Barbe bleue

Barbe bleue (Blue Beard) is a famous character of French folklore. According to the most famous version of the tale, written by Charles Perrault in his Histoires ou Contes du temps passé (1697), Barbe bleue was a cruel and ugly aristocrat whose wives always disappeared soon after marrying him. But he managed to talk the daughter of a neighbour into becoming his new wife. After the ceremony, Barbe bleue announced he has to leave for a few days and gives his wife all the keys of the castle. “You must,” he said, “discover your new house and its treasures, and enjoy yourself while I am away. However, you are not to enter, under any circumstances, the small room beneath the castle.” His wife swore she would never betray his trust, and Barbe bleue left. But with each passing day the woman felt her curiosity grow until she couldn’t control it any longer: one day when nobody was around, she took the key and opened the forbidden room. There, she saw an appalling scene: the corpses of the former wives leaned against the walls, and the floor was spattered with blood. She finally understood where her precedessors had gone and the fate that awaited her. Terrified, she told her dear sister Anne her husband’s murderous secret. The two girls sent a message to their brothers asking them to come right away and planned their escape. But Barbe bleue suddenly returned. Seeing the blood staining the key, he unerstood his wife had done what he had forbidden and went to kill her. But she managed to get a quarter of an hour by asking for a last prayer. Barbe bleue locks her in the highest tower, along with her sister. There, the two sisters anxiously wait for their brothers to come and save them. Again and again, the wife asked her sister: “Anne, ma soeur Anne, ne voies-tu rien venir ?” (“Anne, sister Anne, do you see anybody coming?”. “Je ne vois,” said Anne, “que le ciel qui poudroie, et l’herbe qui verdoie” (“I see nothing but a cloud of dust in the sun, and the green grass”). But when the wife was losing hope, Anne said: “I see two horsemen.” They were the brothers running to their sisters’ rescue. Barbe bleue went to defend his castle but was beheaded by the brothers, just like his wives had been. He left only his wife to inherit his great wealth, and she used it to reward her brothers and sister for their fidelity. The story says she married a gentleman who helped her to forget the horrifying Barbe bleue.