 | This article has multiple issues. Please help improve it or discuss these issues on the talk page . (Learn how and when to remove these template messages)
|
Clever Maria is a Portuguese fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book . [1]
A merchant had three daughters, and the youngest, Maria, was the most beautiful. The merchant gave each daughter a pot of basil and forbade them to receive visitors. One day, the king came with two friends. Maria said she and her sisters would get wine from the cellar. The king said they were not thirsty. The sisters said they would not go. Maria said she would go just the same. Then she ran to a neighbour's and stayed there the night. The king was angry, but her basil did not wither, as her sisters' did.
The daughters looked over at the king's garden, and the oldest daughter asked Maria to climb down a rope and steal some fruit for her. A gardener caught her, but she escaped. The next day, the second daughter asked her to steal a fruit basket for her, but this time the king caught her. He questioned her, she denied nothing, and he told her to follow him to the house. Though he turned to make sure she followed him, she managed to escape. He fell ill.
Meanwhile, her two sisters had married the king's friends and had babies. Maria took the babies to show the king. Maria went about, calling for someone to give the babies to the king, who was sick of love. The king bought it and was infuriated that he held the babies. He knew the merchant had returned and ordered him to bring him a coat of stone or lose his head. Maria told him to take the fabric to the castle and demanded to measure the king. The king changed his order: he had to bring not the coat but his daughter Maria. Maria told her father to make her a doll of herself, with strings so she could make it nod and shake its head. Maria went to the castle and hid behind the doll. When the king recounted her misdeeds, she made the doll nod. Because she was mocking him, he cut off the doll's head. Its head fell toward him, and he said that the man who killed her deserved to die and turned the sword on himself. Maria jumped out to stop him. They married and lived happily. [1]
The Italian Sapia Liccarda is another variant of this tale.
"Beauty and the Beast" is a fairy tale written by French novelist Gabrielle-Suzanne Barbot de Villeneuve and published in 1740 in La Jeune Américaine et les contes marins. Her lengthy version was abridged, rewritten, and published by French novelist Jeanne-Marie Leprince de Beaumont in 1756 in Magasin des enfants to produce the version most commonly retold. Later, Andrew Lang retold the story in Blue Fairy Book, a part of the Fairy Book series, in 1889. The fairy tale was influenced by Ancient Greek stories such as "Cupid and Psyche" from The Golden Ass, written by Lucius Apuleius Madaurensis in the second century AD, and "The Pig King", an Italian fairytale published by Giovanni Francesco Straparola in The Facetious Nights of Straparola around 1550.
The Wonderful Birch is a Finnish/Russian fairy tale. A variant on Cinderella, it is Aarne–Thompson folktale type 510A, the persecuted heroine. It makes use of shapeshifting motifs. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book.
"Kate Crackernuts" is a Scottish fairy tale collected by Andrew Lang in the Orkney Islands and published in Longman's Magazine in 1889. Joseph Jacobs edited and republished the tale in his English Fairy Tales (1890). The tale is about a princess who rescues her beautiful sister from an evil enchantment and a prince from a wasting sickness caused by dancing nightly with the fairies. The tale has been adapted to a children's novel and a stage play.
How Ian Dìreach got the Blue Falcon is a Scottish fairy tale, collected by John Francis Campbell in Popular Tales of the West Highlands. He recorded it from a quarryman in Knockderry, Roseneath, named Angus Campbell.
The youngest son is a stock character in fairy tales, where he features as the hero. He is usually the third son, but sometimes there are more brothers, and sometimes he has only one; usually, they have no sisters.
"The Three Little Men in the Wood" or "The Three Little Gnomes in the Forest" is a German fairy tale collected in 1812 by the Brothers Grimm in Grimm's Fairy Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Red Fairy Book (1890) as "The Three Dwarfs," and a version of the tale appears in A Book of Dwarfs (1964) by Ruth Manning-Sanders.
Tritill, Litill, and the Birds is a Hungarian fairy tale. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.
The Armless Maiden is a Russian fairy tale collected by Alexander Afanasyev in Narodnye russkie skazki.
The Dragon and the Prince or The Prince and the Dragon is a Serbian fairy tale collected by A. H. Wratislaw in his Sixty Folk-Tales from Exclusively Slavonic Sources, tale number 43. Andrew Lang included it in The Crimson Fairy Book.
The One-Handed Girl is a Swahili fairy tale, collected by Edward Steere in Swahili Tales. Andrew Lang included it in The Lilac Fairy Book.
"Donkey Cabbages" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm, tale number 122. A man shoots birds in a forest and gains magical objects. By also ingesting the heart of one of the bird he shot, he acquires an inexhaustible source of wealth. Later on, his magical abilities and items are stolen by a trio of witches, but he regains everything thanks to a magical herb that causes one to transform into a donkey.
The King who would have a Beautiful Wife or The King Who Wanted a Beautiful Wife is an Italian fairy tale collected by Laura Gonzenbach in Sicilianische Märchen. Thomas Crane included in his Italian Popular Tales, and Andrew Lang, in The Pink Fairy Book.
Esben and the Witch is a Danish fairy tale first collected by Jens Kamp. Andrew Lang included it in The Pink Fairy Book. A version of the tale also appears in A Book of Witches and A Choice of Magic, by Ruth Manning-Sanders. It is Aarne-Thompson type 327B. In it, a boy named Esben outwits an evil witch to get the magical treasures for the sake of his brothers.
The Child who came from an Egg or The Egg-Born Princess is an Estonian fairy tale, collected by Dr. Friedrich Reinhold Kreutzwald in Eestirahwa Ennemuistesed jutud.
Fortunée or Felicia and the Pot of Pinks is a French literary fairy tale, written by Madame d'Aulnoy. Andrew Lang included it in The Blue Fairy Book.
What came of picking Flowers is a Portuguese fairy tale first collected by Teophilo Braga with the name Cravo, Rosa e Jasmin. Andrew Lang included it in The Grey Fairy Book.
The Prince Who Wanted to See the World is a Portuguese fairy tale, collected first by Portuguese writer Theophilo Braga. Andrew Lang included it in The Violet Fairy Book.
Sapia Liccarda is an Italian literary fairy tale written by Giambattista Basile in his 1634 work, the Pentamerone. It is not known whether he had a specific source, either literary or oral, for this tale.
The King of Love is an Italian fairy tale from Sicily collected by Giuseppe Pitre and translated into English by Thomas Frederick Crane in Italian Popular Tales.
The Enchanted Snake or The Snake is an Italian fairy tale. Giambattista Basile wrote a variant in the Pentamerone. Andrew Lang drew upon this variant, for inclusion in The Green Fairy Book.
