Bluebeard, nickname of the chevalier Raoul in a story by Charles Perrault. In the story Bluebeard's seventh wife, Fatima, yielding to curiosity, opens a locked door and discovers the slain bodies of her predecessors. She is saved from death by the timely arrival of her brothers, for whose coming her sister Anne has been watching from a tower. Breton tradition links Bluebeard with the seigneur de Retz, but the story occurs in the folklore of several countries.

Bluebeard

or Gilles de Rais or Gilles de Retz

Bluebeard, illustration by Gustave Doré

(credit: Courtesy of the trustees of the British Museum; photograph, J.R. Freeman & Co., Ltd.)

(born Sept./Oct. 1404, Champtocé, Fr.—died Oct. 26, 1440, Nantes) Baron and marshal of France renowned for his cruelty. His name was later connected with the story “Bluebeard” by Charles Perrault. He fought several battles at the side of St. Joan of Arc and was made marshal of France (1429). Back in Brittany he led a dissipated life and eventually turned to alchemy and satanism. Accused of abducting and murdering more than 140 children, he was tried by ecclesiastical and civil courts. Condemned for heresy, he confessed, repented, and died bravely at the gallows; his body was burned. Skeptics have noted irregularities in the trials and the interest of others in his ruin. The fairy-tale Bluebeard takes a wife, who, curious about the one room of the castle to which he denies her the key, discovers there the skeletons of her predecessors.

Bluebeard

closets away bodies of former wives. [Fr. Fairy Tale: Harvey, 97–98]

See : Murder

Bluebeard

(Henri Désiré Landru, 1869–1922) executed for murders of ten women (1915–18). [Fr. Hist.: EB (1972), XIII, 661

See : Murder

Bluebeard

chevalier slays his six wives; seventh evades similar fate. [Fr. Fairy Tale: Harvey, 96–97]

See : Polygamy

Bluebeard

murders six wives; a personification of wickedness. [Fr. Lit.: Walsh Classical, 58]

See : Wickedness

Mentioned in	?		References in periodicals archive	?		Encyclopedia browser	?		Full browser	?
No references found	Here you entered a book of hours populated by characters from Aesop, Grimm, Perrault, Lewis Carroll, and the Great Goddess of My Body, My Self, owls mingling with cats, bats, birds, butterflies, and babies, with Red Riding Hood and the wolf, with dead heads, dead monkeys, and head frogs, with pink bosoms, self-replicating vulvas, brains, and kidneys, with bluebeards and spinning spinsters, with doilies, moons, and masses of matted hair, with Dorothy, Alice, and Emily D. Giuseppe Penone: Drawing Center, New York by Armstrong, Carol / Artforum International At Pont-sur-Sambre, for example, the pair are treated with suspicion by the children of the village: We were clearly a pair of Bluebeards to the children; they might speak to us in public places, and where they had the advantage of numbers; but it was another thing to venture off alone with two uncouth and legendary characters, who had dropped from the clouds upon their hamlet this quiet afternoon, sashed and beknived, and with a flavour of great voyages. 'Home is the sailor, home from sea': Robert Louis Stevenson and the ... by Zlosnik, Sue / Yearbook of English Studies	blue screen Blue Screen of Death Blue Screen of Life blue shift Blue Sky Software blue spar Blue Spring State Park Blue Springs State Park blue stain blue star blue straggler star blue tetrazolium blue top blue vitriol blue water gas blue whale Blue Whistling-thrush blue wire blue-eyed grass blue-green algae blue-green algal virus blue-green flame blue-sky scale blue-stocking Bluebeard Bluebeards bluebell blueberry Blueberry Lake State Recreation Site bluebird bluebonnet bluebottle bluebottle fly Bluebugging Bluecasting blued Bluefield Bluefields Bluefish BlueGene bluegill bluegrass Bluegrass Fan Fest bluegrass music Bluegrass region Blueing Bluejacking blueline Bluemner, Oscar blueprint blueprint machine	Blue-stocking Blue-stocking Blue-throat Blue-throated Hummingbird Blue-throated Motmot Blue-throated robin Blue-Tongue Blue-veined blue-violet Blue-water blue-white Blue-white supergiant Blue-white supergiant Blue-white supergiants Blue-white supergiants Blue-Winged Olive blue-winged teal blue-winged teal blue-yellow blindness blue-yellow blindness blue-yellow blindness Blueback Blueback Herring blueback salmon blueback salmon bluebacks bluebag Bluebead lily Bluebeard Bluebeard Bluebeards Bluebeat Bluebeat Remedy bluebell bluebell Bluebell (flower) Bluebell (flower) bluebell (South Africa) Bluebell Railway Preservation Society bluebells bluebells Bluebelly Blueberries Blueberries Blueberries blueberry blueberry blueberry blueberry bush Blueberry Cornel Blueberry jam Blueberry jam Blueberry jam Blueberry Juice Blueberry Lake State Recreation Site Blueberry Leaf Mottle Virus Blueberry muffin Blueberry muffin Blueberry Muffin Appearance blueberry muffin baby blueberry pie

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Here you entered a book of hours populated by characters from Aesop, Grimm, Perrault, Lewis Carroll, and the Great Goddess of My Body, My Self, owls mingling with cats, bats, birds, butterflies, and babies, with Red Riding Hood and the wolf, with dead heads, dead monkeys, and head frogs, with pink bosoms, self-replicating vulvas, brains, and kidneys, with bluebeards and spinning spinsters, with doilies, moons, and masses of matted hair, with Dorothy, Alice, and Emily D.

Giuseppe Penone: Drawing Center, New York by Armstrong, Carol / Artforum International

At Pont-sur-Sambre, for example, the pair are treated with suspicion by the children of the village: We were clearly a pair of Bluebeards to the children; they might speak to us in public places, and where they had the advantage of numbers; but it was another thing to venture off alone with two uncouth and legendary characters, who had dropped from the clouds upon their hamlet this quiet afternoon, sashed and beknived, and with a flavour of great voyages.

'Home is the sailor, home from sea': Robert Louis Stevenson and the ... by Zlosnik, Sue / Yearbook of English Studies

Blue-stocking
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Blue-veined
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Bluebeard
Bluebeard

Bluebeards

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Blueberry Lake State Recreation Site
Blueberry Leaf Mottle Virus
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Blueberry muffin
Blueberry Muffin Appearance
blueberry muffin baby
blueberry pie

Bluebeard (redirected from Bluebeards)

Bluebeard

Bluebeard
(redirected from Bluebeards)