Saturday, April 25, 2015

Part 2 of How NOT to Get a Wife: Stealing Skins

Myths of very different cultures contain the theme of the human male acquiring a wife of non-human origin by stealing her property and then withholding information from her. Three folktales from Chad, Sweden and Scotland all share these elements:
  • An human man.
  • A wild animal who becomes a woman after shedding her skin.
  • The man steals the skin of the animal-woman.
  • Unable to return to her animal form, she stays and becomes the man's wife.
  • The animal-wife eventually finds the stolen skin and leaves the marriage.