of using fairytales as source material for writing have pros and cons. A lot of people grew up with classic fairytales. There are hundreds of versions of just one tale to draw from across multiple cultures, like Cinderella for example. These tales survived the passage of time for a reason, and even now, in an age less reliant on oral tradition, we find new ways to pass these same stories along because of how strongly they resonate with people. Novik and Arden have done just that, and with tales less commonly known but now beloved thanks to them.

 

 

Works Cited

Afanasyev, Alexander. “Baba-Yaga and Vasilisa the Fair.” Myths and Legends, myths.e2bn.org/mythsandlegends/textonly117-baba-yaga-and-vasilisa-the-fair.html.

Afanasyev, Alexander. “Father Frost.” Russian Crafts, russian-crafts.com/russian-folk-tales/father-frost-tale.html.

Arden, Katherine. The Bear and the Nightingale. Del Rey, 2019.

Connolly, MarcyKate. “Retelling Fairy Tales.” Retelling Fairy Tales, www.writersandartists.co.uk/writers/advice/1221/dedicated-genre-advice/writing-for-children/.

Dhwty. “A Freaky Fairy Tale of Ancient Folklore: Vasilisa the Beautiful and Baba Yaga.” Ancient Origins, Ancient Origins, 3 Feb. 2018, http://www.ancient-origins.net/myths-legends-europe/freaky-fairy-tale-ancient-folklore-vasilisa-beautiful-and-baba-yaga-009545.

Grimm. “Rumpelstiltskin - A Tale by the Brothers Grimm.” RSS, 7 Feb. 2020, www.pookpress.co.uk/rumpelstiltskin-brothers-grimm/.

Novik, Naomi. Spinning Silver. Pan Books Ltd, 2019.