The binding of clasped wrists is part of a sarnothi wedding ceremony. And you can’t really tell with how simply I draw… well EVERYTHING, but native sarnothi clothing is made of thin leather, not cloth.
My non-canon goofy nicknames for the maiden and her mate are Wai Fu and Huzubando.
On Barsoom, in Helium, when a couple gets married, they join them with a pair of handcuffs.
And somewhere I’ve read – don’t remember if it was fiction or real – some culture that when the couple marries, they tie his left hand to her right hand (tie the knot) and for the rest of the ceremony and the reception they remain tied, learning to do everything together, to remind them that they are no longer two separate people, but are now a couple. And when they finally leave the wedding shindig, they CUT the cord, so the knot stays tied. Untying the knot means they are divorced.
The ‘tying-the-knot’ ceremony may have come from the Earth’s Children books by Jean M Auel. which are set at the end of the last ice-age. There are several weddings during the course of the books and at each one they tie the knot as you describe. They call divorce ‘severing the knot’. I understand that several non-european cultures used this symbology and (in Britain at least) we still talk of getting married as tying the knot, so it may have been present a lot more recently even in Europe.
As a side note there is an incident where they punish two siblings who were caught fighting by tying their arms and legs together so each could only use one, to teach them that siblings should be almost as close as married couples and should definitley not be raising their hands against each other.
It’s ancient, but still happens over here occasionally as “hand-fasting” in pagan wedding ceremonies.
I’m not sure, but I believe it’s used in other religions too.
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Wow……. did no one else recognize that Alpo was talking about the John Carter of Mars books?
I worked with a Indian guy at work, who had an arranged marriage, and they had this thing where they had to wear these special things on their wrists up until the marriage. I didn’t ask him much about it because I just didn’t care.
The clothing looks recognisable as leather to me, especially the brown top.
Is the leather made from sea cows?
While this sounds like a happy story, I’ve read enough fairytales to know this is going to end badly … the whole set-up makes me think of the story of Melusine.
The moral of the narrative conventions: NEVER keep secrets from your spouse, they will ALWAYS find out, and then one of you will have to leave the other and you will both be sad.
Oh, and try not to marry anybody who’s got all up in the supernatural.
I hope this doesn’t count as “spoilers” but I remember a “Tales of the Dark Side” episode where a gargoyle saved a man’s life with the promise that he tell no one of the event. When he finally broke down and told the woman he had fallen in love with on that same night… it ended badly.
Exactly what I thought of. The man she married is …. yeah. I’ll keep that to myself and just wait for the reveal…
The commentary on this early iteration of Sai Fen’s statue may interest you: https://selkiecomic.com/comic/the-maiden-and-the-eel-spirit/
Ah, well. So much for the surprise 😛
That’s EXACTLY the show I was just thinking of.
I don’t know if you’re doing it this way (or even if it’s possible, though it might be for them) but in my mind the leather their clothes are made of is eel leather. I don’t think they’re the kind to waste any part of an animal, and given how eels are notorious for being able to withstand cold temperatures and swim fast despite having very thin skin, it makes sense even from a clothing standpoint.
Of course, the twist could be that she tells no one, and that something else happens. Whoever heard the story originally could have heard it from Han Shin Jian Tho himself.
…probably not, though. The best fairy tales are made from mortals being fickle to non-mortals and vice versa. If Maleficent had only been invited to the birthday party, the entire story of Sleeping Beauty would be called “the uneventful birthday party and some fairies were there”.
It’s true- once a Welsh Selkie woman came from her lake to marry a mortal man, on whom she imposed the condition not to hit her three times. It didn’t end well. Their children were gifted though- check out the legend of the Meddygon Myddfai, the healers of Myddfai.
U know what, I heard a story like this where the girl had a secret smile. Her spouse got angry when she wouldn’t tell him what it was about, and he left her 🙁 I hope this doesn’t end like that…
I guess there’s no chance of her “secret smile” causing her to become that culture’s equivalent to the Mona Lisa – where everyone forever wonders what might inspire it.
No? Sigh. Okay. 🙁
More like HAZUBANDO lol
And to think … whatever tragedy is coming (and I know enough fairy tales to be sure that one IS coming) could have been averted if, instead of smiling knowingly, she had said she was laughing because she was so happy and could scarcely believe her own good fortune.
You’re amazing. Any webcomic could just say “she came from the sea and now she’s not” but you’ve created two worlds for your characters with great detail. I’m not usually this impressed.