An Xmas fairytale: the Shoes that were danced to pieces

This delightful fairy tale from the Brothers Grimm has become a RAG tradition, told every year on the last day of the autumn term, before Christmas. It tells of twelve princesses and their periodic trips to the underworld, the narrator treating patriarchal marriage as a cruel punishment imposed on a coalition of sisters who had previously been free to dance the nights away. This magical tale introduces us to universal mythological themes which will be explored more fully in the Spring Term. Chris Knight will show how all such tales make sense in the light of the theory that human sexual morality was initially established by women