For space is wide and good friends are too few.
Brothers, I am coming
Will you call me on?
What are you becoming every dawn?
Mother, you have cursed them
Eleven feathered sons
Beneath the shadow of their wingspans
I will run
“Eleven Feathered Sons” by Leslie Hudson, based on the fairy tale The Wild Swans. Lyrics available on Bandcamp.
For another neat (and tonally very different!) interpretation of a closely related folktale, check out Queen of Spindles by Talis Kimberley.
Salomé’s waiting tables, platter in hand
While Deborah smokes the courthouse from her mind
Naomi keeps her daughter close ‘little longer than planned
And Leah’s still a lover to the blind
We are all sisters and sinners, trying to unwind
We are all sisters and sinners, girls, by our own design
“Sisters & Sinners” by Leslie Hudson, a song for the oft-overlooked and misunderstood ladies of Christian and Jewish lore. Leslie says in the song description that the idea came to her one day when she “mused what it might be like to stumble across a pub in limbo frequented by ladies of Biblical traditions.”
I am bitter (I am bitter)
I am bitterness as cold as ice
I am jealous (I am jealous)
I am jealousy as old as night
I want better
I want better than your charming life
I am other (I am other)
I am otherwise a carving knife
“Carving Knife” by Leslie Hudson, a song for all the villainesses of fairy tales. In the song description, Leslie explains,
Villains are often simply opportunistic. They seize potential in a moment in time and change their fortunes just as their counterparts do, but we’re not meant to root for them. Their function is primarily foil or challenger or catalyst. We don’t delve into their stories or take their circumstances into account.
But that stepmother is a widow with two young girls to care for who’ve lost their father, their station and their future. That succubus will starve if she doesn’t feed on the energy of another. That woman’s love went unrequited though she gave her whole heart, her womb proved unfruitful but she wanted children, her looks never improved with age, she had no magic doll guiding her choices, no wealthy benefactor, she led no charmed life.
Be bold! Be bold! But not too bold
Your blood will soon be running cold
“But Not Too Bold,” Leslie Hudson’s take on Mr. Fox, one of my favorite fairy tales.