Congratulations, Luzhelena, you are the winner today!
It’s Day 21! Three weeks of giveaways, whew!
Today, I’m giving away the two ebooks from my fantasy duology, the DARK FOREST series. The first book in the series, The Golden Apple, is based on the the fairy tale The Princess on the Glass Hill, which in the original has a male hero, and the princess is the passive participant. I switched that around, and made the princess the protagonist, and I was even able to use a few clues from the original to do it. You can go here to read more about what I was thinking about when I wrote it.
For the sequel, The Silver Pear, I looked at fairytales that had silver pears in them, but none of them lined up with a continuation of The Golden Apple, so I ended up using my imagination, although there is a character in The Silver Pear that harkens back to a very dark character from a British television program I watched in my childhood, Rupert the Bear, the character of Raggety (not the later, sanitized version, but the dark and frankly terrifying one from the original.)
Which is your favorite fairytale with a female protagonist?
Beauty and the Beast
She is very much the protagonist, isn’t she?
Red Riding Hood. Different variations of the fairy tale have her eaten by the wolf, being saved by the woodsman or saving herself. I’ve been enjoying Melanie Karsak’s steampunk take on Red Riding Hood. It is a series. Six novellas. Red is definitely the protagonist in these tales. (Don’t enter me in the contest.)
I’ve heard of those books, Riley. I need to get them 🙂
I like Christy Sloat’s reworking of sleeping beauty The Slumber Duology
Oooh, I need to look that up, Claire!
The Swan Princess. She had to struggle to stay mute, even though she could speak and she had to struggle against all odds to make those shirts even when people wanted to stop her.
Have you read Juliet Mariliier’s version of that, J.Lee? It’s called Daughter of the Forest.
I may have to read that one Michelle. I am a Juliet Marillier fan.
I think Beauty and the Beast–I definitely prefer versions where she has the power and autonomy!
Yes, me, too.
I’m not much into the regular fairy tales but I have read and enjoyed Naomi Novik take on certain stories, “Spinning Silver” is a retelling of Rumpelstilskin fairy tale and ” Uprooted” based on some Slavic folktales.
The beauty of fairy tale retellings is the interesting new takes on it. And most of them have been told a thousand different ways, especially in the oral tradition.
Thank you so much for the wonderful present. It is greatly appreciated
I’m not much into the regular fairytales but I have really enjoyed Naomi Novik book “Spinning Silver” a take on Rumpelstilskin and “Uprooted” based on some Slavik folktales.
I agree that Beauty and the Beast is a good fairy tale theme for an empowered female protagonist. A lot of good themes were treated in (British writer) Angela Carter’s collection, “The Bloody Chamber” (at least two based on Beauty and the Beast, and the title story based on Bluebeard).
Although the Tam Lin story is not generally told from the viewpoint of the female lead character, I think that could be reworked to turn out very well. ( Some favorite versions are Ellen Kushner’s “Thomas the Rhymer” and Diana Wynne Jones’ “Fire and Hemlock”.)
I just remembered a very good interpretation of the Tam Lin story which had an empowered, female, heroine. It’s a YA book titled “The Perilous Gard” by an American author: Elizabeth Marie Pope. It was a Newberry Honor book in 1975. It never made it into ebook format, but I have a paper copy.
That’s very interesting, Esther. Thanks for the recommendation.