According to Sharon Blackie, an award-winning, author, speaker and teacher, fairy tales are a subset of folk tales which were designed to help people through challenges. “As well as helping us to process our traumas, fairy tales can shine a light on our natural transitions…” One tale that does this for me is “The Handless Maiden,” a fairy tale that was passed down orally for generations before the Brothers Grimm transcribed it in 1812.
The story begins with a miller, who because he has little money, is tricked into a deal with the devil/old man/wizard to become wealthy in exchange for his daughter. After giving the miller his riches, the devil comes to take the daughter but can’t because she draws a white-chalk circle around herself and makes her hands clean and pure.
The devil then tells the miller to chop off his daughter’s hands, and the father complies for fear of the devil taking him instead. The daughter cries all night and the tears clean her arms so the devil cannot take her again, and he leaves empty-handed
With the riches, the father offers to care for his daughter forever, but she refuses, leaves home, and enters a forest. With the help of an angel, she finds food, and meets, falls in love with, and marries a kind king who gives her a pair of silver hands. In time, the king leaves for war and the new queen gives birth to their son.
The queen sends a message to the king announcing the child’s healthy birth, but the devil intercepts it and changes it to say the baby is ill. The king is very sad and sends a reply saying his love will always remain, but again, the devil changes it to say the king wants the queen and baby killed.
The king’s mother refuses to follow through on these fake orders and instead sends the queen and baby away into the forest to find safety. There, an angel helps guide them to a cabin with a sign that says, “Here, all dwell free.”
The queen and their son live in the cabin for seven years during which time her hands grow back.
Eventually, the king finds his family and they are happily reunited.
There are many lessons in this tale, and the one that resonates most with me is going deep within ourselves, as the queen does in the cabin in the forest, to completely heal, become whole, and find freedom.
Best-selling author, teacher and theologian Meggan Watterson writes about the handless maiden growing her hands back, “Love has regrown her reason for being here. Love has healed her body. And it’s not a love that came from her father, or her husband, not even her son. It’s a love that came from within her, a love that had protected her and guided her all along.”
As I companion people around dying, death, and grief, I see this love, healing, wholeness, and freedom, again and again.
