Father Frost (fairy tale)
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Father Frost is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki. Andrew Lang included it, as "The Story of King Frost", in The Yellow Fairy Book.[1]
It is Aarne-Thompson type 480, The Kind and the Unkind Girls. Others of this type include Shita-kiri Suzume, Diamonds and Toads, Mother Hulda, The Three Heads in the Well, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Enchanted Wreath, The Old Witch, and The Two Caskets.[2]
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[edit] Synopsis
A woman had a stepdaughter and a daughter of her own, and she hated her stepdaughter. One day, she ordered her husband to take her out into the winter fields and leave her there, and he obeyed. Father Frost found her there, and she was polite and kind to him, and he gave her a chest full of beautiful things and fine garments. When her stepmother sent her father to bring back her body to be buried, he went, and the dog said that she was coming back beautiful and happy, and despite the bribe of a pancake, went on saying it.
When the stepmother saw what her stepdaughter had brought back, she ordered her husband to bring her own daughter out to the fields. The girl was rude to Father Frost, and he froze her to death. When her husband went out to bring her back, the dog said that she would be buried, and despite the bribe of a pancake, repeated it. When he brought back the body, the old woman wept.
[edit] See also
[edit] References
- ^ Andrew Lang, The Yellow Fairy Book,"The Story of King Frost"
- ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Diamonds and Toads"
