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Friday, June 15, 2012

Blame It on the Fairies!


Girly Comments & Graphics

Enjoy your weekend!

How does Shakespeare, fairies and knots in hair have anything to do with each other?


This is a follow-on from my previous post Knots in My Hair! 

Last year, while teaching Romeo and Juliet by William Shakespeare to my son’s high school class, I came across a funny mention to knots in the hair. It appears in the bizarre speech made by Mercutio. He blames the fairy, Queen Mab, for putting knots in dirty hair and that once combed out, the locks are unlucky.

After years of brushing Amanda’s hair, I wouldn’t say that the locks are unlucky, but that the children are who have to endure the combing of their hair!

Here’s the quote below:

"She [Queen Mab] is the fairies’ midwife, and she comes
In shape no bigger than an agate stone.......
That plaits the manes of horses in the night
And bakes the elflocks in foul sluttish hairs,
Which once untangled, much misfortune bodes."

Wikipedia’s conclusion to this states, “Therefore, the appellation of elf lock or fairy lock could be attributed to any various tangles and knots of unknown origins appearing in the manes of beasts or hair of sleeping children.”

I also found this interesting quote on Wikipedia:

“When young children, especially girls, wake from an evening's slumber with tangles and snarls in their hair, mothers with a tradition of fairy folklore might whisper to their daughters that they had caught fairy locks or elf-locks. Faeries, they say, tangled and knotted the hairs of the sleeping children as they played in and out of their hair at night” (A Child’s Book of Faeries by Tanya Robyn Batt).

I’m so glad I’m from a modern era that understands the need to wash and that I can buy good shampoos and conditioners!

7 comments:

  1. I like the idea of having faeries in the hair, I think it is cute, but about the misfortune? Not so much. I'll Disney up the faeries and tell her some sweet story about how they slept in her hair and now we get to spend time together "making their bed" or something. I do so enjoy a clean, untangled head of hair!

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    1. Heather... I replied below on the 15th, but didn't hit the reply button to your comment. My mistake! I hope you get this message and check out the comment below.

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  2. Lovely! Kids need make-believe. I have a quote from Einstein pinned on my Education board on Pinterest: If you want your children to be intelligent, read them fairy-tales.

    Thanks for sharing your ideas! Have a blessed weekend!

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  3. Very interesting, I have never heard of that. Very cute find. Found you on a blog hop... Have a good week! Gina

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    1. Hi Gina! I've been to your site a few times and have shared some of your posts through Twitter and such. I've also left you a few comments over the time. You are on my reading list and now I've added you to my following list on Google+

      I have five blogs - the 5th one I share with hubby, so you might have seen another site of mine in the recent past as I try to tell people about my different sites along the way.

      God bless!
      Tina

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  4. Still a better story than when I was a kid and my mom called them "rats' nests."

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    1. Now that's not very nice! I'm glad you popped in. Have a great weekend!

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