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

Outcast hero-- Menial hero (cow-herd at inn); has nothing to eat-- Helpful animal (cow)-- Cornucopia. Magic food-producing cloth in cow's right horn, which screws off-- Spy on hero-- Slaying of helpful animal proposed-- Hero flight on cow, who spreads out wings-- Dragon, cow's enemy, dwells in hollow tree. Hero stops hole with dry grass, sets fire to grass, and dragon perishes-- Hero and cow live many years in hill. Hero must try to pull up tree, roots and all. He cannot; must wait seven years. [Tale passes into variant of Grimm's "How Six Men got on in the World", and of "Shepherd Paul" in Magyar Tales.]

TABULATION

(1) An old man's son cannot get food enough at home, and, because he complains about it, his father turns him out. He takes situation as cowherd at an inn. The first day at dinner-time, when the other herds begin to eat, hero till empty-handed, and begins to cry.-- (2) A spotted cow walks up to him, and asks why he cries, and hearing it is because he has no dinner, says, "Screw my right horn off, and you will therein find a cloth; spread it, and you will get food in plenty." Boy does so, eats, then returns cloth to horn, which he screws on again. He cannot eat his supper at home that evening, and next morning only gets half his allowance of food. Next day he gets his dinner from magic cloth, as before, and in the evening can only eat half of his half-share of supper. Next day he only eats a quarter of his usual portion, so a spy is sent to get at the secret. Spotted cow warns boy, and gets all the other cows to stand round. For all that the spy sees everything, and returns to tell innkeeper.-- (3) Spotted cow won't go home that evening, but stays in the field all that night and the next. Cow tells hero that she is to be shot; be must run home, get all his clothes, and escape with her. Boy does so, then gets on cow's back. Immediately she spreads out wings, and they go apace.-- (4) They enter a wood where the cow's enemy, a huge dragon, dwells in a hollow tree. Hero collects some dry grass, and stops up the opening above and beneath. He sets fire to the grass, and the dragon perishes.-- (5) They now journey on to a large hill, the cow's home, where they live many years, till hero grows as strong as an animal. He must then try to pull up a tree, roots and all, he cannot, so must stay seven years more. [Here the tale passes into a variant of Grimm's No. 71, "How Six Men got on in the World," and of "Shepherd Paul" in Jones and Kropf's Magyar Tales.]

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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