In Search of the Swan Maiden: A Narrative on Folklore and Gender

by Barbara Fass Leavy

In her compendious study, [of the folktale of the runaway wife] Leavy argues that the contradictory claims of nature and culture are embodied in the legendary figure of the swan maiden, a woman torn between the human and bestial worlds.
-- The New York Times Book Review

This is a study of the meaning of gender as framed by the swan maiden tale, a story found in the folklore of virtually every culture. The swan maiden is a supernatural woman forced to marry, keep house, and bear children for a mortal man who holds the key to her imprisonment. When she manages to regain this key, she escapes to the otherworld, never to return.

These tales have most often been interpreted as depicting exogamous marriages, describing the girl from another tribe trapped in a world where she will always be the outsider. Barbara Fass Leavy believes that, in the societies in which the tale and its variants endured, woman was the other--the outsider trapped in a society that could never be her own. Leavy shows how the tale, though rarely explicitly recognized, is frequently replayed in modern literature.

Beautifully written, this book reveals the myriad ways in which the folktales of a society reflect its cultural values, and particularly how folktales are allegories of gender relations. It will interest anyone involved in literary, gender, and cultural studies.

Genres: Nonfiction, Folklore, Mythology, Gender

388 pages, Paperback

First published January 1, 1994

About the author

Barbara Leavy has written three books on supernatural femmes fatales and demon lovers in folklore and literature, the last of which, reviewed favorably by The New York Times Sunday Book Review, is In Search of the Swan Maiden: A Narrative on Folklore and Gender. Her book on epidemic diseases as a literary subject, To Blight with Plague, paved the way for her analysis of how Ruth Rendell treats disease as a theme in her fiction. In the field of mystery writing, her study of The Woman in White and the history of psychology in nineteenth-century England is a resource for Wilkie Collins scholars.

Reviews

[Claire · Rating 4 out of 5]

⭐️BOOK REVIEW: In Search of the Swan Maiden⭐️

I first heard IN SEARCH OF THE SWAN MAIDEN referenced on the WHAT THE FORCE podcast (@ wtforcemedia ) run by Marie Claire Gould. I’m not sure what episode it was but I’m nearly positive it was one where Missy (@ fangirling_0nly on Twitter) appeared. Very grateful for this reference as it was a really great read with tons of good info on folklore and interpreting it through a gender lens.

Some of the book was very academic and a little hard to read, but most of it was a very interesting breakdown of the swan maiden trope in folklore and its main permutations. A TON of folklore stories were referenced, specifically a lot of Native American folklore that I had never heard before so that was very fascinating. I found the author’s analysis of swan maidens, animal brides and grooms, demon lovers, and Cupid and psyche variants to be very insightful and also interesting when asking who is telling the story, who is it for, what character is most active within it. Oftentimes the author surprised me on her analysis of whether a folktale was really woman-focused or not by where the swan maiden ended up, whether she has rejected the supernatural and come back to the world of reality or escaped a husband that would seek to trap her.

All in all this was super useful for stories I probably won’t be able to write for years but definitely worthwhile to start thinking about them. Would recommend! 4 stars.

[Missy · Rating 5 out of 5]

I found this book on GoogleBooks and loved the excerpt, so I had to get the entire book to read. I found it utterly fascinating. Leavy writes in an accessible style while also referencing other books that more academic types might be familiar with (I'm not one of them, alas), making this an excellent companion for a broader study on fairy tales and folktale types. Even as a casual reader, however, I found it engaging. In particular, I loved how each chapter delved into variations on the tales and characters that feature a fairy wife or husband, such as the demon lover, revenant, incubus, animal husband, etc. The North American folktales were particularly interesting as I'd never heard most of them before, and I was also fascinated by variants such as the Three Oranges tales. Highly recommended for academic and casual readers alike!

[Judith · Rating 3 out of 5]

Slightly outdated theory-wise and sometimes confusing due to the overload of examples but interesting nontheless // 3,5 stars

[Sara G · Rating 4 out of 5]

A bit dated but also really interesting and wide reaching.