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Accepted Paper
Beauty and the dog – the dog as a beauty: fairy tales where people turn into animals
Rosa Thorsteinsdottir
(The Arni Magnusson Institute for Icelandic Studies)
In Icelandic tales it happens that people are transformed into dogs. In type ATU 425 the monster husband is a dog and not some unspecified beast. The motif of the girl as a dog is old in Iceland as 18th century narrative poems show. The question whether it is an Icelandic oicotype will be addressed.
Paper long abstract
In Icelandic fairy tales, it sometimes happens that through enchantment people are transformed into animals or even parts of animals, such as the girl who is transformed into a rolling cow's stomach. By far the most common is that they become dogs, as can be seen, for example, in fairy tales of the type ATU 425 where the monster husband is a dog and not some unspecified beast. The motif of the girl who becomes a dog is old in Icelandic tales, as poetic fairy tales containing this memory can be found at least as far back as the 18th century and may even be related to Norse myths from the Middle Ages. The fact that no dangerous wild animals are found in Icelandic nature and that the spell is also related to weather conditions opens up the question whether these tales stand as an Icelandic oicotype.