The Green Serpent

Illustration showing the princess looking aghast at the hideous dragon in the bridal bed.

In the 1698 French fairy tale, The Green Serpent, a princess is cursed to be the ugliest woman alive and a prince is cursed to be a hideous dragon. This story explores the stigma of visible difference (even from those who have experienced such stigma themselves). It features characters of varied appearances and abilities, and references the adaptations made to accommodate them.

The tale begins:

'Once upon a time there was a great Queen, who, on giving birth to twin daughters, invited twelve fairies, residing in her neighbourhood, to come and see them, and endow them, as was the custom in those days,—and a very convenient custom too, for the power of the fairies generally made up the deficiencies of nature, though it certainly did sometimes spoil what nature had done her best to make perfect.'

The mother invites twelve fairies to a celebratory feast but forgets to invite Magotine who arrives and curses one child to be the ugliest person alive. Other fairies intervene before the second child can be cursed. The children are subsequently named, Laideronnette (the ugly one) and Bellotte (the Pretty one. 

Laideronnette voluntarily retreats to a remote tower and grows up there. When roaming in the surrounding land
she meets a talking dragon and is terrified of him. 
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The dragon says:

'You would fear me less if you knew me better.'

However, even when Laideronnette is on a boat drifting out to sea and in risk of drowning, she refuses the dragon's help. She wakes up on the shore of a faraway land. The dragon is the cursed king of this land but the Laideronnette does not know this.

Admiring the beauty of her surroundings, she leaves to see the view from her balcony and then hears a noise from her room. 

'She re-entered it, and saw advancing towards her a hundred Pagods, formed and dressed in a hundred different fashions. The tallest were about a cubit in height, and the shortest not above four inches,—some beautiful, graceful, and agreeable; others hideous, alarmingly ugly. Their bodies were of diamonds, emeralds, rubies, pearls, crystal, amber, coral, porcelain, gold, silver, brass, bronze, iron, wood, and clay; some without arms, others without feet, others had mouths extending to their ears, eyes all askew, broken noses; in a word, there is not more variety amongst all the creatures that inhabit the world than there was amongst these pagods. 
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​Those who presented themselves before the Princess were the deputies of the kingdom.'

The pagodines say they her every whim will be catered to if she only remains with them and they bring her gifts in baskets 'proportioned to their own size' and they play instruments similarly adapted to their size: 

'Some had theorbos made out of nut-shells—others, bass-viols made out of almond-shells; for it was, of course, necessary that the instruments should be proportioned to the size of the performers. But everything was so perfect, and harmonized so completely, that nothing could surpass the delight experienced at their concerts.'

She marvels the kindness of her reception:

"I was on the brink of destruction—I awaited death, and could hope for nothing else; and, notwithstanding, I suddenly find myself in the most beautiful and magnificent place in the world, and where I am received with the greatest joy!" ​

At night, an unseen King speaks to her and love sparks between them. The king makes Laideronnette promise not look upon him because he is under curse for seven years that will start over if she sees him. She agrees and they marry without her ever laying eyes on him. 

However, persuaded by her visiting family, she sneaks a look at him and realises her is the hideous green dragon she was so afraid of. War breaks out in the kingdom and the wicked fairy, Magotine, sends the King into Hades to start his penance from the start and takes Laideronnette as her prisoner. 

Laideronnette must complete numerous trials, but is helped by the good fairy Protectress. 
1. To spin cobwebs into hair and then the hair itself into fishnets strong enough to catch salmon.
2. To climb a mountain wearing iron shoes and a millstone around the neck.
3. To find the "Fount of Discretion" and to bring back its water with her in a pitcher full of holes.

When she drinks from the Fount of Discretion she becomes discrete - i.e. no long curious. And when she washes her face in the water she washes away the fairy's curse and becomes beautiful. 

Laideronnette is renamed by the good fairy as Queen Discreet and she hides in an enchanted forest until the King has done his seven years of penance. When she returns, Magotine is angry at her transformation and sets her a final trial she is sure she'll fail - to go into Hades to retrieve some 'Water of Long Life'. 

With the help of character called Love, Queen Discreet retrieves a flask of the water and, cured of her curiosity, she does not drink from it. 

Love uses his powers to transform the King back into his human form and his is finally reunited with Queen Discreet. Love takes the couple back Magotine and gets her to break her spell, allowing the King and Queen to live happily ever after. Or rather:

'They returned to it immediately, and passed the rest of their days in as much happiness as they had previously endured afflictions and anxieties.'

The moral of the tale is then summed up in a poem. In essence, curiosity can be dangerous, and no matter how many times experience teaches this or tales tell of it, humans never learn.

From a disability perspective, what might the moral lesson or lessons be? Comment below!

Sources:
The Green Serpent by the Countess d'Aulnoy
Image: Le cabinet des fées - ou, Collection choisie des contes des fées, et autres contes merveilleux (1785)