Habogi

Who wouldn't want to own a beautiful horse?

Salutations, readers! This week, we trundle up to Iceland for one of their fairy tales. Specifically, Habogi. This story is mysterious and a little strange. I love it. Check it out through the link above and read below to analyze it with me.

The story starts out in the usual way. There are three sisters and the youngest is the most beautiful, while the older two are rude and mean-spirited. When it comes time for them to marry, their father asks what they want their future husband's name to be. It seems a little strange to me, but I guess it was normal for them because the ladies answer right away. There might be something to their answers. The older two ladies named very common names, but the youngest found herself saying a name she'd never heard before. While the three of them did end up marrying men with those names, it almost seems like the youngest was looking for someone unique. Someone specific, even though she hadn't met him. Whatever else is true about this, it reminded me of The Importance of Being Earnest (which is a hilarious play, by the way).


We need to spend a moment on what's driving the youngest daughter's actions here. It's literally a small voice. Now, we all have a little voice in our head. That's how we think. But this seems a bit different. It's almost like someone or something was talking to her. And once she said that she would only marry someone named Habogi, she didn't take it back. This means that she sticks to what she says, or she was afraid to take it back. After all, she almost said she liked the name Njal instead. After that "something inside her" makes the youngest daughter go with Habogi, even though she does not want to get on this strange man's horse and ride away with him. I have to say, I was a little worried for her at this point. Since it's a fairy tale, it would probably come out all right, but I still totally understand her hesitation. But, once again, that small voice inside her made her go along with it.

My theory is that this voice was either Habogi himself or, more likely, some sort of good fairy who was trying to get him released from his imprisonment. Because there's obviously some sort of magic going on with Habogi. People don't look super old, but move incredibly spryly, and then become young in three days. Something happened to him. And his house. We do know Habogi knows some magic, because he stopped the older sisters from ruining the younger sister's wedding dress. However, I don't understand why he would have cast this spell on himself.

Habogi looking old certainly gave the heroine and her father some reservations about him, but these were quickly put to rest when she saw his lovely livestock and the inside of his house. And she probably noticed how easily he got on his horse. Not like an old man at all. So, we don't have a situation like Beauty and the Beast where everything looked awful until she fell in love with him and said so. This is just strange. He and the outside of his house look dilapidated at first, but on the day of his wedding, all was back to normal. The heroine didn't seem surprised by this, either.

I think that there was a spell and that Habogi had almost broken it by himself, but he needed some help to finish it. That's where the youngest daughter came in. Maybe a good fairy was also trying to break Habogi's spell, or maybe he decided he was going to influence her decisions, but one way or another, she was chosen by someone to help him. It feels like something happened "off-stage", so to speak, that broke the spell on Habogi the night before his wedding. He needed the heroine's help, which is why she knew about it on her wedding day and wasn't surprised. What was it? No idea, but hopefully I'll get an idea or two before I write a modern version of this story next week.

The moral of this story is to always listen to that small voice in your head. It could get you exactly what you want. Alternatively, if you see an old man who moves like a young man, get ready to break his spell and be super rich. Because good people always end up rich in fairy tales.

Have a different moral? Annoyed the heroine of this story, arguably the main character, never gets a name? Have a story you want me to talk about? Comment below! And don't forget to subscribe so you never miss an update.