''Starlight'' or Starlet (
French: ''Étoilette'') is a French literary
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 ...
by
Marie-Madeleine de Lubert. It was included in her revised edition, published in 1753, of
Henriette-Julie de Murat
Henriette-Julie de Murat (1668 in Paris – 9 September 1716 in Château de la Buzardière) was an aristocratic French writer of the late 17th century.
Life
She most likely spent most of her childhood in Paris. In 1691 she married Nicholas de Mu ...
's last novel, '' Les Lutins du château de Kernosy'' (The Sprites of Kernosy Castle, 1710), which is why it is often attributed to Madame de Murat.
Synopsis
A king, whose kingdom was constantly imperiled by another king, had an only son who had fallen in love with a slave, Starlight. Her family was quite unknown, but he cared nothing for anything but her. Angry, the queen had the slave imprisoned in a tower. A beautiful white cat kept her company. The prince despaired. His father, because of a new attack, implored him to lead the army. The prince did, and the father promised that no one had harmed Starlight and that he would see her when he returned. He led the army and utterly defeated the other king's, capturing the king himself, but the king reneged on his promise. The prince freed the captive king, and the king and queen had him imprisoned. One day, Starlight confided to her cat that she was certain he had forgotten her, and the cat answered that he was also imprisoned. The cat then revealed herself as the
fairy
A fairy (also fay, fae, fey, fair folk, or faerie) is a type of mythical being or legendary creature found in the folklore of multiple European cultures (including Celtic, Slavic, Germanic, English, and French folklore), a form of spirit, ...
Ermine White, and told her that she was a princess. She gave her a box to be opened in her worst need, turned the tower in a stair for her escape, and made her promise to never tell who had freed her. She found the prince, and they concluded that she had to hide, which would cause his parents to free him, and send him a message of her refuge. The white cat warned them that the king's men were coming, and Starlight fled.
She found her way to the
forest
A forest is an area of land dominated by trees. Hundreds of definitions of forest are used throughout the world, incorporating factors such as tree density, tree height, land use, legal standing, and ecological function. The United Nations' ...
, where
centaur
A centaur ( ; grc, κένταυρος, kéntauros; ), or occasionally hippocentaur, is a creature from Greek mythology with the upper body of a human and the lower body and legs of a horse.
Centaurs are thought of in many Greek myths as being ...
s found her; this was where they had taken refuge after the unpleasantness with the
Lapith
The Lapiths (; grc, Λαπίθαι) are a group of legendary people in Greek mythology, whose home was in Thessaly, in the valley of the Peneus and on the mountain Pelion.
Mythology
Origin
The Lapiths were an Aeolian tribe who, like the Myr ...
s at the wedding of
Pirithous
Pirithous (; grc-gre, Πειρίθοος or , derived from ; also transliterated as Perithous), in Greek mythology, was the King of the Lapiths of Larissa in Thessaly, as well as best friend to Theseus.
Biography
Pirithous was a son of "he ...
. They let her stay with them, and one bore her message to the court, that the prince could hunt a white doe with silver hooves in their forest. They met there, and went to the sea, where they found a marvelous ship awaiting them, with white cats as the sailors. They set sail, but Starlight confided in the prince how she had been rescued, and a storm overtook them. The waves separated them, carrying them to different countries. The prince was carried to a quiet country, where the women did the fighting, with crabapples. He found the king abed, resting, while his wife fought the war; he thrashed him and made him go to war himself; once there, he routed the enemies. But the kingdom was attacked and defeated, and the prince taken prisoner, whereupon he was put in a boat and lost consciousness.
When he regained consciousness, he found himself in a ship that sailed by itself, back to his parents' kingdom, where he learned they had died of grief, and he was now king. He made peace with the centaurs but was always sad. His subjects proposed that he marry; he told them that he wished to marry only Starlight, but even a reward brought no news of her.
Starlight had washed ashore and been found by a king who sheltered her. One day, his queen asked her for her story, and telling it, she revealed she was their long-lost daughter. Her father resolved to marry her to a neighboring king. She opened the box and was surrounded by a cloud that darkened her skin and made her ugly. The fairy Ermine-White carried her off, back to her prince, and in his court, she became herself again. They married.
Versions
The tale is sometimes known as ''Ismir et Étoilette''.
The tale was inserted into the narrative of ''Les Lutins du chateau de Kernosy'' as a
story-within-a-story, told by one of the characters, the Comte de Tourmeil.
Analysis
Scholarship points out that Starlight, or ''Étoilette'', is an adaptation of mediaeval French ''chantefable'' ''
Aucassin and Nicolette
''Aucassin et Nicolette'' (12th or 13th century) is an anonymous medieval French fictional story. It is the unique example of a ''chantefable'', literally, a "sung story", a combination of prose and verse (similar to a ''prosimetrum'').
History ...
''.
[Counson, Albert; Suchier, Hermann. ''Aucassin et Nicolette: Texte Critique accompagné de paradigmes et d'un lexique''. 7éme édition. Paderborn, WG: F. Schoeningh; Paris: J. Gamber. 1909. p. viii.]
References
{{reflist
External links
''Étoilette'' (pp. 319-371)at
Project Gutenberg
Project Gutenberg (PG) is a Virtual volunteering, volunteer effort to digitize and archive cultural works, as well as to "encourage the creation and distribution of eBooks."
It was founded in 1971 by American writer Michael S. Hart and is the ...
(in French)
French fairy tales