Recognizing female sexuality: at 313, the maid as mentor in the young man's maturation

AT 313, The Girl as Helper in the Hero’s Flight, amongst the longest of Märchen, is also rich with complex symbolism, and requires, for a comprehensive interpretation, a much fuller treatment than can be adequately contained within the prescribed twenty minutes. It is for this reason that I focus principally on one aspect of the tale’s meaning, summarized in the first part of my title, Recognizing Female Sexuality. The second part of my title AT 313, The Maid as Mentor in the Young Man’s Maturation aptly summarizes what I feel would be an appropriate renaming of the tale type, if such a renaming were based uniquely on versions of the tale I or my students have collected from French Newfoundlanders over an almost thirty year period, and if, more pertinently, there was sufficient scholarly agreement on the meaning and function of the tale. In focussing on female sexuality in the tale, however, I wish to stress not only its centrality to an understanding of the tale’s meaning, but also the crucial significance of the relationship between tale interpretation and what Bengt Holbek called “the storytelling community.