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'Little Red Riding Hood ' by Rie (Marie) Cramer, 1927.

#rie cramer #illustration #little red riding hood #faitytale

Why is Prince Charming "Blue"?

One of the recurring characters in fairytales is "Prince Charming": a handsome and well-mannered young prince who rescues the damsel in distress.

In languages like English and French, he is named after the characteristic of being "charming". But in some Romance languages, he's named "the Blue Prince".

Catalan: Príncep Blau

Italian: Principe Azzurro

Spanish: Príncipe Azul

Older texts in French also said: Prince Azur and Prince Bleu

It's easy to tell why he is charming, but why is he blue?

The earliest known documented uses of the term date from the 1850s, but the origin or reason for it isn't clear.

🤴Theory 1: based on a real-life prince

On the Internet, you'll see many people repeat the theory presented by Bernard Delmay, who defended that the expression comes from the House of Savoy, the ruling monarchy in Italy in the second half of the 19th century, since the Italian Unification in 1861. Blue was the colour of this dynasty, plus the prince and future king Victor Emmanuel II wore the blue officer's uniform on the first time that he visited his future parents-in-law. He also had blue eyes. His ancestor Amadeus VI (1334-1383) had been known as the Green Count because of the clothes he wore when celebrating a tournament, and Amadeus VII (1360-1391) as the Red Count either because of the colour of his hair or because he ditched the black clothes he wore to mourn his father for a bright red outfit when he found out his first son had been born. Thus, the same reasoning could go for Victor Emmanuel II (1820-1878) becoming the "Blue Prince", right?

Well, no. According to the Italian Language Academy (Accademia della Crusca), this theory has been disproved. The earliest mentions of "Blue Prince" in any language that still uses that term are written after Victor Emmanuel II's wedding, so that doesn't contradict the theory. However, the earliest known reference to Victor Emmanuel II as "Blue Prince" only dates back to the 1950s, so making the assertion that it must have come from him could be a stretch. And speaking of the earliest mentions: the first attested use in Italian is in a book published in 1898, but one year before that the expression "Blue Prince" was already printed in a book in Spanish published in Mexico.

But when we search all the uses of this term, linguists cited by the Italian Language Academy found that the earliest mentions are in French. Even though French uses the term "Prince Charmant" nowadays (and English took it from French), French texts from the mid-1800s call him Prince Blue or Prince Azur ("Blue Prince"). These uses are documented before Victor Emmanuel II, thus disproving the theory.

🤴Theory 2: based on blood

Most European languages refer to royals as having "blue blood". The explanation given for this is usually that royals were much paler than most subjects, since most people worked outside under the sun while the royals stayed indoors in their palaces (that's also why being pale was a beauty standard and symbol of status in Europe's past, and still is in some countries such as Japan). As a result of their paleness, their veins and arteries were more visible compared to commoners. While commoners saw their own red blood when they got injured, they would also see the blue arteries visible under the royal's pale skin. It doesn't mean they literally believed that the royal family's blood is blue, but it was a way of referencing it.

The linguist Eugen Coșeriu defends that the paleness and veins would be a case of folk etymology, while the real origin of this expression comes from a mistranslation. The Ancient Roman historian Tacitus wrote about the Roman emperors being "caelesti sanguine ortam" (Latin for "born from heavenly blood"), since they were said to descend from divinized figures. Like in many languages nowadays, "sky" and "heaven" were the same word, and many of these languages derive a word for "light blue" from the Latin word for "sky" (like Spanish celeste). According to this linguist, in the early 17th century, Spanish humanists translated the expression "heavenly blood" (which would be "sangre celestial") as "light-blue blood" ("sangre celeste"). This expression became widespread and over time ended up simplified as "blue blood" ("sangre azul"). From there it would have spread to other languages.

But let's go back to the Blue Prince. According to this theory, the Prince is Blue as a reference to being royalty. This theory is okay but quite vague, so there is no piece of evidence that contradicts it, but there is also not enough evidence supporting it to safely make the claim.

So that didn't clear it up. What do you think? Is the second theory plausible? And what do you call this fairytale archetype in your language?

August Jerndorff (Danish, 1846–1906)

#august jerndorff #danish art #mythology #faitytale

Faceless

These are some of my original characters. The Lost Ones. Once upon a time they were normal humans, who have been lost in the Forest. Over time they gradually lost the remnants of their human form. They were never able to find their way out; some of them are eternal wanderers in search of something they could not have. They are especially attracted to other people's faces and eyes. If rumors are to be believed, then an encounter with the Faceless does not bode well. Well, you wouldn't believe these rumors, would you?