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The Maiden on the Moor

Marilyn Singer,

Troy Howell (Illustrator)

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Oct 03, 2013 Mir rated it liked it

Two shepherd brothers find a woman sleeping in the snow. The "rich" (rich is this case meaning he has a nicer house and a family) brother thinks she is enchanted and refuses to touch her; the poor brother takes her home to sleep by his fire. She sleeps for seven days, and when she awakes she rewards the good brother with a wife and punishes the bad one by putting out his fire forever.

Summarized thus, this sounds like a pretty standard moral folk tale, but all the details read very oddly and ulti
Two shepherd brothers find a woman sleeping in the snow. The "rich" (rich is this case meaning he has a nicer house and a family) brother thinks she is enchanted and refuses to touch her; the poor brother takes her home to sleep by his fire. She sleeps for seven days, and when she awakes she rewards the good brother with a wife and punishes the bad one by putting out his fire forever.

Summarized thus, this sounds like a pretty standard moral folk tale, but all the details read very oddly and ultimately didn't come together for me in a way that made sense. I'd be more forgiving of this if it were a traditional tale, but as far as I can tell it was made up by the author, inspired by this folk song:

Maiden in the moor lay,
In the moor lay,
Seven-night full, seven night full,
Maiden in the moor lay,
In the moor lay,
Seven nights full and a day.
Good was her meat.
What was her meat?
The cowslip and the---
The cowslip and the---
Good was her meat.
What was her meat?
The cowslip and the violet
Good was her drink.
What was her drink?
The cold water of the---
The cold water of the---
Good was her drink.
What was her drink?
The cold water of the well spring.
Good was her bower.
What was her bower?
The red rose and the---
The red rose and the---
Good was her bower.
What was her bower?
The red rose and the lily flower.

That seems to be all there is, so plotwise there's a lot of different directions Singer could've gone with this (as you see, she didn't even use the few details provided in the verse). WHY is the Maiden on the Moor? She seems to be some sort of supernatural creature (at the end she (view spoiler)) but was trapped by some sort of accident or is this just a test for the brothers? She seems to hear everything that goes on while she is unconscious, and in some illustrations her expression is rather sly.

I didn't feel that the brother deserved so much punishment, or at least his wife and children didn't. I would hesitate to bring a possibly supernatural creature home to my kids, too. There's no mention of him doing anything wrong to end up richer than his brother, although why is the other guy so poor? And how is he going to support this random wife that his given? Who is she, anyway? She doesn't resemble the Maiden but possibly she is an aspect of her? Or a creation a la Blodeuwedd? Or just a regular woman magically sent there?

Also, there was a scene that might bother more sensitive readers, where the Maiden slips away into the snow (her rescuer never sees her awake) with the shepherd's dog and makes the dog (view spoiler), after which he howls with sorrow. Poor dog.

Howell's illustrations are nice enough, if you like the look of prismacolor pencil. My favorite aspect was not the main scenes but the decorative motifs reminiscent of 19th-century medieval revival.

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