Does solving a man's riddles make him love you? Probably not. The female protagonists of these tales, however, manage to turn it into an effective mating strategy. The downside is that the man won't stay in love. That's the part where kidnapping and (possible) Stockholm syndrome come in.
We all know this one: an innocent woman put into a coma, then revived by further violation of her personhood. It's dark. It's tragic. It's old. The earliest stories appear in medieval times: Pandragus et Libanor, reportedly composed in February 1294 by Baudouin Butor. Every other variant seems to postdates it, but the trope of an enchanted sleeper goes back to Greek mythology with Endymion.
Frayre de Joy and Sor de Plaser
The Sleeping Beauty in the Wood
Source: Sleeping Beauties: Sleeping Beauty and Snow White Tales From Around the World by Heidi Anne Heiner.
For the annual A to Z Challenge, I decided to summarize folktales from all over the world. This is a list of all the posts:
The birds needed fire but there wasn't any on earth so four birds decided to get it from God. After twenty days of travel, three of the birds died. Mason-Wasp stops at a cloud. God asks what he is doing there and, after explaining, the Lord makes him the leader of the birds and tells him how to make babies (it's not clear if they received fire).
Source: Ila-Speaking Peoples of Northern Rhodesia by Edwin William Smith
Two cousins wanted to get married but their fathers disapproved. The couple eloped. However, they became separated and the girl was targeted by men who wanted to marry her. She drugged them all and escaped. Along the way, she befriended forty girls and they dressed as men to avoid unwanted attention. She reached a foreign port and became king of the land. Using her newfound authority, she reunited with her lover, married off all her gal pals, and lived happily ever after.
Source: From the land of Sheba; tales of the Jews of Yemen by S. D. Goitein.
Over 6000 people were gathered for a feast when a messenger arrived on behalf of Mangna Khan, who ordered various items and people to be surrendered by a certain date, of he would send an army. Khongor refused to be enslaved and went to do battle with his enemy. He captured multiple soldiers until he was shot and his allies treated him. He then battled his enemy to the end.
Source: Jangar: The Heroic Epic of the Kalmyk Nomads by Saglar Bougdaeva.
Does solving a man's riddles make him love you? Probably not. The female protagonists of these tales, however, manage to turn it into ...
