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119

Thorpe, Benjamin, Yule-Tide Stories. Popular Tales and Traditions from the Swedish, Danish, and German. (Variant from Upland of the foregoing, No. 112.)

"KRAKSKINNS-MAJA."

[You can read Thorpe's Krâkskinns-Maja on SurLaLune.]

ABSTRACT

Ill-treated heroine (by step-mother and step-sisters)--Girls bidden to palace for king's son to choose bride. Sleeping draught given to heroine. She sets out on waking. Step-sisters meet (1) apple, (2) pear, (3) plum complaining of cold, and bid driver lash them with whip. Heroine afterwards meets the same; puts each in her bosom--Heroine disguise (crow-skin cloak)-- Menial heroine (kitchenmaid at palace)--Magic dresses from apple, pear, plum--Meeting-place (church)--Threefold flight-- Lost shoe--Shoe marriage test--All girls sit behind curtain and put out one foot--Happy marriage.

TABULATION

(1) Wicked queen has two daughters and a stepdaughter.-- (2) Neighbouring king invites girls to palace, for his son would choose a wife. Stepsisters, jealous of heroine's beauty, give her sleeping-draught, and start off without her. When she wakes she runs after them. -- (3) Driving in splendid chariot, stepsisters see little apple roll out of field. Apple cries, "Oh, I am freezing!" They order driver to lash it with whip. Apple rolls on and meets heroine, who warms it in her bosom. Same thing happens with pear and plum, which stepsisters lash with whip, and heroine warms in bosom. Stepsisters are received at palace; heroine takes shelter in wayside hut.-- (4) She dons an old cloak of crow-skins, puts a veil over face, and gets employment in palace kitchen, where she is nicknamed "Krakshinn-Maja".-- (5) On Sunday all go to church. Heroine gets dress of pure silver from apple; says:

"Light before me,
Darkness after me.
And may no one know whither I go."

Sits in church between stepsisters. Prince falls in love with her.-- (6) Second Sunday she gets dress of pure gold from pear, and third Sunday dress of precious stones from plum.-- (7) Prince runs after her as she leaves church, and she loses one gold shoe. Prince will wed whomsoever it fits. All girls of high or low degree must go to palace; they sit behind curtain, and in turn hold forth a foot. Shoe is too small for all except heroine.-- (8) Prince puts aside curtain, and finds princess in dress of precious stones, he 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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