Writing from The Heart

"Writing from The Heart" is a workshop on creative writing, creative drawing, and creative drama. There are three available versions of this workshop: one for beginners on the secondary, tertiary, and graduate levels, and another for practitioners. A third version of this workshop is designed as an outreach program to disadvantaged and underserved audiences such as the disabled, the poor and the marginalized, victims of human trafficking, battered women and abused children, drug rehabilitation center residents, child combatants, children in conflict with the law, prisoners, and gang leaders. This third version incorporates creativity and problem awareness, conflict resolution, crisis intervention, trauma therapy, and peacemaking.

Thursday, October 3, 2019

Read "The Frog King, or Iron Heinrich" two nights ago, after finishing my recent portrait, from Volume I of The Complete Fairy Tales of the Brothers Grimm, translated by Jack Zipes.

Synopsis: A beautiful princess plays with her favorite golden ball beside a well inside a forest near the king's castle. One day the ball falls into the well, and the princess is inconsolable. A frog pledges to retrieve it on the condition that she will love him, be his companion, let him eat at her table, and let him sleep in her bedroom. The princess agrees to all this, thinking that the frog could not be serious. The frog retrieves the ball. The princess runs to the castle with the ball, leaving the frog behind.

The next day the frog appears at the castle entrance and demands to be let in. The king asks the princess what it is all about. She tells him what transpired between her and the frog inside the forest. The king admonishes her because promises need to be kept. He orders her to let the frog in, allow her to eat beside her at table, and sleep inside her bedroom.

Inside the bedroom the frog insists on sharing the princess's bed. She hurls him against a wall and he turns into a handsome, young king. He tells her that a wicked witch cast a spell on him and that only the princess could break it. The princess accepts the prince as her companion. The following day a coach with eight white horses arrives to take them away. It is driven by Faithful Heinrich, the young king's loyal servant. After the witch cast a spell over the young king, Heinrich had three iron bands wrapped around his heart to keep it from bursting with grief. As the coach drives away the three iron bands snap off.

My Commentary:

Fairy tales set in castles near forests are stories set within the landscape of the psyche: the castle is the Ego and the forest is the abode of the Shadow Self. On the surface, this fairy tale seems to be all about keeping one's word and not breaking promises. On a deeper, psychological level it is about lust and relationships. The golden ball represents the princess's innocence. The frog represents lust, its temptations, and its dangers. When lust is hurled against a wall the frog transforms into a handsome, young king--thus does lust transform into love and romance.

The curious detail about Iron Heinrich, who even shares the title of the fairy tale, is quite intriguing. Though suggestive of homoerotic love, it presents the yang completing the yin: the young king was loved by his male servant as he is now loved by the princess. Liberated from the three iron bands, Heinrich's heart is also now free to pursue its own destiny.