| Author |
Comment |
Heidi
Anne Heiner
ezOP
(1/27/01 12:11:44 pm)
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Pregnancy and Birth Tales
Hello all,
I know we have discussed this in the past but I am starting to think about it more and more seriously. Does anyone have any favorite tales centering on birth, pregnancy, and related topics? Yes, we have the common story of Rapunzel's mother and her pregnancy, Snow White's mother wishing for certain physical traits during pregnancy, and Sleeping Beauty's parents simply wishing for a child.
We have so many new posters that I thought a new thread would work well here. It also works well as a companion thread to Terri's discussion on Godfather Death.
I was also reading some basic background on the stork stories and the birds and the bees stories. I had forgotten that the stork was attributed to biting the new mother on the leg to explain why she was bedridden after the arrival of her new baby.
To be honest, I am looking more for stories of women successfully having children without dying in the process. I would love to have a collection of tales to share with an expecting mother without adding to her anxieties!
Heidi
| Don
Unregistered User
(1/27/01 3:24:10 pm)
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Pregnancy and Birth in Fairy Tales
You might find some useful references
to relevant tales in a recent essay by Ruth Bottigheimer on "Fertility
Control and the Birth of the Modern European Fairy-Tale Heroine,"
published in the journal "Marvels & Tales" (see the
abstract of the essay at <www.langlab.wayne.edu/Mar...4n1.html>.
The April 2001 issue of the journal will include further debate
on that topic in an exchange between Bottigheimer and the sociologist
Etienne van de Walle.
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Terri
Registered User
(1/28/01 6:39:33 am)
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Re: Pregnancy and Birth in Fairy Tales
Wow, interesting article. Thanks, Don.
Heidi, have you read Midori's first novel, Soul-string? It takes its inspiration from Tam Lin, without being a complete re-telling of the ballad, and the heroine's pregnancy and childbirth is instrumental to the magic of the story. Speaking of folk songs, do you know the CD Ellen Kushner put together called Welcoming Children Into the World? It's music on the subject of childbirth from all around the world, aimed at parents (not a lullabye CD for kids), and it's wonderful. It's a "Sound & Spirit" release, on Rycodisc, I think.
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