The Turtle and The Swan

The difference between animal brides and animal grooms is made obvious in the Japanese tale of “Urashima the Fisherman” and the Scandinavian fairytale “The Swan Maiden.” There are two types of stories about relationships between humans and beasts – The Man on a Quest for His Lost Wife and The Search for the Lost Husband. In the stories about a woman with an animal husband, she is usually faced with a terrifying beast or otherwise disgusting animal who then later has his curse broken and becomes a handsome prince. (This does not apply to the story “The Tiger’s Bride,” in which the beautiful woman is transformed into a beast and becomes more like her husband.) In the stories with animal brides, however, the woman does not usually remain a human. In most of these stories, the woman becomes human because of her love for a man. They spend time together, usually getting married, but then one day the woman, either through her becoming her animal form once again or through a folly of her husbands, leaves or is lost. While women with animal husbands end up happily married and remain so, men with animal wives normally do not usually have relationships that last. These stories exemplify the idea that “women have mysteriously close ties to nature” as well as warning against exogamy - marrying or otherwise consorting with outsiders.

In Urashima the Fisherman,” Urashima encounters a turtle while fishing. This turtle, however, ends up being a princess, who takes Urashima to her palace. He gets homesick, however, and wishes to visit his village. She gives him a box which she tells him not to open, for if he does he will never be able to see her again or get back to her palace. Unfortunately, he opens the box anyway and therefore never sees her again. In “The Swan Maiden” a hunter sees the swan maidens taking off their feathers to bathe and steals one swan’s feathers so that she can’t fly away and will become his wife. Once he reveals her wings to her many years later, however, she takes them back and leaves. In both of these stories, an animal/woman is lost to him, both because of his actions. There are some differences, however. In “Urashima the Fisherman” the turtle woman seems to really love Urashima and is the one who invites him to live with her. In “The Swan Maiden” the swan maiden is forced to go with the hunter despite begging him to give her back her wings. Though it says she is content in her marriage, the beginning of their relationship was formed by him stealing and violating her. Instead of opening a box he was told not to like Urashima, he shows her the wings that are rightfully hers.

Of the different Beauty and the Beast stories, my favorite is the original Beauty and the Beast, mostly because of nostalgia. Beauty and the Beast was my favorite Disney movie as a child and I would watch it a lot. I related to Belle a lot as a kid because I didn’t have many friends and people made fun of me for constantly reading.