Footprints

For Cultural Hybrids Seeking Home

THE HANDLESS MAIDEN

20 July 2024

The myth of the Handless Maiden is a companion piece to The Fisher King.  It allows us to peep at the realities of another world—a world very much unlike the infertile land of the Fisher King. 

There was once an industrious miller who worked all day grinding the grains to supply flour for use in his village.  Turning the very heavy millstone by hand, day after day, was a laborious task indeed, but he was strong, and ever since he could remember, he had been grinding grains.  However, now he was getting old and tired. 

One day, a stranger appeared. “I see how hard you work and how heavy that millstone is for an old man like you.  I can help you lighten your load.”  Hearing this, the miller was intrigued.  He could only occasionally borrow his neighbour's donkey to help him turn the millstone.  He was wondering what help this stranger could offer him.  Unbeknownst to the miller, the stranger was really the devil.

“For a small fee,” said the devil, “I will show you how to grind your grain much faster and with much less effort.”  But what fee?  “That which stands at the back of your mill,” replied the devil. The miller thought of the useless old tree at the back of the mill, and so he readily agreed.

The devil constructed a mechanical waterwheel which connected the millstone to the stream that ran through the mill, taking advantage of the force of the water.  The miller was entranced.  With his watermill, he could increase his productivity severalfold.   In no time, he became one of the most prosperous residents in his village, and amidst this new-found fortune, the miller completely forgot the pact he made with the devil.

A year passed before the devil came back to collect his fee.  The miller readily went with him to the back of the mill where the old tree stood, but to his horror, he found his daughter standing there as well!  The devil claimed the miller’s daughter as his fee.  A deal was a deal.

The devil then chopped off the daughter’s hands, and promptly disappeared with his bounty.  For a while, the daughter did not object.  After all, she now had fine clothes, enjoyed the looks of admiration from her neighbours, and with the services of servants, she didn’t have to do anything.  What did she need hands for?

In time, however, the daughter started to feel depressed and unhappy.  She became weepy, missing her hands.  This feeling grew worse each day until she resolved to leave the comforts of home and be alone in the forest.

Aimlessly wandering around, the handless maiden one morning chanced upon a wonderful garden full of beautiful flowers!  This was the garden in the palace of the king.  Hungry, she reached out to pluck and eat a fruit from a pear tree, for she had become skilled at doing so without hands.  It was juicy and sweet to the taste, so right there and then, she decided to encamp in the garden and eat from the fruits of the pear trees. 

Now, pears were the king's favourite fruit. These fruits were, in fact, numbered so that the king always knew how many pears were growing on each tree.  Thus, the palace gardener noticed the missing fruits right away and notified the king.  Curious to find out who was eating his beloved pears, the king hid behind a bush and observed the maiden one early morning as she came to pluck a fruit.  At the sight of her, the king instantly fell in love.  He wasted no time in proposing to make the handless maiden his queen.  She was initially reluctant.  What use would he have of a maiden without hands?  But he assured her she didn’t need hands as her ladies-in-waiting would do everything for her. 

The king was true to his promise.  Moreover, he asked his best silversmiths to make hands for his wife in solid silver!  Dressed in silk, attended to by her retinue, the beautiful queen paraded her silver hands with poise and grace amidst the "ohs” and “ahs” of her subjects. She was pleased to hear her silver hands were so much more beautiful than human hands.

She learned the customs and manners of the kingdom in no time and eventually had a baby boy.  Despite this, however, she again started to get weepy. She continued to cry, shedding copious tears, and she didn’t know how to stop this yawning loneliness that filled her each day.  Finally, she remembered her life in the woods.  Bundling her baby one fateful night, the queen escaped into the forest, where she longed to live a simple and natural life.

The king was beside himself, for he truly loved his wife and son.  Alerting his troops, they went in search of the queen.  But the forest was thick and wide, and the search was difficult.  Meanwhile, the queen and her baby survived on the fruits of the trees and the nuts and berries on the ground.  Enjoying the silence of the forest, she waded in its brooks and streams.

However, it wasn’t long before a terrible accident happened: her baby fell from her clasp into the stream!  Frantic, she called for her ladies-in-waiting but promptly realized she was alone.  She had completely forgotten the use of her silver hands by now, for in her life in the palace, she had no use for hands.  In desperation and by force of nature, she reached out to grab her baby before he drowned—she and her silver hands!

Holding her baby close to her chest, she saw her hands restored to human flesh and blood! Overcome with joy, she now cried tears of happiness.  What made it possible?  Was it the plunging of her silver hands into the healing waters of the stream that caused such a miracle? Was it the desperate and sudden eruption of fear and love for her child?  Was it the painful experience of solitude in the forest?  Was it the longing for a natural life?

Completely cured, with restored human hands and a new awareness of the difference between the real and the artificial, she happily returned to her loving but misguided husband.

*       *       *       *

As with the Fisher King, The Handless Maiden has many versions.  Perhaps the darkest one is in the Brothers Grimm's collection of fairy tales.  But so were their many other stories before Walt Disney “cleaned” them up. 

In the version above, the barren and unproductive land of the Fisher King can be juxtaposed with the fecund but isolating world of the Handless Maiden.  The latter myth describes a world of plenty—women are dressed in fine silk, and labour is replaced by mechanical waterwheels and hands made of silver, i.e., by technology.  In this world of rationality and efficiency, even fruits are numbered. In short, the natural world has been replaced by the more productive artificial.

This artificial world is often reflected in the themes of recent films.  I just watched Blade Runner 2049 about a dystopian Los Angeles in America.  We see the hero whose identity is a serial number, working with smart colleagues to evade equally smart enemies but otherwise devoid of social contacts. His only companion is his girlfriend, an AI hologram.  He loves her, and he feels loved by her, but it is an ersatz relationship. The film criticizes the idea of technicism, the thought that all needs and, indeed, all problems with reality can be solved by technological means.

The extremely technological West is increasingly described as alienating and lonely.  In the U.S., for example, loneliness has been declared an epidemic, with about 50% of all Americans affected -- 33% experiencing loneliness regularly.  Worse, amongst the younger ones, a full 60% are chronically lonely.  As though this was not enough, the incoming “screenagers” can no longer be pried away from their smartphones and their excessive use of social media, which prevents them from forming bonds with real friends who live real lives.  Mental health problems are so prevalent that, as part of a holistic program to address these issues, U.S. Surgeon General Vivek Murthy is now advocating placing warning labels on social media platforms such as Facebook, much like those on cigarettes.

Americans 25 and older are spending more time alone

            Hours per week

(Note:  The graph above may give one the impression that to be physically alone is to be lonely. What the graph instead tells us is that being physically alone or socially isolated often leads to loneliness--the feeling of emptiness and lack of meaningful connections that satisfy our need to be understood and given emotional support).  

Faced with similar problems, the UK and Japan have institutionalised their approaches to this societal crisis. They have created Ministries of Loneliness, which are implementing strategic responses to mental health issues that are equally rife in their own countries. Japan’s ministry is currently headed by Tetsushi Sakamoto and that of the UK by Stuart Andrew -- full-fledged members of their Prime Minister’s Cabinet.

I think that we in the Philippines have never reached anywhere near this level of alienation and loneliness.  Despite our poverty, we retain our firm bonds towards our loved ones—not only towards our families and relations but also towards our many friends.  Does that make us any happier?

*      *      *      *

I have always been fascinated by the perceived differences in the Western and Eastern outlook on life.  The West inherited the classical philosophy of the ancient Greeks, who believed that with logic, reason, and the pursuit of knowledge through science and inquiry, their actions could control their external world.  Thus emerged the ideas that ushered in the Age of Enlightenment, which, in turn, gave rise to the Industrial Revolution, and now Computing and Artificial Intelligence (AI).  Western philosophies emphasize mankind’s God-given right to control the earth and its creatures.  In the Christian Bible (Genesis 1:28), God says, “. . . have dominion over the fish of the sea, and over the fowl of the air, and over every living thing that moveth upon the earth. . . “   This is supplemented by capitalistic ideologies focused on individualism, i.e., individual autonomy, competition, self-reliance, independence, and the pursuit of personal achievements.

The East has a different mindset: rather than wanting to control the external world, it aims to control oneself to better adjust to the demands of one’s external circumstances.  Its focus is thus the world within, on developing inner virtues as a path to personal growth, harmonious living, and spiritual peace.  We see that in the philosophies of Hinduism, Buddhism, Confucianism, and Taoism, which are commonly associated with prescriptions for meditation, mindfulness, and introspection. These practices lead to a feeling of unity with the natural world, of which we are a part.  Further, these normative practices are complemented by the culture of collectivism--the need for cooperation, affiliation, interdependence, and group orientation--a spectrum on which the Philippines is an extreme case.

In my opinion, the outlooks on life in the East and the West have their own inherent strengths and weaknesses.  We have seen them in the stories above. Without economic productivity, the “land” becomes barren. On the other hand, technology and economic progress alone can rob the soul, as we are all hardwired to form social relationships.  Perhaps we can learn from each other.  But before that, as with the myth of the Fisher King, we need to develop self-awareness, not only at the individual level but also at the socio-cultural level.