Narrative Conventions of the Seasons

Image Source: Grant Snider via Rob Bignell on Bluesky. 

Check out my new writer's profile on Bluesky! I just signed up and found the above cartoon. Next, I saw an amazing photo of an albino squirrel, which resembles the main character in a fairy tale I'm writing: "The Keepers of the Dawn."

That character is based on a white squirrel that lived next to a post office near me. Whenever I mailed a letter, he or she would scramble down toward me, and I began to consider the little animal as a talisman. What a moment of synchronicity to sign onto Bluesky for the first time, to be greeted by a white squirrel, exactly like the one in the story currently on my desk.

Image Source: Artologica aka Michele Baks on Bluesky. 

This story is part of a series of children's books I'm creating which focus on the adventures of wild animals in Glengarry, Ontario, Canada, as well as wider parts of Eastern Ontario, the Ottawa Valley and Southwestern Quebec. 'Keepers' is one of four stories in that series about the turn of the seasons. In 'Keepers,' the animals gather together to discuss the meaning of spring. The classic spring theme of sacrifice is presented in relation to the white squirrel - but with a twist.

Earlier this year, I gave a presentation in McGill University's MCLL fairy tales and fables class about spring stories. This was part of my background research for this work. You can read my PowerPoint slides for it here. The most electrifying discovery I made while preparing that presentation was a musical piece by Luigi Antonio Irlandini entitled Agniṣṭoma. The piece is named after the Hindu sacrifice:

Agniṣṭoma: an ancient Hindu sacrifice honouring the fire diety, Agni. Performed in the spring, it is the model for all other sacrificial rituals. It connects humans to gods, performed according to the lunar cycle to maintain the cosmic order, prescribed by the Vedic texts. 

Other research for the seasonal stories included a course at the Carterhaugh School of Folklore and the Fantastic in January of 2024: 'Kindling a Light in the Darkness: Winter Folklore and Fairytales'  (Carterhaugh originally offered the course in 2020). I heartily recommend it. It was through this course that I realized that seasonal tales follow different story-telling conventions.

For example, winter tales have a different concept of time than spring tales do. Winter tales involve going through a door, and the door shuts behind you. Time is linear and moves forward. There's no going back. In spring tales, time is circular, and one revisits where one has been before, but comes upon the old scene with new eyes.