The Three Sisters

To be fair, a crystal tunnel would be really pretty.

Salutations, reader! Our story this week is The Three Sisters. This version comes from a book by Giambattista Basile. Click the link above to read the story and continue with me below to analyze it.

Now, this story starts off pretty typically for fairy tales. We have one good sister and two wicked ones. I've even seen the "throw powder in a fire to call someone" before, but the prince getting cut to ribbons by the crystal tunnel was new to me. That had to hurt! It also makes me wonder how dark the tunnel was. I suppose if you left torches burning down there, they wouldn't catch anything else on fire, but they would go out eventually. And it would be hard to hold a candle if you're running. Poor prince.

I'm pretty impressed with the prince, at least compared to princes in other stories. He doesn't immediately proclaim his love for the woman who heals him. He stays loyal to his wife. Some other princes could take notes. Although, it's a little weird that he married someone and was okay with keeping that secret from his in-laws. And apparently his father. So, I'm not entirely a fan of the prince, but he's pretty decent, compared to some of the other princes I've seen.

The heroine, Nella, is intense! I'm impressed with her gumption. She hears that her husband is dying, so she sneaks out of the house to see him one last time. Romantic and sweet, I'm on board with that. With the laws of fairy tales, she overhears an ogre talking about the one thing that will cure her husband. Which is part of the ogre and his wife. And we don't see any hesitation from Nella. Once she hears this, she waits a bit, she makes a plan to murder the ogres and cut them up. We see her cry when she hears that only one thing can save her husband from dying. We don't see any kind of hesitation or doubt about what she's going to do once she learns what that is.

I also noticed that the text says she went straight from the ogres' cottage to the palace. I hope she washed the blood off of herself first.

We also need to discuss her sisters. I get that nothing turns out right for them, and that they're jealous of anything Nella has, but did they know what they were doing when they broke that crystal tunnel? Sure, they knew the prince would get hurt, but did they know he'd probably die from it? Or is this just another example of something they did turning out wrong for them? Especially since they got put in an oven for it! I have to wonder how the prince knew that it was them who did it, but he was right, so I guess it was a good reason. At least nothing happened to their mother.

I do find it interesting that the sisters, who potentially weren't trying to kill the prince get murdered, but Nella, who murdered two ogres in cold blood, gets rewarded. I guess it's just one more thing that turned out right for Nella, but not for her sisters.

The moral of the story is that if you're going to potentially cause someone else to die, you should be prepared for them to be angry at you. Alternatively, don't act out of jealousy and spite, or you might regret the outcome.

Have a different moral? Wondering if these girls had a father? Or why Nella and the prince were keeping their marriage a secret? Comment below! Also feel free to suggest any fairy tales you'd like to see me talk about.