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Author
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Comment
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Elizabeth Genco
Registered User
(6/22/06 7:14 am)
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Shapeshifting role reversal?
Hi, everyone --
Does anyone know of a folktale or story wherein an animal of some kind is trapped in the body of a man? Aside from selkies; got that covered.
Thanks!
E
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elizabethgenco.com
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dlee10
Registered User
(6/22/06 7:39 am)
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shapeshifting role reversal
I'm not sure if the 10th Kingdom qualifies because I think it was a movie before being put into book form but...
The evil Queen switched Prince Rupert and a golden retriever. The dog could talk and the Queen taught him to act like a man but he was unhappy and wanted to be a dog again. Even in the form of a man he buried bones and wanted to eat on the floor.
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Richard Parks
Registered User
(6/22/06 10:46 am)
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Re: shapeshifting role reversal
Peter David wrote a novel called HOWLING MAD, about a wolf who turned into a human. There was another story in, I believe, F&SF, about a wolf who did the same.
Eastern mythology is full of animals who take human form at will, but none of them get trapped that way that I'm aware of.
http://dm.net/~richard-parks |
Writerpatrick
Registered User
(6/22/06 11:04 am)
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Re: shapeshifting role reversal
The Last Unicorn used that idea. Most traditional tales anthropomorphize the animals, and give them speech, so it's not deemed necissary.
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Elizabeth Genco
Registered User
(6/22/06 7:59 pm)
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Re: shapeshifting role reversal
// Eastern mythology is full of animals who take human form at will, but none of them get trapped that way that I'm aware of. //
Can you give me some examples, if you know any off the top of your head? Eastern myth isn't my baliwick to speak of.
Thanks for your responses, all.
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elizabethgenco.com
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Monika
Registered User
(6/22/06 10:55 pm)
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Re: shapeshifting role reversal
This may not be what you're looking for, but what about human shapeshifters who keep some piece or element of the animal, even when not transformed?
e.g. werewolf stories where the werewolf-in-human-form displays wolfish traits, usually unwillingly or accidentally. I have a feeling there are one or two examples of this in the lays of Marie de France, but don't have the book with me to check.
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Richard Parks
Registered User
(6/23/06 8:20 am)
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Re: shapeshifting role reversal
>examples
Sure. The kitsune (fox), the tanuki (a canid), also rabbits (usagi), cranes, sparrows... Almost any animal could take human form, or at least a human appearance. A body was a very transmutable thing, especially in Japanese folklore, and humans sometimes pulled the trick in reverse. There are legendary examples of a girl transforming into a snake, and a priest into a rat, and a woman into an ogre.
http://dm.net/~richard-parks |
Elizabeth Genco
Registered User
(6/24/06 7:16 am)
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Re: shapeshifting role reversal
Thanks again, very much -- that gives me a place to start for my research.
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elizabethgenco.com
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AliceCEB
Registered User
(6/26/06 8:38 am)
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Re: shapeshifting role reversal
For a modern tale you can try Neil Gaiman's ANANSI'S BOYS--I don't think Anansi is stuck in the form of a human, but he spends most of the novel in human form.
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