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

Ill-treated heroine (by step-mother)--Menial heroine (minds sheep)--Task: spinning--Task-performing animal (black lamb)--Step-sisters sent in heroine's place; she refuses bread and cheese to black lamb. Wolves ravage the flock; only black lamb left--Flock return for heroine-- Slaying of helpful animal--Heroine washes paunch; finds knife and fork; sticks one in each window; apple-tree and pear-tree grow from knife and fork-- Prince wants to buy apples; step-sister cannot pick them-- Heroine hidden under tub. Animal witness (cock)--Trees bow down to heroine; remove to palace with her--Happy marriage-- Heroine, after birth of child, visits step-mother; step-sister stabs her; takes her place at palace--Heroine visits palace by night, asks cook to give her child; suckles it. Step-sister covers prince with pall, that he shall hear nothing--Cook informs prince; servant to hide in barrel and seize heroine. Prince recognises her-- False wife pronounces her own sentence--Villain Nemesis. Step-sister torn to pieces.

TABULATION

(1) Heroine has to spin flax and mind sheep.-- (2) In the flock is a black lamb, which comes up to her every day, and says, "Little maiden, give me a piece of bread-and-cheese." She does so, and for this he spins her flax for her, and everything goes well with the flock. In the evening, heroine is able to take home an enormous quantity of spun flax.-- (3) One day stepmother keeps heroine at home, and sends her own daughter to mind the flock. She gives her very little flax to spin, but a large portion of bread-and-cheese. The black lamb asks, "Give me a piece of bread-and-cheese, little maiden." "Certainly not," says the girl, "or there would be none for me." The black lamb turns away. Suddenly some wolves rush out of the forest, kill some of the sheep, and drive the rest away. Only the black lamb remains. Girl takes it home, and asks mother to have it killed.-- (4) Following day step. sister refuses to tend black lamb, so heroine is sent. Stepmother gives her a large quantity of flax, and says, as she has only one sheep to watch, she can do the more spinning. She gives her less bread-and-cheese than usual. When heroine reaches the field, she bursts out crying. Little black lamb asks why. "Because they are going to kill you." "Oh, don't cry! When they have killed me, take my paunch, clean it, and there you will find a little knife and fork. Stick the knife in one window, the fork in the other." "Very well," says heroine. Meanwhile, all the sheep that were yesterday worried by the wolves return-- not one missing.-- (5) In the evening heroine takes them all home; nevertheless, stepmother and her daughter kill black lamb. Heroine does as directed, finds knife and fork, and sticks one in each window. Following day she finds an apple-tree in one window, a pear-tree in the other.-- (6) Prince passes, and wishes to buy some of the apples; his footman tells stepmother, who dresses her daughter as finely as possible, and sends her to the prince. When she attempts to pick the apples, they all rise up out of reach. She tries to get some pears, with same result.-- (7) Meanwhile, Step-mother puts heroine into a tub. Suddenly a cock flies on to the wall, crying, "Kukuricku! Kukuricku! the girl whose apples these are is under the tub." Prince orders servant to find girl, and she is brought forward. She picks the apples and pears quite easily, and gives them to prince, but will not accept the money he proffers.-- (8) He is so smitten with her beauty, that he takes her home in his carriage. The two trees follow them. Prince marries heroine. They have a golden-haired son.-- (9) One day, during prince's absence, heroine visits stepmother. As soon as she arrives, stepsister says, "Come, sister, let us go for a walk." She stabs heroine in the side with a bradawl, and dresses herself in heroine's clothes. She cannot get on heroine's shoes. Her mother takes a knife and cuts a piece off her heels, then forces shoes on. Stepsister takes child, and goes to palace. Neither prince nor servants are aware of the deception, but child cries continually.-- (10) One evening a woman comes to the palace, and says:

"Cook, cook!
Are you with that wicked wretch?
Give me my little baby boy,
That I may suckle him."

Cook is surprised, but takes child to the woman, who presently says:

"Cook, cook!
Are you with that wicked wretch?
Take away my baby boy,
For I have suckled him."

Cook returns child to cradle, and it is immediately quiet, and goes to sleep. Prince hears nothing at night, because his supposed wife always covers him over with a pall.-- (11) But cook tells him all that has happened, and prince says that as soon as the woman comes again, cook must come and pull the pall off him. Somebody is to hide in a barrel close to the window, and directly the mother has suckled the child, and is about to depart, they must seize he and drag her back. All this comes to pass. Prince recognises his own true wife, who relates all that has befallen her.-- (12) He asks false wife what she would do to a woman guilty of just such crimes. "She ought to be torn to pieces," she answers; and that is just the treatment she receives.

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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