''The Snow-child'' is a widespread European folktale,

D. L. Ashliman Dee L. Ashliman (born January 1, 1938), who writes professionally as D. L. Ashliman, is an American folklorist and writer. He is Professor Emeritus of German at the University of Pittsburgh and is considered to be a leading expert on folklore an ...

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The Snow Child: folktales of type 1362
' found in many medieval tellings. It is Aarne–Thompson type 1362.

Synopsis

A merchant returns home after an absence of two years to find his wife with a newborn son. She explains one snowy day she swallowed a snowflake while thinking about her husband which caused her to conceive. Pretending to believe, he raises the boy with her until he takes the boy on a trip and sells him into

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. On his return, he explains to his wife that the boy melted in the heat.Nicolas Balachov, (1984).
Le developpement des structures narratives du fabliau a la nouvelle
. in Gabriel Bianciotto, Michel Salvat. ''Épopée animale, fable, fabliau''. Publication Univ Rouen Havre. pp. 30-32.. .

Variants

The tale first appears in the 11th-century Cambridge Songs. It also appears in Medieval fabliaux, and was used in school exercises of rhetoric.Jan M. Ziolkowski ''Fairy Tales from Before Fairy Tales: The Medieval Latin Past of Wonderful Lies'' p 42 A Medieval play about the

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has characters disbelieving her story of her pregnancy citing the tale. It contrasts to Aarne-Thompson type 703*, Snow Maiden, where a child really has a magical snow-related origin.

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The Snow Maiden: foltales of type 703*
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References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Snow-child Folklore Fabliaux European folklore ATU 1350-1439