Catskin
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Catskin is an English fairy tale collected by Joseph Jacobs, in More English Fairy Tales.[1]
It is Aarne-Thompson type 510B, the persecuted heroine. Others of this type include Cap O' Rushes, Donkeyskin, Allerleirauh, The King who Wished to Marry His Daughter, The She-Bear, Mossycoat, Tattercoats, and The Bear.[2] Indeed, some translators of Allerleirauh titled that story Catskin despite the differences between the German and English tales.[3]
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[edit] Synopsis
A lord has many fine estates and wishes to leave them to a son, and so, when a daughter is born to him, he will not even look at her.
When she is fifteen, her father is willing to marry her off to the first man who offers. When she hates the first man who offers, she goes to a hen-wife, who advises her to demand a coat of silver cloth before the wedding. When they provide that, the hen-wife advises a coat of beaten gold, and then a coat made from feathers of all the birds, and then a little coat of catskin.
She put on the Catskin coat and ran away, disguising herself as a peasant girl. She found a place as a scullion at a castle and worked in the kitchens.
They held a ball at the castle. The cook threw a basin of water in her face when she said she would like go, but Catskin bathed, dressed herself in the coat of silver cloth, and went to the ball. The young lord fell in love with her, but when he asked where she came from, she said from the sign of the Basin of Water.
The young lord had them hold another ball, in hopes she would attend. The cook broke a ladle across Catskin's back when she said she would like to go, but Catskin went in her coat of beaten gold, and said she came from the sign of the Broken Ladle.
The young lord had them hold a third ball. The cook broke a skimmer across Catskin's back when she said she would like to go, but Catskin went in her coat of beaten gold, and said she came from the sign of the Broken Skimmer. The young lord followed her, and saw her change back.
So he went to his mother and said he would marry Catskin. His mother was opposed, but the young lord took ill, and she gave way. When Catskin appeared before her in the coat of gold, she was glad her daughter was so beautiful.
Catskin gave birth to a son. One day, a beggar woman appeared with her child, and Catskin sent her son to give them money. The cook said that beggars' brats would get along, and Catskin went to her husband and begged him to discover what had happened to her parents.
Her husband found her father, who had never had another child and who had lost his wife, and asked him whether he had had a daughter. Her father admitted it and that he would give all that he owned to see her again. Her husband took him to see his daughter and then brought him to stay with them at the castle.
[edit] Commentary
This is an unusual form of 510B, in which normally the threatened marriage is to the father as in Donkeyskin or Allerleirauh.
Tattercoats is a similar variant, in which a grandfather neglects his granddaughter because her mother died in childbirth.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Joseph Jacobs, More English Fairy Tales, "Catskin"
- ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Donkeyskin"
- ^ Anne Wilson, Traditional Romance and Tale, p 53, D.S. Brewer, Rowman & Littlefield, Ipswitch, 1976, ISBN 0-87471-905-4
[edit] External links
- The Wandering Young Gentlewoman; or, Catskin a ballad variant
- The Story of Catskin another ballad variant
