L'HORA DELS ADÉUS (AULD LANG SYNE)

 L'hora dels adéus - Auld Lang Syne

In Catalonia, very popular during Scout leavetakings...

....

És l'hora dels adéus
i ens hem de dir adéu-siau!
Germans, dem-nos les mans,
senyal d'amor, senyal de pau.
El nostre comiat diu:
A reveure, si al cel plau!
I ens estrenyem ben fort
mentre diem adéu-siau.

TORNADA:
No és un adéu per sempre,
és un adéu per un instant;
el cercle refarem
I fins potser serà més gran.

La llei que ens agermana,
ens fa més forts i ens fa més grans.
Si ens fa més bons minyons,
també ens fa ser més bons humans.

TORNADA:
No és un adéu per sempre,
és un adéu per un instant;
el cercle refarem
I fins potser serà més gran.

LIZ GOTAUCO: OSCAR WILDE, MAID-OF-HONOUR

MORE LIZ GOTAUCO!! She's also done some Oscar Wilde for last year's Pride Month, and the Loveliest of the Queen's Maids-of-Honour (whom she calls a "gorgeous lady of the court") also makes an appearance! She gives the character an eighteenth-century powdered wig, while the rest of the cast wear setting-accurate Victorian clothes, and a diamond necklace! Total Marie Antoinette vibes...

****************

NARRATOR: ...the palace, where a gorgeous lady of the court was stargazing with her lover.

GORGEOUS LADY OF THE COURT: Just wait till you see what I am wearing to the ball! I told the seamstress to embroider passion-flowers on the hem...! Ugh, that lazy peasant better finish it in time...

**************

So, the lover, MY FAVOURITE OSCAR WILDE CHARACTER AND THIRD FAVOURITE FAIRYTALE CHARACTER (after the prince and princess in The Snow Queen), who is introduced stargazing with his lady of the court fiancé on the palace balcony as a romantic and passionate young man, saying "How wonderful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!" (an Easter egg I frequently have my romantic and passionate male characters say in my fics/translations!), is MENTIONED by Liz (as "her lover"), but both his face (he would wear a Mozart-style powdered wig and a classy cravat) and his romantic and passionate line ("How wonderful the stars are, and how wonderful is the power of love!") are ENTIRELY ABSENT, making him an arlésienne / ghost character and the contrast with his materialistic girlfriend disappears. I am DISAPPOINTED (even though I adored her Snow Queen retelling!)

LIZ GOTAUCO: THE SNOW QUEEN FOURTH STORY

Liz Gotauco does analyses of fairytales by playing ALL THE ROLES (in different costumes, you'll see) and the Snow Queen is also her favourite! So I add her version of the Fourth Story plus my two Knuts (including that her Clever Princess wears MAKEUP and her Clever Prince has a soul patch, ie FACIAL HAIR --like his moustache in The Fairytaler-- to characterize them as YOUNG ADULTS and contrast them with child/teenage Gerda and Kai!-- On TikTok I nerded to the max by saying that in the Dumas version the Princess is 18 (elle monta sur le trône a l'âge de DIX-HUIT ANS) and her Prince is in his early twenties (DE VINGT À VINGT-ET-CINQ ANS), a detail that maybe canonized their iconography as young adults?

I ask: Are the prince and princess young adults in this version? She wears makeup and he has facial hair (soul patch)

Liz Gotauco's reply: I interpreted it that way (partly becasuse I only have so many ways to distinguish characters). 

Sandra Dermark: They are my favourite characters because I identify with them, and they're normally portrayed as young adults (Dumas says the princess is 18 and the prince is 20-25).

Liz Gotauco: Oh good! That was my intention

Sandra Dermark: Why did you want to portray them as young adults? Tradition or some other reason?

Liz Gotauco: Since my channel emphasizes the saucy side of fairytales, adult characters provide more opportunities and the costumes are more fun, also they're depicted in bed together! And I love them too!

I ADD: Same bedchamber, different beds. And her bed is WHITE, some critics have analysed that she may still be a virgin... 

----------

Gabriela C. Chávez: I LOVE the princess (in The Snow Queen)

Artsavannah: (quoting Liz Gotauco as the Clever Princess) I want a good brain in a good body LMAO

Kayleigh: I'm with the princess

Sandra Dermark: Me too <3 my favourite part of my favourite fairytale, starring my favourite characters!! I identify with her, very clever, polyglot enough to read every newspaper in the world, but critical enough to forget everything but the culture sections - and in pursuit of intellectual equals <3 

Other nerds on TikTok saw themselves in my favourite Snow Queen characters and diagnosed them with ADHD (I have both ADHD and autism), by noting that both the Prince and Princess avoid "tiresome" (kedelig, translated as both "dull" and "boring" in more recent translations) things like a partner who only looks good and is not interesting or intelligent (Princess) or standing still for hours beside a door as a royal guard (Prince). This is called thaasophobia (THAY-ah-so-PHOBIA; the fear of boredom / idleness / sitting or standing still - NOT TO BE CONFUSED WITH thalassophobia, the fear of deep waters / the ocean) and is very common in people with ADHD including yours truly. 

Artemis: Also I think maybe that princess has the same flavour of ADHD that I do, LOL

Sandra Dermark: Me too - and her prince has the same flavour too. If you read the original Andersen  story, both loathe boredom (kedelig things, like a bad brain in a good body or sitting still for hours)!

Maybe Andersen used this thaasophobia to characterize my favourite characters as young adults, rich, and intelligent... maybe they also had ADHD / enneatype 7 / ENFP personalities with the ensuing thaasophobia? There are many characters in fairytales and YA literature from the nineteenth century whom you can diagnose with conditions like your own...

Anyway: on to the Liz Gotauco version of the Fourth Story subplot:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IIXqsP1m6kM&t=1232s (take screenshots at Mum's place - I can't with my new laptop!)

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(Edmund Dulac TSQ-IV illustration)

NARRATOR: ...about a nearby princess who was so clever she read every single newspaper in the world, but was smart enough to forget every single word once she'd finished. HEAR THAT, JOURNALISM?! YA BURNT!! Recently, the princess had decided to marry...

PRINCESS: I'll only marry a man who knows how to hold a conversation. Oh, also, he's got to be handsome! I want me a man with a brain, but I want that brain in a (singsong) good bo-dy!

MALE CROW: Anyway, a huge crowd of suitors came to woo her, but they were all dumbstruck by the glamour of the princess and her court...

[...]

MALE CROW: On the third day of wooing, a young person walked up. He had a great head of hair, but his clothes indicated someone of lower means... [...] Carries a knapsack!

[...]

MALE CROW: What I do know is; the boy arrived, looked at the long-ass line, and declared: 

"PRINCE" (imagined as Kai, b/w, in knitted cap and without facial hair): Well, this seems like a huge waste of time!

MALE CROW: Then he just walked on in ahead of everyone else! His boots were creaking, which everyone knows is humiliating, but he didn't give a shit! The confidence on that young man! [...] Anyway, the boy walked right up to the princess on her throne, which is a huge round pearl by the way, and she looked INCREDIBLE! I would marry that woman myself if I wasn't a crow!

[...]

MALE CROW: Ehhh, let's get back to the story! Anyway, that cool cat knew THE PERFECT THING TO SAY!

"PRINCE" (imagined as Kai, b/w, in knitted cap and without facial hair): I'm not here to woo you... but I would love to hear the wise words of the cleverest princess in the world!

[...]

GERDA: [...] Could you help me get into the palace?

[...] 

NARRATOR: So the crow's girlfriend, whom I am creatively calling Girlfriend Crow, helped Gerda sneak into the castle through a back door. [...] Girlfriend's got a good job, she is loyal, she is crafty, [...] Anyway, they all conferenced in the palace hallway.

FEMALE CROW: [...] Hold the lamp and we'll sneak in this hallway, and no one will know we're here.

(An armed shadow rider crops up behind them).

GERDA: Um, actually, we appear to be being followed by a bunch of ghosts on horses!

FEMALE CROW: No worries, girl! Those are just the prince's and princess' dreams! Good thing too, 'cause we are totally gonna sneak in and watch those motherfuckers sleep.

NARRATOR: They reached the royals' bedroom, and it was a magical little place. The princess and her maaan each had a bed that hung from the ceiling in the shape of a lily. [...] (The beds' colours --his is scarlet and hers is white-- are not mentioned). 

PRINCE (real prince, with long hair and soul patch): Aoow, strange girl in my bed!

[...]

PRINCE: Who the fuck's Kai?

PRINCESS: What the hell is going on here!?

[...]

PRINCESS: Oh, you poor thing!

PRINCE: I'm honestly not sure how you could have possibly mistaken (hand on his chest) me for your friend, but you know, I feel for you.

PRINCESS: Okay, before we deal with all of that, I have to give it to these two crows for bringing you to us! Would you two like an elevated position here at court?

MALE CROW: Does it come with a pension?

PRINCE: Oh, trust me, the benefits are very good.

MALE CROW: We'll take it!

NARRATOR: The prince gave Gerda his bed for the night. And the next day they dressed that girl head to foot in silks and velvets, and invited her to stay at the palace for a while.

GERDA: All I want is a pair of boots, and a small horse-drawn carriage, so I can find my friend!

PRINCESS: All right, but I'm also gonna throw in a nice warm muff for the cold... The carriage is gonna be made of gold, with the palace (coat of) arms on it, you'll gonna get a whole slew of footmen, and oodles of cakes and cookies stored in the seat. That's how we do it here!!

NARRATOR: [...] and Forest Crow escorted Gerda out of the palace to her new ride. [...] Everybody was so sad to part from one another that they fucking cried. And with that, Gerda rode off to find her Kai into the thick creepy forest in a bright golden carriage, completely open to any band of thieves that might take a fancy to it. [...] So Gerda and her royal posse are riding the golden horse-drawn carriage through the forest.

(Edmund Dulac TSQ-V illustration)

NARRATOR: And the sight of such a glamourous ride attracted the attention of a band of robbers. They were not about to let a literal golden opportunity like this pass them up! Those bastards attacked Gerda's posse, murdering the footmen and the driver. They pulled Gerda out of her carriage [...]

ROBBER MAIDEN: [...] I'll strip her of her pretty dress and accessories, and she'll sleep in my bed, but first we're going to take a carriage ride together! Drive us, minions!!

NARRATOR: As they rode in the carriage together, [...] They reached the robbers' place, which was this huge cottage-gothic castle, [...] 

***************** (7TH STORY)

GERDA: Oh robber girl, you're so silly! Tell me about all the other people we met in this story, that you definitely know!

ROBBER MAIDEN (as an adult, in red, with a ribbon on her hat): Well, the prince and the princess are travelling...

*****************

One of the best retellings ever! Kudos to Liz Gotauco, six stars out of five!! ******

LITTLE MERMAID MANDSDRAGT (MAN'S SUIT) GALLERY

Sara Boero's analysis of the vestito maschile in La Sirenetta brought me here... (see the previous post!)

This is my collection of illustrations of the Little Foundling (Little Mermaid as a human) in the mandsdragt / man's suit she wore to climb mountains and ride astride a horse. Many of these have an eighteenth-century setting and feature her in breeches and low ponytail, while some of them have a medieval setting and she sports hose on her legs and a Joan-of-Arc-style bob haircut:

Peter Madsen (original Danish)
18th century style (tricorn hats, queue/ponytail, cravats, waistcoats, longcoats, knee-high breeches)
they seem to be wearing a uniform (same colour scheme and garments)
his queue (18th-century low ponytail) is tied back and he wears a tricorn hat - she's bareheaded and lets her hair flow free (slipknot queue?)
the prince's kingdom here is a sultanate -- but her man's outfit and his own coordinated ensemble look far more Europeanised

JOSELYN PALOMINO
... la llevó a conocer lugares que no hubiera podido ver por su cuenta, la vistió con hermosos vestidos, pero también le hizo un “traje de hombre” para que ella pueda cabalgar como él (hay que recordar la época en la que fue escrita la historia, esto estaba mal visto y más para la realeza), ...
(Joselyn Palomino is surely commenting on the Enrique Bernárdez translation, because Enrique Bernárdez, Spanish authority on Andersen, has "un traje de hombre": Mandó que le tejieran un traje de hombre para que pudiera acompañarlo a caballo). 

Also interesting it is to regard this mandsdragt in regard to the taboo on crossdressing in Deuteronomy 22:5, the very same source that led to the execution of Joan of Arc. The human royalty in Den lille havfrue is as little religious as the human royalty in the Fourth Story of Snedronningen, another evangelical tale by Andersen.
PS. This taboo on crossdressing in Deuteronomy 22:5 is still kept by Jehovah's Witnesses and similar organizations in our days.

Also interesting is to see this mandsdragt in the light of the little foundling/mermaid being an avatar of the author and the prince an avatar of his patron's son, social superior, and unrequited love Edward Collin. Ah, unrequited gay love and recursive crossdressing!
Sara Boero also says that the things the little foundling and the prince do together (ride astride horses, on excursions in nature, climbing mountains) were things more likely to be done by TWO YOUNG MEN (whether a couple, friends, or brothers) together in the nineteenth century, and that Andersen and Edward Collin surely did those things together....

Interview on the mandsdragt ("breeches" here) with a fairytale author, Cassandra - touches queer themes and the author's queerness:

I'd love to hear if any part of the fairy tale resonates with you. What moment in the many versions of the tale of 'The Little Mermaid ' touches your heart?

SANDRA DERMARK: The fact that the prince had breeches sewn for her so she could ride on horseback like him and follow him mountaineering is my favourite part/moment. Male critics like Jacob Bøggild say he is doing it to protect himself as a betrothed straight male from sexual temptation (seeing her as a boy means friendzoning), while female feminists like Maria Tatar and yours truly focus on the freedom that this gender transgression gives the little maid in page's breeches when horseback riding and mountaineering. What is your humble opinion on this aspect of the tale?

CASSANDRA: Thanks for this interesting question. I actually see this moment in the story as signalling both of these things: the little mermaid's expanded personal freedom and the Prince's refusal to treat her as a romantic interest (similar to the earlier moment where he allows her to sleep on a silk pillow outside his doorstep, like if she were his pet). It's interesting to me because it also relates to the story's theme of transformation, hinting at a gender fluidity which has been noted as part of the story's subtext - a fluidity which was appealing to the author but would not have been accepted by the readers of the time if put in more explicit terms. Without writing an essay on the subject, that is my take.

SANDRA: thanks for you seeing both sides of the story across the binary and even the gender fluidity/queering. Also if we take the Little Mermaid to be an avatar for bisexual Andersen himself and the Human Prince as a counterpart to his patron's son and unrequited love Edward Collin, who married a society girl for power and friendzoned Andersen, this detail of the breeches in the Little Mermaid original tale can be understood even through a queer lens!

In both Peter Madsen and Christian Birmingham, unlike in the Victorian Cecile Walton, the bridesmaid/little foundling/ex-mermaid wears skirts when about to kill the prince on the honeymoon yacht.

Note the secular sensualism here (my own translation straight from the Danish):
"... the lovely bride who was sleeping with her head on the chest of the prince, ... ... the prince, who in his dreams mentioned his bride by name, only she was in his thoughts, ..."
Note also how Peter Madsen has drawn them sleeping back to back, contradicting Andersen, unlike Christian Birmingham and Cecile Walton!

Christian Birmingham (Naomi Lewis translation)
18th century style (queues/low ponytails, brocaded longcoats), the land kingdoms are European (Mediterranean)
both of them bareheaded, sharing the same queue hairstyle
her longcoat has something gown-like about it, but seeing her side by side with him it's obvious that it's the same cut of male courtier dress - accompanying Naomi Lewis translation reads "a boy's suit" - "He had a boy's suit made for her so that she could go riding with him on horseback."
the prince wears a rapier, while the little foundling is unarmed - also, his overcoat is gold brocade while hers is either silver or no brocade at all.

In Peter Madsen, Lars Gabel, and Christian Birmingham (the latest: here), unlike in the Victorian Cecile Walton, the bridesmaid/ex-mermaid wears skirts when about to kill the prince on the honeymoon yacht. And the sex position of the prince and princess in bed is much more like that in the original Andersen (see above!)

Cecile Walton, who sets the story in the Middle Ages, gives her former mermaid a Joan of Arc air (short pageboy haircut, doublet, foot-high leg hose/tights). This illustration, from the 1910s.

Though quite long-haired, she wears a matching doublet and tights/longstockings/leg hose with her prince and rides astride her horse, like he does, in this Victorian illustration by A. Duncan Carse, who, like Cecile Walton, sets the tale in the Middle Ages with falconry and all.
This illustration is the earliest I can find of the little foundling (ex-mermaid) in man's costume or man's outfit or boy's suit.

Lars Gabel (original Danish, 2019) sets both of the story's land kingdoms in Southeast Asia. While the merfolk look entirely Celtic (except the witch who looks like a Deep One from Innsmouth).
While the prince's attire is more traditional in a topknot and tunic, she wears a more 18th-century-European-looking ensemble with a queue (low ponytail) hairstyle and no tunic on top. To his reds and purples and the hairpin on his topknot, she wears pink and light orange, and is bareheaded. Still she wears breeches and a male-coded hairstyle, which coupled with her androgynous physique gives the idea of "en mandsdragt." 

"Mandó que le confeccionasen un traje masculino para de ese modo poder acompañarlo a caballo". Benjamin Lacombe for Clásicos Ilustrados Edelvives, early nineteenth-century Nordic European setting, Spanish translation by Alejandro Tobar (straight from the original Danish) has "un traje masculino". With short fiery hair and a long nose, this little foundling, even as a mermaid, resembles the author Andersen himself; this resemblance is intentional.
The ensemble here is casual, consisting of a white shirt, cobalt blue doublet or waistcoat, and violet foot-high trousers. Since the little foundling is taking her first footsteps on land and these steps feel as tricky as walking on glass, she walks barefoot. The short hair, in vogue among young males of the early nineteenth century, makes her look even more androgynous.
Lacombe's illustrations put the little foundling in "traje masculino" front and centre, since this is a queer version that focuses on the reading of the little foundling/ex-mermaid as an avatar of the author and of the human Prince as an avatar of his unrequited love and patron's son Edvard Collin, who married for power to Henriette Thyberg.
Significantly, in the late eighteenth and early nineteenth century, the most spirited maidens wore boyish short hair as well, inspired by the French Revolution's executions; this was called "coiffure à la guillotine!"

There are no erotic pictures of the royal newlyweds on their honeymoon yacht in the storybook (the text of "the princess with her head on the prince's chest" and all that jazz is left for the reader to imagine!), but this one of them boarding the vessel has, significantly, the little foundling holding the princess bride's wedding gown train (the face of the princess bride is never shown, making her a half-unseen character / arlésienne! She's just a silhouette because she's an intruder) while wearing "un traje masculino".
Time has passed and this little foundling is attending her master's royal wedding and honeymoon, hence why she has gotten used to walking on land and is wearing gold-buckled low shoes. The glitz of the occasion is also highlighted by her tailcoat and knee-high breeches. And furthermore, the whole ensemble is white or cream! She may still be a girl in boy's clothing, but she has been dressed sharply for a special occasion. 

Though the wedding picture showed her in shades of cream, here once more the little foundling wears her usual ensemble of cobalt doublet, white shirt, and violet breeches/trousers. Did she change on board, and why?
Or was it simply the lighting?

KISS THE GIRL
Otra Sirenita con pantalones, esta vez en una versión postmodernizada (de la serie Meant to Be) de romance entre jóvenes cantantes hispanxs/latinxs. Ariel del Mar y Éric Reyes.
Ariel del Mar formaba parte de un septeto pop-rock de fama internacional, Siren Se7en, con sus seis hermanas mayores, hasta que el padre (viudo o divorciado?) de las siete decide que cada una emprenda una carrera en solitario para sacarles más dinero. Ella quiere ser libre y no que controlen su vida...
Éric Reyes es un guitarrista bohemio, anónimo, hijo único, que toca su guitarra por placer y lleva una vida despreocupada. Lleva el tren de vida que a Ariel le gustaría vivir, aunque se siente muy solo...
Sus vidas se cruzan y ella le salva la vida a él, aunque comprenden que su amor es imposible. Y algunos sacrificios habrá que hacer para que los dos se acerquen (tranqui, esta versión tiene final feliz).

"By day he had men's clothes made for her to follow him on horseback." Translation and illustration by mangaka Sabrina Kaufmann from Luxembourg, from the Little Mermaid in her anthology Illustrated Fairytales.
Here the little foundling wears the same hussar-esque doublet as the Prince, whose blond hair colour she shares, as if both were in uniform, and he wears a cloak and épaulettes to signal his higher rank. Nothing is seen of them from the waist downwards but we can assume both are wearing breeches or trousers and riding boots. While the Prince is short-haired, the little foundling wears a ponytail, though a high ponytail, far girlier than the low ponytails or queues than we have seen in previous illustrations of the scene

Abitfrank, 2020: "men's clothes", explicación del por qué y que viven aventuras juntos

Dommnics or Dominic Bustamante, MerMay 2024. In his version her name is Iniya. The ensemble is peach and pink and has a décolletage. Still she is wearing trousers, boots, and a braided low ponytail. Her complexion is cinnamon or olive (vaguely South Asian). The land kingdoms in this version are free-love, gender-is-no-object, and ethnically diverse.

DOMINIC BUSTAMANTE, 2024
Continuing with my Hans Christian Andersen Little Mermaid designs, this is my take on the princess who the little mermaid ultimately loses her true love to. I've named her Abigail, and I just wanted her to look sweet and doll-like.
She wears pretty feminine Victorian gowns and hairstyles from Andersen's day and is Titian-haired and blue-eyed. Her Prince is a surprise we will soon be seeing

Dominic Bustamante, Dommnics
The prince-ss the Little Mermaid saved from drowning! A bifauxnen/otokoyaku East Asian young woman whose attire is a fusion of eastern and western influences. Her name is Mirae... yes the prince is female here, and they're lesbians (this is a queer millennial author)

WHALE STAR, Na Yoonhee. The retelling is realistic historical fiction set in 1920s South Korea, under Japanese rule. All the merfolk are human. Su-a (the Little mermaid/foundling) is an orphan maidservant who lost her voice after revolutionaries forced her to drink lye, which damaged her larynx badly. Uihyeon (Prince Charming) is a young revolutionary from a privileged family and with a chequered past, betrothed against his will to Haruko, a sweet girl of his rank and university friend of his, though he loves Su-a, whom he taught to read and write... Su-a crossdresses because there is a bounty on her head. A woman she steals rice and money from says to her: "Seeing as how you're dressed like a man, you must have some kind of complicated reason."

Su-a crossdresses because there is a bounty on her head. A woman she steals rice and money from says to her: "Seeing as how you're dressed like a man, you must have some kind of complicated reason."
She is wearing a gavroche cap (under which she conceals her braided hair in a topknot/chignon), a scarf, white shirt, and long black trousers with suspenders, and an overcoat on top.

SARA BOERO: IL VESTITO MASCHILE DELLA SIRENETTA

 Finally Sara Boero did her analysis of the Little Mermaid and she focused on the queer elements in the tale and what she calls "un vestito maschile per andare a cavallo" (vestito maschile: mandsdragt / man's suit). But she notes that most Italian translations like Ippocampo (translator?) have "un vestito da amazzone," a dress for an amazon (female rider) with a skirt, for riding sidesaddle, which is the polar opposite of what Andersen says - and Boero also highlights that the many excursions on horseback and mountaineering that they do together (the prince and the Little Foundling exploring the land kingdom, both of them in breeches) are something two young men, whether a couple, friends, or brothers, would rather do in Andersen's nineteenth century. And she even says that these excursions would definitely be something that Andersen himself and Edward Collin (his patrons' son and secret lover, the inspiration for the prince) would have done together - there are no mountains in Denmark, but they would definitely ride around the countryside together, scale dunes, etc.

Poi a questo punto in effetti la Sirenetta e il principe fanno un sacco di cose carine insieme, passano delle belle giornate come nel film, vanno a cavallo e lui le fa fare un vestito maschile per andare a cavallo insieme. E questo è interessante perché in tante traduzioni, anche quella Ippocampo, trovate scritto tipo "un vestito da amazzone", "un vestito (femminile) per cavalcare", ma nel testo originale lui scriveva qualcosa di intraducibile che suona un po' come un vestito da paggetto, diciamo. Comunque il punto è che la foggia di questo outfit non è il non è femminile, ha il pantalone, il pantaloncino adatto per andare a cavalcare. E torna al tema dell'identità sessuale. Ancora anche le attività in cui la coinvolge il principe sono molto maschili, escursioni, scalate in montagna, eccetera. Sembrano più appuntamenti tra due uomini per l'epoca, magari chissà appuntamenti realmente accaduti ad Andersen. Nel film Disney questa parte è davvero carina. È tutta quella sezione in cui Ariel cerca di farsi conoscere da Eric anche senza la voce. La vediamo prendere le redini del carro e fare dei salti spericolati. eh manifesta quella voglia di scoperta e di esplorazione che è la motivazione forte del personaggio e anche la meraviglia che prova la Sirenetta a trovarsi finalmente nel mondo degli umani. È bellissimo nei film Disney tutto il tema dell'uso degli oggetti, solo fantasticato mentre era sott'acqua e poi messo alla prova insieme a Eric in superficie. Super carino. 

My comment, questions to Sara Boero:

Davvero è da Andersen originale "en mandsdragt", un vestito maschile - peccato che tante traduzioni italiane dicano un vestito DA AMAZZONE colla gonna (è anche peccato che Ariel nella stessa scena nel film indossa un vestito da amazzone! La voldrevo vedere col pantaloncino!). Sto pensando a Cristina di Svezia ed a Giovanna d'Arco, colleziono delle illustrazioni della Sirenetta col mandsdragt/vestito maschile (in alcune, il setting è medievale e lei porta anche una capigliatura da paggetto alla Giovanna d'Arco, in altre versioni il setting è nell'Età Moderna e lei porta il codino alla Mozart come lo stesso principe).

Da dove hai tratto, Sara, che è un vestito maschile nell'originale? Dall'originale danese o da una traduzione (inglese? Italiana?)

E chi è il traduttore della versione Ippocampo?

But where does Sara Boero get her "vestito maschile / da paggetto" from? The original Danish or an English or Italian translation? And who did the Ippocampo translation with the amazon's dress?

SARA BOERO RISPONDE:

Ciao! Originariamente anni fa avevo scoperto che nell'originale danese il vestito è maschile dall'edizione commentata di Maria Tatar (in inglese). Allora ero andata a cercarmi l'originale danese e sì, la parola è quella che indichi tu, che da come avevo capito è un "completo semplice da uomo" d'epoca (quindi può essere sensato tradurre "da paggio", per rendere l'idea). In molte edizioni inglesi ho visto che viene tradotto proprio come "da paggio", in italiano ho sempre visto solo "da amazzone" o "per cavalcare", mi sembra che non venga mai evidenziato che il vestito è maschile: la traduzione dell'Ippocampo è di Alda Manghi e Marcella Rinaldi. Mi sembra un peccato, sì, è un dettaglio importante!

SANDRA DERMARK RISPONDE:

Un dettaglio IMPORTANTISSIMO, IL PIÙ importante, la mia scena preferita è QUESTA del vestito da paggio, le escursione e le scalate in montagna... Ed è anche peccato che ARIEL non indosse il vestito da paggio! E come lo traduce l'edizione di Minalima e chi la ha tradotto? Anch'io ho l'edizione commentata di Maria Tatar (in spagnolo) e adoro i suoi commentari, sopratutto quelli sulla Regina delle Nevi (sopratutto la Quarta Storia, perchè mi identifico un sacco colla Principessa Intelligente che ha letto tutti i giornali del mondo, ma si annoia e si sente sola ed ha tutto un iter di candidature per trovare il suo uguale intellettuale - è il mio personaggio di fiaba preferito)! E anch'io ho quella di Minalima in inglese! Quando avevo più soldi collezionavo le diverse versioni di Andersen per comparare le traduzioni e le illustrazioni... Nel mio Facebook ho per esempio una galleria dove comparo il vestito maschile (mandsdragt) della sirenetta/trovatella in diverse versione, alcune più medievale (col bob alla Giovanna d'Arco) e altre più settecentesche (col codino alla Mozart)...

SARA BOERO:

La versione Ippocampo è la Minalima italiana, traduzioni di Alda Manghi e Marcella Rinaldi.

PAUL WANNER - THE MAGIC THREAD, ORIGINS?

The version in the Book of Virtues and that in Hey, Listen to This (both from the early 1990s) are direct English translations of the Paul Wanner version, illustrated in English (and more languages, like Spanish and Swedish) by Nikolai Ustinov in the 1980s. The original German was published by Schreiber Esslingen. It's the same text (A later, shorter version appears in The Monk who Sold his Ferrari, abridged by Robin Sharma, from 1996).

Previously the same tale, with the same text by Paul Wanner, was published in German by Schreiber Esslingen in 1971 with illustrations by Severino Baraldi. 

During the next five years, Schreiber and Ustinov stayed in contact and developed a series of children’s books together. Due to not only the VAAP bureaucracy, but also the illustrator’s time-consuming work, the first collection of six tales, re-told by the author Paul Wanner (1895–1990), did not come out until 1984, under the title Die schönsten Kindergeschichten. In 1985, it was expanded with another six tales, first issued as Die schönsten Märchen für das ganze Jahr, and then under the serial title, Die schönsten Kindergeschichten Europas. The series consisted of an unusual collection of lesser-known tales from Germany, France, Italy, Spain, England, Finland, Sweden – and the USSR.

Already in 1971, Schreiber had issued a series by Wanner, entitled Die schönsten Märchen Europas, with illustrations by the Italian artist Severino Baraldi, but the new series with Ustinov differed from the previous both in form and content. The aesthetic style and design of the series were striking. It was issued both as one collected hardcover edition and as single stories in thin booklets of 16 pages each, with a 20 x 27 cm format and “look” reminiscent of the characteristic cheap, mass-printed, paper booklets for children by the Soviet children’s book publisher Children's Literature (Detskaya Literatura). The Italian edition of these booklets was published by AMZ in 1985. Previously, Giunti Marzocco had published the Baraldi-illustrated edition of the same tales as a collected hardcover containing "Il filo magico" in 1983.

Gerhard Schreiber held the international rights to Ustinov’s illustrations and eventually the book series and collection were published in several European languages. 

Ustinov, Nikolai (ill. to) Wanner, Paul. Die schönsten Kindergeschichten. Neu erzählt von Paul Wanner. Gemalt von Nikolai Ustinov. Esslingen 1984. Ustinov, Nikolai (ill. to) Wanner, Paul: Die schönsten Kindergeschichten Europas (Reihe). Erzählt von Paul Wanner. Gemalt von Nikolai Ustinov. Esslingen 1985/1986. Inhalt: Aus Deutschland: Zwergenkönig Rübezahl; Aus Frankreich: Der Zauberfaden; ...

“The Magic Thread” from Fairy Tales, illustrated by Nikolai Ustinov. Translation copyright 1985 by Hodder & Stoughton Ltd. Used by permission of Doubleday, a division of Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc.; also published by Random House in 1987

In both the Ustinov and Baraldi versions, "The Magic Thread" is seen as a French tale, likewise in the English versions (translator?) lifted from Wanner (published by Doubleday) in the Book of Virtues (1993) and in Hey, Listen to This (1992). But I have found no source material in French, no matter how much I googled the title. It appears to be a GERMAN tale, though SET IN FRANCE (in the Loire Valley).

The earliest version I could find, "Der Zauberfaden," is written in German, its author and year of publishing unknown, but it is surely a literary tale (Kunstmärchen): the characters have proper names, the scope is cautionary, using hyperbole (if you could skip all your waiting/unpleasant times you would only miss one or two decades, NOT an entire lifetime!), and there is a lot of worldbuilding (ie the main character's time doing military service, etc). 

http://www.kuk-verlagsanstalt.com/German/Literatur/Geschichten/Zauberfaden.html

In the Wanner version, the names of the antihero and his love interest/wife were changed from Hans and Marie to Peter and Lise, but otherwise the story is nigh identical to the Wanner version.

Timeline:

• Time unknown, "Der Zauberfaden," anonymous literary tale, written in German but set in France
• 1971: Paul Wanner, Severino Baraldi, Esslingen (German). First introduced as a French tale
• 1983: Wanner-Baraldi published in Italy by Giunti Marzocco
• 1984: Wanner, Nikolai Ustinov, Esslingen (German)
• 1985: Wanner-Ustinov published in Italy by AMZ, / Wanner-Ustinov published in English by Doubleday
• 1987: Wanner-Ustinov published in English by Random House
• 1992: Wanner version from Doubleday recollected in Hey, Listen to This (no illustrations) 
• 1993: Wanner version from Doubleday recollected in The Book of Virtues (no illustrations) 
• 1996: Abridgement by Robin Sharma recollected in The Monk who Sold his Ferrari. / Episode "Self-Discipline season 1," Adventures from the Book of Virtues
• 2006: Click (film, existential comedy)

AUROR AU GAIDEN: ZODIAC AUROR SWAT SQUAD

ZODIAC AUROR SWAT SQUAD

Is a new gaiden set in the (Hogwarts AU) world of El semen de los ahorcados, decades after the main storyline (Catherine Pontmercy, Kinu Sohma, and Juliet Butler among others appear as side characters), but focusing on five 20-something Aurors after they left Hogwarts and went through Auror training. A ragtag "armata Brancaleone" with much in common with Enjolras' AS-SORTED (and Giorno Giovanna's branch of Passione), they were originally the Aloof Ally West Coast Team in the magical girl warrior comics Zodiac Starforce. 

The quintet, under the leadership of top brass Colonel "Capricorn" (her real name unknown), are made a SWAT (Special Weapons And Tactics) team (given zodiac codenames and custom uniforms) and sent on suicide missions because they're too powerful and talented to be given typical new-meat missions, and also because the Ministry wants them out of the picture. However, when they find out that another, rival SWAT team of Aurors, the Ministry's only SWAT team until the Zodiac Squad was established (a veteran team who are in cahoots with organized crime), La Squadra di Esecuzioni led by Risotto Nero (first appearance of La Squadra in a StrixAlluka AU since Twilight Robbery AU As the Luck Would Have It!), are planning a war and a coup d'état to take over the Ministry from within... of course no one believes the Zodiac Squad at first, and soon both teams are interlocked in a deadly struggle...

And of course Tiziano and Squalo are there as a Greek chorus/Those Two Bad Guys who also are lovers (think Rosencrantz and Guildenstern!), just like in As the Luck Would Have It!

Moreover the members of the Zodiac SWAT Squad will turn out to be the reincarnations of some really special people, from the same universe, who share their personalities (and sometimes something more), which factors into the plot...

The main inspirations were Vento Aureo, the 007 franchise, and 1990s action series like SWAT Kats (the SWAT team idea came from there) and TaleSpin, ExoSquad, Valerian & Laureline (the animesque series), and the Batman and X-Men animated series, among others.

The members of the Zodiac SWAT Squad are (their weapons were taken from the original Zodiac Starforce, and they take the weapons out of their own chests/hearts Utena style like in the original. Also the weapons here were given a wizarding twist, their Hogwarts wands were melded with the weapons):

Capricorn

South Asian, mentor (not part of the team, real name unknown). Colonel. Left-handed. Fights using a rapier.
Jack Novak, Leo

(Polish-British). Lieutenant, Gryffindor, half-blood, ex-Quidditch captain, descendant of Jack the Giant Slayer (the hero of the Beanstalk and other tales, who was real in this universe). Fights using a flaming greatsword. Thinks he is a shonen protagonist and acts like one. Left-handed. Reincarnation of Courfeyrac.
Álex Pérez, Aquarius

(Latina). Lieutenant, pure-blood, Ravenclaw, ex-prefect and Quidditch captain, omniglot, rival and avatar of the author (Ravenclaw, omniglot, child of two worlds and only child of divorced parents, genki girl with ADHD and autism, etc). Fights with a bow (in spite of her sign) and ice powers, firing ice arrows. Right-handed. Reincarnation of Combeferre.
Lux Han, Sagittarius

(South Korean) Ensign, Muggle-born, self-taught, the only one who didn't go to Hogwarts, fallen ex-Kpop star and ex-girlfriend of Romance Saja. Serious substance abuse issues... Fights with a whip and light powers. Reincarnation of Grantaire.
Samson "Sam" Walker, Cancer

(Afro-Caribbean) Ensign, Hufflepuff, pure-blood, Voodoo priest, orphan with massive number siblings, super strong, healing hands, stoic with a heart of gold. Pacifist. Reincarnation of Lesgles/Bossuet.
Jenny Clark, Virgo
(British) Ensign, Slytherin, goth of unknown parentage, suffers from autism and OCD, another avatar of the author, turns out to be someone very special, inferiority complex. Fights with two kunai, dual wielding (ambidextrous) and electric powers. Reincarnation of Enjolras. In a romantic relationship with Lux/Sag.