Weekly Features

THE WEEKLY SHAMAN

Many times, the Grimm’s fairy tales also work as horror stories. One of the most obvious is the gruesome tale of Bluebeard. When we hear tales of men who murder a series of wives the are usually called Bluebeards. In the original tale has Bluebeard coming in a series of incarnations and variations on the tale. Sometimes Bluebeard was a nobleman, a merchant, or a sorcerer involved with the black arts.

He sets out to marry a series of sisters, sometimes three, and some versions seven sisters. The sisters are usually extremely beautiful and wealthy. He brings the first bride/victim to his castle. The young woman has the run of the house except one room in particular. When her husband is away, she gives into curiosity and sneaks into the room. In true horror movie fashion, she discovers a bunch of corpses or a tub of blood. When he discovers what she has done he murders her as well. He then marries another sister who is taken to the dark castle in the mountains. Like her sister she feels compelled to investigate the forbidden room containing the body of her sister and the remains of all the other. We go through all of the sisters until one is left. But this time the young maiden is already suspicious of her missing sisters. She sneaks up behind and beheads him with the same sword he killed her sisters with. In some versions she magically resurrects her sisters and takes Bluebeard’s hidden gold. Sometimes she creates a costume from feathers and flies away to escape. Bluebeard isa troll. Others have him being the devil himself. This maybe an early version of a serial killer. In ancient Greek mythology he is death itself who preys on corpses. Sometimes the girls are merely kept prisoner and their older brother frees them. Possibly they are saved by a knight in shing armor. The common element suggests that people will suffer a terrible fate it they break a taboo, And so, it goes.