Bluebeard

So of course after rereading Bluebeard's Daughter yesterday, I had to go back and read Perrault's Bluebeard again. I first encountered this story a few months ago as I was going through a retired Librarian's things and came across her box of scary stories. I read her hand-copied version of the story, not realizing that this was one of Perrault's or anything about the story.

Bluebeard is an interesting story. From what I've read about it, it may have been based off of the story of the serial killer, Gilles de Rais. Here is the except from Bluebeard's entry in the encyclopedia Brittanica (my apologies for not citing properly):

"...murderous husband in a story, “La Barbe bleue,” in Charles Perrault’s collection of fairy tales, Contes de ma mère l’oye (1697; Tales of Mother Goose). Similar stories exist in European, African, and Eastern folklore; the essentials are the locked and forbidden room, the wife’s curiosity, and her 11th-hour rescue. Perrault’s version probably derived from Brittany and may have been based on the career of the 15th-century marshal of France Gilles de Rais and that of Comorre the Cursed, a 6th-century Breton chief, each of whom committed crimes similar to those in the Bluebeard stories."

While researching the history of this bit of folklore, I also frequently came across this terrifying illustration of Bluebeard by Gustave Doré from 1867.


I also realized that Neil Gaiman included a Bluebeard-themed poem in his 2006 book Fragile Things entitled "The Hidden Room." So Bluebeard is a more prevalent story than I initially thought!

One thing still bothers me though: If you look logically at the story, you are forced to wonder what great crime Bluebeard's first wife committed that resulted in her being murdered and left to rot on the walls of the hidden chamber. Perhaps there's another story locked in Bluebeard's tale besides Gaiman's and Townsend Warner's.

On a completely unrelated note, I DID beat my personal best yesterday and scored 91 in my first game! Our time ran out during our second, but as of the 6th round, I had scored 68. I consider myself now a master bowler. :)

Bluebeard's Daughter

I just finished rereading Bluebeard's Daughter (1940) by Sylvia Townsend Warner. It's a strange little short story that moves Perrault's Bluebeard story from France to the Middle East and continues the story based on assumption that Bluebeard only killed his insufferable wives and had a daughter by his third. She, it seems, died in childbirth. The girl moves with the last bride to the city, becomes a ward of Bluebeard's solicitor, and eventually returns to his castle when she marries. From there, she and her new husband both become obsessed with learning what's behind "the fifth closet" of the secret rooms and this obsession nearly drives them apart. Luckily, after falling over a cliff in their coach and each abandoning the other (or so they think) with an elderly shepherdess, they individually return to the castle where the husband breaks down the door, breaks his collarbone, and they make up. Then they become astronomers. Seriously, I couldn't make this one up if I tried.

Joking aside, it's a strange little tale. My interpretation rereading it the second time through is that it's one of those stories that skirt the line of satire so closely, it sometimes bobbles over the line into just plain weird.

Perhaps after reading more of Ms. Townsend's work, my opinion will be altered. More to come later, but first I need to head out to a join birthday party at a bowling alley. Hopefully I can beat my personal best score of 75!