“East of the sun and west of the moon”: Victorians and fairy brides -Carole Silver

1. “East of the sun and west of the moon”: Victorians and fairy brides-Carole Silver Megan Moore, Marie Deschuytter, Katherine Nelson

2. Swan Maiden Story • The name 'fairy bride' comes from a relatively unknown fairy tale, since it was very different from other fairy tales. • A clan of very powerful free women live together. They were also referred to as Swan Maidens since they have a swan skin they can take off when they bathe. However, when captured by a man (loss of their swan skin) they have to live a different life and get married. Then they become 'fairy brides'. They still kept their powers and their rights, even in marriage. The man is 'inferior'. • Swan maiden -> fairy brides • Western Europe • ‘Pioneering' view on women (feminist -> powerful, rights,...)

3. Swan Maiden Story

4. Swan Maiden Story Continued… • Even though men do have power and play an important role (They are able to capture the swan maiden and have a certain amount of power over them: Force them into marriage), the fairy brides are not completely powerless (opposite of the more classic fairy tale). They have rights and even power over their husband.

5. Thesis • Carole Silver used a feminist lens with the story of the Swan Maidens to express issues women of that time dealt with: marriages, divorce, power, and sexuality. • “By diminishing the claims to superiority of the fairy bride, neutralizing her sexuality, and limiting or denying her right to divorce, Victorian folklorists rendered her acceptable to themselves and their society.” - (Silver, 291)

6. Claims/Support • Victorian folklorists were fascinated with the fairy brides/Swan Maidens and their marriages. • During that time the Married Women’s Property Act came about. This gave married women the right to own and control their own property. • Fairy brides had power in their marriages and had the right to leave their husbands and divorce them. • “Although Swan Maiden tales offered other and new perspectives on the questions of marriage, they did present some of the same issues that were plaguing those who read them: the imbalance of power between the sexes, the nature of female sexuality, and the right of females to leave their mates and children.” (Silver 284) • The interest of Victorian England in fairy brides as opposed to other fairy stories stems from their interest in: • divorce, superiority, and sexuality

7. Claims/Support • They downplayed, outright ignored, or made jokes of the ability of women to form autonomous family / community structures, or martial "amazonian" societies without men that are reflected in fairy stories. • In the historical context supported by the Victorians, the role of the superior woman was always related to their roles in a marriage - their relationship to children, how many people were in the marriage, whether "marriage by capture" was happening, and whether families were matrilineal. • In divorce, women were seen as alien, fickle and aloof, regardless of their relationship to the child and whether they took children along with them.

8. Claims/Support • The sexual woman was seen as barbaric or animalistic, unless she was procreating with dark - skinned people on behalf of the "tall, slender, pale, blonde" race, as discussed by Stuart - Glennie (1891). • The Victorian folklorists supported the idea that fairy women were actually their ancestors, giving female sexuality less credibility in the modern, "enlightened" age. It could exist as a non - threatening relic of the past.

9. Analysis • This article upholds the idea that “bride” stories inherently subvert the women’s power and female bonds (as do other articles we have read for class); however, it is the first article that addresses a folklore root to the story where women are powerful clan leaders. • The stories address women’s sexuality so overtly that Victorian folklorists and historians came up with a timeline around the structure of marriage, procreation, and the role of the powerful woman in the family. • The author draws on of historical sources, uses the work of well – known Victorian folklorists, and includes examples of classical literature that echo the fairy brides story in order legitimize her argument.