The Dirty Shepherdess is a French
fairy tale collected by
Paul Sébillot.
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 o ...
included it in ''
The Green 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 ...
''.
Plot summary
A king asked his two daughters how much they loved him. His older said as the apple of her eye. The
younger said as much as the salt on her food. He ordered her out of the kingdom. She went, with her dresses and jewels. She made herself ugly, so that a farmwife would not be unready to lease her, and wore a beggar's clothing. Finally, she was leased as a shepherdess. One day, she dressed herself in her fine gowns just to remember. The prince, hunting, saw her, and asked who the beautiful woman was who tended the sheep, garnering much ridicule. The prince fell ill with longing, and said that only a loaf of bread baked by the shepherdess would cure him. She made it, and her ring fell into the dough. When he ate it, he found the ring and declared he would marry only the woman whose finger it fitted. When every other woman had tried it, he insisted on the shepherdess as well, and the ring fit her. She dressed herself in her fine gowns, and the king agreed to the wedding.
She insisted that they ask her father's permission and invite him to the wedding. She had his food cooked without salt, and he realized that he had misinterpreted her words.
Analysis
This tale seems related to the common
fairy tale classified as
Aarne-Thompson-Uther Index ATU 923, "Love Like Salt", in which a father rejects his youngest daughter for a statement of her love that does not please him.
See also
*
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 ...
*
Donkeyskin
''Donkeyskin'' (french: Peau d'Âne) is a French literary fairytale written in verse by Charles Perrault. It was first published in 1695 in a small volume and republished in 1697 in Perrault's '' Histoires ou contes du temps passé''. Andrew La ...
*
The Goat Girl
The Goat Girl is a Greek fairy tale, known in many variants, collected by Anna Angelopoulou, Johann Gottfried von Hahn, and Georgios Ioannou. It bears many similarities to the French ''Donkeyskin''.Soula Mitakidou and Anthony L. Manna, with ...
*
The Goose-Girl at the Well
*
Water and Salt
References
Works cited
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*
External links
''The Dirty Shepherdess''
{{DEFAULTSORT:Dirty Shepherdess, The
Female characters in fairy tales
French fairy tales
Fictional princesses
ATU 850-999