Fairy tales are brutal. That’s why self loves them.
The Baba Yaga (Russian)
Once upon a time there was an old couple. The husband lost his wife and married again. But he had a daughter by the first marriage, a young girl, and she found no favor in the eyes of her stepmother, who used to beat her, and consider how she could get her killed outright. One day the father went away somewhere or other, so the stepmother said to the girl, “Go to your aunt, my sister, and ask her for a needle and thread to make you a shift.
Now that aunt was a Baba Yaga. Well, this girl was no fool, so she went to a real aunt of hers first, and says she:
“Good morning, Auntie!”
“Good morning, my dear, what have you come for?”
“Mother has sent me to her sister, to ask for a needle and thread to make me a shift.”
Then her aunt instructed her what to do.
— from Angela Carter’s Book of Fairy Tales, in the section “Witches.”
Stay tuned, dear blog readers. Stay tuned.
Kanlaon 