A handful of parsley.

I conducted a Google search today looking for information on "induced miscarriage." Now, before going any further, I should mention that I have no need to induce a miscarriage (honest, I don't), but for whatever reason, I am simply curious about the subject (I admit to having strange curiosities). So, if I may proceed...


The first site that pops up is a blog post entitled "How to induce a miscarriage herbally (and safely)," written by blog author "lost clown." After skimming the article, I discover that the key ingredient for inducing a missed period is parsley. Whoa! Parsley?!

Why the fascination, one might ask? Well. Let me digress a bit, first. I promise it will make sense in the end.

There is a fairy tale commonly known as Rapunzel. The Grimm brothers wrote the most well-known version in which a woman ravenously desires fresh rapunzel from a witch's garden. In some versions, the woman desires rampion or some type of lettuce so she can make a salad, and she begs her husband to get some for her. In the Grimm's first version of the tale, the woman is pregnant when she craves the rapunzel, but in the final version, the woman only longs to be pregnant when she desires the rapunzel.

However! There is another version, an Italian one by Giambattista Basile--a couple centuries older than Grimm--called Petrosinella. Or... Little Parsley. And the pregnant woman's monstrous craving just so happens to be for parsley! (which she steals herself, by the way). So, she names her daughter Petrosinella, or Little Parsley, in remembrance of her strange cravings.

Some major differences between the Grimm and Basile versions: (1) as already mentioned, the plant. Rapunzel in the Grimm's version and parsley in Basile's. (2) In the Grimm versions, the woman's husband steals the plant from the garden and makes the infamous bargain with the witch. In Basile's version, there is no mention of a husband or man, and the pregnant woman sneaks parsley from the garden and bargains with the witch for her life. (3) In the Grimm versions, especially the later one, there is little mention of intimacy between Rapunzel and the prince, and the later version omits all suggestions that Rapunzel sleeps with the prince at all. Basile's version has more innuendo and playful humor of the sexual nature, and it emphasizes the lovers and their love-making. (4) In Basile's tale, Petrosinella escapes from the tower and elopes with the prince. In Grimm's, the witch cuts off Rapunzel's hair and dumps her in the wilderness.

Now, what does this have to do with induced miscarriages? Well. There is a scholar named Marina Warner who wrote an interesting article comparing the Grimm fairy tale to Basile's with emphasis on the sexual nature of the tale. Firstly, she compares the herb parsley to rapunzel: "Parsley, when decocted in concentration, was a popular abortifacient, used to stimulate the return of the menses--in other words, to procure a miscarriage."¹ The rapunzel plant, on the other hand, was not used to induce menstruation but to regulate it. Next, Warner connects this folk remedy to the fairy tales of Basile and Grimm:

"The Brothers Grimm, who were so eager to avoid sexual innuendo in their revisions, might have preferred rampion to parsley on account of the herbs' different popular uses and sought to bury a different story through their revision, a story that came uncomfortably close to ordinary troubles of young women, to unwanted pregnancy, the threat of teenage motherhood. The expectant mother in the fairy tale, who craves a certain herb from the witch, might be trespassing in the garden of a cunning woman expert in such matters and, when discovered, might indeed agree instead to hand over the baby at birth."²

When considering the symbols of the Rapunzel fairy tale (the parsley/rapunzel, the tower, the hair, etc.), it makes sense that they would have had a sexual context. A pregnant woman who devours plants associated with the cycle and menstruation. A tower that confines the girl and "protects" her from the outside world, especially from her sexual awakening. The freedom associated with letting down her hair to let the prince climb up. This fairy tale is deeply connected to women's fears, desires, and sexuality; it "reaches into anxieties about safeguarding the young, about sex before marriage and teenage pregnancy, about their yearnings for freedom..."³

Even though Marina Warner's article on the Rapunzel fairy tale was the first I had ever heard of the abortifacient-quality of parsley, I feel that the concept makes perfect sense in the context of the fairy tale and connects the various symbolic elements together nicely. And after reading lost clown's article on induced miscarriage, I feel a sense of fascination with the 'untold' story of Rapunzel all over again. So, pardon my excitement, but I just had to blog on my recent epiphany!

Important note: I have absolutely no knowledge as to the safety and efficacy of the herbal treatment for induced miscarriage, and I therefore have no place to recommend it or discredit it.

Credits

Lost clown. "How to induce a miscarriage herbally (and safely). http://angryforareason.blogspot.com/2006/02/how-to-induce-miscarriage-herbally-and.html  

¹Marina Warner. "After 'Rapunzel'." Marvels & Tales: Journal of Fairy Tale Studies. Vol 24(2). 334.    
²Warner. 334-35.  
³Warner. 331-32.