“The Finger”

A Retelling of the Jewish Folktale That Inspired Tim Burton’s “The Corpse Bride”

By Lee Ellis

Our Story is set in a time not too unfamiliar, where a man is set to marry his betrothed, and during the travels, horrors unfold. 

Celebration, a tradition, as we made our way through the woods. Alcohol overflowed as we passed bottles back and forth. We stumbled as we explored the silver-lit woods, and we sang songs of joy as my nuptials approached with each step we took. We were daring each other to take part in increasingly foolish games, openly making fools of ourselves. It all came to a head when we drunkenly stumbled upon a large tree root. 

However, when we stopped to realize we hadn’t stumbled over a root, we all discovered in a sobering shock that we had not tripped over a root but a beautiful woman. I passed the bottle I was holding off to my friend Benjamin, who, in turn, took a large swig. Yadid leaned down to investigate, popping up to state what was becoming increasingly apparent. 

“I think she’s dead,” Yadid sighed, taking the bottle from Benjamin.

“I think that's obvious, Yadid,” Raanan chimed.

“What’re we supposed to do?” I asked, drunk and stupid.

“We should get to town as fast as possible, go find someone,” Benjamin suggested.

“Hmm, I know,” Yadid started, completely ignoring Benjamin, “Yakov, you should give us a preview for tomorrow, show us what you’ve been practicing.”

“No way, Yadid,” I responded, completely taken aback by his brazen attitude.

“Come on,” Yadid continued, trying to egg me on, “Just show us your vows.

The other men chimed in with Yadid, pressuring me to practice my vows for them, using the corpse as a prop. I continued to shake my head, but in the end, the combination of overconsumption of alcohol and peer pressure wore me down, and I gave in. 

I leaned down, noticing that the woman looked more as if she was sleeping than dead, and I whispered a prayer for forgiveness. I recited the vows I had spent the time to memorize and pulled the ring my parents had gifted me out of my pocket, slipping it onto the dead woman’s finger. 

A strong wind blew through the woods, strong enough to knock me off my balance, shoving me to the ground. My friends all looked at me, and then around the clearing, as the moon slipped behind a large cloud. We all looked at each other and then again at the woods searching for the source of the sudden and dramatic change in the environment. 

I heard Yadid stuttering out some kind of sentence, but I couldn’t make sense of it, as when I looked up, I saw the dead woman. Except it didn’t appear that she was dead anymore. She still looked ghostly pale and relatively corpse-like, despite this, she was no longer on the forest floor; she was standing over me, pointing and wailing. 

“A husband! A husband,” she wailed, “I never thought this day would come!”

I was still in a state of pure shock and fear when I felt my friends haul me up off the ground and turn and sprint through the woods. I gained my balance and was able to run on my own accord, glancing over my shoulder ever so often to see the corpse still wailing and following us through the woods at a surprising pace.

“WAIT, WAIT,” she cried out, “I don’t even know your name.”

 My friends continued to sprint, and I continued to follow. We pushed our way through the woods, ignoring the bottles and a few belongings we left behind. We could hear the corpses' cries through the trees, but despite it all, we pushed forward. Fear pushes our bodies past their natural limits. 

We didn’t stop until we couldn’t hear her cries and agonizing screams anymore. We paused to catch our breath for only a minute. Once we made sure we were all together, we made the final push through the last of the woods. Our group watched the sun rise through the thinning trees over the village where my real bride awaited. 

I looked at our group, and we were all sweaty and disgusting, covered in mud and dirt. I sighed and summoned the last of my resolve to make the final trek to the house where I’d meet my family and prepare for my wedding. 

We made the walk in silence, trying to cope or make up excuses for what we witnessed in the dark of the woods. When we reached the house where my parents and sisters were waiting, I entered quietly, thinking over excuses for where the ring had gone and why I was so early, among other things. 

My mother rushed over first, doting over my disheveled appearance. She was brushing off the dirt and grime, asking a million questions.

“What happened? Are you okay? Where’s the rings?”

“Mama, I’m okay, just a bit of a scare. Probably nothing.”

“Nothing? You arrived disheveled and covered in dirt.”

“It's just me and the guys. We were trying to scare  each other and ended up sprinting through the woods cause it spooked us so bad.”

“Alright, I’ll drop it, but you all need to get ready.”

I was swept into a frenzy of wild preparations, bathing, washing, rituals, all executed perfectly and with much time to spare. I went back and forth, finally ready and waiting for the moment the wedding would begin. 

My mother was already in tears, and my father stood next to her, no emotions displayed on his face. My mother wrapped herself around me, wishing me luck before I was shepherded to the temple, where I’d wait for all the guests to arrive and to begin the rest of my life. 

I waited at the chuppah for my bride, and when she entered, my heart stopped. A mix of anxiety and anticipation swirled through my mind and body. She approached, and the Rabbi started the ceremony, and right as we were about to start the vows, the doors swung open with a loud bang. 

There in the doorway stood the corpse from the woods; she opened with a wail and a scream.

“My husband! My husband! You cannot marry that man, he is my husband!” 

“The rabbi looked up, and several of the townspeople turned to see the disruption. I heard several of the women scream, and some of the men shot up.”

“YAKOV! What is happening?” my mother cried out, clearly disturbed but knowing this was my fault.

“I don’t know, it started as a bet, a challenge, and we didn’t know this would happen,” I pleaded, hoping for my mother to understand, for anyone to understand. 

“A bet?” she wailed again, “That’s so cruel, but yet you chose me!”

A quiet voice piped up from next to me, my bride, Tzippora, “But you’re dead.”

“Dead? Dead? That doesn’t matter!”

“It does, we really don’t know if there’s even a stance for this yet,” one of the town’s elders piped up.

“Yes, we must discuss,” the Rabbi said, gathering all the elders and disappearing into a chamber next to the sanctuary. 

We all stood, the corpse had approached the chuppah, waiting for the Rabbi to get back, cornering me so that no matter the decision, I couldn’t get away. We waited, murmurs from the guests filled the sanctuary, echoing around me. The initial feeling of anticipation and anxiety shifted entirely into anxiety. The corpse’s dead eyes bored into me, and she reached, but I jolted back. The chamber door swung open, and the Rabbi and the elders emerged. 

“We’ve talked, reviewed the texts, and we’ve decided that there’s no prior precedent of the dead over the living, and marriage lasts until death. So, in this case, the marriage between Yakov and this corpse is invalid,” the Rabbi said. 

I felt relief flow through my body, and the corpse threw herself to the ground and screamed in anguish, before disolving into dust and moths. I watched the swarm of moths flutter out of the sanctuary doors and into the night. 

As I stood at the altar, the memory of that fateful night lingering in my mind, I couldn’t shake the feeling that the shadows of the woods would forever whisper secrets of a past entwined with the echo of an unexpected promise.