SurLaLune Fairy Tales: Marian Roalfe Cox: Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes, abstracted and tabulated

Death-bed promise--Deceased wife's ring marriage test--Unnatural father--Fairy aid--Countertasks--Magic dresses-- Heroine disguise (cork dress)--Heroine flight (after wedding)-- Father deluded by splashing of pigeons in water--Heroine in cork dress thrown by fairy into sea; found by prince and taken as curiosity to palace; called "Dame Cork"--Menial heroine (gooseherd)--Every Sunday heroine doffs disguise, dons magic dress, climbs into tree and combs hair, from which fall golden pips which geese peck. They sing round tree. Prince on way to ball meets heroine; throws (1) boot, (2) shovel, at her, (3) hits her, for asking where he is going--Meeting-place (ball)--Token objects named--Threefold flight--Handful of ashes thrown in the air turns to mist and hinders pursuit--Lovesick prince-- Recognition food (contains ring given at third ball)--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) Before dying, wife makes husband promise to marry no one who cannot wear the gold ring she leaves him. Many ladies try it in vain.-- (2) One day he sees ring on daughter's finger, and since she alone can wear it, says he is destined to marry her.-- (3) Heroine confides in old fairy, who comforts her, and bids her demand from father a dress embroidered in gold with as many stars as there are in the sky. Father finds the dress, and heroine again consults fairy. She next demands dress embroidered in silver with as many fishes as there are in the sea, and when this is procured, a dress with sun in front and moon behind; lastly, a cork-dress which shall cover her from head to foot.-- (4) Counselled by fairy, she now marries father. She sends him to bed whilst she goes to wash her feet, puts two pigeons in vessel of water to make a splashing, steals away to fairy, who wraps the three dresses round her, shuts her in cork-dress, and throws her into the sea.-- (5) King's son passing along the shore sees curious body floating about, and thinking it a new sort of fish, bids fisherman land it. Fish says, "I am a poor old woman." King's son takes her to palace as a curiosity. News spreads abroad, and old woman is called Ze' Suverina, "Dame Cork." Queen-mother asks what she can do. "Nothing," says heroine. Surely she can mind goslings in the garden. So heroine is put in poultry-house. Every day she sends in large basket of eggs. Queen is pleased, and grows fond of old woman.-- (6) Every Sunday heroine doffs cork-dress, dons one of her fine dresses, gets up into a tree, lets down her hair, and combs it. A quantity of golden pios (vachi) fall from hair; goslings pick them up, then surround tree and sing.-- (7) One evening heroine takes in basket of eggs as king's son is preparing to go to ball. She asks where he is going. He won't tell. She insists he hits her with boot. She returns to poultry-house, puts on dress with silver fishes, commands carriage and servants, and goes to ball. King's son wants to dance with her all the time; asks her name: "Boot"; her father's name "Boot"; whence she comes: "From Mount Boot." She escapes; king's son cannot see whither, for she tosses handful of ashes into the air, causing thick mist.-- (8) Another evening she encounters king's son at palace, asks same question, and gets fire-shovel by way of answer. She goes to ball clad in dress with gold stars; tells king's son her name is "Shovel"; her father is called "Shovel"; she comes from "Mount Shovel".-- (9) Third evening, when she insists on knowing where king's son is going, she gets a blow with the tongs (si ebbe una tenagliata); goes to ball, says she is Tongs, daughter of Tongs, of Mount Tongs. King gives her ring as memento; she escapes.-- (10) King's son falls ill with love. He wants a cake; mother makes it. Heroine enters meanwhile and asks for one too; queen makes it. Heroine puts her cake in the oven beside the other, which gets burnt. Hers, being cooked to perfection, is taken to prince, who finds inside it the ring he had given to unknown lady-love. At his order heroine, who has meanwhile put on under cork-dress the dress with sun and moon, is brought before him. He will kill her if she does not say instantly who gave her the ring.-- (11) She shrugs her shoulders; down falls the cork-dress. King's son is cured, and marries her.

Cox, Marian Roalfe. Cinderella: Three Hundred and Forty-five Variants of Cinderella, Catskin, and Cap O' Rushes, abstracted and tabulated. London: David Nutt for the Folklore Society, 1893.

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