The Mutilated Maiden
A Stunning Fairy Tale Transcending Body Horror
A fairy-tale where our heroine is mutilated? Yes. Seriously.
Until very recently, I had never before heard of the folktale “The Handless Maiden”. But it’s not new. It’s not isolated. It also goes by the names “The Girl Without Hands” or “The Girl With Silver Hands” or “The Armless Maiden”. Versions originate from Germany, Italy, France, Russia, Xhosa, French Louisiana, and Japan.
If you aren’t familiar with the story or its variants, I’m pretty sure you’ve already guessed it: our heroine loses both her hands (or both her arms). Now whether this is to avoid incest or being given away to a demon depends on the variation.
This is a very heavy theme for a fairy tale.
A super quick synopsis: In Act 2, our maimed, incapacitated heroine runs away from her family. She comes upon an orchard and a spirit/angel pulls a limb down so she can eat the ripe pear. She comes to the attention of the king. He finds her beautiful and has pity on her. They marry. The king has hands of silver made for her. An appropriate amount of time later they have a child (or children). At some point, the king has to leave for some long period of time, and our heroine and her offspring become endangered by a devil/demon or her mother-in-law. They flee and find sanctuary deep in the woods in a cottage occupied by people/beings who help her. At some point, her child is drowning and our heroine doesn’t know what to do. She is told that she must reach down into the water and try. She does and her hands are restored to her. She remains at the cottage. In the meantime, the king learns that she has disappeared, and he searches all over for her. With or without intervention, he finally comes upon the cottage in the deep woods. He can’t believe that he’s found his wife until she shows him the pair of silver hands. Reunited at last! But the story does not end here. We have an Act 3. Instead of a simple reunion, the king must court his queen before they marry once again. And only then do they live happily ever after.
It is evident this tale is steeped in child abuse — escaping from and recovering from child abuse in order to become a whole person. And being constructed of three parts, this tale is unique in that it goes farther than the usual child-to-adult transformation.
This is a story of restoring wholeness and gaining autonomy.
One of the things I adore about fairy tales is the ways we can learn about ourselves in them. And the fact that we can interpret them in different ways.
To me, above all, this is a story of restoring wholeness and gaining true autonomy. It is in this spirit that I also see this fairy tale as a universal allegory about the stages of womanhood: how all women transition from Maiden to Mother and then again to Crone.
Barbara G. Walker in The Crone: Woman of Age, Wisdom, and Power (1985) tells us that “nearly all the patriarchal rulers for feminine behavior aim at immobilizing each woman in the service of a man, so she can have no economic, sexual, or intellectual freedom to say no.”
Folktales shock to elicit an emotional response for connection. Body horror is not the point. Rather, the loss of the maiden’s hands symbolizes her loss of autonomy. Once a girl matures into womanhood, especially in the absence of contraceptives and medical care, she loses some control over her body particularly when she is unable to protect access to her body.
Quite frankly, if one has a womb, one is vulnerable.
Whether or not she wants to have children (regardless of timing), a rape can take that choice away from her. Even a failure of birth control can take that choice away from her.
That our maiden eats a ripe pear is no accident. Pears represent the female form and symbolize femininity and fruitfulness. Being as blunt as a fairy tale can be, our maid is ripe for the picking.
Once married, the king makes her hands of silver — but this is only the illusion of autonomy. The expectation is that she will bear children. She doesn’t have any real choice in the matter. Her obligation is to bear an heir. Other than hopefully willingly participating in intimacy with her husband, she has no real control over conception.
Silver is a symbol of wealth, purity, and femininity (think moon energy). The king fashions her hands of silver to show others his wealth and therefore his power. Being made of silver, we are told through symbology that he intends for our heroine’s actions to be pure, avoiding immorality, particularly of a sexual nature.
Our heroine is still vulnerable after bearing a child. Her silver hands, those false prosthetics, also illustrate the perspective of a capitalist society: caring for children does not generate wealth. She is not self-sufficient. Every woman needs help in raising children. This is not a solitary endeavor. Child-rearing is very much a group project even in the most modern societies with every convenience. When our heroine escapes danger in the deep woods, the cottage she discovers is home to helpers. She is not alone.
A woman is at her most formidable when she is protecting her young, and it is interesting to note that her hands are truly restored when she protects her child. She is released from the circumstances that have limited her autonomy and self determination only after her child has survived childhood.
In the context of this fairy tale, I propose that our heroine has entered the Crone period of her life. This is typically defined as when a woman is past her child-bearing days and symbolically manifests as wisdom and healing. She is no longer subject to the whims of her reproductive system, and the social stereotype of caregiver only. She is free to participate in society as she pleases. It is interesting to note that with the restoration of her hands, our heroine remains where she is.
When the king finds her this time, he discovers not a pitiful, maimed, abandoned maiden but a self-actualized woman who is confident and well established within her community.
When the king is reintroduced to his queen, he treats her as an equal. By entering into a second courtship with her, he is not treating her as property but as a whole person capable of consent. It gives them both the opportunity to get to know each other again after so much time and experience would have invariably changed them — and most importantly, to give them both a chance to truly fall in love with each other.
I feel that looking at this story through the lens of maiden/woman/crone archetype was an interesting exercise. Tell me what you think in the comments.
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Instead of a bookstore or the stacks in a library, I happened upon this folktale from a blog post by the esteemed Terri Windling. I highly recommend you read her analysis if you would like to learn more about this fairy tale from a different point of view. She has also edited a book, The Armless Maiden and Other Tales for Childhood’s Survivors, that “explores the darker side of childhood — loss, betrayal, oppression, and abuse.”
