cousins and fairy tales
Sep. 18th, 2020 11:55 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
marycatelliWas laying out protocol in the fairy tale kingdoms. One rule is that small royal children from different kingdoms can only meet if they are first cousins once removed or first cousins. You have to be at least nine to meet someone whom you could one day marry.
And they are aware of their history because it is wise to learn from the past and not make the same mistakes.
So was ambling along with a story with a fully grown prince riding across the land and accepting hospitality from relatives, and in one castle, they start to talk about how silly things get when you have first cousin marriages. It gets silly, because they are citing tales written down by the précieuses, and making all allowances for differing tastes in literary fairy tales, there are such wonders as a re-telling of Hop O'My Thumb where the heroine ends up marrying a prince and so has to be a princess, and thus we have a king and queen in reduced circumstances who abandon their children in the forest. . . .
And they are aware of their history because it is wise to learn from the past and not make the same mistakes.
So was ambling along with a story with a fully grown prince riding across the land and accepting hospitality from relatives, and in one castle, they start to talk about how silly things get when you have first cousin marriages. It gets silly, because they are citing tales written down by the précieuses, and making all allowances for differing tastes in literary fairy tales, there are such wonders as a re-telling of Hop O'My Thumb where the heroine ends up marrying a prince and so has to be a princess, and thus we have a king and queen in reduced circumstances who abandon their children in the forest. . . .