White Rose of Avalon

Mermaid

  • Representations of Mermaids

    For today’s post I would like to look at different ways that mermaids have been represented.   The way mermaids have been portrayed throughout time has been varied from positive water faeries who sometimes help rescue sailors to negative sirens who are thirsty for blood.  Many of the earliest types of mermaid-like creatures featured in…

  • Living the Faerie Life

    For all of us Faerie loving people out there, it is a dream to live life the way faeries would.    While, most of us do not have to ability to literally walk into the Faery realm, we can still take inspiration from the fae in how we live life!    I take inspiration from…

  • Beach Reads

    It is now the time of year to enjoy being outdoors, and celebrating the beauty of nature.   For many people this includes trips to the beach, and books to bring along with them.    I personally adore summer reading, and reading a book outdoors!    However, I am not really much for the traditionally…

  • Faerie Tale and Legend Inspired Beauty

    As someone who has always adored Arthurian legend, Pre-Raphaelite art, faeries, and mermaids, I have been inspired by each of these things, in the way I dress and use beauty products.   Mermaid, faerie, and Pre-Raphaelite art all covet long and luscious hair (of course, to be fair faeries can also have short sassy hair…

  • Sea Fairytales

    In honor of Summer I want to discuss sea themed fairytales.    The Little Mermaid is the obvious choice, but there are also tales of selkies and undines.   I will focus on The Little Mermaid, selkie tales, and Undine (which is a story by Friedrich de la Motte Fouqué which became a German opera…

  • Enchanted

    The Disney film Enchanted is an homage to all the great classic Disney animated features.   They even included cameos with some of the classic voice actors from those films.   For instance Robert’s assistant is played by Jodi Benson, the woman who voiced Ariel in The Little Mermaid!   The narrator is the incomparable…

  • Barefoot Princesses

    One of my favorite things in Sleeping Beauty is a very small detail.    I love that when Aurora (or at this point Briar Rose) is dancing and singing in the woods, and meets Phillip, she is barefoot!    I personally love being barefoot, both indoors and outdoors.   I even went barefoot for the…

  • My Top Five Best Disney Villains

    For today’s post I want to count down my top five favorite Disney villains.    I will only list villains in Disney films based on fairytales here, in order to keep it organized! Number 5: Lady Tremaine from Cinderella ~My number five pick is, in fact, the evil stepmother of all evil stepmothers!    I…

  • Faeries as Fallen Angels

    There was a common belief held into the early modern times (circa the turn of the 20th century) that the fae were actually fallen angels.   This particular belief was among many beliefs that were held onto by citizens of Ireland.    One version of the story goes that during the fall from grace angels…

  • Gwragedd Annwn

    The Gwragedd Annwn (pronounced Gareth Anoon~w in Welsh is a vowel pronounced “oo”, and “dd” in Welsh is pronounced “th”) were Welsh lake maidens.   Their name literally meant “wives of the Underworld.”    They were said to inhabit a watery realm of Annwn, the Celtic Underworld, or Otherworld, not like our modern conception of…