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11

Asbjornsen, P. Chr., Nor, Billedbog for den Norske Ungdom. Christiania, 1837.

"KARI TRAESTAK."

ABSTRACT

Parents leave boy and girl a baking-pan and a cat. Boy takes baking-pan--Cat aid--Menial heroine--(kitchenmaid at palace) --Helpful animal (cat) catches (1) reindeer, (2) stag, (3) elk; sells them to king for 100, 200, 300 dollars; buys for heroine saddle-horse and Magic dresses--Token objects thrown: water, towel, comb.--Meeting-place (church)--Threefold flight--Prince secures heroine's glove--Pitch trap--Lost shoe (golden)--Shoe marriage test--Mutilated foot--False bride--Animal witness (bird)--Magic dress worn under husk--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) Heroine's name is Kari; and, because she has no other petticoat than a wooden one, she is called Kari Traestak (Wooden-Cloak). She has a brother. Their parents leave them as sole heirloom a pan (to bake flat loaves), which the boy takes, and a cat, which becomes heroine's property. They set out to try their luck in the wide world.-- (2) Kari is advised by cat to enter kitchen in king's castle, where she gets situation as cook's help.-- (3) Cat goes into the wood and catches a reindeer, which king buys for a hundred dollars. With this money cat procures for heroine a horse and saddle, and a dress shining like the stars.-- (4) King throws water at heroine.-- (5) She goes to church. He falls in love with her, runs after her, and gets one of her gloves; asks whence she comes.-- (6) Cat catches a stag, which king buys for two hundred dollars.-- (7) Towel thrown at heroine -- (8) She goes to church second time.-- (9) Cat catches an elk. King pays three hundred dollars for it.-- (10) Comb thrown at heroine.-- (11) She goes third time to church. Prince has pitch poured in porch. Heroine loses gold shoe.-- (12) Prince will wed whomsoever it fits. Many try in vain.-- (13) Queen bring ugly stepdaughter, who puts on shoe. As they ride to church, bird denounces false bride, whose foot is mutilated. Prince turns back; sends for Kari Traestak to try shoe. It fits her. She doffs wooden cloak, and shows golden gown and fellow gold shoe.-- (15) Prince marries her.

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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