Weaving Through Fairy Tales: An Exploration of the Interconnection of Textile and Fairy Tale Creation

Abstract

This dissertation discuses the connection and similarities between fairy tales and textile creation. Specifically discussed are the fairytales that involve textile creation. These tales are: Rumpelstiltskin, Sleeping Beauty, “Habetrot and Scantlie Mab,” “The Little Flax Flower,” and “The Three Spindles.” These tales all involve an element of textile creation that is integral to the story. The tales, and fairy tales in general, represent transformation for the main characters, and hopefully for the reader. The purpose of fairy tales goes beyond entertainment—they are designed to explain or explore life’s challenges. By reading or hearing about the challenges and accomplishments of a fairy tale character the listener can be inspired to face their own trials in a similar fashion.

Textiles are made from various sources of raw material; pre-Industrial Revolution materials in Europe were usually wool or flax. These raw materials were transformed through stages of cleaning, separating, straightening, spinning, dyeing, and weaving to create a finished textile. This transformation from raw material to textile was created by women and men who shared, or even created, fairytales. The inherent transformative process in textile creation is mirrored in the stories that the spinners and weavers created and shared. The transformation of a poor girl to a wealthy one is a common fairy tale transformation and the tellers of these tales were often spinners.

The early fairy tale movement started in France in the late seventeenth century. The movement was started by aristocratic women who used fairy tales as a means of expressing their thoughts for a more equal society than the one they were living in under the King. This forward-thinking fairy tale movement eventually inspired other countries and movements throughout Europe and America. In the last century fairy tales have become a symbol of stagnation as opposed to the transformation that the early French writers were promoting. As fairy tales and textiles transform over time both inform and enrich the other.