Too Good To Be Grimm

I hadn’t bargained for the Brothers Grimm at an evening exploring stories of the divine feminine at Wild Nest yoga studio in Petersfield. However, it was a welcome change from the Disney fairy tales we often hear of gods and goddesses and an escape from the “you are a goddess” tribe which, instead of being encouraging, always made me feel inadequate and embarrassed. 

Dawn Nelson, a professional storyteller, led us through stories of The Mabinogion, an ancient Welsh text that I have attempted to read in the past and failed mainly due to my bafflement at how to pronounce Welsh names and words. I knew it to be worth pursuing though, as it holds one of the strongest insights we have into pre-Christian Celtic mythology. Using the framework of the triple goddess - The Maiden, Mother, and Crone we were given three rich stories about Blodeuwedd, Rhianonn, and Cerridwen.  My favourite being that of Bloduwedd, who despite being created from flowers and all things sweet, ultimately decided her own fate against the wishes of the man who had created her, radically feminist for ancient times I thought. Either that, or men were told not to trust even the “perfect woman”. 

We were given a few extra stories for free, rather gruesome as they involved a man named Mr Fox and his crew engaging in cannibalism. However, there’s nothing like a good ghost story, a scaremongering, and something to reset the scales as Mr fox, although appearing to be full of charm, was not to be trusted and was eventually caught and outwitted by his bride.

Some things never change it seems,  as even our ancestors warned us that some things are too good to be true.