ARIADNE'S SPINDLE - A SLAVIC SPIN

This folktale from the Slavic tradition reminded me of the Ariadne myth - only that here it's Ariadne herself who finds her own way out of the labyrinth! Isn't that a refreshing spin on the old story?

Once there was a czar whose only son was of an age to marry, and he wanted to see him happily settled. But the czar wanted "a good, hard-working daughter-in-law and not some silly featherbrain." So he built a great palace with a thousand rooms and invited all the neighbouring kings and lords to bring their marriageable daughters and see which one could find her way through the maze.

Pena National Palace, Portugal

Skilled architects, artisans, and artists from all over the world created the palace, and when it was finished there were all sorts of visitors from abroad, eager to try their luck. Yet none of the girls could find their way through the complicated rooms, and the old czar began to lose hope.

Among the crowd there were a poor village woman and her daughter, and the maiden, whom we may call Ariadne, watched the royal girls leave without success and thought she might like to try. Her mother scolded her for being so bold, but when the czarevich saw how lovely the girl looked, he asked her to try.

William-Adolphe Bouguereau

The poor daughter went into the palace and from room to room, finding an engagement ring in one and wedding dress in another. When she came out, she had a token from each of the rooms with her as proof that she had been there. She and the prince were married. The czar, her father-in-law, asked her how she had been able to navigate the labyrinth of rooms: the girl had brought her whole skein full of thread into the palace, left it at the door, and held the other end of the thread all around the palace. On her way back she wound up the thread again on her spindle so she didn't get lost.

"And from that time on there has been a saying that clever folk can be found in mud huts too, not only in palaces."