Reading Notes: Santal Folklore, Reading A

 The Tiger's Bride

This was an interesting story. I found myself at the begging of the story rooting for the tiger. I wanted to have him be happy. I am not sure the exact reason that I had this initial feeling about the tiger maybe it was the title that made me want him to be happy or maybe that he did the dead and helped the woman and he didn't try to attack her which is something that I would have expected to see in a European tale. I didn't like how the mother gave her daughter's hand in marriage just to get help. It felt like her daughter's life was worth so little that the mother was 100% ready to give her daughter away for a little help. I think if I were to make some changes I would make the tiger even more likable and is doing it for the bride but also because he had watched this girl since he was just a cub and had loved her from afar and the mother resented her mother and the tiger for being sold for such a little task. The mother could not really care that much and happily say goodbye to the daughter while counting the money made from selling whatever it is she had collected. I will probably change it from thatching grass to something more valuable but we will see. When the daughter first arrives at the cave there is a feast already prepared for just her as the tiger tries to do all that he can to show this girl love and his might, however, the girl is not interested in this forced proposal. Now there might be some good subtext where the girl would have liked the tiger otherwise but because of the way that the arrangement happened now all that she can feel for the tiger is nothing but hatred and she detests everything about the situation that she is in.

Bibliography

Folklore of the Santal Parganas by Cecil Henry Bompas (1909).

The Tiger's Bride