The Contrary-Minded Woman

Lore & Background

The story begins one Sunday when a wife and husband look at their cornfield by a river. The husband announces they must reap the corn tomorrow, but the wife, being contrary, insists they should clip it instead. The argument escalates as the wife jumps around clipping her fingers like shears. The husband takes her into the river and holds her head under water, asking repeatedly if the corn should still be clipped; each time she replies yes, until he drowns her. The next day, the husband and neighbors drag the river but cannot find her; remembering her contrary nature, they search upstream and find her above a fall, contrary to the flow of the water as she was in life.

Reader's Guide

The folktale is not unique to Norwegian culture but appears in England, Germany, Finland, Spain, Russia, and Pakistan, as well as in works such as Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew and the Book of Esther. It falls under Aarne-Thompson-Uther tale-type 901, which features a wise husband and a contrary wife of little knowledge, where the wife's contrariness leads to her being cast out, killed, or punished, enforcing the theme that being contrary and of little knowledge brings disaster. The story can also be analyzed through gender roles: type 901 is part of a section (types 900–909) focused on "Realistic Tales [in which an] Obstinate Wife Learns to Obey," reflecting the idea that women should be obedient and submissive to their husbands, potentially enforced by violence or ridicule. The narrator notes, "whatever he was for, she was always against," and the tale ends with the comment, "There is nothing so dangerous as little knowledge."

Did You Know?

• Translations include Goody Gainst-the-stream by Dasent (1859), The Old Woman Against the Stream by Iverson (2000s), and The Contrary-Minded Woman by Braekstad (1897).
• The tale is classified as Aarne-Thompson-Uther type 901, which features a wise husband and a contrary wife.
• Contrary to some claims, neither Shakespeare's The Taming of the Shrew nor the Book of Esther contains a story of a contrary wife who drowns and floats upstream.