As part of my tour with Bewitching Book Tours, I did an interview with Linda Mooney on her blog “Other Worlds of Romance.”
Question ~ What is it about MAIDEN TOMB that makes it so special?
One of my readers opened his review in the following way:
“This book is a strikingly original retelling that takes the familiar bones of a classic fairytale and reshapes them into something far more haunting and introspective. Instead of leaning into whimsy, the story embraces a darker, almost mythological tone, where every detail feels intentional and layered with meaning. From the beginning, there’s a quiet sense of unease, as if the tale is guiding you somewhere deeper than expected—into themes that linger well beyond the surface of the narrative.”
MAIDEN TOMB is a retelling of The Twelve Dancing Princesses folktale with elements of greek mythology woven in. Sixteen-year-old Justice wants to release release her sisters from the maw of Father’s imprisonment. But what can she do? The easiest way would be to find suitors for them.
However, that is not so easy, for Justice’s elder sisters are strange. What with All-Gifted’s madness, Protectress’s hair writhing with snakes, Death-Bringer’s grief (not to mention her strange name), Shining’s too-overt sexuality, Maiden’s tart tongue, Shadow’s crippling shyness, no sensible man would want her sisters as wives. Which leaves Justice, the seventh daughter, the one who possesses a quiet authority.
In this clean enemies-to-lovers romance, Justice acquires an admirer in the shape of Lord Nobody, who proclaims his undying love for her. But what does he really want? And doesn’t he have a wife already?
You can find The Twelve Dancing Princesses folktale in the Brother’s Grimm. In the original story, a door opens under the eldest sisters bed that leads down to a tunnel. Curious, the princesses go down the tunnel, and come out under a canopy of trees. But these are not just any trees, they are magical trees, for they contain clusters of jewels, of pearls, rubies, emeralds and diamonds. The sisters walk through this grove of trees and come out onto a shore beside a lake. Beside the lake are twelve princes, and beside each prince is a boat. And so each princess is helped into each boat by each prince and rowed across the lake. On the other side of the lake towers a castle, a gleaming white castle ablaze with a forest of candles. Two by two, the prince and his princess enter the castle and dance the night away. When they return home before dawn the next day, their slippers are in shreds.
I love folktales, and for some reason I find this one, which is not so well-known, to be particularly haunting. You see, it sounds as if a thread of Greek mythology has found its way into the tale. The boats being rowed across the lake are an echo, in my mind, of the boatman Charon, who rows the souls of the newly dead across the river Styx.
The there are those jeweled trees. Where do they come from? Many scholars now believe they come from the Epic of Gilgamesh, which was composed in about 1800 BCE, at the time of The Iliad and The Rig Veda.
Then there are the princesses themselves. Have you ever wondered why there have to be twelve princesses? Again, the answer seems to point towards the past, the ancient past, to the Empire of Sumeria which lay in what is now present-day Iraq. Sumeria, began around 4,500 BCE and is the oldest known civilization. It was renowned for its astronomers and mathematicians who used a base-12 numerical system, unlike the base-10 numerical system we use today.
And so, when I came to write MAIDEN TOMB, I put back all those elements. Charon appears as the princesses float in the Milky Way, which the ancient Egyptians believed to be the path that the souls traveled as they sailed along in an Egyptian-style barque towards Polaris. Gilgamesh comes to extract his best friend from the jaws of death. We have snakes, spiders, ancient gods and powerful goddesses, like the Goddess Hecate, whom I refer to as Ambiguity in this tale.
You see, despite its title, I don’t believe that The Twelve Dancing Princesses is about dancing at all.
I believe it is about death.
And far from being a charming story from Europe, suggested by its various book covers that show pretty young people being dressed in the fashions of the eighteenth century—pouffy dresses and elaborate updos—or the fashions of the fifteenth century—vee-necked gowns with a plunging décolletage, and conical head-dresses with floaty veils—The Twelve Dancing Princesses has roots in the Middle East and appears to be thousands of years old!
