White Rose of Avalon

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  • Sleeping Curses in Fairytales

    Sleeping curses are a popular topic in fairytales.    Obviously the important examples are my favorite fairytale Sleeping Beauty and Snow White.   Both of these tales have an evil female character cursing a young beautiful woman. The sleeping curse in Snow White was enacted by Snow taking a bite of a poisoned apple.  …

  • The Perrault and Grimm’s Tellings of Cinderella

    The Grimm Brothers version of Cinderella is much different from the Charles Perrault one that was made most famous as the basis of the Disney classic!    Of course it is true that both versions offer the same basic story.    An orphaned girl is left in the care of her wicked step-mother upon her…

  • Idealizing Mortality: Doomed Women in Gothic Fiction

    Women in Gothic fiction in the nineteenth century are known for being doomed.   Poe himself said that nothing was as poetic as a dying woman.   It is a very interesting concept of the romanticism of death.   Death and beauty are linked, and this is shown in the Death and the Maiden motif…

  • Woodland Fairytale Wedding

    Many fairytales take place in a woodland setting.    This is something that I have always adored, and my husband and I used this as an inspiration at our wedding!    Ever since I was a little girl I always wanted to get married in the middle of the woods, and this weekend I got…

  • The Phantom of the Opera

    Gaston Leroux’s tale of a deformed man, named Erik, haunting a beautiful young woman at an opera house in Paris is one that has become iconic.    This is likely due to the Andrew Lloyd Webber musical that has been a Broadway smash since the 1980s!   This happens to be my all time favorite…

  • Ligeia: Poe’s Masterpiece

    Today I would like to focus on my absolute favorite tale by Edgar Allan Poe.    Ligeia is a beautiful, romantic, and dark tale!   Poe actually invented the name Ligeia for this tale.   If you are curious the name is pronounced Lie-G-a, but is sometimes pronounced Ledge-E-a.   Personally I prefer the first…

  • Reincarnation

    Note: I just want to start off this post by saying that this is officially my 100th post here on White Rose of Avalon!     I cannot believe I have already reached this milestone.    I would like to thank all of my returning readers, and welcome all my new readers!    I also…

  • Coleridge’s Gothic Influence

    For today’s post I would like to look at the influence of the Romantic poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge on other writers!   Christabel is a poem by Samuel Taylor Coleridge.    This poem was in fact never fully finished, but was nevertheless is one of Coleridge’s masterpieces. This poem was influential to later authors, such…

  • Horns

    For today’s post I would like to discuss the 2010 Joe Hill novel Horns, and the 2013 film based upon it.   The novel and film tell the story of Ig Perrish, who one day wakes up to find that he had begun to grow horns.    Now this man already had much anguish going…

  • Blodeuwedd and Flower Brides

    Blodeuwedd is a faerie bride, and Celtic goddess, who appeared in the fourth branch of the Welsh Mabinogion.   She was also known as “Flower Face” (the meaning of her name), “May Queen”, and “May Bride.”   Since I will soon be a May bride myself, I could not resist doing a post on this…