So I’ve been watching ABC’s Once Upon a Time and it’s gotten me on a fairy tale kick. I tried going to the library and looking for a book of fairy tales, but there were so many, I didn’t know where to start. I asked myself if there was something specific I was looking for, and I realized there was: I wanted a story with a female heroine.
Not just a female main character, but a female main character who actually does something (other than wait patiently to be rescued). Don’t get me wrong, I love Cinderella and Snow White and all the Disney classics, but I wanted to read about a girl who took her life into her own hands.
After a lot of googling and a surprising amount of dead-ends, these are some of the lesser known stories I’ve found that sound like they have some pretty awesome heroines:
- “The Master Maid” where the main girl helps a prince complete three tasks to overthrow her master, an evil troll.
- “The two Kings Children” in which a king gives a prince three tasks to complete in order to marry any of his daughters. The youngest daughter completes the tasks in secret.
- “The water nixie” in which a brother and sister fall into a well and are enslaved by a water nixie. The two help each other to escape.
- “Molly Whuppie” is a (rather violent) Scottish fairy tale about a young girl who travels off with her older sister and consistently gets them out of trouble, most often against a giant.
- "Mr. Fox" and "Bluebeard" are two variants of the same story in which a girl is engaged to a man who turns out to be a murderer. In both, she exposes the truth, saving her own life.
Anyone have any more they want to contribute?
