[Slow string instruments play and fade to be heard under The Narrator]
Narrator: Hello! Welcome to Mythical. The podcast that wanders the dark and fantastical pages of fairy tales and myths. I’m the Narrator. Today’s bonus episode features a fairy tale by the Brothers Grimm. It’s titled, “The Mother-in-Law.” I’ll begin today’s story, as all good stories should, with once upon a time. [Chimes to indicate the start of the story] Narrator: Once there was a king and a queen, and the queen had a terribly evil mother-in-law. One day the king went to war, and the old queen had her daughter-in-law locked up in a damp cellar along with her two little sons. Narrator’s Comments: How did no one in the castle stop her? She’s locking up the queen and two princes and no one in the castle bats an eye? Narrator: After some time had passed the mother-in-law said to herself, Narrator as Mother-in-Law: I’d really like to eat one of the children. Narrator: So she called her cook and ordered him to go down into the cellar, take one of the little sons, slaughter him, and cook him. Narrator as Cook: What kind of sauce would you like? Narrator: Asked the cook. Mother-in-Law: A brown one. Narrator: Said the old queen. The cook then went down into the cellar and said, Cook: Ah, your highness, the old queen wants me to slaughter and cook one of your sons this evening. Narrator: The young queen was deeply distressed and said, Narrator as Queen: Well, why don’t we take a pig? Cook it the way she wants and say that it was my child. Narrator: The cook did just that and served the pig in a brown sauce to the old queen as though it were a child. Indeed, she ate it with great relish. Soon thereafter the old queen thought, Mother-in-Law: The child’s meat tasted so tender that I’d like to have the second as well. Narrator: So she called the cook and ordered him to go down into the cellar and slaughter the second son. Narrator’s Comments: Does the mother-in-law not go down into the cellar to check on her captives? At all? Cook: What kind of a sauce should I cook him in? Mother-in-Law: Oh! In a white one. Narrator: Said the old queen. The cook went down into the cellar and said, Cook: Ah, the old queen has ordered me now to slaughter your second little son and cook him, too. Queen: Take…a suckling pig, Narrator: The young queen said, Queen: And cook it exactly as she likes it. Narrator: The cook did just that, and set it in front of the old queen in a white sauce, and she devoured it with even greater relish than before. Finally the old queen thought, Mother-in-Law: Now that the children are in my body I’d like to eat the young queen as well. Narrator: The old queen called the cook and ordered him to cook the young queen. [Chimes to signal the end of the story] [Strings play softly under The Narrator] Narrator: This is where “The Mother-in-Law” ends. It is an unfinished story, not yet fully written out by the Grimm brothers. There is a fragment attached to the story that reads: “the cook slaughters a doe the third time. However, the young queen has trouble preventing her children from screaming. She doesn’t want the old queen to hear them and realize they are still alive, and so on.” End note. The inspiration for this story comes from two possible sources: the French tale “La Belle au Bois Dormant,” by Charles Perrault, and the Italian tale “Sole, Luna e Talia,” by Giambattista Basile. Now, I don’t speak French or Italian, so I’m very sorry if I butchered any of those names. Both of these stories are a telling of “Sleeping Beauty.” Unlike “Briar Rose,” the French and Italian versions don’t end when the prince wakes the sleeping princess. They continue into a story of a mother-in-law who wants to murder and eat her grandchildren and daughter-in-law. Ultimately, the princess and children are saved and the mother-in-law dies. Folklorists believe this second half to have originally been a separate story, like the Grimm’s version, but were combined with the “Sleeping Beauty” tale in Perrault and Basile’s collections. “The Mother-in-Law” does not appear in any other published collection that the Grimm Brothers released. The brothers wanted to collect and preserve German culture and were against French occupation. This tale had too much of a French influence and as a result was removed. I hope you enjoyed today’s bonus episode, as short and as unfinished as it was. There will be a holiday bonus episode. It will be a story that will be familiar to many of us. And it is breaking from the first season’s theme of German tales and instead was written by a Russian author. Today’s story was read from The Complete First Edition, The Original Folk and Fairy Tales of The Brothers Grimm. Translated and Edited by Jack Zipes. If you have an Italian fairy tale for season two that you would like me to read aloud, you can email me at [email protected]. You can follow the show on Twitter and Instagram at Mythicalpodcast. There I post behind the scenes, updates, and clues to each episode. If you like the show, please leave a rating and a review wherever you listen to podcasts. I greatly appreciate it, and I like reading what you think of the show. Thank you for joining me today. I’m The Narrator, and this is Mythical. [Music swells and fades] SHOW NOTES "I'd really like to eat one of the children." Die Schwiegermutter It's a bonus episode! While not directly related in the Grimm Brothers' collection, this tale does have history with "Sleeping Beauty." So go listen to "Briar Rose" before this one, and then come back for a little history and an unfinished story. If there is a fairy tale you'd like me to read next season, email me: [email protected] [Mythical Website](mythicalpodcast.weebly.com) Instagram: @mythicalpodcast Twitter: @mythicalpodcast
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January 2019
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