Reading Notes: Lang (Japanese Fairy Tales), Part A
Bibliography
"The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, Read it here
One of the things that I liked most about this story was that it has a strong but classic start. Using the classic fairy tale beginning of "In a little village in the country of Japan there lived — long, long ago — a man and his wife" really sets the tone for the story and clues the reader in that this is going to be a folktale.
From there, the story introduces the main character, the beautiful but nameless daughter of the man and the woman. Not much is said about her in this story, except that she is extraordinarily beautiful and a "good" daughter who listens to the instruction of her mother and father. I think it would be interesting to flesh out her character a little bit more. One way I would like to do this in my retelling would be to write the story from the "beautiful daughter's" point of view, since the original story is written in a third person point of view like most fairy tales.
In the story, the beautiful daughter is hardworking and humble. She accepts her mother's request to wear a wooden helmet over her face to hide her beauty and continues to wear the helmet over her face long after her mother passes. This seems a little foolish, honestly, but I do think it makes the beautiful daughter come across as sweet, and emphasizes how much she cared for her family and how little she cares about her beauty and how others perceive her.
I like how the story remains simple and doesn't become too complicated. Although the rich family doesn't really want their eldest son to marry the beautiful daughter, once he decides that he is going to, they don't try to sabotage the relationship or forbid him from marrying her. In a way, this story reminds me of Crazy Rich Asians without the crazy family. It might be interesting to do a modern retelling of this story like Crazy Rich Asians, but keep the focus on the beautiful daughter instead of the insanely wealthy family.
One part of this story that I didn't really enjoy was the ending. Although it's sweet how the eldest son is not fazed by the beautiful daughter keeping the helmet on during their wedding when it becomes stuck and won't come off, I don't really understand why a bunch of diamonds spilled out once the helmet cracked and fell off. Did the beautiful daughter steal the diamonds from the family while she was working for them? Or is this just the universe magically rewarding the eldest son and the beautiful daughter for being good people? I think this is one element of the story that I will majorly rework, simply because it doesn't really make sense to me.
"The Maiden with the Wooden Helmet" from The Violet Fairy Book by Andrew Lang, Read it here
One of the things that I liked most about this story was that it has a strong but classic start. Using the classic fairy tale beginning of "In a little village in the country of Japan there lived — long, long ago — a man and his wife" really sets the tone for the story and clues the reader in that this is going to be a folktale.
From there, the story introduces the main character, the beautiful but nameless daughter of the man and the woman. Not much is said about her in this story, except that she is extraordinarily beautiful and a "good" daughter who listens to the instruction of her mother and father. I think it would be interesting to flesh out her character a little bit more. One way I would like to do this in my retelling would be to write the story from the "beautiful daughter's" point of view, since the original story is written in a third person point of view like most fairy tales.
In the story, the beautiful daughter is hardworking and humble. She accepts her mother's request to wear a wooden helmet over her face to hide her beauty and continues to wear the helmet over her face long after her mother passes. This seems a little foolish, honestly, but I do think it makes the beautiful daughter come across as sweet, and emphasizes how much she cared for her family and how little she cares about her beauty and how others perceive her.
I like how the story remains simple and doesn't become too complicated. Although the rich family doesn't really want their eldest son to marry the beautiful daughter, once he decides that he is going to, they don't try to sabotage the relationship or forbid him from marrying her. In a way, this story reminds me of Crazy Rich Asians without the crazy family. It might be interesting to do a modern retelling of this story like Crazy Rich Asians, but keep the focus on the beautiful daughter instead of the insanely wealthy family.
One part of this story that I didn't really enjoy was the ending. Although it's sweet how the eldest son is not fazed by the beautiful daughter keeping the helmet on during their wedding when it becomes stuck and won't come off, I don't really understand why a bunch of diamonds spilled out once the helmet cracked and fell off. Did the beautiful daughter steal the diamonds from the family while she was working for them? Or is this just the universe magically rewarding the eldest son and the beautiful daughter for being good people? I think this is one element of the story that I will majorly rework, simply because it doesn't really make sense to me.
A wooden bucket seems uncomfortable, but effectively hides your face.
(Image source: Petr Kratochvil)
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