9 Raising a Mini Feminists - Discussing amazing fairy tales with strong female heroines

Raising a Mini Feminist

Author Nicholas Jubber discusses amazing fairy tales with strong female heroines that you could consider reading to your kids.

Ayoung woman bundles an ogre into an oven, then knocks down another with a hatchet. Another heroine sends a predatory male down a hill in a barrel studded with nails. A princess slays a couple of ogres so she can heal her beloved with their lard… Th ese might sound like the sort of shiny ‘new’ tales you’d fi nd in your local Waterstones, but they’re from centuries past. Th ey remind us that history isn’t always linear: some long-ago storytellers were much more progressive than we expect, although all too often their work and lives were suppressed. Here are a few of the ‘traditional’ tales that should strike a chord with any mini-feminist:

‘Finette Cendron’ by the Baroness d’Aulnoy

Th e author of this seventeenth century tale was exiled from France and possibly worked as a spy in Madrid, before setting up a storytelling salon in Paris. Her heroines are as dynamic as she was. None more so than Finette Cendron, whose tale mashes up several well-known fables. Finette is a princess, but her parents lose their kingdom and abandon their daughters. Spying an ogre’s castle, Finette leads her sisters there, tricks the ogre into his oven and cuts off the ogress’s head with a hatchet. Her ungrateful sisters insist she clean the castle while they go off to party. Th anks to a secret chest, she joins them at the ball, leaving behind a velvet slipper, which enables a handsome prince to track her down. Yes, she’ll marry him, she says - but only if her parents’ kingdom is restored. So she marries the prince as his equal - and they live happily ever after….

‘Fairer than a Fairy’ by Charlotte-Rose Caumont de la Force

A member of the Baroness’s circle, de la Force married a younger man whose family tried to keep them apart by locking her husband in a castle. So Charlotte-Rose hustled her way into the castle, disguised as a bear! Sadly, the ruse didn’t work out, and she ended up spending her later years in a convent, writing her tales. In this one, two princesses find themselves imprisoned by a wicked fairy, so they help each other fulfil the tasks they’ve been set. When one of them is about to be executed, the other one rescues her. The tale ends with a double wedding as the two friends discover one of their lovers is the other one’s brother.

‘Green Meadow’ by Giambattista Basile

One of Europe’s earliest fairy-tellers, Basile knew about dynamic women - his sister was the leading Italian singer of the early seventeenth century. One of his most appealing stories is ‘Green Meadow’, in which a prince is mortally wounded in a tunnel he uses to visit his beloved, Nella. Fortunately, Nella overhears a couple of ogres in a wood and discovers their lard is the only cure. So she butchers one of the ogres, heals her lover and marries him.

There are many other tales with brilliant heroines from all around the world - such as Morgiana, who outwits the thieves with painted crosses and scalding oil in ‘Ali Baba and the Forty Thieves’ (tellingly, the story’s original title was ‘The Stratagems of Morgiana’); or Gerda in ‘The Snow Queen’, who travels across the snowy plains of Lapland to rescue her friend Kai. These are precious nuggets, worth showing to younger readers, for their messages about the timelessness of female self-determination, along with the brilliant wit and warmth of the tales.

Nicholas Jubber is the author of The Fairy Tellers: A Journey into the Secret History of Fairy Tales, published by John Murray Press, priced at £20 and available online and from all good bookshops.