Doll i' the Grass (Dukken i Gresset) is a Norwegian

fairy tale A fairy tale (alternative names include fairytale, fairy story, household tale, magic tale, or wonder tale) is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful bei ...

collected by

Peter Christen Asbjørnsen Peter Christen Asbjørnsen (15 January 18125 January 1885) was a Norwegian writer and scholar. He and Jørgen Engebretsen Moe were collectors of Norwegian folklore. They were so closely united in their lives' work that their folk tale collection ...

and

Jørgen Moe Jørgen Engebretsen Moe (22 April 1813–27 March 1882) was a Norwegian folklorist, bishop, poet, and author. He is best known for the '' Norske Folkeeventyr'', a collection of Norwegian folk tales which he edited in collaboration with Pe ...

in their ''

Norske Folkeeventyr Norwegian, Norwayan, or Norsk may refer to: *Something of, from, or related to Norway, a country in northwestern Europe *Norwegians, both a nation and an ethnic group native to Norway * Demographics of Norway *Norwegian language, including the two ...

''. It is Aarne-Thompson type 402, Animal Brides.D. L. Ashliman,
Animal Brides: folktales of Aarne-Thompson type 402 and related stories
Another tale of this type is ''

The Frog Princess The Frog Princess is a fairy tale that has multiple versions with various origins. It is classified as type 402, the animal bride, in the Aarne–Thompson index. Another tale of this type is the Norwegian '' Doll i' the Grass''.D. L. Ashlima ...

''.

Synopsis

A king sent his twelve sons out to find brides, laying on them the condition that their brides could spin, weave, and sew a shirt in a day, and giving them each a mail coat and a horse. When they had gone a distance, they refused to let the youngest go with them, because he was useless. A little girl appeared and asked him to come see Doll i' the Grass, and he went. Doll i' the Grass asked him his troubles, and he told her but said she was so lovely, though small, he would be happy if she consented to be his wife. She made him a shirt in a day, but it was tiny. They set out, he on his horse, she in a silver spoon drawn by two white mice, leaving him afraid he would trample her. They came to a body of water, his horse shied, and Doll i' the Grass was thrown in. He was horror-struck, but a

merman A merman (: mermen; also merlad or merboy in youth), the male counterpart of the mythical female mermaid, is a legendary creature which is human from the waist up and fish-like from the waist down, but may assume normal human shape. Sometimes mer ...

brought her out again, and now she was of normal size. His brothers had brought home ugly wives who had fought all the way home, and they wore hats with tar and soot, so that the rain had stained their faces with it, making them uglier. The king drove them and their brides away, and celebrated the wedding of his youngest son.

Analysis

Most versions of Aarne-Thompson Type 402 feature enchanted animal brides such as frogs, mice, or cats, as in ''

'' or Madame D'Aulnoy's '' The White Cat''. Nàng Út (Miss Little Finger) is a Vietnamese variant, in which a couple wishes for a child and subsequently have a daughter no bigger than a finger. They abandon her in a watermelon patch, where she encounters a passing prince and bears his child. The prince's father poses a bridal contest, and Nàng Út transforms into a beautiful normal-sized woman. In a variant from the

French Riviera The French Riviera, known in French as the (; , ; ), is the Mediterranean coastline of the southeast corner of France. There is no official boundary, but it is considered to be the coastal area of the Alpes-Maritimes department, extending fr ...

, the heroine is named Terra-Camina because she's so small she looks like a speck of dirt walking. She rides on a rooster when accompanying the prince.

References

{{reflist

External links

''Doll i' the Grass''
Female characters in fairy tales Norwegian fairy tales Scandinavian folklore Fiction about size change ATU 400-459 Asbjørnsen and Moe

Synopsis

Analysis

See also

References

External links