Carole Silver Megan Moore Marie Deschuytter Katherine Nelson Swan Maiden S tory The name fairy bride comes from a relatively unknown fairy tale since it was very different from other fairy tales ID: 529322
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“East of the sun and west of the moon”: Victorians and fairy brides-Carole Silver
Megan Moore, Marie Deschuytter, Katherine NelsonSlide2
Swan Maiden Story
The name 'fairy bride' comes from a relatively unknown fairy tale, since it was very different from other fairy tales.
A
clan of very powerful free women live together. They were also referred to as Swan
Maidens
since they have a swan skin they can take off when
they bathe.
However, when captured by a man (loss of their swan skin) they have to live a different life and get married. Then they become 'fairy brides'. They still kept their powers and their rights, even in marriage. The man is 'inferior'.
Swan
maiden -> fairy brides
Western
Europe
‘Pioneering
' view on women (feminist -> powerful, rights,...)Slide3
Swan Maiden StorySlide4
Swan Maiden Story Continued… Even though men do have power and play an important role (They are able to capture the swan maiden and have a certain amount of power over them: Force them into marriage), the fairy brides are not completely powerless (opposite of the more classic fairy tale). They have rights and even power over their husband.Slide5
Thesis Carole Silver used a feminist lens with the story of the Swan Maidens to express issues women of that time dealt with: marriages, divorce, power, and sexuality
.
“By
diminishing the claims to superiority of the fairy bride, neutralizing her sexuality, and limiting or denying her right to divorce, Victorian folklorists rendered her acceptable to themselves and their society.” - (Silver, 291)Slide6
Claims/Support
Victorian folklorists were fascinated with the fairy brides/Swan Maidens and their marriages.
During
that time the Married Women’s Property Act came about. This gave married women the right to own and control their own property.
Fairy
brides had power in their marriages and had the right to leave their husbands and divorce them.
“
Although Swan Maiden tales offered other and new perspectives on the questions of marriage, they did present some of the same issues that were plaguing those who read them: the imbalance of power between the sexes, the nature of female sexuality, and the right of females to leave their mates and children.” (Silver 284
)
The interest of Victorian England in fairy brides as opposed to other fairy stories stems from their interest in:
divorce, superiority, and sexualitySlide7
Claims/SupportThey downplayed, outright ignored, or made jokes of the ability of women to form autonomous family / community structures, or martial "
amazonian
" societies without men that are reflected in fairy stories.
In the historical context supported by the Victorians, the role of the superior woman was always related to their roles in a marriage - their relationship to children, how many people were in the marriage, whether "marriage by capture" was happening, and whether families were matrilineal
.
In divorce, women were seen as alien, fickle and aloof, regardless of their relationship to the child and whether they took children along with them.Slide8
Claims/SupportThe sexual woman was seen as barbaric or animalistic, unless she was procreating with dark - skinned people on behalf of the "tall, slender, pale, blonde" race, as discussed by Stuart -
Glennie
(1891).
The
Victorian folklorists supported the idea that fairy women were actually their ancestors, giving female sexuality less credibility in the modern, "enlightened" age. It could exist as a non - threatening relic of the past.Slide9
AnalysisThis article upholds the idea that “bride” stories inherently subvert the women’s power and female bonds (as do other articles we have read for class); however, it is the first article that addresses a folklore root to the story where women are powerful clan leaders.
The
stories address women’s sexuality so overtly that Victorian folklorists and historians came up with a timeline around the structure of marriage, procreation, and the role of the powerful woman in the family.
The
author draws on of historical sources, uses the work of well – known Victorian folklorists, and includes examples of classical literature that echo the fairy brides story in order legitimize her argument.