On August 12, the European animated film "Song of the Sea" released by the United States will be released in China, but not long ago I found the source of the high-definition film, and I shamelessly downloaded and watched it, regardless of the story. The pictures are still very beautiful, very shocking.
"Song of the Sea" is about a magical story of adventure, return and love. The plot goes something like this:
On a picturesque island in the sea, the little boy Ben and his pregnant mother Brona spent their last happy and unforgettable night. Soon after, sister Saoirse was born, but Yin's mother left quietly. In the blink of an eye, six years later, their father, Connor, has never recovered from the pain of losing his wife, and Saoirse, who is full of fantasies, stumbles upon the Bei Di left by her mother, and almost drowns in the sea, so her grandmother forcibly takes the two children with them. home in the city. The brothers and sisters were reluctant to live in the city, and went out quietly, planning to return to the island. As they wandered the streets, they accidentally encountered three strange elves. The little elves found out that Saoirsa was a seal girl, and wanted to use Saoirsa's singing to return to the hometown of elves. Soon, Saoirse was captured by the witch Macha and locked in the attic, where she was in danger of dying. Brother Ben went through all the hardships to rescue Sao Erza and returned to the small island. The truth gradually became clear... It turned out that Sao Ersa, like their mother, was a seal girl.
●Ireland's seal girl, sea goddess and goddess of fate
There are some myths circulating among Irish folks, and "Song of the Sea" combines those mythical "Story of Seal Man", "Story of Sea God Maclear", "Song of the Sea" The story of Macha, the goddess of fate" is combined in a modern adventure tale.
【Seal Man】
In addition to humans and gods, the Irish people also believe that there are many spirits in this world. Legend has it that the sea elves living in the waters near Orkney County and Sheltland Island in Scotland, the seal people (Selkie), are similar in appearance to ordinary people, but have a smooth layer of seal skin on their bodies, which is convenient for them to swim in the water. swim. When Selkie goes ashore, it will hide the peeled seal skin. If you are lucky enough to find the seal skin of a Selkie girl on the beach, you must remember to hide it elsewhere, and the Selkie girl will take the initiative to marry you. But once they find their seal skins, they will wear them mercilessly and return to the sea. The father Connor in "Song of the Sea" picked up the seal girl's clothes at the seaside in his early years, so the seal girl Brona lived with him, and finally had Ben and Saoirse.
In addition, people have always believed that every time the seal girl sings the song of the sea, all the elves living in the world will be sent back to the elves world.
[God of the Sea: Mac Lir]
Legend has it that Mac Lir, the god of the sea, and his wife, Fand, quarreled over trivial matters, and Fand was attacked by a giant on his way away from home. At this time, the hero Cuchulainn rescued Mei and Fender, and Fender and Cuchulain lived together. The god of the sea was wearing a green hat, turned into a stone, stood in the ocean, and wept silently. This is why the ocean is salty.
【Goddess of Fate: Macha】
Macha is one of the three goddesses of fate and war in Celtic mythology. Her name symbolizes battle and anger. In the battle between the Danu and the deep sea giants, Martha and her husband both lost their lives. But Macha is reborn again and again after death. This time in "Song of the Sea", Macha turned into an owl witch, with the ability to suck away souls and emotions and turn the spirits into stones.
In Irish mythology, the above three stories exist independently without any connection. The director of "Song of the Sea" is dominated by the story of the seal girl, placing the stories of McClell and Macha as some kind of plot material.
●Miao nationality goddess, Han nationality feathered woman
After watching "Song of the Ocean", I was attracted by the stories in it, so I searched for related myths and stories, and found that the story of the seal girl in the film is very similar to the story of the Miao nationality and the story of the feathered girl of the Han nationality. Stories are classified into "swan virgin type stories" in mythological studies. The characteristics of this type of story are: a goddess (fairy, elf girl) takes off her clothes (feather, clothes or paraphernalia) and bathes, and a mortal man puts her clothes (feather , clothes or personal belongings), and finally she had to marry a mortal man, lived for many years, had children, and then returned to the realm of the gods (non-human world) when she found the divine clothes.
[Hmong Celestial Girl]
When I was a child, I often heard the story "Xongs Dail Ad Fangb Wix" (Xongs Dail Ad Fangb Wix) told by my mother to me. To be more certain, I called my mother to ask her Tell me this story again from the beginning. The story goes something like this:
At that time, seven sisters often descended from heaven to bathe in a water pool, and were discovered by a young man in the world. Every time this young man went to look into the distance secretly, he was fascinated by one of the beautiful goddesses. He planned to let the goddess stay. He hid the goddess' clothes, but it was useless, because she also had a fan, which could bring the goddess home. So, for the second time, he hid the celestial girl's clothes and fan. In the end, the goddess really couldn't go back to the sky, and finally married the young man and lived together. A few years later, the youth and the goddess raised a child, and the two took turns, one working and the other taking care of the child. Every time the goddess brought the child, the child would cry, no matter how to coax him. One time, it was Tiannv's turn to take care of the child, but the child was still crying, and pointed at the eaves with her little finger. Tiannv didn't care at first, but when the child kept crying, she followed the direction of the child. I found my fan on the eaves. After the young man came home from work, the goddess told him that she was going back to heaven and could not continue to live with their father and son. After saying that, he floated in the air with the fan, the young man showed a sad expression, picked up the child and jumped up, grabbed the skirt of the goddess, and wanted to go to heaven with the goddess. Soon, the goddess in the sky saw this scene and thought that the human beings tasted bad, so they used scissors to cut off the skirt of the goddess.
【Han women in feather coats】
The story of the "Sweater Girl" recorded in "Sou Shen Ji" is also surprisingly similar to the stories of the Miao people and Ireland. The original text of "Sou Shen Ji · Sweater Girl" is as follows:
"A man from Xinyu County, Yuzhang, saw six or seven women in the field, all dressed in sweaters, but he didn't know it was a bird. He crawled and got the sweater that one of the women unraveled, and took it and hid it. All the birds, all the birds flew away. One bird alone could not go. The man took it as a woman and gave birth to three daughters. The mother and the maid asked the father, knowing that the clothes were under the pile of rice, they got them, and they flew away. The three women, the women also have to fly."
Probably, there is a man in Xinyu County, Jiangxi, who saw six or seven women in the paddy field, but didn't know they were birds. So he quietly crawled closer, got the feather coat that one of the women took off, and hid it. Then he swaggered close to the group of women, and they flew each other, and one woman couldn't leave. The man married her and had three daughters. The mother asked her daughter to ask her father, and learned that the feather coat was hidden under the straw pile, took it out and put it on and flew away. Soon after, she returned to pick up her three daughters and flew away together.
●Finally
, of course, the classification of "swan virgin stories" must be a Western academic perspective, only for the needs of research, and the technical classification of stories with similar content and themes around the world is not There is a real story model. These stories simply collectively demonstrate the curiosity and love that humans have for non-human species.
Regardless of whether elves, goddesses, or birdmen really exist, whether humans can live with non-humans or not, I think we should maintain this pure love. Humans are the smartest in the world, but also the most boring.
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