Women Who Run with the Wolves

The tale of “The Handless Maiden” describes the entire arc of a woman’s journey as she struggles to discover her inner self. A poor miller is approached by an old man promising great riches if the miller will give the stranger whatever stands behind his mill. Thinking that only an apple tree stands behind the mill, the man agrees. The stranger says he will return in three years to claim his prize. The miller’s wife says that, in addition to the apple tree, their daughter was standing behind the mill at the time the deal was made. Realizing that they must sacrifice their child, the couple prepares for the worst.

Three years later, the stranger returns. He is actually the devil and can’t come near the girl because she has washed herself and dressed in clean attire. He commands her to cease bathing. When he comes back again, the girl is unkempt but crying. Her tears run down her arms and wash them clean, which again drives the devil away. He commands the miller to cut off the girl’s hands so that she can’t wipe her tears, and the miller obeys. When the devil returns a third time, the girl’s tears have soaked the stumps of her hands and washed them clean. This drives the devil away for good, and he has no more claim on the girl.

The now-wealthy miller offers to take care of his daughter for the rest of her life, but she insists on making her way in the world as a beggar. She wanders, dirty and hungry, until one night she comes to a pear orchard near a castle. The castle moat magically drains to allow her to pass, and the pear trees bow down to offer the girl their fruit. The next morning, the king asks his gardener about the strange incident. Curious to see this beggar, the king returns at night with a magician who questions the girl. When the magician asks about her origins, the girl says she was once of the world but is not now of this world. The king, instantly touched by her plight, promises to take care of her. He fashions silver hands for the maiden, and they marry.

When the king is called away to fight a war, he leaves his wife in the care of his old mother. During his absence, his wife gives birth to a son. When the king sends a messenger to inquire after the baby, the devil distorts the message to say the maiden has given birth to a half-dog. The king declares his love nonetheless and sends instructions that mother and child are to be cared for. The devil once again interferes and changes the message to read that the mother and child should be killed. The king’s old mother refuses to do this. She substitutes a doe for the sacrifice of her daughter-in-law and sends the mother and baby away to hide in the woods.

The maiden finds shelter at a secluded inn and stays there for seven years. During this time, her hands magically grow back. When the king finally returns to his castle, he learns about the miscommunication from his mother and vows that he won’t eat or rest until he finds his wife and child. The king wanders for seven years until he stumbles into the inn where his wife is staying. At first, he doesn’t believe she is really the handless maiden until she shows him the set of silver hands he had made for her so long ago. The couple is reunited. They return to the castle to live happily ever after with their baby son and the old mother.

The author sees this tale as the progression from dangerous naivete to full knowledge of the Wild Woman. All the characters represent aspects of the female psyche in its development from initiate to sage. The girl in the story loses her hands because of a bad bargain made in the past. She leaves behind the cultural norms and values of her parents in search of some deeper meaning. In her wandering, she meets the animus of her own nature, the king, and gives birth to a child, who represents her true self reborn in the knowledge of the Wild Woman. She regenerates her own hands to indicate that she has reconstructed her life using a more authentic pattern of experience. She reunites with the Wild Goddess, as represented by the king’s mother, and lives a fulfilled life.

Such a harrowing soul journey creates a profound transformation in any woman strong enough to undertake it:

When we come up out of the underworld after one of our undertakings there, we may appear unchanged outwardly, but inwardly we have reclaimed a vast and womanly wildness. On the surface, we are still friendly, but beneath the skin, we are most definitely no longer tame (455).