Bluebeard

The key is small, and it will not come clean. She wipes it and the blood stays. She washes it and scrubs it with sand and grit, and the blood stays. When at last the stain fades from one side, it comes up on the other. Downstairs her friends are still walking through the rooms, admiring the mirrors and the gold plate. Her husband is due home in six weeks. He comes home that night.

This is the middle of Bluebeard, a French tale set down by Charles Perrault and printed in Paris in 1697. It sits in the same small book as Cinderella, Sleeping Beauty and Puss in Boots. It is the only one of them with a room full of corpses in it.

The man himself is described in a few lines. He has fine houses in town and in the country. He has gold and silver dishes, embroidered furniture and coaches gilded all over. He also has a blue beard, and it makes him so ugly and so frightening that every woman and girl runs away from him. Perrault never says why the beard is blue. It is simply the sign that something is wrong with him. He has been married several times already, and nobody knows what became of the wives.

A lady who lives nearby has two daughters. He asks for one of them and leaves the choice to her. Neither girl wants him. So he takes them, their mother and a party of friends to one of his country houses for a whole week. There is hunting, fishing, dancing and feasting, and nobody sleeps. By the end of it the younger daughter thinks his beard is not so very blue. She marries him.

A month later he tells her he must travel on business. He gives her the keys to the store rooms, the strongboxes and the chests of jewels. He tells her to invite her friends and enjoy herself. Then he shows her one last key. It opens a small room at the end of the long gallery on the ground floor. She may open everything else. That one room he forbids, and he tells her that if she opens it there is nothing she may not expect from his anger.

She lasts until the guests arrive. While they exclaim over the house, she slips away down a back stair so fast she nearly breaks her neck. She stands at the little door for a moment. Then she opens it. The shutters are closed and at first she sees nothing. Then she sees that the floor is covered with thick, dried blood, and that the bodies of several dead women are hung along the walls. These are the wives. The key falls from her hand.

When he comes back he asks for his keys. Her hand shakes as she gives them over. He looks at the small one and asks why there is blood on it. She says she does not know. He says that he knows very well. She wanted to go into the room, he tells her, and so she shall go in, and take her place among the ladies she saw there.

She begs for a little time to say her prayers. He gives her half a quarter of an hour. She runs upstairs and calls to her sister Anne, who has stayed in the house, to climb to the top of the tower and look for their brothers, who promised to visit that day. Three times she calls up, asking if Anne sees anyone coming. Anne answers that she sees nothing but the sun making dust and the grass growing green. Below, Bluebeard is shouting with a great blade in his hand, and the house shakes with it. Then Anne sees two riders, a long way off.

He has his wife by the hair and the blade raised when the gate bursts open. Her brothers come in with drawn swords. One is a dragoon and the other is a musketeer. Bluebeard runs. They catch him before he reaches the steps and run him through.

He has no heirs, so his wife gets everything. She gives her sister a dowry, buys her brothers their captain’s ranks, and marries a decent man who helps her forget.

People have looked for a real Bluebeard ever since. The name most often given is Gilles de Rais, a Breton lord who fought beside Joan of Arc and was hanged in 1440. But his victims were children, he did not kill his wife, and nothing shows that Perrault had him in mind. The other name is Conomor the Cursed, a ruler in Brittany in the sixth century. Breton legend says he murdered his wives and cut off the head of the last one, Tryphine, who was then raised by a saint. Neither man had a blue beard. The safest thing to say is that the story of a murderous husband and a forbidden door was already old when Perrault wrote his version. Related tales are found across Europe. The Grimms have Fitcher’s Bird and The Robber Bridegroom, and England has Mr Fox.

Bluebeard’s strength is ordinary. He has money, a locked door and a wife who is alone with him. The only magic in the tale belongs to the key, which is enchanted and tells on whoever uses it. He does not need to watch her. The key does it for him.

His weakness is ordinary too. He is one man with a blade, and he dies like one. He gives his wife a few minutes too many and she uses them. He is not beaten by a spell or a saint. He is beaten by a sister on a roof and two brothers on fast horses.

Frequently Asked Questions

Who is Bluebeard?

Bluebeard is the villain of a French tale written by Charles Perrault and printed in 1697. He is a rich man with a blue beard who has murdered several wives and keeps their bodies in a locked room. His name is now used for any man who kills a series of wives.

What is in Bluebeard’s forbidden room?

Bluebeard’s forbidden room holds the bodies of his earlier wives, hung along the walls, with the floor covered in dried blood. His new wife opens it while he is away. She drops the key in the blood, and the stain will not wash off because the key is enchanted.

How does Bluebeard die?

Bluebeard is killed by his wife’s two brothers, a dragoon and a musketeer. They ride up just as he is about to cut off her head. They chase him and run him through with their swords before he can reach the steps.

Was Bluebeard a real person?

No real Bluebeard has been proved. Gilles de Rais, a Breton lord hanged in 1440, is often named, but his victims were children and nothing links him to Perrault’s tale. Conomor the Cursed, a sixth-century ruler in Brittany who was said to murder his wives, is the other common guess.

Who is Sister Anne in Bluebeard?

Sister Anne is the sister of Bluebeard’s wife. She climbs to the top of the tower to watch for their brothers while Bluebeard waits below with his blade. She is the one who sees the two riders coming from a long way off.

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