T is for The Two-person Love Triangle (Romance Tropes in Folklore)

This year, my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme is Romance Tropes in Folklore! For each letter, I will pick a popular trope from romcom movies and romance novels, and see if I can find the same trope in folktales and legends. Because it's fun. Here we go.

THE TROPE

This is a fun one: it's a trope about a person who thinks they are in a love triangle, only to find out that the two love interests were one and the same person all along.

THE FOLKLORE

As surprising as it is, this one exists in folklore. Mostly because there are so many cases of concealed identites.

THE STORIES

Lady Béla (Hungarian folktale)

This one is about a girl who is raised by her father pretending to be a set of twins: a feisty and strong warrior woman, and a kind and gentle maiden. In her kind form, she falls in love with a shepherd. When her castle is attacked, he joines the guard, and she tries to seduce him in her warrior-woman persona, but he stays loyal to his beloved. In the end, it is revealed she is both.

Procris and Cephalus (Greek myth)

This one is a pretty complex tit-for-tat fake adultery story. The goddess Eos wants to seduce the hunter Cephalus, but he wants to stay faithful to his wife Procris. Eos wants to prove Procris is not worth the trouble, and changes Cephalus' appearance so he can try to seduce his own wife. He succeeds (with a large sum of money) so he exiles Procris in disgust. After some adventures, Procris returns in the guise of a young hunter, and in that form, she seduces her husband (again, for a valuable gift). When they get down to business, she reveals herself, calling her husband out on his hypocrisy. They do make up, but in the end, Cephalus tragically and accidentally kills her.

The tailor's daughter (Folktale from Iraq)

A tailor's clever daughter outwits a sultan, so he decides to marry her, and then promptly forgets about her. When he goes on journeys abroad, she always sneaks after him in disguise, and seduces him three different times, giving birth to three children. When the sultan decides to marry someone else, she sows up at the wedding with the children, and the reveals that she had managed to seduce her own husband three times as three different people.

(This story type exists in many places - I have seen versions from Azerbaijan, from Israel, and also from Sicily, the latter a very intriguing variant from this book where the heroine, Catarina the Wise, escapes jail three times to seduce her husband.) (Sadly, I don't much love this tale type, because the husband is always a jerk.)

Do you have favorite romance stories that feature this trope?

Do you like the folktale versions?

Don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can visit you back!

S is for Serenade (Romance Tropes in Folklore)

This year, my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme is Romance Tropes in Folklore! For each letter, I will pick a popular trope from romcom movies and romance novels, and see if I can find the same trope in folktales and legends. Because it's fun. Here we go.

THE TROPE

Serenading the one you love is an age-old form of courtship.

THE FOLKLORE

Serenading the one you love is an age-old form of courtship.

THE STORIES

Sadko (Russian folktale)

This story exists in a lot of versions, but Arthur Ransome's retelling is more romantic than the others. Sadko is a musician who loves to admire the Volkhov river, playing music and serenading her like a lover. He wins the favor of the Tsar of the Sea, and visits him in his underwater realm. There he gets to meet his beloved river in the form of a princess.

Lautenthal (Legend from the Harz Mountains)

A rich girl is rescued in the mountains by a young hunter, and they fall in love. She sneaks out into the forest to play her lute, and he always finds her following her music. When she is to be married to someone else, they meet once more, and listening to her love songs, he hears an echo. They discover a cave full of silver - he becomes rich, and they can marry.

Hinemoa and Tutanekai (Maori legend)

Probably the most famous Maori love story, about a girl who bravely swims across the lake, following the sound of the beloved's music.

The Ginkgo Fairy (Chinese folktale)

A young coalmaker falls in love with a mysterious young woman in the mountains who echoes all his songs. Eventually they meet and marry - and she turns out to be the spirit of a ginkgo tree.

Do you have favorite romance stories that feature this trope?

Do you like the folktale versions?

Don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can visit you back!

R is for Reincarnation romance (Romance Tropes in Folklore)

This year, my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme is Romance Tropes in Folklore! For each letter, I will pick a popular trope from romcom movies and romance novels, and see if I can find the same trope in folktales and legends. Because it's fun. Here we go.

THE TROPE

This trope features a pair of lovers that are reborn (sometimes over and over again) and always find each other. The idea is that they are meant for each other over several lifetimes.

THE FOLKLORE

In cultures where reincarnation is part of the belief system, stories like this do exist.

THE STORIES

The quiet girl (Tibetan folktale)

Three men court a girl, but she refuses the first two, and seems uninterested in marriage. When the youngest man meets an old woman on his way to visit the girl, the woman tells him her secret. The girl has been reborn again and again, alongside her husband, in the form of various animals, but their families always died in tragedy. Armed with this knowledge, the young man manages to win her heart. It is left up to interpretation whether he is actually her husband reborn again, but they do live happily.

The weaverbird princess (Thai folktale)

A variant of the previous story. A weaverbird couple loses their chicks, and the wife blames the husband. In their next lives they are reborn as humans. The wife is a princess who is promised to marry whomever can make her talk. Her husband shows up as a prince and manages to make her talk with his stories. Later, an evil mentor steals the prince's body and puts his own soul into it, but the couple maganes to find a way to set things right.

There is also a Hmong version of this same story, except in that one the husband is actually to blame. Also, the couple goes through a series of missed opportunities when they are not reborn in compatible bodies.

Midir and Étaín (Irish legend)

Probably the most famous reincarnation romance in Europe. When Midir (an immortal Sidhe prince) sets his first wife apart for Étaín, the ex-wife curses the woman to be turned into a fly and blown away by the wind. Étaín eventually lands in the cup of a chief's wife, and swallowed. The wife then gives birth to a girl, who is Étaín reborn. When she grows up, she is married to a king, but Midir manages to find her and win her back.

Indra as a cat (Legend from India)

At a wild party in the heavens Indra offens a visiting Brahman, and the Brahman curses him to die and be reborn as a cat in a hunter's house. His wife searches for him, and manages to convince the Brahman to tell her where her husband is. When she finds him, she prays to the goddess Káliká, who agrees to ease the curse: she puts cat-husband and wife to a deep sleep until the term of the 12-year rebirth is over. (Very Sleeping Beauty. But who wouldn't want a 12-year nap with their cat?)

Reincarnation also features into the famous love story of the Cowherd and the Weaver Girl.

Do you have favorite romance stories that feature this trope?

Do you like the folktale versions?

Don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can visit you back!

Q is for Queen and Soldier (Romance Tropes in Folklore)

This year, my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme is Romance Tropes in Folklore! For each letter, I will pick a popular trope from romcom movies and romance novels, and see if I can find the same trope in folktales and legends. Because it's fun. Here we go.

THE TROPE

So this one is a general type of romance where a soldier/guard/someone who serves royalty falls in love with the royal lady high above their station. That they are supposed to protect, more often than not.

THE FOLKLORE

Once again, this one is by far not unheard of in folklore (sue me). Soldiers, especially veteran soldiers often end up making their fortune in folktales, and that sometimes involves winning a princess. However, I went looking for a queen instead, and those were not as common. Still, I get to include one of my favorite folktales, so here we go.

THE STORIES

The green dragoon (Hungarian folktale)

A widow queen who rules a country marches her army to war. One dragoon steps out of line to relieve himself, and accidentally gets trapped in an enchanted forest. By the time he is free, the war is over, the queen lost, and she has been trapped inside a cursed castle for 77 years. The soldier decides to go and save her, and he puts up with three nights of horrible hauntings to break the curse.

Do you have favorite romance stories that feature this trope?

Do you like the folktale versions?

Don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can visit you back!

P is for Post-fight Patch-up (Romance Tropes in Folklore)

This year, my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme is Romance Tropes in Folklore! For each letter, I will pick a popular trope from romcom movies and romance novels, and see if I can find the same trope in folktales and legends. Because it's fun. Here we go.

THE TROPE

This trope refers to scenes where someone is injured, and their (prospective) romantic interest gently tends to their wounds. It shows care and intimacy. Big strong men who take bullets witout slowing down usually hiss and fuss, because it shows vulnerability. You know this trope.

THE FOLKLORE

I had some obvious choices for this one, but it was still fun to do more digging.

THE STORIES

Diarmuid and Gráinne (Irish legend)

I promised we would get to these two, right? Can't miss one of the great love stories of tradition. Gotta admit, my favorite part of this entire runaway-bride epic is the part where they finally get together. Long story short: Irish princess Gráinne escapes her own wedding to legendary hero Fionn Mac Cumhail by putting a much younger and more handsome hero, Diarmuid, under a magic obligation to elope with her. Fionn and his men hunt them high and low, and for a long time, Diarmuid holds out, not touching the woman that made him break his loyalty to Fionn. He always leaves unbroken bread behind to signal he has not slept with her. One stormy night, they seek shelter in a cave and get into a quarrel, at the end of which Gráinne stabs Diarmuid in the leg. He runs out into the rain, and she looks for him all night. They finally meet, make up, confess their love, and she takes the knife out of his leg. 

After that, there is no unbroken break left behind anymore.

Ilbrec of Ess Ruadh (Irish legend)

This one concerns another hero of the Fianna, Caoilte the Swift. He gets injured in battle, hit in the thigh with a poisoned spear. He goes in search of healing to the Sidhe hill where his foster-brother lives. He is seeking Bebind, a famous healing woman. He has to complete various battle quests to pay for the healing. Bebind works on his wound over the course of several days until he is healthy again. There are versions of this legend where they also become lovers by the end. (One is expertly told by Daniel Allison in this book.)

Guigemar (Medieval romance)

This 12th century romantic tale, based in folklore and written by Marie de France, starts a hero who knows nothing about love. Which is a problem, because he gets hurt in a hunting accident, and a deer tells him his wound can only be cured by his true love. He sets out to find love, and ends up in the castle of an old man who jealously keeps his beautiful wife locked up. With the help of servants, Guigemar meets the lady, and - predictably - they fall in love as she tends his wound. When the husband finds out they are torn apart, but fate brings them together again in the end. 

(Note that Tristan and Iseult also meet when he is seeking help to cure his poisoned wound.)

Dietwart and Minne (German legend)

Roman emperor Dietwart is looking for a wife, and he ends up in Westernmer to court King Ladmer's daugher Minne. She refuses to say yes to him until she gets to know him better; and despite his protests that women shouldn't hunt, she joins the hunt organized in his honor. She turns out to be quite the accomplished "mighty huntress". However, when she scares up a dragon, she almost dies - util Dietwart arrives to save her and kill the beast. He is seriously wounded in the fight. He is between life and death, but Minne slowly nurses him back to health with a magic ointment. When he regains his wits, he finds out she got the ointment from her mother - only to be used on someone she loves. That's one hell of a confession. 

Do you have favorite romance stories that feature this trope?

Do you like the folktale versions?

Don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can visit you back!

O is for Only one bed (Romance Tropes in Folklore)

This year, my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme is Romance Tropes in Folklore! For each letter, I will pick a popular trope from romcom movies and romance novels, and see if I can find the same trope in folktales and legends. Because it's fun. Here we go.

THE TROPE

If there is a "most often quoted" romance trope, THERE IS ONLY ONE BED would probably be it. Also known by the more general term of "forced proximity", it is a trope where the prospective lovers just have to share a bed for a night. For... purely logistical purposes. Sometimes it's a closet, or some other enclosed space, but the results is the same: a whole lot of tension.

THE FOLKLORE

This one is tricky from a folklore perspective, because folktales either tend to be somewhat conservative about unmarried people sharing a bed - or get straight down to business. There is also an entire related trope with a sword placed between people when they share a bed, as a show of chastity. (You can read a study of this motif in Tristan and Iseult here.) But there are some tale types where a shared bed plays an important role between people who are in love, or trying to be.

THE STORIES

Oh wall, my wall (Judeo-Spanish folktale)

A rich (but shy) young man refuses to get married, and he turns down all brides proposed to him. Finally a wise old woman suggests three poor sisters who might be fitting for him. The two elder, when they visit him and they share a bed for the night, are scared because he places a sword between them. The youngest girl, however, stays. When the boy refuses to talk to her, she pretends to talk to the wall - and he answers, doing the same. They slowly grow to like each other. When she helps a poor child, he finally speaks to her, won over by her gentleness. When her evil stepmother tries to kill her, her husband saves her.

The Daughter of the King Under the Waves (Scottish folktale)

This story features the legendary warriors of the Fianna. One stormy night a hideous hag knocks on their door and begs to be let in (in other versions, it's their hunting tents). Each hero refuses her in turn, except for Diarmuid (who is a great favorite with women anyway). He lets her in and shares his bed with her. Of course she turns into the most beautiful woman ever seen. She promises to stay with him as long as he doesn't mention in what state he found her. Obviously, he eventually breaks his promise. The story goes on, but in the end, he saves her, but they don't marry.

Alessandro and the abbott (Decameron)

This story is from the Decameron, which does use a lot of folktale motifs and elements. A young Italian man, down on his luck, is on his way home to Tuscany when he joins the retinue of a young abbott on the road. The abbott (headed to Rome) takes a liking to him, so Alessandro agrees to accompany them at least to Florence. However, one night at an inn there is no bed left for Alessandro, so the innkeeper lodges him in the abbot's room. At night, the abbott makes advances at Alessandro... and soon reveals that she is actually a princess in disguise, fleeing from an unwanted marriage. They go to the Pope together, and win his consent to marry.

Do you have favorite romance stories that feature this trope?

Do you like the folktale versions?

Don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can visit you back!

N is for Next Door Neighbors (Romance Tropes in Folklore)

This year, my A to Z Blogging Challenge theme is Romance Tropes in Folklore! For each letter, I will pick a popular trope from romcom movies and romance novels, and see if I can find the same trope in folktales and legends. Because it's fun. Here we go.

THE TROPE

This trope features neighbors who fall in love with each other, or one person who has a crush on their neighbor. It often overlaps with the extremely popular Girl Next Door character type, who is always lovely, friendly, and unassuming. (There are also Boys Next Door, obviously.)

THE FOLKLORE

Living next door to someone can be a good setup for any romance - folklore included. Sometimes in more ways than one.

THE STORIES

Yunus and the well of sweetness (Arab folktale)

I find this story quite amusing. A man named Yunus falls in love with the girl next door, and asks for her hand in marriage. Her father, however, claims that his daughter is a terrible shrew, and asks Yunus to bring water from the Well of Sweetness to make her more agreeable. He goes through an epic quest and succeeds in fetching the magic water - only to find out that it was needed not for the girl, but for her mother...

The two dreams (Armenian folktale)

Two versions of this story were collected from mother and daughter in the USA, but it exists in other versions too (ATU 1419E). A man falls in love with the beautiful wife of a very jealous husband who keeps her locked up. He builds a house next to theirs, and secretly digs a tunnel to her rooms. They keep meeting, and the woman pretends to be her own twin sister whenever the husband sees them. Finally the husband is tricked into marrying off his own wife to her lover, thinking it's the twin... and the lovers escape together.

The boy carried away to the world below (Greek folktale)

A poor boy loves to read, and sits in the window of his house every day, absorbed in a book. Across the street is the king's palace, and the princess - who also loves to read - notices the boy in the window. They fall in love, and she insists on marrying him. However, a jealus courtier curses the boy, who ends up in the Underworld - and it takes time and determination for him to return to his beloved.

The mouse and the dung beetle (Folktale from Colorado)

Alright, this one is questionable, but nonetheless amusing. A poor girl is in love with the rich boy next door, but his parents engage him to marry someone else. The desperate girl keeps praying to St. Anthony, and when it doesn't work, she chases the saint's statue around the room, threatening him. Eventually, Anthony grants her a mouse and a dung beetle - which she uses to turn the newlyweds against each other. Once their marriage is broken, St. Anthony makes an appearance, telling the boy he should have chosen the girl who is the best match for him, not the wealthiest one.

The clog-maker and the king's daughter (French folktale)

A cheerful and handsome young man makes a living from carving wooden clogs. He is in love with the girl next door, Guillemette. For his kindness to a mysterious beggar woman, he earns a magic peach tree that grows peaches in the winter. The king wants to reward him for the unseasonal fruit with the hand of his daughter - but even though the young man fulfills all tasks, in the end, he refuses the princess, and goes home to his beloved Guillemette.

Do you have favorite romance stories that feature this trope?

Do you like the folktale versions?

Don't forget to leave a link in the comments so I can visit you back!