GFT Retrospective #63: The Golden Stag

Article by Sean Wilkinson,

a.k.a. the Ticketmaster

The fairy tale that inspired this next issue of Grimm Fairy Tales for the Retrospective was pretty hard to pin down in terms of an original text. Googling "golden stag" mostly gives results about the item in Animal Crossing or a Mediterranean fusion restaurant. Adding "fairy tale" or "Romanian fairy tale" narrows it down to links to the comic book itself, various fan-generated Romanian legends (including one about a man who teaches his village to overcome religious prejudices and be more in tune with nature because the Golden Stag gave him elf/fairy powers, and when he dies, he becomes the new Golden Stag for the next generation), and a Wikipedia entry giving its fairy tale type and a brief (but confusing because of translation issues) synopsis of The Golden Stag.

I'll get into that more in a bit, but first, please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest Grimm news on my content.

GFT #52: The Golden Stag

Unlike most of the inspirations for GFT issues, this is not based on a Kinder Und Hausmarchen selection, instead coming from the Romanian fairy tale, Cerbul de aur by Costache Georgescu and compiled by Dumitru Stancescu. It's kind of a mix of Hansel & Gretel, The Glass Coffin, and Rapunzel, but is mostly classified as a "Little Brother and Little Sister" type story.

In the original, an old man remarries, and his new wife tells him to lose his children, from his first marriage, in the woods. They find their way back because the boy was covered in ashes and left a trail, but the second time the old man tries to lose them, he succeeds (in a rare subversion of the fairy tale Rule Of Three). When they get thirsty while lost in the woods, the Rule Of Three makes a return, with the sister warning her brother not to drink from the tracks of a fox, a bear, and then a stag. Unable to stave off his thirst any longer, the boy drinks and becomes The Golden Stag, carrying his sister off in his antlers because starving, dehydrated children can survive that, too, I guess.

Speaking of things that children cannot survive under normal circumstances, the Stag makes a nest for his sister in a tree, where she grows up. Neither the summary nor the one, poorly translated version of the tale that I could find, say anything about how she gets food and water, and both insinuate that she never comes down (hence the Rapunzel part of the story). So of course, a prince happens along one day and falls in love with the dirty, emaciated, dehydrated girl he finds living in a tree, and offers a reward to whoever can get her out of the tree. So an old woman tricks her and kidnaps her for him, and when Stag-bro follows, the prince treats him like a stable animal despite knowing he is her brother. And it wouldn't be a centuries-old, culturally insensitive string of nonsense if the happy ending didn't involve a jealous gypsy being stoned to death for pretending to be the sister so she could be with the prince in her place.

The Zenescope version, on the other hand, is more of an adaptation of the Stag vs. Bull deathmatch from the original Glass Coffin tale. After reluctantly accepting Morrigan's assistance because he used to be the king of Limbo in his early days as the Dark One's associate, and after accepting a few magical goodies (a size-shifting bird from Blake and a shield-generating bracelet from Morrigan that may prove to be a double-cross later, but I don't remember), Sela begins her quest for Erik's soul across the realm of Myst. She is attacked again by Morgazera, who shifts into a bull, and a Golden Stag comes to her rescue. Somehow, Sela is able to recognize the presence of Erik's soul in the Stag by seeing its eyes during a heated battle, but as Zenescope often did in its early days, the fortune of the outcome is reversed, with the bull claiming victory and sending the Stag plummeting to its death over a cliff before setting its sights back on Sela as the issue ends. There are also a few pages of B-plot where Orcus continues claiming his lands (starting with the farmer's land from the "Seven Ravens" part of The Devil's Gambit), but this mainly serves as an issue lead-in and cutaway device to the action with Morgazera and Sela.

The art style is consistent with the previous issue, making this feel more like a single, serialized narrative, and the action is still well-paneled. but detail is often lost in the pacing. Unless we're talking about the backgrounds that show off the rich landscape of Myst, which are on another level compared to the fluctuating quality of the character models.

Please remember to Become A Ticketholder if you haven't already, comment at the bottom of this post, help out my ad revenue as you read, and follow me on Tumblr, Reddit, Facebook, and LinkedIn to like what you see and receive the latest Grimm news on my content.

Ticketmaster,

Going Stag,

Out of Bull.