Fair, Brown, and Trembling (or) The Irish love a good fight

I read "Fair, Brown, and Trembling," Jeremiah Curtin's Irish tale on Ashliman's Website. The tale is based in Tir Conel, nowadays Donegal, up in the Northern part of the Republic. The first thing that jumps out to me is in this version it is neither the father nor the mother who is the main catalyst for Trembling's (Cindarella) mistreatment; it is the sisters. While the father is a non-factor like the half of tales that portray the (step)mother as the bad guy, the sisters being the main oppressors stand out.

The next major thing that sticks out to me is how Trembling's identity is connected to her looks. Many other tales revolve around her being recognized as the right girl only after she is cleaned up; she must show up wearing all three different outfits to prove her identity, really stressing the appearances aspect of the tale.

Another fun addition is the fight scene. The prince has to fight several other princes over a series of epic battles until no one else is willing to fight him. Epic contests of this nature are very "Irish folktale," but don't really seem to surface elsewhere in Cinderella tales. It makes the prince seem more worthy, but doesn't really give Trembling any more agency in selecting her mate.

Towards the end of the tale, Trembling is swallowed by a magic whale. While this is not the only Cinderella tale where the sister tries to do Cinderella harm after she is happily married, this episode has a lot of detail in this version. Again, the prince must perform an epic feat of strength to save her, asserting his right to be her husband.

I am most puzzled by the henmother. Not surprisingly, Catholicism is an important part of this story. However, whenever the henmother helps Cinderella, she puts on her cloak of darkness and gets the clothes magically. It is not clear, but this sounds like witchcraft rather than magic to me. I don't have any problem accepting it, it just seems very un-Catholic and out of character for the story.

Overall, I like this tale a lot. In addition to being a retelling of the basic Cinderella plot, it incorporates lots of other motifs from completely different fairy tales. It also has a distinctly Irish flair.


Song of the Blog: "Coup D'Etat" by Lord T and Eloise