Every year, I use X to slip in bits I didn’t have room for earlier in the A to Z posts. This is because there aren’t too many words I can think of that start with X. I did manage it once, when writing about Greek mythology, because Greek has X words in it, so I chose Xanthus and Balius, the immortal horses of Achilles.
And guess what? I can even start this year’s X post with an X character.
I’m thinking of Xena, Warrior Princess. Xena first appeared in an episode of Hercules: The Legendary Journeys. I vaguely recall she was a villain that time, but not for long. She was so popular she got her own series. She was played by Kiwi actress Lucy Lawless. I remember having a hard time persuading my students that she was not American!
In her own TV series Xena was not a villain. She was an impressive fighter who wandered ancient Greece having adventures, wearing the usual uncomfortable female armour we tend to find on the covers of heroic fantasy novels, though at least she didn’t have her boobs out where an enemy could stab them. She had a companion called Gabrielle, who didn’t wear armour, though her clothes were also short. I guess Greece is pretty warm. The show was very entertaining and often funny.
So, who else can I mention?
The Handmaid’s Tale has become huge, especially with the current awful things happening in the world. The heroine, whose actual name isn’t mentioned in the book, is called Offred because she is the property of a man called Fred. In a dystopian future US, most women can no longer have children, so those who can are rounded up and delivered to men of importance and do the Biblical thing, being raped(monthly) on the knees of the man’s wife, to give birth to a child who will be the wife’s. When no longer of use, handmaids are sent off to do clean up labour in dangerous places. The irony is that the idea came from a woman, the wife of Offred’s master. It’s interesting how many real life women there are who make huge noises about how women should stay in the kitchen, but don’t do it themselves.
Finally I’ll share with you my favourite fairy tale Kate Crackernuts. It’s a Scottish fairy tale published by both folklorists Andrew Lang and Joseph Jacobs.
It starts with the usual, a king marries a nasty woman who brings her own daughter, Kate, and wants to get rid of her beautiful stepdaughter, Anne, for Kate’s benefit.
But here is where it is different. The sisters love each other. Kate is not the usual evil stepsister. After the stepmother has made a number of attempts to ruin Anne’s beauty, she finally succeeds in giving her a sheep’s head. Kate wraps up her head and the sisters go off to seek their fortune together.
They come to another kingdom, where the king’s son is very sick, and the king has offered a reward for anyone who can find a way to heal him. Kate stays up to watch him. The story has a Twelve Dancing Princesses vibe, except it’s a Prince and he is forced to dance to exhaustion.
The second night Kate overhears fairies talking. A fairy baby is playing with a wand, which will cure Anne if she can get it. So Kate distracts the baby by rolling nuts. Anne is cured of her sheep’s head.
The third night, she offers to heal the prince if she can marry him. The fairy baby is back, playing with a bird. Again, Kate distracts it with nuts. She cooks the bird and gives the prince three bites. He is cured. Kate marries him and Anne gets his brother. Happily ever after. I just love it as a story with a strong woman and a decent stepsister.
See you tomorrow for Jane Yolen!
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