Spy on heroine. Spy on heroine. Magic dresses Magic dresses
(+ starlings on (honey-bird
shoulders). finger and
stud).
Eye sleep Eye sleep. Meeting-place Meeting place
threefold. (church). (church).
Slaying of Slaying of Flight twofold. Flight threefold.
helpful helpful
animal animal.
mother.
Revivified Revivified Lost shoe. Lost shoe.
bones. bones.
Magic dresses. Step-sister Shoe marriage Shoe marriage
substitute. test. test.
Golden shoe gift Heroine under Mutilated foot.
(from hero). washtub.
Meeting-place Meeting-place Happy marriage. Happy marriage.
(feast). (sermon).
Flight threefold. Flight Substituted Substituted bride
threefold. bride. (eldest sister).
Lost shoe Lost shoe. Jonah heroine. Jonah heroine.
(golden).
Shoe marriage Shoe marriage Three Three
test. test. reappearances. reappearances.
Mutilated foot. Mutilated foot. Reunion. Reunion.
False bride. Villain Nemesis.
Bird witness. Bird witness.
Happy marriage. Happy marriage.
Now, in the "English" versions there is practical unanimity in the
concluding portions of the tale. _Magic dresses--Meeting-place
(Church)--Flight--Lost Shoe--Shoe Marriage-test--Mutilated foot--False
Bride--_Bird witness--Happy Marriage_, follow one another with exemplary
regularity in all four (six) versions.[2] The introductory incidents
vary somewhat. Chambers has evidently a maimed version of the
introduction of Catskin (see No. lxxxiii.). The remaining three enable
us, however, to restore with some confidence the _Ur-_Cinderella in
English somewhat as follows: _Helpful animal given by dying
mother--Ill-treated heroine--Menial heroine--cornucopia--Spy on
heroine--Slaying by helpful animal--Tasks--Revivified bones_. I have
attempted in my version to reconstruct the "English" Cinderella
according to these formulæ. It will be observed that the helpful animal
is helpful in two ways (a) in helping the heroine to perform tasks; (b)
in providing her with magic dresses. It is the same with the Grimms'
_Aschenputtel_ and other Continental variants.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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