A LGBTQI Fairytale Retelling

One of the stories I have been working on recently was retelling a fairytale with an LGBTQI focus. There have been several recent explorations transposing gender roles in fairytales, but I wanted to draw attention to the inclusivity of love and also retell a fairytale that could highlight struggles for LGBTQI community both past and present.

I recently came across a gorgeous fairytale retelling in French Fairy Tales by Sophie Masson and illustrated by Lorena Carrington titled ‘The King of Crows’. This fairytale was new to me and I loved it’s complex themes, the parts of other tales wound into it in such a unique way. It was a vibrant fairytale with elements that were part-quest, part-curse and transformation.

In my own retelling, the sorcerer curses a queen for her refusal to submit to him and refusal to marry him and is transformed into a crow along with the subjects of her kingdom. Under the strict rules of the curse, the crow queen must find her true love but cannot be seen in her human form at night. The queen finds her true love, a young musician playing in the forest one day, a woman like herself who has no desire to marry a man and be a wife or mother. This unlikely union becomes true love and they marry under the Queen’s decree, but the consort cannot keep her curiosity at bay and seeing the Crow Queen by moonlight. The Sorcerer comes victorious to claim the Crow Queen, taking her far away to be isolated forever. Desperate to save her Queen, the consort consults a fae being who tells her how to find her Queen, beyond the moon and sun, to a land untouched by light and gives her a pair of iron shoes to wear. She will know her queen is near when the iron shoes break, and know she has found her queen when the blue grasses sing. The Consort begins her quest and long trek until the prophesied words become true and she rescues her queen, no longer a crow, the lovers are reunited.