Friendship and sisterhood: supernatural folktales of women helping each other

Women who make other women's lives miserable are disproportionately represented in folktales from around the world. Wicked stepmothers and cruel sisters drive the plots of countless fairy tales. Sometimes, the negative woman-woman relationships in the story are offset slightly by the presence of a wise crone or fairy woman who aids the heroine. But stories of mutually beneficial relationships between women who are peers are harder to find.

With that in mind, here are a few stories that meet the following conditions:

1. A woman protagonist but NO woman antagonist
2. Two or more female characters who help each other or work collaboratively (the typical fairy godmother intervention would not count because the giving is largely one-sided)

The Mountain Lion and the Four Sisters, a folktale from the Osage Nation of the Great Plains in North America:

Long ago, four sisters lived together in a grass house. The eldest cooked, the 2nd wove floor mats, the 3rd wove small mats, and the youngest harvested the raw materials needed for cooking and weaving. One day, they discovered that a mountain lion was stalking their camp. They quickly packed up to move camp to a safer place.

When the mountain lion pursued them, the oldest stamped her foot and an apple tree sprung up. Their pursuer ate the apples and then continued chasing the sisters. Then the second sister stamped her foot and a pawpaw tree appeared. The cougar stopped to eat the fallen fruit, and then took off after the sisters again. Now the third sister stamped her foot and a deep ravine opened up behind them. The mountain lion was unable to cross it. The youngest sister put a stick across the ravine and tricked the cougar into stepping onto it. The stick broke and the mountain lion fell into the ravine.¹

Btw, the only apples native to North America are crabapples.

"The Demon's Midwife", a Jewish folktale from Morocco:

One night, a midwife was walking home from one of her assignments when she got lost in the darkness. A large cat came to her and led her home. The grateful midwife told the cat, "God grant that as you helped me, I can someday help you."

One year later, a strange man appeared the the midwife's door, begging for help with his wife's delivery. The midwife went with him and was shown to a bedroom in a lavishly furnished house. There lay a young woman about to give birth to her first child. After the midwife had helped her deliver her son, the woman told her that she was the cat that had helped the lost midwife a year ago. What's more, the occupants of the house, including the new mother, were demons. She warned the midwife not to accept any food or valuables from her kin, except for the smallest rug near the door.²

When the new mother's feasting relatives invited the midwife to dine with them, she politely declined. When they offered her treasures as a reward, she asked for only the smallest rug. If she had accepted any of the treasures or eaten the food of the demons, she would have been trapped in their world forever. But the midwife was able to return home safely with the rug, which magically produced gold coins. The midwife used the money to help her community, and lived happily for the rest of her life.³

"Legend of the White Snake" from Zhejiang, China:

A giant white python acquired the ability to assume human form after years of spiritual practice. One day, while in the form of a woman, she saw a beggar who was about to gut a green snake to sell its gall bladder. She bought the snake to save its life. The green snake turned out to be a snake demon like herself. The two swore sisterhood, and taking human form, they came to Hangzhou as White Lady and her maid Xiaoqing.

Soon after, the White Lady married a human man Xu Xian, with whom she ran a pharmacy. Xu Xian met a Buddhist monk Fahai, who sensed a demonic aura about him. Upon investigation, the monk found out that Xu Xian was living with demons. Fahai wanted to rescue Xu Xian from the snake demons. When Xu Xian was unwilling to terminate his marriage even after seeing the monstrous, serpentine true form of his wife, Fahai detained him and tried to pressure him into becoming a monk.⁴

The White Lady and Xiaoqing battled Fahai to retrieve Xu Xian. In the ensuing chaos, Xu Xian escaped from the monk. Fahai trapped the white snake under Leifeng Pagoda, but the green snake eluded capture. From her place of imprisonment, the White Lady begged Fahai to release her so that she could nurse her infant son. The monk pointed to a nearby sago palm that had not bloomed for 500 years and said, "When the sago palm flowers, you will be released."

The white snake then asked the green snake to marry her husband and take care of her son Mengjiao. 20 years later, Mengjiao took top honors in the imperial civil service examination. The emperor bestowed on him a special official's hat decorated with floral ornaments. The green snake Xiaoqing took her stepson to Leifeng Pagoda, where he hung his floral hat on the sago palm. In that moment, the pagoda split. The white snake was freed and reunited with her friend and family.

This is only one of many regional versions of the White Snake legend. Btw, a real life sago palm blooms every 3-4 years.

Notes

1. Mountain Lion and the Four Sisters, Hold Up the Sky and Other Native American Tales from Texas and the Southern Plains, ane Louise Curry
2. The Demon's Midwife, Rachel the Clever and Other Jewish Folktales, Josepha Sherman
3. "The Clever Midwife", Jewish Stories One Generation Tells Another, Peninah Schram
4. 白蛇传, Wikipedia, the Free Encyclopedia. Web. 21 October 2017