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Author
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Comment
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Ophie
Registered User
(10/26/02 11:44:15 pm)
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a fairytale i half remember
does anyone know the title (or one of the many titles?) of this fairytale?
the main plot, as far as i can remember, is that a girl lives with her evil stepmum and stepsister, and one day her stepmum sends her to fetch some water from the well. there, the girl meets an old woman and is very nice to her, so the old woman puts a spell on the girl. from then on, everytime the girl speaks, flowers and jewels fall from her lips. when she returns home, the stepmum sees what has happened and sends her daughter out. instead of being kind, the evil stepsister is rude to the old woman, and is cursed with having snakes and toads come from her mouth whenever she speaks...
does this seem familiar to anyone? if it does, could you e-mail me at into_the_duckpond@hotmail.com please? i really want to know about this fairytale, and any help you could offer would be much appreciated!
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Joanna
Unregistered User
(10/27/02 4:55:43 am)
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I've heard that one before...
That one definatley sounds familiar. I heard it a LONG time ago, and can't remember everything about it, but I think that in the version I heard instead of an evil step mother there's a prince that marries a princess who has jewels come out of her mouth whenever she talks, and he uses her to get rich or something...and then something happens and there's a good prince and they get married and live happily ever after.
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Helen
Registered User
(10/27/02 5:32:29 am)
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Two versions ...
Ophie, I think that the story that you have in mind is called "Diamonds and Toads," or "The Fairies," and was composed by Charles Perrault. You can find it in Jack Zipes' _Beauty and the Beast, and Other Classic French Fairy Tales_. Joanna, your version sounds as though it might be a retelling from the Fairy Tales series by Datlow and Windling (it sounds very familiar), but I can't place the author. Hope this helps!
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Leah
Unregistered User
(10/27/02 8:24:52 am)
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Another version
Another lesser known tale with two sisters such as these is the Grimm's "The
three little gnomes in the wood" although it is gnomes and
not a fairy that puts on the spell, it still has similar elements.
It also happens to be one of my favorite fairy tales : )
you can find it at oaks.nvg.org/frga.html#woodmen
or
www-2.cs.cmu.edu/~spok/grimmtmp/
Note inserted by Heidi: Diamonds and Toads (and
many of its variants) is now available with annotations and such
on SurLaLune at Diamonds
and Toads.
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Ailanna
Registered User
(10/27/02 8:54:31 am)
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Well...
I read a Grimm's fairy tale called Mother Hulda, in which the good, industrious, obedient girl is gifted with a shower of gold, and the lazy one a shower of pitch. Not quite the same, but it has the same sort of theme-- rewards for industriousness/kindness/virtuous behavior in general, and punishment for the opposite.
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janeyolen
Unregistered User
(10/27/02 9:11:23 am)
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More
There is an entire good girl/bad girl set of stories with variants around the world that this story is part of. I have written about it extensively in MIRROR, MIRROR: 40 FOlktaleds for Mothers and Daughters to Share.
And again in an upcoming book FAIRY TALE FEASTS (a cookbook with stories) this way:
This French folk tale is sometimes called “The Fairies”
and sometimes called “Slop Girl” after the name of the main
character. It is part of a long European tradition of stories
in which good and bad sisters are rewarded for the way they
act towards little old (disguised) fairies in the woods. There are
versions of this story in more than twenty countries.
Of course having toads come out of your mouth every time
you say something is disgusting. But diamonds and pearls could
make speaking difficult as well. You certainly would want to weigh
weight each thought carefully before saying anything.
<Right sidebar>
This particular story comes from the 1695 Charles Perrault
collection of fairy tales. Perrault was not writing for children. He
was using folktales to talk about the nature of the French court of
his day. An earlier version of the story had already appeared in
the 1634 Italian collection, Pentamarone.
About that old fairy—sometimes the reward-giver in the story is God
accompanied by three angels.
Jane
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Marsha
Sisolak
Registered User
(10/27/02 12:14:50 pm)
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Re: More
The latest variant of this tale that I've seen is a Creole retelling set in Louisiana. It's a children's book and is called "The Talking Eggs" by Robert D. San Souci, illustrated by Jerry Pinkney. It's a Caldecott Medal and a Coretta Scott King Honor Award winner. Well worth looking up, if you're so inclined.
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Celestial
Registered User
(10/28/02 1:50:59 pm)
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Sodewa Bai
There is a similar tale from India called Sodewa Bai.
In this story a princess is born to a Rajah and Rani who is as lovely as moonlight. When she speaks, jewels tumble from lips. When she walks, precious stones fall to the ground on either side of her so that she leaves a sparkling trail wherever she goes. Other than that, the story is quite different.
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Richard
Parks
Registered User
(10/28/02 3:24:22 pm)
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Re: Sodewa Bai
That reminds me a lot of "Olwen White-Track" from the Mabinogion, a girl so lovely a clump of white flowers sprang up wherever she stepped. No jewels, though.
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Nalo
Registered User
(10/29/02 7:37:39 pm)
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Re: a fairytale i half remember
"Diamonds and Toads" is the original tale. I did a subversion of it which Terri Windling and Ellen Datlow published in _Silver Birch, Blood Moon._ I called it "Precious."
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Nalo
Registered User
(10/29/02 7:40:04 pm)
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Re: a fairytale i half remember
Oh; duh. "Precious" was most recently republished in _Skin Folk,_
a collection of my short stories from Warner Aspect.
Note inserted by Heidi: Diamonds and Toads (and
many of its variants) is now available with annotations and such
on SurLaLune at Diamonds
and Toads.
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