14 December: Child, Go With the Wolf

Hopefully it is already clear the witch is the goodie in this tale, and the woodsman is the baddy. I don’t do wicth stereotyping, obviously, thanks to a stern lesson from a Glaswegian witch, once, on the banks of Loch Ness. Actually I thought I was already not stereotyping witches, but it turned out I was not nearly not stereotyping them enough. So now I definitely don’t. Which goes to show that the witch stereotyping in this tale so far has to be the projection of the woodsman and his city. Anyway hopefully that is already clear. Wonder what will happen next.

8 December: Conversation with a Wolf

Conversation with a Wolf

Somewhere in a tumbledown cottage, they say,

the witch boils the bones of children

who thought they were clever and wandered away.

But now they’re only skin and skulls.

–So sir won’t you help me to choose the right road,

I’m trying to get to the city.

In the city they say you can be what you want

but I’m stuck in today,

I can’t find my way,

so won’t you help me choose a road.

–Oh no, says the stranger with luminous eyes,

the city is not what they say.

The butchers there they’ll try to carve you alive,

the schools will devour you, the doctors deflower you,

and the firemen will take what’s left.

Your big brother passed this way two years ago,

and did you not notice, he never called home?

I begged him, the stranger said, baring his teeth,

to stay and resist,

and seek out the Witch,

but he took the broad and well-lit road.

The woodsman is coming to take off your head,

and only the Witch can protect you.

So be of bold heart,

let go of the path,

We still have time to get you there.

—You must think I’m a fool or a child, said the Girl,

to fall for such specious deception.

The Witch east us children, she boils our bones.

— Yes, says the Wolf, Or so you’ve been told.