Hybridity

Abstract

This chapter suggests that the core of fairy tales is enchantment, which is ruled by cyclic time. The discussion examines a transmedial string of variants of “The Maiden in the Tower” (ATU 310) and “Sleeping Beauty” (ATU 410)—stories about the fate of girls in tower enclosures, suspended between heaven and earth—and shows ambivalent fairies in the business of helping girls come of age. As cloistered maidens spin a spindle, they cycle along with the moon; as girls prick a finger, they mark with blood the thread of their lives. Cyclic time, which straddles opposites, breeds hybridity.