In many traditional fairy tales, the young, beautiful heroine sits around and waits for the valiant hero to save her—to wake her with a kiss, or rescue her from the tower, or cut her out of the wolf’s belly. As a child, I didn’t see anything wrong with the princess being rescued by her prince.
As an adult woman, however, I have begun to realize that many fairytales could be considered misogynistic remnants of various patriarchal societies where women were objectified and oppressed.
Popular fantasy author Mercedes Lackey puts a new spin on all of these very “traditional” stories with her Tales of the Five Hundred Kingdoms. In her stories, “Tradition” becomes a magical force that subtly compels people into behaving in certain ways that correspond with tales told around campfires for hundreds of years. For example, a young girl whose father remarries a woman with two daughters will find herself being pushed into the role of Cinderella. Luckily, Lackey’s heroines are not women who wait for the hero to save them. They learn to manipulate the Tradition in order to take their fate into their own hands and find true love on their own terms.
Lackey’s heroines possess the following characteristics:
1) Common Sense. In The Fairy Godmother, the first Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Elena Klovis, like Cinderella, has an ambitious stepmother and two evil step-sisters. Unlike Cinderella, however, the only prince of the realm is still a child, and she’s a full-grown woman. Her family is deeply in debt, so she tries to find work as a servant. Because of her common sense and magical ability, she becomes an apprentice for a godmother instead. In Elena’s world, Godmothers are more powerful than royalty, and Elena’s first task is to teach an arrogant prince a lesson. Nothing goes quite the way she planned, but Elena is determined to create a happy ending.
2) Intelligence. In One Good Knight, the second Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Princess Andromeda cares more about books and politics than fancy dresses or romance. She yearns for her beautiful mother, Queen Cassiopeia, to approve of her. When a dragon besieges their kingdom, virgin after virgin is sacrificed to the beast using a lottery system. When Andie’s number comes up, she willingly sacrifices herself, but the dragon doesn’t kill her. Along with her champion George (who is actually Gina, a female champion), Andie ventures off to find the dragon. The dragon isn’t the monster she expected, but her mother, unfortunately, is more monstrous than she ever could have imagined. The fate of the kingdom rests on Andie’s ability to outsmart the evil queen.
3) Strength. In Fortune’s Fool, the third Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Katya, the youngest daughter of the King of the North Sea, is a warrior with the ability to walk on land and speak to animals. She serves as her father’s spy in the kingdoms above the sea. When she’s abducted by a jinn—an evil genie who drains the magic from maidens—she works to set herself and the other captives free. Her love interest, Prince Sasha, discovers that she is missing and tries to help her. Instead of sweeping in to save the day, however, he is a comrade who works in conjunction with her to defeat evil.
4) Wisdom. In The Snow Queen, the fourth Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Aleskia, Queen of the Northern Lights and a fairy godmother, is a wise woman with a reputation for being cold and unyielding. Her job is to help her misguided subjects see the error of their ways, but she is not actually cruel. More than anything else, she feels isolated and alone. When a truly evil woman impersonates her and begins to wreak havoc, Aleskia sets off on an adventure to restore justice in her land. She ends up finding companionship and love in the process.
5) Perseverance. In The Sleeping Beauty, the fifth Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, the Queen of Eltaria dies, and Princess Rosamund could easily fall victim to the Tradition, which would turn her into a Snow White or Sleeping beauty. Luckily, she has her harried godmother Lily on her side. Lily rescues her from a murderous huntsman and evil dwarves and a bevy of princes who want to marry her. No matter what the Tradition throws at them, Rosa and Lilly never wait for a hero to save them. They are determined to forge their own happy ending.
6) Power. In Beauty and the Werewolf, the sixth and most recent Tale of the Five Hundred Kingdoms, Isabella Beauchamps is attacked by a werewolf on the way back from Granny’s house on a cold winter night. She fights him off with a stick and keeps him from killing her, but since he bit her foot, she will have to spend three months in quarantine with him at his isolated manor with his magical, invisible servants. She doesn’t waste time crying or whining or moping around. She whips the household into shape, starts learning magic, and becomes friends with her hero—a smart, shy, mild-tempered Duke. Because she is a woman, some might consider Bella to be manipulative or controlling or downright bossy, but in reality, she is simply a powerful, confident woman who knows what she wants and isn’t afraid to demand it—in the most polite way possible, of course.
Have you read Lackey? What character traits do you value most in a heroine?
Brittany is a freelance writer, aspiring novelist and small business owner who hopes that heaven will be like a bookstore with an endless supply of free books, free coffee and super comfy chairs.
