In fairy tales, a donor is a character who tests the hero (and sometimes other characters as well) and provides magical assistance to the hero upon their success.
The fairy godmother is a well-known form of this character. Many other supernatural patrons feature in fairy tales; these include various kinds of animals and the spirit of a dead mother. [1]
In his analysis of fairy tales, Vladimir Propp identified this role as the donor and listed it as one of the seven roles found in fairy tales. Before giving the hero magical support or advice, the donor may also test the hero, by questioning him, setting him tasks, or making requests of him. [2] : 39–43 Then, the donor may directly give the hero a magical agent, advise him on how to find one, or offer to act on his behalf. [2] : 44–45 If the character itself acts on behalf of the hero, it also takes on the role of helper in Propp's analysis. [2] : 80–81 Because a donor is defined by acts, other characters may fill the role, even the villain; a boy escaping a witch may steal her magical handkerchief, making the witch an involuntary donor. [2] : 81 Conversely, the donor of Rumpelstiltskin converts himself into the villain by demanding the heroine's baby as the price of his work. [3] : 259
In Grimm's Fairy Tales , the hero often meets the vital helper in the woods, in liminal areas between other realms. [4]
When more than one character attempts the tasks, such as when the youngest son sets out last, all of them commonly met the donor. It is through failing the test that the older sons are marked out as not being the hero; only the youngest son passes the test and receives the aid.
There may be three donors, distinguished by the fact that the first two are unable to help and so send him on to the next. A common motif, as in Farmer Weathersky , is that one can consult all the beasts, then next all the fish, then third all the birds, and only then can the hero discover what is needed. In other cases, each of the three may give the hero or heroine something, but only the third has the information necessary for them.
The characters of donors are numerous. Fairy godmothers were added to Sleeping Beauty by Perrault; no such figures appeared in his source, Sole, Luna, e Talia by Giambattista Basile. [5] In the Grimm Brothers' variant of Cinderella , the protagonist is aided not by her fairy godmother but by her dead mother, [6] as is the heroine of the Finnish variant, The Wonderful Birch . A great variety of other figures may also take this place. In Vasilissa the Beautiful , the heroine is aided by a wooden doll that her dying mother had given her; in Rushen Coatie , by a red calf sent to her by her dead mother, a calf that can continue to aid her after its death; in Katie Woodencloak by a mysterious dun bull; in Tattercoats , by a gooseherd who is her friend for a long time before his mysterious powers are revealed. In East of the Sun and West of the Moon , the heroine is given vital gifts by three old women she meets on the way. [3] : 193
Heroes seldom have actual fairy godmothers, but similar figures are common. [7] In The Golden Bird , the hero is aided by a fox whose advice he takes; in The Red Ettin , by a fairy not his godmother; in Puddocky , by an enchanted frog that takes pity on him; in Prince Ring , by an enchanted dog; in Fair Brow and The Bird 'Grip' , by a dead man whom he had aided; in The Horse Gullfaxi and the Sword Gunnfoder , in an unusual reversal, by his stepmother.
In American fiction, there has long been a tradition for the white protagonist to be aided by a Magical Negro who often possesses special insight or mystical powers. [8]
The hero may also meet up with several extraordinary men who will help him as in The Fool of the World and the Flying Ship , How the Hermit helped to win the King's Daughter , Long, Broad and Sharpsight , and The King Of Lochlin's Three Daughters . Each one has an ability, such as seeing things miles off, hearing things miles off, an extraordinary shot, the ability to drink a river, or others that allow them to fulfill the hero's tasks. [9] : 53–4
Talking animals are often the hero's helpers, perhaps more than any other type. [9] : 55 The most common motivation of the animals is gratitude, after protection, receiving food, or (less commonly) settling a quarrel between several animals. [9] : 56 In another variation, featured in The Three Enchanted Princes and The Death of Koschei the Deathless , the hero's three sisters have been married to animals. These prove to be shape-shifted men, who aid their brother-in-law in a variant of tale types. [9] : 55–6 Because of its retelling by Perrault, Puss in Boots is among the best-known animal helpers, although in other variants of the tale, the hero (or heroine) is helped sometimes by a fox and occasionally by other animals. [9] : 58 Horses, as in The Firebird and Princess Vasilisa , Făt-Frumos with the Golden Hair , The Magician's Horse , The Princess on the Glass Hill , and Ferdinand the Faithful and Ferdinand the Unfaithful , are popular in the oral tradition; several tale types normally feature a horse almost as important as the hero. [9] : 59
This magical helper is often long faithful to the hero; the hero may fail many times after the initial test, often by not respecting the helper's advice. In The Golden Bird , the fox declares that the hero does not deserve his help after his disobedience, but still aids him. [3] : 264
A fairy tale is a short story that belongs to the folklore genre. Such stories typically feature magic, enchantments, and mythical or fanciful beings. In most cultures, there is no clear line separating myth from folk or fairy tale; all these together form the literature of preliterate societies. Fairy tales may be distinguished from other folk narratives such as legends and explicit moral tales, including beast fables.
"Cinderella", or "The Little Glass Slipper", is a folk tale with thousands of variants throughout the world. The protagonist is a young woman living in forsaken circumstances that are suddenly changed to remarkable fortune, with her ascension to the throne via marriage. The story of Rhodopis, recounted by the Greek geographer Strabo sometime between around 7 BC and AD 23, about a Greek slave girl who marries the king of Egypt, is usually considered to be the earliest known variant of the Cinderella story.
A quest is a journey toward a specific mission or a goal. The word serves as a plot device in mythology and fiction: a difficult journey towards a goal, often symbolic or allegorical. Tales of quests figure prominently in the folklore of every nation and ethnic culture. In literature, the object of a quest requires great exertion on the part of the hero, who must overcome many obstacles, typically including much travel. The aspect of travel allows the storyteller to showcase exotic locations and cultures. The object of a quest may also have supernatural properties, often leading the protagonist into other worlds and dimensions. The moral of a quest tale often centers on the changed character of the hero.
Sleeping Beauty, also titled in English as The Sleeping Beauty in the Woods, is a fairy tale about a princess cursed by an evil fairy to sleep for a hundred years before being awoken by a handsome prince. A good fairy, knowing the princess would be frightened if alone when she wakes, uses her wand to put every living person and animal in the palace and forest asleep, to waken when the princess does.
A stepmother, stepmum or stepmom is a non-biological female parent married to one's preexisting parent.
In mythology, folklore and speculative fiction, shape-shifting is the ability to physically transform oneself through an inherently superhuman ability, divine intervention, demonic manipulation, sorcery, spells or having inherited the ability. The idea of shape-shifting is in the oldest forms of totemism and shamanism, as well as the oldest existent literature and epic poems such as the Epic of Gilgamesh and the Iliad. The concept remains a common literary device in modern fantasy, children's literature and popular culture.
"Bluebeard" is a French folktale, the most famous surviving version of which was written by Charles Perrault and first published by Barbin in Paris in 1697 in Histoires ou contes du temps passé. The tale tells the story of a wealthy man in the habit of murdering his wives and the attempts of the present one to avoid the fate of her predecessors. "The White Dove", "The Robber Bridegroom" and "Fitcher's Bird" are tales similar to "Bluebeard". The notoriety of the tale is such that Merriam-Webster gives the word "Bluebeard" the definition of "a man who marries and kills one wife after another". The verb "bluebearding" has even appeared as a way to describe the crime of either killing a series of women, or seducing and abandoning a series of women.
Vladimir Yakovlevich Propp was a Soviet folklorist and scholar who analysed the basic structural elements of Russian folk tales to identify their simplest irreducible structural units.
In fairy tales, a fairy godmother is a fairy with magical powers who acts as a mentor or parent to someone, in the role that an actual godparent was expected to play in many societies. In Perrault's Cinderella, he concludes the tale with the moral that no personal advantages will suffice without proper connections.
Prince Charming is a fairy tale stock character who comes to the rescue of a damsel in distress and must engage in a quest to liberate her from an evil spell. This classification suits most heroes of a number of traditional folk tales, including "Snow White", "Sleeping Beauty", and "Cinderella", even if in the original story they were given another name, or no name at all.
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. Russian variants include the Frog Princess or Tsarevna Frog and also Vasilisa the Wise ; Alexander Afanasyev collected variants in his Narodnye russkie skazki.
The Pentamerone, subtitled Lo cunto de li cunti, is a seventeenth-century Neapolitan fairy tale collection by Italian poet and courtier Giambattista Basile.
The Golden Bird is a fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm about the pursuit of a golden bird by a gardener's three sons.
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 false hero is a stock character in fairy tales, and sometimes also in ballads. The character appears near the end of a story in order to claim to be the hero or heroine and is usually of the same sex as the hero or heroine. The false hero presents some claim to the position. By testing, it is revealed that the claims are false, and the hero's true. The false hero is usually punished, and the true hero put in his place.
"The Girl Without Hands" or "The helpless Maiden" or "The Armless Maiden" is a German fairy tale collected by the Brothers Grimm. It is tale number 31 and was first published in the 1812 edition of Children's and Household Tales. The story was revised by the Grimm brothers over the years, and the final version was published in the 7th edition of Children's and Household Tales in 1857. It is Aarne-Thompson type 706.
The WickedFairy is the antagonist of Sleeping Beauty. In some adaptations she is known as Carabosse, and she is named Maleficent in Walt Disney media.
In folklore and fantasy, an enchanted forest is a forest under, or containing, enchantments. Such forests are described in the oldest folklore from regions where forests are common, and occur throughout the centuries to modern works of fantasy. They represent places unknown to the characters, and situations of liminality and transformation. The forest can feature as a place of threatening danger, or one of refuge, or a chance at adventure.
"Puss in Boots" is an Italian fairy tale, later spread throughout the rest of Europe, about an anthropomorphic cat who uses trickery and deceit to gain power, wealth, and the hand of a princess in marriage for his penniless and low-born master.
Sivko-Burko is a Russian fairy tale (skazka) collected by folklorist Alexandr Afanasyev in his three-volume compilation Russian Fairy Tales.
