Topic Research: Spin Me a Yarn

While I did enjoy the various topics I came up with, I think the one that I’m going to focus on for my storybook is the idea of the yarn/weaving shop. As I said in that post, I think my boyfriend came up with the perfect name: Spin Me a Yarn. 

As it turns out, Wikipedia has a page called Textiles in Mythology and Folklore, which is going to be very helpful for this. It’s got a list of all the world’s myths and folklore that center around things involving weaving, yarn, spinning, etc. It gives me a good reference point, but since it only summarizes, I think I’ll need to use other sources to get a full story layout to reference for my storybook.

So, in no particular order, here’s three stories I think I want to focus on:

1: Athena and Arachne

Source

In Greek mythology, Athena was the patron goddess of weaving, among other things. Arachne was a shepherd's daughter, and boasted that she was better at weaving than the goddess. Athena challenged her to a contest, and (depending on the version) when Arachne won, she gloated entirely too much and as punishment, Athena turned her into the first spider. I can use the Book of Myths by Jean Lang as a source for this; it seems to have one of the original versions (or as good as it gets): Ovid’s.

2: The Weaver Maiden and the Herdsman

Source

This story is from Chinese folklore. The Goddess Weaver is responsible for weaving the Milky Way, and did so until she fell in love with a mortal shepherd. Her parents ordered them to be separated, but she refused to continue weaving. So as compromise, she gets to meet her lover once a year, when magpies form a bridge over which they can cross to meet. This source comes from the Myths of the World by Padraic Colum. This one might be a bit of a stretch, but I’ll work on it and reconsider.

3: The Six Swans

Source

This story is a Brothers Grimm tale. Basically, because an evil stepmother cursed her six brothers, a princess has to weave six shirts from nettles, and she can’t talk or laugh for six years, or she won’t be able to change her brothers back at all. The princess lives in the woods while she works on her task, and a king from another kingdom finds her and marries her. Her mother-in-law is suspicious of her since the princess never says anything or laughs; when the princess gives birth three times, her mother-in-law takes the babies away and accuses the princess of murdering her children. Right before the princess is set to be burned at the stake, she finishes the last shirt. Her brothers fly down from the sky and she throws the shirts on them, turning them human again. This source comes from Margaret Hunt’s translation of the Brothers Grimm. I’ve read a couple different stories that are based on this tale, and it’s a very nice one to expand upon. I think I can work with it.

There are other myths and folklores I’m going to look into as well, I think, such as Mama Oclio (the Incan goddess who taught the art of spinning thread) or Crane’s Return of a Favor (a Japanese tale of a crane that repays a couple’s kindness by weaving fine cloth for them to sell). Regardless, I think this gives me a place to start.