Rushen Coatie or Rashin-Coatie is a Scottish
fairy tale
A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic (paranormal), magic, incantation, enchantments, and mythical ...
collected by
Joseph Jacobs
Joseph Jacobs (29 August 1854 – 30 January 1916) was an Australian folklorist, translator, literary critic, social scientist, historian and writer of English literature who became a notable collector and publisher of English folklore.
Jacobs ...
in his ''More English Fairy Tales''.
It is
Aarne–Thompson type 510A, the persecuted heroine, as is
Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
.
Synopsis
![Page 150 illustration in More English Fairy Tales](https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/c/c8/Page_150_illustration_in_More_English_Fairy_Tales.png)
A queen with a daughter died. On her deathbed, she told her daughter that a red calf would come to her, and she could ask it for help.
The king remarried to a widow with three daughters, and the girl's
stepmother
A stepmother, stepmum or stepmom is a non-biological female parent married to one's preexisting parent.
A stepmother-in-law is a stepmother of one's spouse. Children from her spouse's previous unions are known as her stepchildren.
Culture
Ste ...
and three stepsisters maltreated her, giving her only a coat made of rushes to wear—calling her Rushen Coatie— and gave her too little food. A red calf came to her, and when she asked for food, it told her to pull it from its ears. The stepmother set one of her daughters to spy on Rushen Coatie, and the girl discovered the red calf.
The stepmother feigned illness and told the king that she needed the
sweetbread
Sweetbread is a culinary name for the thymus (also called throat, gullet, or neck sweetbread) or pancreas (also called stomach, belly or gut sweetbread), typically from calf (french: ris de veau, es, hígado) or lamb (). Sweetbreads have a ri ...
from the red calf. The king had it slaughtered, but the dead calf told Rushen Coatie to bury its body, and she did, except for the shankbone, which she could not find.
At Yuletide, the stepmother and stepsisters jeered at her for wanting to go to church and set her to make dinner, but the red calf limped into the kitchen. It gave her clothing to wear and told her a charm to cook the supper. At church, a young prince fell in love with her.
She went twice more, and the
third
Third or 3rd may refer to:
Numbers
* 3rd, the ordinal form of the cardinal number 3
* , a fraction of one third
* Second#Sexagesimal divisions of calendar time and day, 1⁄60 of a ''second'', or 1⁄3600 of a ''minute''
Places
* 3rd Street (d ...
time, the prince set a watch to stop her, but she jumped over it and a shoe made of glass fell to the ground.
The prince declared he would marry the woman whose foot the shoe matched, and one of her stepsisters hacked off part of her foot to do it, but the blood gave her away. Then no one had failed to try except Rushen Coatie, so the prince insisted on her trying it, and they married, But soon after it was the end of their marriage.
See also
*
Bawang Putih Bawang Merah
Bawang merah dan bawang putih (Indonesian language, Indonesian for Shallots and Garlic) is a popular traditional Malay and Indonesian folklore involving two siblings with opposite characters (one good and one bad), and an unjust step mother. The f ...
*
Cap O' Rushes
"Cap-o'-Rushes" is an English fairy tale published by Joseph Jacobs in ''English Fairy Tales''.
Jacobs gives his source as "Contributed by Mrs. Walter-Thomas to "Suffolk Notes and Queries" of the ''Ipswich Journal'', published by Mr. Lang in ''Lo ...
*
Cinderella
"Cinderella",; french: link=no, Cendrillon; german: link=no, Aschenputtel) or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world.Dundes, Alan. Cinderella, a Casebook. Madison, Wis: University of Wisconsi ...
*
Katie Woodencloak
"Katie Woodencloak" or "Kari Woodengown" (originally "Kari Trestakk") is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Peter Christen Asbjørnsen and Jørgen Moe in ''Norske Folkeeventyr''. Andrew Lang included it in '' The Red Fairy Book''.
It is Aarne ...
*
One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes
"One-Eye, Two-Eyes, and Three-Eyes" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 130. Andrew Lang included it, as "Little One-eye, Little Two-eyes, and Little Three-eyes", in ''The Green Fairy Book''. It is Aarne-Thomps ...
*
The Golden Slipper
The Golden Slipper (russian: Золотой башмачок) is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in '' Narodnye russkie skazki''.
It is Aarne-Thompson type 510A, the persecuted heroine.
Synopsis
An old man brought back two ...
*
The Sharp Grey Sheep The Sharp Grey Sheep or The Sharp-Horned Grey Sheep is a Scottish fairy tale collected by John Francis Campbell in ''Popular Tales of the West Highlands'', listing his informant as John Dewar, labourer, from Glendaruail, Cowal.
It is Aarne-Thomps ...
*
Vasilissa the Beautiful
Vasilisa the Beautiful (russian: Василиса Прекрасная) or Vasilisa the Fair is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in '' Narodnye russkie skazki''.
Synopsis
By his first wife, a merchant had a single daughter, ...
External links
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{{Cinderella
Scottish fairy tales
Fictional princesses
Scottish folklore
Female characters in fairy tales
ATU 500-559
Joseph Jacobs