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

Princess betrothed to prince; their fathers disagree and go to var. Heroine with two maids and dog shut up in mound with provisions for three years. Both kings killed; heroine forgotten; prince reigns. Heroine eats dog; maids die. Wolf scratches hole in mound; heroine rides on its back; is found in forest by charcoal-burner, whom she serves--Menial heroine (at betrothed's palace)--Prince's bride sends heroine to church in her stead; at feast cannot repeat to bridegroom the things said on way to church, nor show ring. She brings heroine beneath her cloak to stretch out hand wearing ring. Prince seizes heroine's hand. Explanation--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) King's daughter has been betrothed to another king's son, but parents afterwards disagree, swear that marriage shall not take place, and go to war. Heroine's father shuts her up in a mound for three years, with two maid- servants, a little dog, some victuals, and some candles. Both kings die during the war; the castle is burnt down, the princess forgotten, and the prince is king of both realms. He had loved heroine, and sought her everywhere in vain. At last he dreams that he sees her, and that she says to him

"To-morrow the first in the castle you see
Is the maid whose true love you must promise to be."

He meets a lady of quality called Malfred, woos and wins her, and the wedding is to take place after three months.-- (2) They are all busy at the castle with the preparations, when a girl arrives dressed in rags, with sooty face, asking for employment. She is taken in, and when washed looks pretty, and being a good seamstress, is set to make Malfred's bridal-gown-- (3) On the wedding-day Malfred complains of illness, and gets heroine to take her place as bride. A horse is led to the door for her to ride to church. Heroine says
to it:

"My good horse, Black, bow down to me;
My father oft did saddle thee."

Prince asks: "What did you say just now, Malfred?" "I only spoke a word to my steed." Riding through the wood, they pass the large mound where heroine had been buried, and she says, when prince asks her to tell him something to shorten the distance:

"Seven long years in the wood I passed,
Forgetting all my tales at last.
On a oh's back did I ride;
Charcoal-burning then I tried;
Now, to-day, I am a bride
In my lady's stead."

He asks what she said. Passing the bridge, she says:

"Creak, little bridge, but for my sake,
Who often crossed you, do not break."

Again he asks what she says. As they stand before the altar to b married they are to exchange rings, he recognises the ring heroine gives him as the one he had years ago given to his first love, the princess, and asks, "Where did you get that ring?" She answers

"In the ashes and stones by my maids it was found,
Where Waldemar's¹ castle was burnt to the ground."

By the time they return Malfred is better, and, clad as bride, takes her seat at table, heroine taking her place amongst the other maids. Prince asks the bride what she said as she mounted her horse. "Nothing." Yes, she said something, prince returns, but may have forgotten it. What did she say as they passed the mound? She has forgotten. The bridge? Forgotten also. Prince looks at her, and notices that she has not got his ring. She explains:

"To my maid I gave the thing,
I do not care to wear a ring."

Prince sends her to fetch it. Heroine will not give it up, but is taken beneath Malfred's cloak, and stretches out her hand, which prince seizes and holds. Then he recognizes his former love. Malfred is made to confess that she has that day borne a child, whose father is one of the courtiers. Heroine then relates how she recognised "Black" as her own horse, and remembered the mound where she was buried. She tells the prince how, when the victuals came to an end, they ate the candles, afterwards the dog. Then both the maid-servants died of hunger, and, left alone awaiting death, she heard something scratching a hole. It was a wolf, and seizing it by the tail she was dragged out of the mound, then mounting its back she was carried into the forest. Weak and starving, she was found by a charcoal-burner, whom she was obliged to serve. Leaving him, she went to the castle, and heard of prince's approaching marriage. Wishing to learn if he loved her as in former days, she connived to be near him without waking herself known. Heroine now takes the bride's place at table, and all goes much more merrily than before.

1: This seems to be an echo of some ballad relating to Waldemar, the renowned Danish king. -- F.
Return to place in text.

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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