7 Myths and Fairy Tales That Inspired ‘A Court of Thorns and Roses’

After five years of waiting, Sarah J. Maas has published a new book in the A Court of Thorns and Roses (ACOTAR) saga, which made romantasy a best-selling book phenomenon. A Court of Splintered Harmony is the sixth book in Maas’ most popular series, and the first movement of the Valkyrie Cycle. This return to the magical land of Prythian has made readers want to go back and re-read the previous books. To their surprise, they might find that a lot of it is very familiar; even borrowed. Many of the faerie courts, cursed love interests and magical artifacts that fans obsess over today have roots in Scottish ballads, Norwegian folk tales, Greek myths and Norse legends. Now, the newest book reaches into Russian folklore for its villain.

When it comes to fantasy, some might say that there is little new under the sun. In fact, most authors of fantasy series take their inspiration from older stories. Some do it in an obvious way, such as Rick Riordan‘s Percy Jackson series, in which the old Greek gods are present in the modern world. Others, like George R.R. Martin, look at chapters of English history, including the Wars of the Roses, to write series such as Game of Thrones. Sarah J. Maas is no stranger to this practice.Throne of Glass, came to be thanks to Disney‘s Cinderella. After listening to one of the songs in the movie, Maas began to think about how the story would have been different. “What if she [Cinderella] was an assassin who tried to kill the prince?” she reportedly asked herself. Just like that, Celaena Sardothien was born.

During the writing of A Court of Thorns and Roses, Maas tapped in once more into fairy tales, as well as classical myths. Here are some of the stories fans of the best-selling fantasy series of the last decade might recognize.

7

‘Beauty and the Beast’

Image via Walt Disney Studios Motion Pictures

If Throne of Glass owes its existence to Cinderella, A Court of Thorns and Roses went a step beyond. It was originated and first marketed as a darker retelling of the tale of Beauty and the Beast. This time, Sarah J. Maas went beyond Disney’s interpretation and focused on the older versions of the story.

The opening chapter of the first ACOTAR book has much in common with this 19th-century fairy tale. The story, first written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and later adapted by Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont, depicts a merchant who has lost his fortune and is forced into poverty alongside his three daughters, two of them vain and ungrateful. When he wanders into a castle and plucks a rose from its garden, a beast appears and demands a life in payment. It is the merchant’s youngest daughter, who then agrees to live in the enchanted castle in his place.

Feyre’s story starts in almost the same spot. Her story also follows a similar arc, as she discovers that the only way to break the beast’s curse (in this case, Tamlin’s) is if a human woman falls in love with him. However, instead of making her protagonist into a bookish character similar to Emma Watson’s Belle, Maas decides to make her a fighter, asking herself: “What if Beauty were a huntress?” By the time Rhysand had come into the picture, Feyre’s arc had decidedly moved away from the original fairy tale.

6

‘East of the Sun and West of the Moon’

Image via Longmans, Green & Co

Despite her interest in Disney, Sarah J. Maas’ “all-time favorite fairy tale” is much lesser known: a Norwegian folk tale, collected in the 19th century by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe, named East of the Sun, West of the Moon.

The story has many parallels to Beauty and the Beast” leading some readers to debate which of the two was the true inspiration for ACOTAR. The answer is both. Instead of a beast, the Norwegian tale talks of a big bear who steals a poor family’s youngest daughter and forces her to live in his castle. When she breaks the rules and lights a candle to look at him, she discovers he is an enchanted prince, and the spell snaps. The prince is then carried off to a castle east of the sun and west of the moon, where he must marry a troll princess, and she sets out on an impossible journey to win him back.

This fairy tale is more than likely the reason Tamlin, the High Lord of the Spring Court, can transform into a bear. The reference is more than obvious. Moreover, his story also shows the first inspiration for the character that would become the wicked Amarantha, although her characterization is more influenced by other tales on this list. East of the Sun, West of the Moon also focuses more on the heroine’s journey to win her beloved back, an arc that mirror’s Feyre’s trial, heartbreak, and separation from Tamlin.

5

‘Tam Lin’

Illustration by John D. Batten, Public domain·

Many of Maas’ references are hidden in plain sight. None more so than the name of the High Lord of the Spring Court, Tamlin, a play on the traditional Scottish border ballad Tam Lin.

First recorded in the 16th century, the ballad tells the tale of a young woman named Janet who meets a mysterious man in the forbidden woods of Carterhaugh. He is Tam Lin, a mortal held captive by the Queen of Fairies, and he is about to be handed over as a sacrifice. To save him, Janet must pull him from his horse on Halloween night and hold on while the faerie queen transforms him into one terrifying shape after another.

The myth of Tam Lin is most present in the second half of ACOTAR, in which Feyre travels Under the Mountain and faces a series of brutal trials to free the man he loves from a jealous faerie queen, who would go on to shape Amarantha. There are some differences, of course, like the fact that Janet is pregnant in most versions of the story. Tamlin and Feyre’s relationship also takes a different turn after the first book’s happy ever after. Still, the similarities between the two stories are there for anyone to see.

4

Hades and Persephone

Image via Bleecker Street’s Crosswalk division and LD Entertainment

This list has covered many of the inspirations for the first book in the ACOTAR series. What about the rest? Although Sarah J. Maas has not spoken as explicitly about her references in the second book, A Court of Mist and Fury (ACOMAF) draws many parallels to the classic Greek myth of Hades and Persephone, one that has also inspired web comics like Lore Olympus or the musical Hadestown.

It starts with the seasons. At the start of ACOMAF, Feyre is the bride-to-be of the High Lord of the Spring Court, a position that inevitably calls to Persephone, goddess of spring. She catches the attention of Rhysand, High Lord of the Night Court, and is forced to make a pact to spend a week of each month in his domain, similar to Hades’ requirement that Persephone spend six months of the year in Hades’ Underworld. The world above turns to winter while the goddess is gone. It is not the only call to Greek mythology in the books, however. Feyre’s own last name, Archeron, is a reference to one of the rivers of the Underworld.

Sarah J. Maas takes this incredibly famous story and twists it. It is in the Night Court where Feyre finds her freedom, not the other way around. This reversal of the typical story, as well as the portrayal of Rhysand, is what made the second book in the series a fan favorite.

3

The Pair Dadeni

Image via Disney

The Cauldron is a key character in the ACOTAR universe. It is portrayed as an ancient vessel that is said to have created the world itself. The history of literature is no stranger to these objects, which are very present in Celtic mythology and have inspired other stories such as Disney’s The Black Cauldron. One magic cauldron in particular matches the one that changes the lives of Feyre’s sisters, Nesta and Elain.

The inspiration for ACOTAR’s Cauldron is likely the Pair Dadeni, or Cauldron of Rebirth, from Branwen, Daughter of Llŷr, the second of the Four Branches of the Welsh Mabinogi. In the Celtic myth, king Bendigeidfran gives this cauldron to the Irish king Matholwch as compensation for an insult. It is said to be able to bring dead warriors back to life, although they come back forever changed, an element very familiar to the Archeron sisters’ story. However, in the myth, the warriors that are revived never speak again.

That idea of being returned to life, but not as yourself, is at the heart of A Court of Wings and Ruin, the third book in the series and the end of the original trilogy. However, Nesta and Elain’s struggle to come to terms with the Cauldron’s effects on their lives is a key driver of the rest of the series.

2

The Valkyries

Image via Marvel Studios

In Norse mythology, the Valkyries are Odin’s warrior women. They ride over battlefields, choose which warriors will die, and carry the bravest of them to Valhalla. Their name, in Old Norse, means “chooser of the slain”. They have been a very popular motif over the centuries, as an image of female power in battle, and were also the inspiration for Wagner‘s famous opera Die Walküre.

The myth of the Valkyries is one that is openly discussed in the ACOTAR universe. In A Court of Silver Flames, Sarah J. Maas introduces them as a legendary order of female warriors wiped out in a war long ago. The order is then revived by Feyre’s sister, Nesta Archeron, alongside her new friends Gwyn and Emerie, who use their old training methods as a way of becoming stronger and overcoming their fears and weaknesses.

But the Valkyries are bigger than a mention or two in Nesta’s storyline. Sarah J. Maas made this clear when she announced that the new run of novels in the series would be named the Valkyrie Cycle. For readers, it’s a strong signal that Nesta and her warriors are central to where the story goes next.

1

Koschei the Deathless

Illustration by Viktor Vasnetsov. Public domain

Many of the best books have great villains. In A Court of Splintered Harmony, the last book to be published in the ACOTAR universe, a new villain takes center stage: Koschei the Deathless.

Koschei is a character taken from Russian folklore. Traditionally, he is depicted as an ancient sorcerer who kidnaps princesses and cannot be killed by ordinary means. In tales like Marya Morevna, collected by Alexander Afanasyev in the 19th century, the secret is that he keeps his death hidden outside his body, in different objects like needles and eggs and locked in a chest buried far away. Whoever finds the needle and breaks it can finally destroy him.

This character has already been lurking in the shadows of previous ACOTAR books. Bound to a lake on the continent by a powerful curse, Koschei is mentioned in relation to Vassa, a human queen trapped under his curse. He is the brother of the Bone Carver and Stryga, The Weaver. In A Court of Splintered Harmony, Koschei begins stirring. The threat posed by his influence forces Rhysand, Feyre and their inner circle to attempt to rebuild old alliances in order to stop him. And, who knows? Perhaps the story of his hidden death ends up being key to the plot of the upcoming ACOTAR books and the rest of the Valkyrie Cycle.