Creepy Myths and Fairytales

The Rabbit's Bride

HERE was once a woman who lived with her daughter in a beautiful cabbage-garden; and there came a rabbit and ate up all the cabbages. At last said the woman to her daughter,

"Go into the garden, and drive out the rabbit."

"Shoo! shoo!" said the maiden; "don't eat up all our cabbages, little rabbit!"

"Come, maiden," said the rabbit, "sit on my tail and go with me to my rabbit-hutch." But the maiden would not.

Another day, back came the rabbit, and ate away at the cabbages, until the woman said to her daughter,

"Go into the garden, and drive away the rabbit."

"Shoo! shoo!" said the maiden; "don't eat up all our cabbages, little rabbit!"

"Come, maiden," said the rabbit, "sit on my tail and go with me to my rabbit-hutch." But the maiden would not.

Again, a third time back came the rabbit, and ate away at the cabbages, until the woman said to her daughter,

"Go into the garden, and drive away the rabbit."

"Shoo! shoo!" said the maiden; "don't eat up all our cabbages, little rabbit!"

"Come, maiden," said the rabbit, "sit on my tail and go with me to my rabbit-hutch."

And then the girl seated herself on the rabbit's tail, and the rabbit took her to his hutch.

"Now," said he, "set to work and cook some bran and cabbage; I am going to bid the wedding guests." And soon they were all collected. Would you like to know who they were? Well, I can only tell you what was told to me; all the hares came, and the crow who was to be the parson to marry them, and the fox for the clerk, and the altar was under the rainbow. But the maiden was sad, because she was so lonely.

"Get up! get up!" said the rabbit, "the wedding folk are all merry."

But the bride wept and said nothing, and the rabbit went away, but very soon came back again.

"Get up! get up!" said he, "the wedding folk are waiting." But the bride said nothing, and the rabbit went away. Then she made a figure of straw, and dressed it in her own clothes, and gave it a red mouth, and set it to watch the kettle of bran, and then she went home to her mother. Back again came the rabbit, saying, "Get up! get up!" and he went up and hit the straw figure on the head, so that it tumbled down.

And the rabbit thought that he had killed his bride, and he went away and was very sad.

When we started the discussion on our course's forum, I was amazed to see the huge debate this small (one and half page) story had created. somebody thought the mother was being too careless by letting her daughter face the problem all alone, some said that it didn't make sense that the rabbit wanted a little girl for bride, somebody thought the story was not at all meant for children and had the double meaning as the Rabbit represents Sex starved animal( I still wonder what that meant). Altogether, everyone was complaining about this being rather odd story and shouldn't have been included in the book as this was not Grimm's usual fairy tale.

There I started to wonder, what was the similarity between Grimm's other stories & this one. I always thought, fairytales taught most important things in life, Grimm's fairytale in particular taught us how to handle our own problems being child, they taught us stories, through which we could understand boundaries, how to behave and some morals and this story was no different.

I think the story perfectly represents how a mother can raise her daughter to face her problems and helps her to find courage, without binding her to emotions or some stupid traditions. Here in the story, rabbit plays a role of the outside world's attractions, which are sometimes scary or sometimes fake but always look beautiful from outside. The mother knows, even for now, the girl is not yet attracted to this rabbit, someday, either she will fall for it or it will come for her and eventually her daughter is going to fall in the trap. now in this case she has two options- the mother can held her daughter in house and prevent her to go out in the world and come across any of these false attractions. But this wise mother opts for other option, by asking her to face her problem and not to be afraid of it. She knows, once her daughter is aware of the false attractions, she will be strong enough to avoid them and will have courage to sideline them. by allowing her daughter to go and face the problem, she is trusting her daughter's ability to learn and thats what happens. the little girl is afraid to face the problem on her own first, but eventually she gets attracted to the rabbit and goes with him. There she understands hollowness of the attraction and comes back to her mother, becoming wiser.

There are so many mother's out there in this world, who don't understand that spoonfeeding is not going to make their children a Strong Child. I myself have seen so many mothers like them, and always wanted to tell them- "Dont spoil your child, let him learn on his own, you just give support." But I know, nobody is going to listen. Luckily mu mother trusted me, all this time as I made more & more mistakes. But every time I come back to her, she is happy to welcome me with hug and happy to hear what I learned. Seeing her like that, I wonder if that's how The Wise Mother from the story reacts......