Diamonds and Toads

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Illustration by Gustave Doré.
Illustration by Gustave Doré.

Diamonds and Toads or Toads and Diamonds is a French fairy tale by Charles Perrault, and titled by him "Les Fées" or "The Fairies." Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book.[1]

In his source, as in Mother Hulda, the kind girl was the stepdaughter, not the other daughter. The change was apparently to decrease the similarity to Cinderella.[2]

It is Aarne-Thompson tale 480, the kind and the unkind girls. Others of this type include Shita-kiri Suzume, Mother Hulda, The Three Heads in the Well, Father Frost, The Three Little Men in the Wood, The Enchanted Wreath, The Old Witch, and The Two Caskets.[3] Literary variants include The Three Fairies and Aurore and Aimée.[4]

Contents

[edit] Synopsis

A widow favored her older daughter, who was disagreeable and proud but looked like her, over her younger, who was sweet, courteous, and beautiful, but resembled her father.

One day while drawing water, the younger daughter was asked for a drink by an old woman. After giving it, she found that the woman was a fairy, who blessed her with having either a jewel or a flower fall from her mouth whenever she spoke. The widow sent her older daughter with instruction to act likewise toward an old beggar woman, but the fairy appeared as a fine lady, and the girl spoke rudely. The fairy decreed that either a toad or a snake would fall from her mouth whenever she spoke.

The widow, in a fury, drove her younger daughter out of the house. In the woods, she met a king's son, who fell in love with her and married her. In time, even the widow was sickened by her older daughter, and drove her out, and she died in the woods.

[edit] Commentary

The idea of having jewels fall from a virtous person is a motif found in various other tales, as in the Italian Biancabella and the Snake.[5]

[edit] See also

[edit] References

  1. ^ Andrew Lang, The Blue Fairy Book, "Toads and Diamonds"
  2. ^ Iona and Peter Opie, The Classic Fairy Tales, p 100 ISBN 0-19-211550-6
  3. ^ Heidi Anne Heiner, "Tales Similar to Diamonds and Toads"
  4. ^ Jack Zipes, The Great Fairy Tale Tradition: From Straparola and Basile to the Brothers Grimm, p 543, ISBN 0-393-97636-X
  5. ^ Iona and Peter Opie, The Classic Fairy Tales, p 98 ISBN 0-19-211550-6

[edit] External links

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