The Land Down the Well: What Lies Beneath the Surface

We've already discussed the origins of fairy tales and how they're full of archetypes and hidden morals and lessons.

Now that you've read the last chapter of The Land Down the Well, I can talk about that story without worrying about spoilers. Wait. You haven't read it yet? Go do that first! You can find the links in the library section on the left side of the page.

When I wrote The Land Down the Well, I based it on the German fairy tale of Frau Holle. I have some wonderful memories of listening to the story as a child and I loved sharing it with you.

Frau Holle is another one of those stories that is full of archetypal images and symbols and it instills a powerful lesson.

The Lessons Frau Holle Can Teach Us

An orphaned girl is abused and exploited by her stepmother and stepsister. When she falls down the well, she wakes up in another world. She faces a series of tests to test her character before arriving at the house of Frau Holle. She agrees to work for food and lodging, but she is welcomed with a warm meal and a soft bed.

Liesl is the typical hard-working, underappreciated damsel in distress. What I like most about her is that she doesn't rely on any prince to come and save her. When she falls down the well, you could conclude that she drowns and that the Land Down the Well is the afterlife. 

This image is further reinforced by the trials she faces. Inanimate objects speaking to her are certainly a clue to strange things afoot. The flowers and plants that don't seem to be bound to the seasons, flowering and bearing fruits all at once, are a symbol I added into the story to suggest the magical nature of the Land Down the Well. Ancient cultures believed that this was a symbol of magical powers. This was one of the reasons why they attributed such potential to the mistletoe. It grows without touching the earth and is not bound to the seasons, capable of bearing both fruits and flowers at once.

She works in the little house and she bonds to Frau Holle but she's still homesick. Not for her stepmother and stepsister, but for the house where she was born--the house that belonged to her real parents.

Frau Holle, to me, is the Scandinavian goddess Hel in disguise. She lives in the underworld and cares for the spirits of the deceased. Among other things. What we see here is definitely her more compassionate, caring aspect. But even the name variants we see appear are clues to this. Frau Holle, Mother Hulda or even Mother Helda. 

As the Goddess Hel, Frau Holle has the power to send Liesl back to the world of the living. But it's Liesl who makes it all possible. She wins the heart of the goddess of the underworld and is given a rebirth--a second chance.

Frau Holle sends her back with a gift of gold. Upon returning home, she finds the house in less than optimal condition and her stepmother and stepsister bickering. She faces them, discovers that she had power all along. She just had to recognise it.

This is part of Liesl's reincarnation. She returns with a sense of self-worth and a realisation that she can do more than she always thought. She's strong enough to stand up for herself. The gift of gold that clings to her when the stepmother tries to take it, only coming off when Liesl chooses to give it, is a further symbolisation of her newfound strength.  This is another detail I added to further reinforce the symbolism that is already present. The gold symbolises Liesl's new-found strength and her ability to forgive.

Rather than accept this new and strong Liesl, her stepmother and stepsister choose to leave, but the stepsister is thrown down the well by her mother in the hope that she too, will return with a gift of gold.

The sister, however, returns covered in tar that she can't seem to wash off. She fails the tests in the Land Down the Well and isn't interested in helping Frau Holle--only in helping herself. 

Liesl can wash it off though. This is another addition of mine and another symbol of Liesl's forgiveness.

The stepsister stands up for Liesl when her mother is about to slap her. When they leave, Liesl makes a final offer. They can stay but no longer take advantage of Liesl, letting her do all the work. Everyone will have to share the burden. The sister stays, but the mother decides to go down the well herself to find that gold.

The sisters reconnecting is a sign that people can learn to be better--do better. It, too, is an addition of mine. People are not the sum of their actions so far. They are redeemable as long as they want to be.

I have to believe that, personally

Anyway. This concludes the companion post for the last chapter of The Land Down the Well.

Thank you for sharing with with Liesl and me.

Hugs

Tiny

The Writing of a Haibun

In my previous post, I wrote about the last story I've written, The Land Down the Well. It's a Deep POV rewrite of a very old fairy tale. You can find the links to the different parts of the story at the bottom of this post.

I wrote this story in a bit of a different form than I usually do. My friend @dbooster, a poetry editor on The Writers' Block and a fountain of knowledge about Japanese forms and Japanese culture, told me about a form called haibun. 

It combines haiku with sections of prose. This form can be applied to any number of genres, from autobiographical pieces, diaries or travel journals, essays, short stories and prose poems.

History of the Haibun

As far as I can tell, the term was first used in 1690 when the famous Japanese poet Matsuo Bashō sent a letter to a student of his.

I found an excerpt from a haibun he wrote, called Oku no Hosomichi. It is translated as The Narrow Road to the Deep North or The Narrow Road to the Interior and can be found here. 

It's a prose and poetry travel journal he wrote as he journeyed on foot through 17th century Japan. It's considered to be one of the major pieces of classical Japanese literature.

I read the opening and proceeded to pick my jaw up off the floor. Mr Bashō has acquired a new fan. I'd already seen some of his haiku but I'd never read his prose. 

Of course he wrote other haibun as well, but this seems to be the most famous one.

Traditionally, haibun were written as short descriptions of a place, person or object, or alternatively of a journey or series of events in the life of the writer.

Contemporary Haibun

The haibun is no longer confined to its country of origins. We find examples as early as 1988, when James Merrill wrote *Prose of Departure*. I found an excerpt of it here and this is definitely going on my wish list.

The Form

A haibun can encompass a scene or a moment in time in a descriptive and objective style or it can be fictional or have a dream-like feel to it. The connection between the haiku and the prose can be either direct or subtle.

The haibun form in English seems to constantly evolve, as most writing does. Generally speaking, a haibun consists of one or more paragraphs of prose written in a rather visual style, accompanied by one or more haiku.

What About My Haibun?

I started out with the storyline and tried to get that right first. As I was writing, I'd come across an image that seemed to fit, I'd include a haiku. I then went over my first draft and tried to order the text so the haiku would appear to be spaced evenly but it didn't work. Some sections were more suited to haiku than others and @dbooster advised me to run with it and let it be as organic as it wanted to be. In the end that is what worked best, I think.

I applied the same philosophy to the haiku themselves. This is another lesson I learned from D. With the help of this article he taught all of us over at The Writers' Block about the structure of the haiku. It seems Japanese as a language has a structure and rhythm so different from English that translating to English and forcing it into that same structure is almost impossible to do.

A haiku should simply be as short as it can while portraying a complete image. We've started calling this the breath style haiku. I personally have really grown to like them.

So let's read this story, shall we?

The Land Down The Well

Part 1

Part 2

As always, thank you for sharing this with me.

Hugs

Jasmine

Sources, other than D's brain:
Wikipedia
Writer's Digest
The Writing Cooperative