Night & Day - Curses Medieval & Curses Fairy Tale
Curses are a fairly common thing in medieval literature and legends, as was - not surprisingly - the belief in supernatural, or holy, signs and portents warning of great and terrible endings or beginnings, with regard to the "heavenly bodies" (mainly the sun and moon).
But
are there any curses (or beliefs or superstitions)
that might echo the cursed lovers in Ladyhawke: for him, wolf by night, man by day, and her, hawk by day, woman by night - "always together, eternally apart"?
Apart from superstitions about 'heavenly events' (such as eclipses) most stories in which people are cursed to be animals are either born that way - with the curse often broken by the actual (or eventual) spouse - though they rarely had much choice about being put in that situation, or there is a 'sorcerous device', such as the pelt of an animal being worn at a certain time, that allows the person to transform.
Although our research is by no means definitive, we could not find any mention in which lovers:
a) are both cursed to (different) animal forms
b) return to human form by either night or day, but at opposite times
c) that the day versus night separation is key to the curse on the couple
It would seem that the motif of lovers separated by day and night [with the secondary motif of one an animal by night, the other an animal by day] keeping company yet unable to be truly together, is unique.
If our readers are aware of a tale that shows a separation motif of this kind, we would LOVE to know! Just leave a note in the comments and we'll update this post.
While we are here let's have a quick overview of other tales of interest. It's clear the following tales share elements with each other (with some even being variants of each other) and
illustrates even further how original the day/night curse in Ladyhawke truly is. (Note: if any reader is aware of a similar tale, legend, folktale, urban legend, poem or other - especially from the Medieval period - we would love to hear about it!)
Changing Form by Day and Night
There's only one tale in which the fall of night and rise of dawn are key components for transformation that we are familiar with. (We are not counting Beast-Bridegrooms that change to human form to sleep with their poor wives under cover of darkness.) In Hans Christian Andersen's The Marsh King's Daughter a girl is born half-monster, half-human but shows her monstrous nature when she is beautiful and her beautiful nature when she is toad-like. Breaking the curse (with divine assistance) allows the girl to overcome her inner beastly nature and retain her human form - sweet inside and out. There is a similar fairy tale by George Macdonald, title The Gray Wolf, though it's not clear there is a curse, it's not clear it is dependent on the time of day, and there is no eventual change to permanently human, only an internal fight with a dual nature.
Part-Time Humans (Who Hide Either Their Beast-Form Or Human Form)
Most of these tales also require the breaking of a curse, but not all. Some, like The Crane Wife and the Selkie Wife are truly half-human, half-other - there is no curse to break. (Note: not a definitive list!)
The Frog Princess The Wild Swans
The Crane Wife The Black Bull of Norroway
Hans My Hedgehog The True Bride
The Enchanted Pig The Selkie Wife
East of the Sun, West of the Moon Swan Lake
Juan Wearing a Monkey Skin
The Cursed Bridegroom Tales
There are many of these, almost all having their roots in the myth of Cupid & Psyche, with Beauty and the Beast now being the most well-known. In some of these, the man takes a beast-form during the day and is only a man at night when he visits his bride (and she must promise not to look at him, or it will make the spell worse). In these cases a curse must be broken for them to be fully human.
Cursed to Animal Form (Until the Curse Is Broken)
Brother & Sister Jorinde & Joringel
The Golden Stag Beauty & the Beast
Frog King
Bonus Medieval Curse: The Pig With the Golden Key
Liptov Castle (Slovakia) - "locals swear there is a horrendous swine wandering around at night with a golden key stuck in its mouth! Believe it or not, this beast once used to be the gorgeous daughter of the castle master. Her father cursed her because she betrayed him – she gave key from the castle´s gate to his worst enemy whom she foolishly fell in love with. Legend says you might release her from her eternal punishment – if you only dare to take the key out of her mouth!" (source)
Following Breadcrumbs of 'Story DNA'
Below is a "breadcrumb path" for some key story elements included in Ladyhawke. The idea is to track the earliest known recorded instance of a leitmotif and see if it connects to the present.
Story DNA is often as complicated as biological DNA however, with an existing story not necessarily being aware of all that exists within it - something that's only traceable (and not completely) through a detailed study of timelines and influences: it's a nature/nurture combo of epic proportions. Direct footsteps from one story to another are not always clear, especially once we reach the modern age of digital resources and cross-cultural sharing.
The "DNA strand" we're following here is that of courtly, romantic love opposed by another (would-be partner), which is additionally complicated by transformation into a falcon or hawk (for the woman) and a wolf (for the man).
That's actually pretty specific.
Let's go for a story-walk and see how strong that thread is, using the most obviously comparative tale Bisclavret (insofar as we have tracked it down):
- 12-century Bisclavret (ie. Werewolf) - a lais by Marie de France
- > 1217-63 Bisclavret was translated into Old Norse as Bisclaretz ljóð, one of the Strengleikar (21 Old Norse prose tales based on Marie de France's lais)
- > 1600 onward Circulating in Iceland, it was much adapted, becoming Tiódels saga
- 1190-1204 The Lady of Melion - anonymous French poetic retelling of Bisclavret (OR shares the same source, but adds a feature of a magic ring
- ~1468 The Hoole Book of Kyng Arthur and of His Noble Knyghtes of The Rounde Table, includes the 'Tale' of Sir Marrock§ in Le Morte d'Arthur - by Sir Thomas Malory)
- 1485 Le Morte d'Arthur (translation, then publication, of Malory's work by Sir William Caxton, including lines denoting Sir Marrock's Tale)
- ? After 1485 The Chronicle of Sir Marrock by Abbot John (year unknown - passed down orally from clergy to others - eventually recorded in part by Allen French -see below- as a lay)
- 1902 Lay of Sir Marrock & The Chronicle of Sir Marrock - fictional/newly-created story of Sir Marrock by Allen French (1902)
NOTE:
This is where the 'breadcrumbs' stop.
There is no apparent line connecting these tales to Ladyhawke, other than via study or influence in reading medieval romantic literature.
- 1979 Ladyhawke story for screen (filmed 1985) by Edward Khmara
This is the first instance in which the motif of a woman-as-hawk (or falcon), as per medieval literature, has been combined with the noble wolfman. That alone is unique. Add the night-and-day curse of "... always together - eternally apart..." (in any variation¶) and it's clear Ladyhawke is an original work.
§ Brief mention of Sir Marrock's story: "Sir Marrok, the good knight
that was betrayed with his wyf, for she made hym seven yere
a wer-wolf". "Malory did not invent the stories in this collection;
he translated and compiled them..." Malory in fact translated
Arthurian stories that already existed in 13th-century French prose (the
(Elizabeth Vryan, introduction to Morte d'Arthur)
¶ Shoutout to the fairy-tale-feel TV series 'Pushing Daisies' in which the
piemaker, who can bring back people from the dead with a touch,
cannot touch the girl he loves, as a second touch would kill her forever.
"Always together - eternally apart." They have a much
easier time of it than Navarre and Isabeau though!
The Legend of Ladyhawke - A Revisionist Take On Fairy Tale Tropes
While
Ladyhawke holds up impressively against its literary ancestors for fairy tale themes, there is also no doubt any root in medieval motifs does not stop the
film from being its own original work, and one which was created uniquely in a contemporary age.
Uniquely, with
Ladyhawke, there was not a 'social memory' of the elements used (ie. any medieval motifs used were not familiar to most viewers).
Ladyhawke and all its fairy tale elements largely appeared in social vacuum, unlike, say
Cinderella, of which society has seemed to retain a basic knowledge, even before the popular versions (Perrault, Grimms, Disney) appeared. With
Ladyhawke, there is both an evolution (of a sort) of various 'legendary' motifs (previously unrelated until the film), and a new revision of classic fairy tale themes (we'll touch on that shortly), resulting in it being beloved and retold in the memetic forms of popular culture; from cult-classic film status and repeat viewings, to quotable lines and even gifs.
To quote Jack Zipes in discussing "The Meaning of Fairy Tale within the Evolution of Culture":
Think of a gigantic whale... To grow and survive, it constantly adapted to its changing environment. The fairy tale is no different.
The wondrous fairy tale emanated from a wide variety of tiny tales thousands of years ago that were widespread throughout the world and continue to exist in unique ways under different environmental conditions. The form and contents of the fairy tale were not exactly what they are today, for as a simple, imaginative oral tale that contained magical and miraculous elements and was related to the belief systems, values, rites, and experiences of pagan peoples, the fairy tale, also known as the wonder or magic tale, underwent numeroustransformations before the invention of print led to the production of fixed texts and conventions of telling and reading. But even then the fairy tale refused to be dominated by print and continued to be altered and diffused throughout the world by word of mouth up to the present. That is, it shaped and was shaped by the interaction of orality and print and other technological mediations and innovations, such as painting, photography, radio, film, and so on. In particular, technological inventions enabled it to expand in various culturaldomains,even on the Internet. Like the whale, the fairy tale adapted itself and was transformed by common nonliterate people and by upper-class literate people from a simple brief tale with vital information; it grew, became enormous, and disseminated information that contributed to the cultural evolution of specific groups. In fact, it continues to grow and embraces, if not swallows, all types of genres, art forms, and cultural institutions; and it adjusts itself to new environments through the human disposition to re-create relevant narratives and through technologies that make its diffusion easier and more effective. The only difference between the whale and the fairy tale is that the tale is not alive and does not propel itself. It needs humans—and yet at times it does seem as though a vibrant fairy tale can attract listeners and readers and latch on to their brains and become a living memetic force in cultural evolution.(excerpt from article by Jack Zipes, from Marvels & Tales, Volume 25, Number 2, 2011. pp. 221-243 (Article), Published by Wayne State University Press)
The film exists on its own merits, not requiring reference to previous works for validity (ironic, considering how it was marketed!). The fact that it can show "Story DNA" (absorbing familiar motifs and legends of ages past), includes the evolution of motifs into a distinct story pattern, and has memetic properties are all good arguments for the Ladyhawke to be considered a (new) fairy tale.
Even more admirable is that the film doesn't stop its fairy tale tracks there either. It's slyly revisionist, without broadcasting it. Here are some excerpts from an article on Tor.com which look at the refreshing take on fairy tale tropes in more depth:
WARNING - MODERATE SPOILERS!
The women in most 80s fantasies were either beautiful but vapid (Princess Lily, Buttercup) or warriors (Teela, Sorsha, Valeria). Isabeau is revolutionary to me because she is neither of these. She is a believable woman of her era, with a hint of an unhappy childhood, who is put in an extraordinary situation and rises to it.
Isabeau has lived essentially alone for three years, or, to state it more plainly: every night Isabeau wakes up naked and alone in a forest, dresses herself, defends herself, and hunts rabbits for her meals, while tending an enormous horse and keeping an eye on the giant wolf—who is fully a wolf, remember, and could wander into trouble at any time. She has done this for three solid years at the start of the film. So when a real threat comes in, the film gives us a quick fakeout before trampling a particularly annoying fairy tale convention.
When Cesar first finds Isabeau and Philippe, it is the boy who brandishes Navarre’s sword, telling the villain, “If you lay a hand on her, you’ll find it on the ground next to your head,” which is an admirably badass line. Cesar, however, is not impressed, since Philippe almost collapses from the weight of the sword, and laughs at him before riding on. A second later, it is Isabeau who comes charging out on Goliath. She stalks Cesar through the forest, using all the stealth she’s learned in her years of isolation to track him. When Navarre’s wolf form turns up, growling at Cesar, Isabeau exploits the huntsman’s moment of distraction to kick him into his own wolf trap. She stands over him and watches him convulse until she’s sure he’s dead—no pity, no fear, no squeamishness.
Naturally in the morning Philippe refers to their adventure as “nothing I couldn’t handle,” but the audience knows the truth. From this point, the film shifts again, and Isabeau changes her black cloak for a red one.
The film then takes the next step in its quiet subversion: the presumptive hero, Etienne Navarre, is wrong. About everything. His entire, vengeance-based plan is The Worst Thing He Can Do, because killing the Bishop, the one thing that has driven him for the last three years, will make the curse permanent...
END SPOILERS
The article goes into much more detail on the way this film flips the usual fairy tale script, and we recommend giving it a read. You can find it HERE.
The questions around Ladyhawke origins and inspiration, despite investigation and proof (settlement can be regarded as such here) are the very stuff legends are made of. It makes for an interesting case study on creating a fairy tale in modern times.
If
Ladyhawke, as a tale, had to have a folklore classification, it would likely fall into the range of ATU 400-449,
(Supernatural or Enchanted Wife (Husband)) possibly using two of the numbers, as both partners are supernaturally transformed by a curse that must be broken before they can continue in their relationship.
(Note: we are not qualified to label a tale with the correct ATU classification! This is only a guess and we are likely missing elements that should be considered for the most appropriate ATU 'box'. It's just a fun exercise and a useful tool to consider its relationship to other tales worldwide.)
Since scholars the world over can't seem to agree on a definitive answer for "What is a fairy tale?" when they decide, perhaps they can weigh in on whether or not
Ladyhawke qualifies (and if it gets an ATU type!). In the meantime, the masses consider it a fairy tale, and we are more than happy about that.
Rutger Hauer - A True Knight
There is, perhaps, one last thing you should know for repeat viewings of
Ladyhawke, or any other of Rutger Hauer's many films: Hauer was a genuine knight.
In 2014 Rutger was made Knight of the Order of the Dutch Lion. This well deserved bit of recognition was bestowed upon him to celebrate his large body of work in acting as well as acknowledge his commitment to charity and conservation. He (was) a true gentleman by any measure.
Although he cites
Ladyhawke as being one of the best filming experiences he ever had, he deliberately turned down starring roles afterward so he could keep his privacy and have the choice and time to be true himself and his passions - specifically ocean conservation and animal advocacy, including
KFPS for Freisian horses, the same breed as his Goliath, in
Ladyhawke^. He was an active environmentalist and humanitarian, putting his energy and resources into helping the world's oceans and ocean life (he was on the Board of
The Sea Shepherd Conservation Society) and through the
Rutger Hauer Starfish Association which raises help and awareness for those with AIDS/HIV, particularly pregnant women and children suffering from the disease.
Rutger was a Shepherd of the Sea, a hero for the planet and a truly wonderful person. (Sea Shepherd Conservation Society)
