Work Text:
The Tale of the Rose. A small volume, bound in fine red cloth. Five authors are listed, four credited only with annotation.
The table of contents is divided into three sub-headings, the first being a brief history of the story and its original author. Third is the footnotes and editors' comments. The tale itself is sandwiched narrowly between them, bulked out with illustrations to almost half again its real length. This is probably for the best; without all the interpretation and context surrounding it, The Tale of the Rose is very short and not terribly exciting.
A few excerpts of the most pertinent sections follow. Some may include quotes from the story itself to provide proper context.
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Once upon a time there was a writer who loved tragedies. It was said that he never wrote a happy ending, and this is true as far as it goes. Indeed, some of his unpublished notebooks are full of stories that started to go in directions he didn't like (Princess Tutu being the most famous example). The Tale of the Rose is not one of them, surprisingly—it was excluded for other reasons.
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Many thanks to Anthy Himemiya, without whose help none of this could have been written. May you find your prince.
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Authors' notes:
Fakir: After Ahiru and myself put together the ending of Princess Tutu, Autor found a whole bunch of Drosselmeyer's old notebooks—he won't tell us where—and they were absolutely full of bits and pieces. We've collected a lot of them into semi-coherent storylines, and some of them are just things he refused to finish because he couldn't think of a properly tragic ending, but we're releasing The Tale of the Rose this way because it was the only finished one he never published.
Ahiru: There's a lot of super interesting stuff around it that's not in the actual draft.
Autor: I'm still not going to tell any of you where I found those notes. However, I do want our readers to know that someone else found them first. She showed me where they were, and she said she knew because her brother had asked Drosselmeyer to write a story for him. That story is this one. She didn't write anything down, but she told us a lot, and that's why her name's on the cover.
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[1]The original title was The Witch. According to Anthy, it was changed for poetic reasons.
[2]Drosselmeyer's side-note: shadow puppets?
[3]The Tale of the Rose was almost certainly written before The Prince and the Raven (and thus also long before Princess Tutu). Nevertheless, there may be some comparison between this prince[4] and Raven's prince, who uses his own heart to seal away the raven.
[4]Anthy states that the prince's name was Dios, though this is never mentioned in-text.
[5]"This is a story from the days when all the women of the world were still princesses." As you can see, a very loaded line. Unlike Princess Tutu and similar stories, here 'princess' has a connotation of weakness, delicacy, and helplessness. But it also implies high status for all these women. This is born out by the next few scenes, especially that of the restaurant.
[6]Note that kisses are portrayed as a necessary part of rescues.
[7]Another marginal note: Akio = the prince? Anthy's brother is named Akio.
[8]"plunge the land deep into darkness" is reminiscent of the villain's goal in The Prince and the Raven. It seems to be a theme Drosselmeyer was fond of.
[9]"castle which floats in the sky" calls out to "building castles in the air" and similar idioms, i.e. daydreams and impossible fantasies. This does not seem to quite fit with "witch's castle", but Anthy tells us it was also meant to reference the second half of the story, which was never completed. This half would have centered around the Witch rather than the Prince. We have a few scattered notes on it, but not much more; it seems that Drosselmeyer realized early on that it wasn't going the way he wanted.
[10]"power to revolutionize the world" is a similar tie-in to the second half.
[11]If Akio is the prince, as seems to be the case, then his sister Anthy must be the witch.
[12]"Women who can't be princesses have no choice but to become witches." The text very clearly portrays witch-ness as a bad (if inevitable) thing. But, as we can see from the lines preceding this one, becoming a witch is a way of gaining power. It is, in fact, the only way for a woman to gain power. This witch is clearly particularly evil (and thus particularly powerful) if she can imprison the prince and engulf the world in darkness. Perhaps she has the same strength as her brother, merely in the opposite direction.
[13]Note that the young and the noble are merely 'obstacles', and not in themselves means to more power.
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Here are Drosselmeyer's notes (with annotations) on the unfinished half or sequel of The Tale of the Rose:
The only one who can help her [the witch] is a prince she believes in.
The Rose Bride. [Also the witch.]
Coffins?
The prince's grave. The castle in the sky where eternity dwells. [Not necessarily the same place, though it is not unlikely. As we know from the first half, the castle in the sky is where the witch lives.]
The power to revolutionize the world.
"You can't be my prince, because you're a girl." [Without more context, it is impossible to say whether this line is supported or refuted by the narrative. Anthy tells us that her brother would probably have meant it seriously, and it does support the princess/witch dichotomy. However, she told us that the girl she herself is searching for is "princely", and Drosselmeyer may have known that at the time.]
Ballet? Theatre. [Another decision on the medium of storytelling.]
The Rose Seal. [Anthy says this is meant to be a name for the ring her brother wears.]
"She enjoys being a witch."
The Ends of the World. [As in 'limits' rather than 'apocalypse'.]
There was never a prince in the first place. [Metaphorically speaking.]
Again, and again, and again, for the last time. [Possibly related to 'revolution'?]
"The path before you has been prepared." [Probably related to the line above. The path has been prepared by all those who trod it first.]
All girls are like the Rose Bride.
"Dresses don't go with swords. You can become a beautiful princess." [Cf. line six]
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We are very pleased to announce that Ms Himemiya has given us a few notes of her own, and with them her full permission to write a conclusion to The Tale of the Rose. Look out for it soon!