Does the evil step-mother always have to be evil? She does make for a good story line and she serves as a good catalyst but what a way to create an early stereotype in small children. How come the king never knows how to get out of his own forest? Take “Hans the Hedgehog” as an example. This scenario also serves as a catalyst but it will create the stereotype that powerful rich people can’t find their own way since they have chauffeurs. I will say, most of the time this stereotype holds some truth. These two items is what creates the beginning to the folktale “The Six Swans”. I think |
calling it “The Six Shirts” would have been better fitted. One woman loves her brothers so much she is willing to live in complete silence for six years while she tediously makes six
| shirts from flowers. The Grimm Brothers give us this strong motivated character. She is willing to risk her own life for the faith that she will get the shirts |
done on time. While mute she marries and becomes Queen. This woman either really wants her brothers returned back to her or she just wants to prove the boys wrong. They told her the task would be too difficult for her. If she succeeds the Highness will get bragging rights; she returns the swans to men in order to rub it in their faces for the rest of their lives.
Christine San Jose retells this tale from the point of view of the daughter, whose life is unknowingly spared by her evil step-mother. Between the mix of artwork, done by Jes Cole, and storytelling this version tells a much more feminine version. Rich blues and reds take over the scene but surprisingly do not over power each other or the adaptation. In a way the colors help to tell how fulfilled this girl was in her task and how luscious a life the girl has before, during, and after her brothers are turned into magic swans. The story isn’t as gruesome as the Grimm’s version. When the swans’ sister marries a prince in another country San Jose tells the tale of how the girl’s sister-in-law steals her brother’s baby to frame her Queen while he is out in a different country. The |
girl’s mother-in-law kidnaps every child the Highness bears and smears blood on her daughter-in-laws mouth while she is sleeping in the original narrative. In the end of the Grimm’s account one brother is left with a swan wing because the sister did not finish one of the shirt sleeves before she was taken to be burned.