According to the commentary on Sur La Lune, the story of Bluebeard is based on the life of Giles de Rais, a Marshal of France who served under Joan of Arc. Retiring to his estates after her execution, he became an alchemist, sodomizing boys and dabbling in black magic as well as child sacrifices apparently. He confesed to over 140 killings, but may have killed as many as 300-for this he was hanged and burned alive on October 26, 1440 -an incredibly difficult combination of executions.
Harry Clarke illu http://www.lib.rochester.edu/camelot/cin... Bluebeard joins his other wives
In 1697 Perrault published Bluebeard, in Histioiires ou contes du temps passé / Stories or Tales of Past Time, making it equally justifiable to say that Henry VIII was the real life model with his domestic diplomacy of disposing with several wives. In some ways, Bluebeard is the inversion of Beauty and the Beast regarding the themes of fidelity and marriage. A man has two daughters whom he wishes to marry to a wealthy neighbor, but they are repelled by him having a blue beard. To engage their affection, Blue Beard took them to his country estate where nothing by pleasure could be found in hunting, fishing, dancing and feasting. No one went to bed as the parties lasted till early morn. The younger of the two daughters began to think that life was not so bad with Blue Beard. A month after their departure, the marriage was concluded between the young woman, Fatima, and Blue Beard.
And all the neighbors and friends were envious of the rich marriage. They visited the castle to see about the trappings and wished the bride well and left her to her fate. her huband departs on a journey, leaving her a key to a secret chamber in the cellar with the instruction not to enter. However, Curiosity overcomes her and she investigates, only to find the corpses of other slaughtered brides.
Contemporary interpretation like to moralize that curiosity killed the cat. The story has taken on the usual Freudian sexual connotations that the bloody key represents the bride's infidelity to Blue Beard, while past generations used it to moralize it on the sanctitiy of marriage and grave punishment for marital insubordination. Both views ignore historical environment at the time of Perrault. Whether Perrault based the story on Giles de Rais or even Vlad IV the model of Dracula, cannot be proven. He may have used Cunmar the Accursed, a 15th century tyrant who killed a succession of wives in Brittany. It seemed a popular way of disposing of them as Henry VIII did so himself. However the last of Cunmar's wives is more fortunate than Anne Boleyn. After being decapitated outside the castle, St Gildas, the abbot of Rhuys happened by and restored her head to body, thus resussicating her. The story is found in frescoes in St Nicholas des Eaux. Similar stories are Fitcher's Bird in the Grimms' collection, Silvernose in Calvino's Italian Folktales and the English, Robber Bridgroom.
