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Author
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Comment
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(10/10/04 3:19 pm)
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One-toothed Hag
Hello all,
I'm reading If I've Told You Once by Judy Budnitz, and in the very beginning of the book the narrator discusses three old women in her village who in some ways indicate the three fates (they're constantly weaving, metaphorically and literally). But one of them has "only one tooth. It was three inches long and pointed, a long yellow tusk, protruding from the corner of her mouth like a crafty cigar." I could sweat that this is a reference to a mythological or fairy-tale old woman with only one long tooth, but I can't remember who. Am I making this up, or could somebody please help my failing memory?
Thanks.
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(10/10/04 3:30 pm)
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The Graea
When Perseus went to kill Medusa, he visited the Graea, three hags who shared between them a single eye and a single tooth. They were sisters of the Gorgons: he went to them for directions for magical weaponry and snatched the eye and held it hostage to blackmail them into telling him where to go. Could that be it?
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(10/12/04 2:15 am)
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Re: The Graea
Maybe...I don't know. I thought of the Graea, but I don't remember their tooth being so threatening. Was it? I keep thinking Baba Yaga, but I know she has plenty of teeth. Maybe a Baba Yaga like character?
It doesn't really matter, I guess...
But thanks, Helen!
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(10/12/04 7:13 am)
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Dentures
Interestingly, Baba Yaga is said to have "gnashing steel teeth," so one would assume that at *one* point at least she would have gotten down to a single molar before switching over to the high-carbon dentures ... The Graea are the only trio I know of associated with a single tooth (and in Ovid it is described as being fairly terrifying ... I believe that they threaten to bite Perseus at one point). There is something tantalizing about the single tooth, though ... for some reason I keep thinking of it piercing an egg, and associating it with the Sandman, of all things. Perhaps in the marchen somewhere?
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janeyolen
Registered User
(10/12/04 5:19 pm)
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Re: Dentures
Well, Helen, there is the "egg tooth" with which lizards etc. crack their way out of the egg.
Jane
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Helen J Pilinovsky
Registered User
(10/12/04 7:56 pm)
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Oh, dear ...
... now I have this indelible image of hags being hatched from eggs. It's enough to make me wish I wrote fiction ...
ETA: While searching for surcease of the imagery, I found *this* to replace it ... the Tooth Mouse.
"The tooth fairy tradition probably originated in France, where once upon a time children offered their baby teeth to the "tooth mouse." The French tradition most likely began with a popular 17th-century fairy tale called The Good Mouse (La Bonne Petite Souris). In this story, an incarcerated good queen and princess befriend a little grey mouse who turns out to be a good fairy in disguise. The mouse-fairy liberates them by knocking their evil captor out of a tree. The blow also liberates several of the captor's teeth. The generous mouse-fairy then brings the queen and princess baskets of jewels and money, along with a happy ending."
Better and better ...
Edited by: Helen J Pilinovsky at: 10/12/04 8:05 pm
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Bielie
Unregistered User
(10/14/04 1:55 pm)
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Tooth
In south Africa we don't have a tooth fairy at all, only a tooth Mouse, who uses good baby teeth to build his house, and he pays quite handsomely.
There is a story by a South African writer Helena Lochner called "Old Auntie Long Tooth."
She has a single tooth that she takes out at night when she sleeps. For some reason (I can't quite remember all the detail) the tooth turns rogue and starts biting everyone. She has to hire a tooth-watchman to watch the tooth at night, but the tooth turns on him too. Eventually the tooth lands in the garden, takes root and starts to grow. The old woman then hollows it out and turns it into a nice ivory house.
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Veronica Schanoes
Registered User
(10/14/04 3:37 pm)
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Re: Tooth
That sounds like the best story ever. And I being entirely serious here. I love that plot summary.
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