We’ve completed the Pentamerone stories which were published for children in the Victorian period. Seventeen of the stories, however, were taken out as unsuitable. I won’t be recording them, but I’ll be using the Burton translation to summarize their plots and the hooks we can hang on them.
Burton’s summary for the what’s now called “The Flayed Old Lady”, which he called “The Old Woman Discovered”, is this: “The King of Roccaforte is enamoured by the voice of an old woman ; is deceived by a finger, and goeth to bed with her ; but discovering the deceit, commandeth his servants to throw her out of window, and in falling she remaineth hanging on a tree. Seven fairies sighting her they give her a charm, and she becometh a beautiful girl, and the king taketh her to wife ; the other sister being envious of her good fortune, and wishing to be made handsome also, desireth to be flayed alive, and in so doing dies.” His tendency to use faux Jaocbean English is another reason not to record it in full.
In essence, there’s a king who lives in a tower, and a couple of old women who are outside sitting under a tree. They can hear everything he does, and when he farts, they make jokes about how the dust is choking them, or how a flower landed on them and gave them a headache. Back in his day, kings thought that having delicate sensibilities were a sign of beauty and nobility. That’s where the whole pea under a mattress thing comes from. He therefore assumes they are gorgeous, falls in love with them in the abstract, and decides to seek them out.
They know they are ugly and assume that the king will do something violent if he meets them and is embarrassed by how foolish he is being. Let’s drop into the text for a second: “”Where, where art thou hidden, thou most precious jewel? Come forth, 0 thou, the most beauteous in the world! Arise, thou sun! Come forth, thou gem worthy an emperor! Make manifest thy graces, let me behold the beaming lights which kindle fire in love’s domain! Chase from thee, 0 thou accursed bench, this flower of beauty : be not so ware of thy excellencies : open the gate to a poor falcon, and cage me if thou wilt! Let me behold the mouth from whose lips these sounds come forth : let me behold the bell whose sound I hear : let me behold this bird whose sweet song I listen to ; do not leave me as a sheep from Ponto to be fed with cresses, do not deny me the joy to behold and contemplate thy beauteous form.’ These and other words did the king say, but he could ring gloria, the old women’s ears were deaf to his prayers, and it was like adding fuel to the fire.””
This goes on for weeks, and one day, the ladies agree to let the king see one finger, from one hand, of one lady, provided he comes back in eight days. The king agrees, seeing this as a new crack in their defences, and progress in the siege. The ladies spend the next week giving themselves intense manicures, and one, who has the finest finger, pokes it through a keyhole for him to fall in love with. Her finger is like a dart of cupid to his heart, apparently. Or more like a mace that hit him in the head and left him dazed. Or perhaps like a lighted match. Find your own violent metaphor. So he kisses it and carries on some more. Basically he demands she come forth.
Actually, it’s so extreme, let’s have it for the humor:
“0 sweet bow of love, 0 receptacle of all joys, 0 register of all love’s privileges, for which I have become a warehouse of sorrow, and a magazine of anguish, and a custom-house of torments : is it possible, that thou wilt remain so hardened, and cruel, and feel no compassion of my complaints? 0 my sweetheart, if thou hast shown me the tail by the key-hole, put there thy lips, and we will have a jelly of happiness ; if thou hast shown part of thy sweetmeats, 0 thou river of beauty, let me behold all thy body, let me behold those eyes of hawk peregrine, and let them wither and scorch mine heart with their Ieven glances. Who holdeth prisoner the treasure of thy beauteous face ; who keepeth this beauteous ship in quarantine ; by whose power is held prisoner this charming and graceful gazelle in a pig-stye? Come out of that pit ; issue forth from those stables, come out of that hole ; leap, sweet May, and give thine hand to Cola, and pay me what I am worth ; thou knowest that I am the king, I am not a cucumber, I can bid and forbid : but that false and blind son of the lame Vulcan and the strumpet Venus, who hath full authority over all sceptres, hath made me thy subject, so that I beg of thee that of which I could command the gift; and I do as the old saw saith, for “with caresses and not with talk is Venus won.”‘
The woman is in trouble now. She knows the king can kill her with a whim, so she carries on for many, many phrases about how he’s important and she’s not, but if he wants her, he should grant her a boon, and let her come to him in complete darkness, because she can’t bear to be seen naked. He agrees joyfully, so she comes to him that night in a veil.
“The king, who had waited like match near a powdercask, when he heard them coming, and heard her get into bed, perfuming his person with sweet scented musk and civet, and anointing his beard with perfumed ointment, jumped into bed. And it was well for the old woman that he was thus anointed and perfumed, so that he could not smell the stink of her mouth, and the vinegar of her arm-pits, and the mustiness of that ugly thing. But as soon as he felt her limbs, he perceived the deception…”
The king has his servants throw her out the window. Her hair tangles about a fig tree so she does not hit the ground. Some faeries find her the next morning and they find her humiliation hilarious. To repay her for the entertainment each gives her a charm: youth, beauty, wealth, nobility, virtue, the love of others, and all good fortune. They also seat her on a velvet chair under a canopy of gold, and give her clothes with gold and gems worked through them. She is also perfumed and gifted with pages, servants and handmaidens – but if these are faeries or human is not explained.
The king looks out the window, hoping to see the body of the old woman crushed upon the ground. He instead sees the woman and has another shot with his fulsome speech. Let’s have a quote:
“Throwing himself at her feet, said to her, ‘0 dovefaced mine, 0 thou graceful doll, 0 thou pigeon from Venus’ car, triumph of love, thou hast put this heart in soak in the river Sarno. If thine eyes are not blinded by the cane-seed, and thine ears deafened by the excrement of Rennena, thou wilt hear and perceive the love-longing and pain, the anguish and sore distress that I endure for thy beauty’s sake; an if thou dost not believe, at the yellowing of my face, the heat which boileth in this breast ; if thou believest not the flames of sighs, and the scorching fire which burneth in my veins ; thou who art of good understanding, and judgment, thou canst comprehend how thy golden hair bindeth me like a chain, from thy dark eyes what coal burneth me, and from thy red lips like Cupid’s bow, what darts strike me : therefore shut not the gate of pity, and draw not up the bridge of mercy, and dry not up the rill of compassion : and if thou do not belie,ve me worthy to possess thy beauteous form, at least give me a safeguard of good words, a guide in a promise, and a .deed of expecting hope, an if thou dost not, I will die and thou wilt lose the form.’ These and other words did the king utter from the depth of his heart, which touched the made-young old woman, and at last she accepted him for her husband.
The lady and the king are wed, and she invites her sister to the celebration. The sister keeps pestering her about how she was transformed during the feast, so eventually, in a fit of pique, the lady says “I made them flay me, o sister!” The sister goes to a barber and says “Here’s fifty ducats to flay me from head to foot.” The barber replies that she is mad and refuses, so she offers him even more when he is successful. As he’s doing it, she is in tremendous pain, and there are buckets of blood, but she says “Who beauteous wisheth to be, with anguish and pain must troubled be!” bidding him continue until she expires. He reaches her navel, and she expires, with a “strong fart” as sign of departure.
The odd thing is that, in Ars Magica, the flaying might actually work – it sounds like a mystery cult ordeal.
As a plot hook, your character could have the Dark Secret Flaw, as a murderer. The twist is that, yes, you killed the king’s sister-in-law, but she did beg and pay you to do it. After a time, a magus seeks you out as he thinks you might have the handle on an Ordeal for a Mystery which prevents cosmetic aging. There are several magical traditions which let you keep using the Aging rules to determine death, but ignore their effects on your character until death occurs – This might well be one. I’ve sometimes suggested the Diedne fled to South America and caused a variant of the Aztec Empire, is the flaying a faerie memory of a Diedne ritual which might later turn up in the priesthood of Xipetotec?
Games From Folktales 