The Wonderful Birch
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The Wonderful Birch (russian: Чудесная берёза) is a Finnish/Russian
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 ...
. A variant on
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 ...
, it is Aarne–Thompson folktale type 510A, the persecuted heroine. It makes use of
shapeshifting In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, Magic (paranormal), sorcery, Incantation, ...
motifs.
Andrew Lang Andrew Lang (31 March 1844 – 20 July 1912) was a Scottish poet, novelist, literary critic, and contributor to the field of anthropology. He is best known as a collector of folk and fairy tales. The Andrew Lang lectures at the University ...
included it in ''
The Red Fairy Book ''The Langs' Fairy Books'' are a series of 25 collections of true and fictional stories for children published between 1889 and 1913 by Andrew Lang and his wife, Leonora Blanche Alleyne. The best known books of the series are the 12 collections ...
''.


Synopsis

A peasant woman meets a
witch Witchcraft traditionally means the use of Magic (supernatural), magic or supernatural powers to harm others. A practitioner is a witch. In Middle Ages, medieval and early modern Europe, where the term originated, accused witches were usually ...
, who threatens to
transform Transform may refer to: Arts and entertainment * Transform (scratch), a type of scratch used by turntablists * ''Transform'' (Alva Noto album), 2001 * ''Transform'' (Howard Jones album) or the title song, 2019 * ''Transform'' (Powerman 5000 album ...
her if she does something; she does not do it, but the witch turns her into a sheep anyway. The witch assumes the form of the peasant woman and goes home to her husband. After a time, she bears him a daughter. The witch pets and pampers her own daughter, and ill-treats her
stepdaughter A stepchild is the offspring of one's spouse, but not one's own offspring, either biologically or through adoption. Stepchildren can come into a family in a variety of ways. A stepchild may be the child of one's spouse from a previous relationshi ...
, the peasant's daughter by his sheep-wife. The witch-stepmother tells her husband to slaughter the sheep before it runs away. He agrees, but her stepdaughter hears and runs to the sheep, lamenting. Her mother tells her not to eat anything made from her body but bury the bones. She does so, and a birch tree grows on the grave. The king gives a festival, inviting everyone, and the witch sends off the husband with her younger daughter, throws a potful of barleycorns in the hearth, and tells the older stepdaughter that if she does not pick barley corns from ashes, it will be worse for her. The birch tells her to strike the hearth with one of her branches, which sorts them, and then magically bathes and dresses her. Then it told her to go to the fields and whistle, for a horse, partly gold, partly silver, and the third partly something more precious will appear to take her to the castle. The girl then goes into the festival. The king's son falls in love with her, and has her sit beside him, but the witch's daughter gnaws bones under the table, and the king's son, thinking she is a dog, gives her such a kick to keep her away that her arm is broken. He has the door latch smeared with tar, and when the stepdaughter leaves, her copper ring is caught in it. When the witch returns home, she tells the stepdaughter that the king's son has fallen in love with her daughter and carries her about, only he had dropped her and broken her arm. The king holds another festival. The witch tries to keep her stepdaughter busy by throwing hemp-seed on the hearth, but the stepdaughter, with the birch's aid, goes to the festival as before. This time, the king's son breaks the witch's daughter's leg, and has the doorpost smeared with tar, so that her silver circlet is caught. The king holds a third festival. The witch tries to keep her stepdaughter busy by throwing milk on the hearth, but the stepdaughter, with the birch's aid, goes to the festival as before. This time, the king's son kicks out the witch's daughter's eye, and has the threshold smeared with tar, so that one of her golden slippers is caught. The king's son then sets out to discover who the maiden was, with the circlet, ring, and the slipper. When he is about to try them on the stepdaughter, the witch intervenes and gets them on her daughter. He takes both the daughter and the stepdaughter, and when they came to a river, the stepdaughter whispers to the prince not to rob her of her silver and gold. He throws the witch's daughter over the river to serve as a bridge and he and the stepdaughter cross, and takes her for his bride. Then they visit the magical birch tree and get treasures and gifts. The tree vanishes soon after. While stretching as a bridge in her grief, the younger sister wishes that a hollow golden stalk grow out of her navel so that her mother would recognize her. Immediately a hollow golden stalk grows out of her on the bridge. In time, the older stepsister delivers a son. The witch, hearing of this, and believing she is her daughter, goes to the castle, and on her way, seeing the golden stalk, is about to cut it. Her daughter cries out not to cut her navel, and that she is the bridge. The witch hurries to the castle and turns the older stepdaughter into a reindeer while the witch's daughter replaces her. The king is told by an old widow that his wife is in the forest in the shape of a reindeer, and his present wife is the witch's daughter. When he asks how he can get her back, the widow tells him to let her take the child into the forest. When she goes for it, the witch objects, but the king's son insists on her taking it. In the forest, the widow sings to the reindeer, which then comes and suckles her child, and tells the woman to bring it again next day. Next day, the witch again objects, but the widow takes it to the reindeer as before. The child becomes extremely beautiful, and its father asks the widow if it is possible for his wife to regain her human shape. The widow does not know, but tells him to go to the forest, and when the reindeer throws off its skin he is to burn it while she is searching his wife's head. All this is done, and she resumes her human shape; but not liking to be seen naked, she turns into a spinning wheel, a washing-vat, and a spindle, all of which her husband destroys till she becomes human again. On their return to the castle, he orders a huge fire to be made under the bath with tar, and its approach to be covered with brown and blue cloth. Then he invites the witch's daughter to take a bath. She and her mother, in stepping over the cloth, fall a depth of three fathoms into the fire and tar to their death; the witch puts a curse on all mankind. In the ending to Andrew Lang's version of this fairy tale, after the older stepdaughter is turned back into a human, after being asked that she won't be eaten up, the witch and her daughter both run away, and if they have not stopped still, at a great age. The older stepdaughter, the prince, and the son all live happily ever after.


See also

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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 ...
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Brother and Sister "Brother and Sister" (also "Little Sister and Little Brother"; German: ''Brüderchen und Schwesterchen'') is a European fairy tale which was, among others, written down by the Brothers Grimm (KHM 11). It is a tale of Aarne–Thompson Type 450. In ...
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Bushy Bride Bushy Bride (in no, Buskebrura, link=no) is a Norwegian fairy tale collected by Asbjørnsen and Moe. It is Aarne-Thompson type 403 (The Black and the White Bride). It is included in Andrew Lang's Red Fairy Book. Synopsis A widower with a son ...
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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 ...
*
Fair, Brown and Trembling Fair, Brown and Trembling is an Irish fairy tale collected by Jeremiah Curtin in ''Myths and Folk-lore of Ireland'' and Joseph Jacobs in his ''Celtic Fairy Tales''. It is Aarne-Thompson type 510A. Other tales of this type include ''Cinderella'', ...
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Finette Cendron Finette Cendron (meaning in English, ''Cunning Cinders'') is a French literary fairy tale written by Madame d'Aulnoy. It combines Aarne-Thompson types 327A and 510A. Other tales of 510A type include "Cinderella", " Katie Woodencloak", " Fair, Br ...
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The Child who came from an Egg The Child who came from an Egg or The Egg-Born Princess ( et, Munast sündinud kuningatütar) is an Estonian fairy tale, collected by Dr. Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in ''Eestirahwa Ennemuistesed jutud''. Synopsis A queen told an old woman th ...
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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 ...
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The Three Little Men in the Wood "The Three Little Men in the Wood" or "The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest" (german: Die drei Männlein im Walde) is a German fairy tale collected in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in ''Grimm's Fairy Tales'' (KHM 13). Andrew Lang included it in '' Th ...
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The White and the Black Bride "The White Bride and the Black One" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 135. It is Aarne-Thompson type 403A.D.L. Ashliman,The Grimm Brothers' Children's and Household Tales Other tales of this type include '' T ...
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The Witch in the Stone Boat "The Witch in the Stone Boat" ( is, Skessan á steinnökkvanum 'the giantess in the stone boat') is an Icelandic folktale, originally collected by Jón Árnason (1864), translated into English in Andrew Lang's fairy tale collection ''The Yellow ...


References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Wonderful Birch Finnish fairy tales Russian fairy tales Fiction about shapeshifting Witchcraft in fairy tales ATU 500-559 False hero