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

Father goes to war, leaving heroine with dog and cat inside mound, and with provisions for seven years. Father is killed, and heroine forgotten. Victuals failing, she cats dog and cat, then lives on mice, making cloak of their skins. Digs way out of mound; leaves some mouse-skins on sticks round it--Heroine disguise (mouse-skin cloak)--Menial heroine (cook at father's palace)--New king and his betrothed cannot unlock palace doors; heroine knows keys--Bride changes clothes with heroine, whom she sends to church in her stead to marry king, appearing herself at wedding feast. At night betrothed must repeat to bridegroom what she said on way to church; consults cook. Must return glove given as pledge; heroine will only deliver it up to bridegroom, who seizes her hand stretched out from behind betrothed--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) King has an only daughter, and on war breaking out, makes an underground chamber in a large mound, where she must dwell with a dog, a cat, and supply of victuals for seven years, whilst king and his army go to war. The king is killed, a new prince nominated his successor, and heroine is for gotten. When the seven years have expired she lacks food, and eats first the dog, then the cat; after that she catches mice for food, and makes herself a cloak of the skins. When mice become scarce she thinks of digging her way out, and at last, by dint of much scratching, succeeds. But her lingers are sore and skinless, and her clothes so ragged that she dons the mouse-skin cloak; the remaining skins she fastens on little sticks all round the mound.--(2) She gets employment as cook at the castle, where the new king has just arrived with his betrothed. They are going over the castle with a large bunch of keys, trying in vain to fit them in the locks. Cook asks leave to try, and opens door after door.-- (3) One of heroine's gowns is found; princess wants to try it on, but it does not fit her. It fits cook exactly. She is to go to church in princess's stead to be married to king, and cook and princess Will exchange dresses again afterwards.-- (4) On wedding-day the betrothed rushes to kitchen and changes clothes with cook, putting on her mouse-skin cloak, while cook is dressed as bride with the bridal crown. King, believing her to be his betrothed, leads her to the coach-and-six. They are all heroine's father's horses, and as she mounts the coach she says:

"Hail! beauteous mares, so fair to see!
Karl Finkelfader is dead to me;
Yea, dead is he who in the stall
Did erstwhile brush and comb you all."

And the horses, hearing her voice, begin to rear and prance Bridegroom takes his seat by her side, and they drive to church. Passing the mound where she had been buried, she says:

"Still wretched am I, yet how great were my woes
In the mound 'neath those mouse-skins, none but God knows."

They reach the bridge over a rivulet. Here she says:

"Here's the old bridge that in good days of yore
Did bear me the rivulet safely o'er."

In the church she sees the portraits of her father and mother hanging over the altar, and says:

"Turn, lovely pictures, round you go!
You are dear father and mother, I know."

And immediately the pictures turn. When they start to drive home after the marriage ceremony, she says:

"Hail, beauteous mares! fair are ye all,
Ye that were bred in my father's stall."

And the horses bow their knees to her.-- (5) On her return she at once changes clothes with the betrothed, who then goes to the wedding-feast, leaving heroine in the kitchen. At night prince insists that the bride shall repeat the words she spoke to the horses, before she goes to bed. "I don't remember them," she says, "but cook knows." She hies to the kitchen, and learns the words from the cook, then returns and repeats them. So he asks her in turn to repeat all the things the bride had said in the morning, and every time she has to go and inquire of cook. But a trial yet remains. It is the custom for the bride to receive a glove in church; it is "sworn into her hand", and she may not go to bed till she has returned it to her husband. Bridegroom now demands the glove, and the bride has to go and ask cook for it. Cook refuses to give it outright, but agrees to walk into bridal chamber behind the bride, and, hidden by her, to deliver it up. All goes well till cook extends her hand to give king the glove, when he seizes her hand, and will not let go. "It is to you I am bound I have been feeling some doubt. Now you are to stay with me." Turning to the princess, he says: "And you may go into the kitchen or wherever else you like. I shall keep her to whom I am bound."

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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