#cursed spring

[missuntitledblog]

Jusenkyo, the legendary training ground of cursed springs

[laurasimonsdaughter]

Drinking from a Cursed Spring

Fairy tales often feature healing water, either from a spring or some kind of magical fountain, but occasionally cursed springs pop up as well. In particular cursed in such a way that they transform the drinker.

In the Grimm’s “Brother and Sister” two children pass by three springs in the forest, that each murmur in the sound of rushing water:

“Whoever drinks from me will become a tiger.”

“Whoever drinks from me will become a wolf.”

“Whoever drinks from me will become a deer.”

In this version the springs have been cursed by their evil stepmother, who is a witch, but there are other variants where the springs are like this naturally.

Interestingly enough, in a Russian version of this tale (Alenoushka and her brother) it is not a spring, but a hoof print filled with water (of a horse, a cow, and a sheep) that the children must resist to drink from. Which matches very well with the folklore of turning into a werewolf if you drink the water from a wolf’s paw print.

Cursed springs themselves are also linked to werewolves, though:

There is a legend about a Prussian magistrate who, after returning from a hunting trip with his beloved wife, suddenly finds the town he oversees plunged into despair. Children start disappearing, one by one, stolen from their cribs without so much as a cry.

Meanwhile the gentleman’s beautiful wife grows more and more reclusive. She shuts herself up in her chamber and will never allow her husband to see her at night anymore.

Her husband does not know what to think, until one of the grieving mothers vows to him that she knows where her child went. He follows her into the woods, all the way to an old hunting lodge, and there they find a monstrous being, half woman, half wolf. This is the monster that has been stealing children and it is not until that moment that the gentleman recognises his wife, who was unfortunate enough to drink from a cursed spring on their last hunting trip, and has become a werewolf, doomed to transform every night.

The tragedy of the cursed spring is that the victims have usually committed no greater sin than succumbing to their thirst. In legends like the Prussian one there is usually no cure at all, nothing but grief and the sad knowledge that sometimes the wild magic of the woods can sometimes be painfully cruel. But in the fairy tales, where the world is as it should, the victims are always saved. Either by defeating the layer of the curse, finding a stronger magic, or when the sister catches her brother up in her arms and hugs him until she is holding a boy again.

Which is a tried and tested method of un-transforming, just ask Janet and Tam Lin.