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Author
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Comment
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Sendeh7
Unregistered User
(9/22/05 10:41 pm)
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examples of transformative fire
I'm looking for examples of transformative fire in traditional folklore and mythology. My initial thoughts were of something akin to the "cut off my head" occourance in "the White Cat" where the aparent violence reverses a curse or reveals a "true form". The reserch I've done turned up a lot of judeo chistian imagry, but I'm looking for something involving an animal or trickster. Any thoughts?
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Writerpatrick
Registered User
(9/23/05 8:12 am)
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Re: examples of transformative fire
The Phoenix mythology comes to mind.
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Rosemary Lake
Registered User
(9/23/05 11:05 pm)
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fire and toad?
I'd have to look for the source, it might have been in Curtin, some Northern European tale. Here's the fire scene from my retelling. The original had a boy instead of Rachel, and a princess instead of a stallion. I'm not sure if the pre-transformation form was a Toad or what. However the transformation by fire is pretty close to the original. The Toad has been directing her all through to pick and pile a stack of dead dry branches.
On the very last day, as soon as she had stacked the last branch, the mansion door opened and the great black Toad came hopping toward her. "Now," it said, "you must set that stack afire, then go to your room for one hour. Then come back and sweep up all around the fire so that every twig will be burnt to ashes. If then you see anything in the fire, take it out and save it. Will you promise to do this?"
Rachel promised, and the Toad sat down to wait. Rachel set the stack afire and went to her room for an hour, then came back and swept all around the fire, till every twig was in the fire and burning. Immediately there rose up in the midst of the fire a beautiful white Stallion, rearing and prancing and tossing his mane.
Rachel darted into the fire, seized the Stallion's mane, and led him out to safety.
"Thank you," sang the Toad's voice.
Rachel looked around but could not see the Toad anywhere. "Where are you?"
The Toad's voice spoke from the Stallion's mouth: "I am the Stallion. I was under an evil spell for many years, and you have helped me break it."
www.rosemarylake.com/toad.html
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Sendeh7
Unregistered User
(9/25/05 8:26 pm)
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fire as a catalyst
Thank you rosemary for such an excellent example. It makes me think of instances in which a beings "true skin" has been burned in order to bind them into another role. For example the selkie's skin is burned to keep her from assuming her seal skin and returning to the sea, thereby deserting her human husband/captor. Or in another example, the hedgehogs skin from "Hans my hedgehog" the Jim Henson story, at the advice of her mother and against the instruction of her husband the princess throws the discarded skin on the fire to prevent her husband returning to his hedgehog form in the daytime. This unfortunately backfires rather nastily. But I wont spoil the story. As for the phoenix, that had come to mind, but, I while I know the basic story of the phoenix, I do not know the origin of the myth or the historical significance surrounding it. The Phoenix story briefly as I know it: There is only one phoenix at a time. When it is time for it to die it builds a nest of sticks of wood, perches in it and bursts into flames, in the ashes is revealed the egg of the Phoenix to hatch at the next age of the world. If anyone has any more instances of fire as a catalyst for change I would be most grateful.
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Terri Windling
Registered User
(9/29/05 11:06 am)
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Re: fire as a catalyst
Here's an interesting article on fire myths by Heinz Insu Fenkl:
www.endicott-studio.com/rdrm/rrfirebringers.html
And some terrific photographs using fire imagery by James Graham:
www.endicott-studio.com/gal/galelements/elements2.html
Edited by: Terri Windling at: 9/29/05 11:10 am
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Hogwartsresident
Unregistered User
(10/6/05 6:42 am)
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projects
hey! im dong a project about fairy tales. any advice? ;)
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bluevelvetfaerie
Unregistered User
(10/6/05 10:41 pm)
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transformative fire
Not a fairytale or folktale, but a fascinating example of transformation by fire.
"The persistent cones of the jack pine are sealed by a heat-sensitive resin. When a fire comes through, the cone opens to release its seeds, whose internal chemistry has been activated by heat. (Foresters attempting to raise jack pines found they had to bake the seeds before they would sprout.) The seeds land on a mineral soil enriched with ash and open to the sun. They cannot get started if they land on shady duff. The species needs fire in order to reproduce. Every stand marks a place that was once burnt to the ground."
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