The Desired Woman

The Desired Woman

Throughout the assigned readings, including both fairy tales and proto-fairy tales, the role of the woman has been somewhat consistent. The female, regardless of her status, whether  strictly human or supernatural, has been a participant in a hunt. This usage of hunt is not specific to the questing for animals with intention to kill, but is instead more closely linked to the more sexually charged, medieval understanding of the hunt; lustful desire fuels these stories. These desires are found through a man's relentless, sexually-driven pursuit of a woman, as is seen in The Song of Wandering Aengus and Philomela's travail in Metamorphoses, or the woman's relentless pursuit of some form of companionship, as one reads in Ardour and Lanval.

Tereus's assault on Philomela

The woman as prey is best seen in Ovid's Metamorphoses through the plight and destruction of Philomela. Consider the actions that Tereus takes against her as a predator against its prey. His instinctual desires, mirroring that of a hungering beast, drives him to violate his sister-in-law and, as a means of protecting himself and silencing her, cut out her tongue. These brutal acts of sexual aggression and violent abuse allow for a clear mirroring of the bestial desires of man as predator. Some millennia later, William Butler Yeats, in his short tale The Song of Wandering Aengus, further solidifies Ovid's earlier observations; man is a thorough predator. This story, although lacking in the grotesque and vengeful, proves the narrator to be driven only by his desires: hunger and lust. The narrator in this story describes his desire for sustenance by noting that he had a fire "in [his] head" (3). As he catches his meal, which is, unbeknownst to him, a fay of some sort, he prepares his cooking-fire, only to be distracted by the beautiful young woman the fish has become. His hunger is immediately forgotten as he is overcome with passion; his new desire is only for his new prey. His questing is in vain, yet he continues in pursuit of his goal. This hunter, now old and graying, ever strong in his desires notes that "though I am old with wandering / Through hollow lands and hilly lands, / I will find out where she has gone, / And kiss her lips and take her hands" (16-20). Much like Tereus's lustful desires and subsequent quest for satisfaction in Philomela, Yeat's narrator strives towards his achievement in his desired woman.

Whereas Philomela and Yeat's fish-fay find themselves being hunted, Lanval's fairy-maiden and Ardour find themselves striving, or hunting, for their own desired companionship. In Marie de France's Lanval, the knight of the same name is considered just and worthy of honor, yet he receives none. This forced humility may be the source of the fay-maiden's favor and love, but there is not much specific evidence for or against that conjecture. What can be observed, however, is that this maiden seeks companionship; she seeks out, or hunts for, Lanval, as is read when her servants state "'Lord Lanval, the lady we owe duty--  / A lady of valor, wisdom, beauty-- / It's for you our lady has sent / Us. Now come along with us, do! (3). This fay-maiden seeks Lanval as her companion; her companionship is something he makes use of often. After Lanval breaks his promise and is near his death-sentencing, this supernatural lover, against her previous claim of absolute abandonment, seeks out and saves Lanval from King Arthur's sword of justice. Her desire is for Lanval, whom she pursues relentlessly. Ultimately, this pursuit leads Lanval to the fay-maiden's realm: Avalon.

Much like the fay's hunt for Lanval, Ardour, the protagonist of Jonathon Keat's Ardour, seeks out an unknown companionship. Ardour, as the personification and physical embodiment of Winter, seeks, year after year, only one goal: love. She is wholly unsure of what this word means and how she can find fulfillment, but understands that, 

it had begun as something she'd seen, who knew when, deep in the woods where she'd lived for all eternity: A girl like her--breasts as steep as snow peaks beneath a blizzard of hair--came hand-in-hand with a man into an open meadow, where they embraced, and, it seemed, drew into a single skin. Then there were his words, her tears. A rupture, a quiver. They cradled, as if each were the other's wound. (9)

Year after year, Ardour finds herself unable to fulfill her desires. That is, until she discovers and finds warmth in the touch and love of her prey, the local prince. Through him, her prey, she has found satisfaction and fulfillment; her hunt is over. Her desires, much like those of the fay-maiden, have been sated. 

Snegurochka: the basis for Keats's Ardour

Through the fairy and folk tales, women find themselves ensnared within the complex web of predatory struggle. Some women, earthly in origin, flee the pursuit of their predators; other, however, usually being supernatural in origin, choose, instead, to prey upon their potential companions. The prey of women, however, do not find themselves to be mutilated or destroyed. Are men truly more bestial?